by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n T<\/span><\/span>he liberal media are in full Captain Renault mode, \u201cshocked, shocked\u201d to find race injected into the presidential campaign by a \u201cSwift-boating\u201d John McCain. How shameless can you get? The Obama campaign\u2013\u2013indeed, the whole of Obama\u2019s public existence\u2013\u2013is about nothing other than his perceived race as packaged and peddled by the media. And as each day passes on the way to November 4, Obama and the media expose the incoherence and hypocrisy that corrupts our public understanding of race in America, all the while distracting us from the real issue\u2013\u2013Obama\u2019s failed liberal ideology.<\/p>\n How else explain the media\u2019s adoration of a political tyro, if not by white fascination, anxiety, and guilt about black people, as enshrined in our racial received wisdom? If Obama were white, his messianic narcissism and gaseous rhetoric would have strangled his presidential bid in its cradle. And let\u2019s not forget missteps like his 20-year relationship with a racist buffoon, or his serial flip-flopping, or his gross miscalculation in opposing the surge in Iraq, or his uncertainty about the number of states in the Union. The media would have long ago banged the gong on any white candidate that inept. The Obama phenomenon, however, is understandable if one examines the fundamental contradiction lurking in liberal white America\u2019s attitudes towards race.<\/p>\n On the one hand, the Civil Rights movement presumably rejected the racialist essentialism that underlay segregation. The American civic religion, we were reminded, recognizes rights and worth in individuals, not categories, and particularly not in dubious, pseudo-scientific categories such as race. Thus government must treat citizens as individuals, the accidents of skin color or hair texture being irrelevant. On the other hand, at the very moment the Civil Rights legislation enshrined in law this affirmation of the American political creed, the Sixties spawned multicultural identity politics, the child not of the Enlightenment but of the Counter-Enlightenment, specifically German romantic nationalism. Now identity is the fruit of one\u2019s group and its mystic, immutable qualities that those outside the group cannot ultimately understand or judge (\u201cIt\u2019s a black thing; you wouldn\u2019t understand.\u201d) Moreover, these minority identities are predicated on being victims of white racism and oppression. The only acceptable stance for those outside the group is acceptance, tolerance, celebration, and compensatory preferences.<\/p>\n That these two sets of values are irreconcilable and indeed must conflict is obvious\u2013\u2013as Obama himself illustrates. Only by a supposedly discredited \u201cone-drop\u201d rule that predicates identity on a genetic accident can Obama be considered \u201cblack,\u201d given life experiences so untypical of the average black American. Rather than a victim of racism, Obama has been the recipient of preferential treatment based solely on his racial status. Rather than transcending race, Obama\u2019s public persona\u2013\u2013and 90% support among black voters\u2013\u2013is explicable only by that fabricated racial identity. Thus the swift attacks on anybody who states these obvious truths, as Geraldine Ferraro and the Clintons can testify. Yet at the same time, we hear over and over how Obama\u2019s candidacy can move America \u201cbeyond race.\u201d<\/p>\n T<\/span>his racial double standard\u2013\u2013race is unimportant except when it\u2019s important\u2013\u2013 has become the norm in American political and popular culture. You will be judged by the content of your character, the university admissions officer piously quotes Martin Luther King\u2013\u2013but then he\u2019ll give you preferential treatment based on the color of your skin. And how does he pull off that contradiction? By indulging stereotypical racial qualities and experiences thatevery\u00a0<\/i>black person possesses merely because he is black, and which supposedly will contribute to the \u201cdiversity\u201d of the campus. This racist nonsense has been validated by the Supreme Court, which in\u00a0Grutter v. Bollinger<\/i>\u00a0ruled that race can be a factor in selecting students because it furthers “a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body.” This despite the fact that no empirical evidence has demonstrated the presumed \u201ceducational benefits\u201d of admitting a middle-class black kid ahead of a middle-class white one, or even specifically documented those race-based qualities, ideas, or experiences that make this black student so \u201cdiverse\u201d from his white peer.<\/p>\n Such reasoning works only an essentialist view of black identity that trumps the particular experiences of individuals.\u00a0All<\/i>\u00a0blacks share the same culture and are victims of racism, and so\u00a0any<\/i>\u00a0black person will provide \u201cdiversity.\u201d This simplistic view of human identity is the received gospel on race in America, and goes a long way to explaining Obama\u2019s candidacy. Indeed, Obama himself is discovering the power of this racialist ideology he has so successfully exploited. As part of his tack to the center in search of moderate voters\u2013\u2013and in contradiction to his earlier claim that affirmative action is \u201cabsolutely necessary\u201d\u2013\u2013 Obama recently suggested that maybe economic class should factor into preferences. Given that his own daughters \u201chave had a pretty good deal\u201d in life, Obama said, maybe they shouldn\u2019t benefit from affirmative action. Enter Charles Ogletree, a black professor at the Harvard Law School, who scolded his candidate by asserting that Obama\u2019s \u201cdaughters are not going to be judged in a colorblind way throughout their lives.