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BARACK IS THE NEW BLACK

Obama and the Promise/Threat of the Post–Civil Rights Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

Richard Thompson Ford
Richard Thompson Ford*
Affiliation:
Stanford UniversityLaw School
*
Professor Richard Thompson Ford, Law School, Stanford University, Crown Quad, Room 323, Stanford, CA 94305. E-mail: rford@stanford.edu
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Abstract

Barack Obama's political strategies during the 2008 presidential election were those of a cohort of younger, new Black politicians, who have rewritten the playbook by which Blacks can win election. Their success suggests that White racism is no longer the insuperable barrier to Black success that it has been for all of American history and that the old style of Black politics, which relied heavily on racial bloc voting and influence peddling within the Black community, may be obsolete. However, Obama's strategy of not appealing to narrow racial solidarities but instead of drawing broad support from voters of all races cast a shadow of doubt on Obama's racial loyalties. It remains unclear whether the Obama phenomenon will mark the renewal of civil rights or the repudiation of its historical commitment to the most disadvantaged.

Keywords

Barack ObamaPostracialRacial DivisionsCivil RightsBlack Underclass
Type
STATE OF THE DISCOURSE
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , Spring 2009 , pp. 37 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2009

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