\u201d Of course they won\u2019t: added to the manifold privileges accruing to the children of a rich Senator or maybe President will be the affirmative-action privileges based on their presumed status as black victims of endemic white racism.<\/p>\n This melodrama of racialist identity, one endorsed and propagated by the liberal media, has functioned to distract us all from the simple fact that Obama is the most programmatically liberal candidate ever to run for President. Most of his ideas, from taxation to foreign policy, embody failed liberal pieties long ago exploded by the facts of history. Time will tell whether the racialist fantasies that have fueled Obama\u2019s candidacy are powerful enough to get him to the White House.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a92008 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The liberal media are in full Captain Renault mode, \u201cshocked, shocked\u201d to find race injected into the presidential campaign by a \u201cSwift-boating\u201d John McCain. How shameless can you get?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,740],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Re","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3308,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-unexamined-president-and-his-media-enablers\/","url_meta":{"origin":3300,"position":0},"title":"The Unexamined President and His Media Enablers","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society As usual, the mainstream media are getting wrong the significance of President Obama\u2019s release of his actual birth certificate. In the liberal-left narrative, the \u201cbirther\u201d issue was always evidence of the Republican Party\u2019s fringe kookiness: as the\u00a0Daily Kos\u2019s Markos Moulitsas crowed, \u201cWhat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":694,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-potemkin-president-disintegrates\/","url_meta":{"origin":3300,"position":1},"title":"The Potemkin President Disintegrates","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine After nearly four years in office, the tinsel and cardboard persona of Barack Obama is starting to fall apart. The political unifier who claimed, \u201cThere is not a liberal America and a conservative America \u2014 there is the United States of America,\u201d has been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Punditry"","block_context":{"text":"Punditry","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/punditry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2373,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-end-of-post-racialism\/","url_meta":{"origin":3300,"position":2},"title":"The End of Post-Racialism","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPageMagazine.com So much for Obama striking a new tone on race. President Obama\u2019s response during his press conference to the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates \u2014 that the Cambridge police officer \u201cacted stupidly,\u201d despite Obama\u2019s confession that he didn\u2019t know what really had happened\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5409,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/liberal-racism\/","url_meta":{"origin":3300,"position":3},"title":"Liberal Racism","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The assault on skilled, independent, intelligent blacks by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers When Barack Obama accused Hillary Clinton of \u201cplaying the gender card,\u201d the hypocrisy that typically defines our public discourse on race descended into the surreal. Obama\u2019s whole career has been created by and has exploited the perception\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":862,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-a-creature-of-the-corrupt-university\/","url_meta":{"origin":3300,"position":4},"title":"Obama a Creature of the Corrupt University","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The November presidential election was the favorite topic at the Freedom Center\u2019s West Coast Retreat last weekend. Amidst the prognostications and arguments about which Republican would or should get the nomination, or how pessimistic or optimistic conservatives should be about defeating the President, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1138,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/its-the-president-stupid-the-referendum-on-barack-obama\/","url_meta":{"origin":3300,"position":5},"title":"It’s the President Stupid: The Referendum on Barack Obama","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton RightNetwork.com The people have spoken, and what they have said concerns more than just the wrong-headed policies the Democrats have inflicted upon us in the past few years. This election was never just about policy \u2013\u2013 it was also about Barack Obama and the repudiation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3301,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3300\/revisions\/3301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}