Jimmy Carter was a terrible President, but as a former President he's second only to John Quincy Adams, who was the foremost anti-slavery voice in the House of Representatives at a time when the South had virtually shut down all mention of slavery as a topic of discussion in Versailles. Carter has excelled at assuming the role of elder--a role found in human societies across time and around the world. It's the role of one who has made their mark in day-to-day world of material and status concerns, and has nothing more to prove. Their concern now is with the welfare of the whole and taking care for the future. And that's what Carter has done to a degree that's not been equaled by other ex-Presidents since the time of John Qunicy Adams. That was the context in which he spoke out about the role of racism in fueling that attacks on Obama.
It was the kind of thing that no one still bound up in the day-to-day world of material and status concerns could say--even though it was as obvious as the nose on your face. But President Obama responded by denying the obvious truth that Carter spoke. And, to be honest, very few people could be surprised that Obama lied the way he did. Lying about race has always been at the center of the racial bargain that Obama has struck: You pretend that I'm not black, and I'll pretend that racism doesn't exist. That's not it exactly, but it gets us in the right ballpark, sitting in our favorite seats, hot dogs and cold beer in hand.
Remember this exchange between Keith Olberman and Melissa Harris-Lacewell?
OLBERMANN: Previously, on many topics, this president has taken a minor controversy and turned it into something worth contemplating, worth analyzing, particularly on the issue of race itself. Is he missing an opportunity to take what seems like a central controversy and turn it into the same kind of thing by reacting the way he did to President Carter? To say through a spokesman that the White House doesn't believe racism is a significant factor here?
HARRIS-LACEWELL: Yes, I mean, I guess I understand that the president is trying to pass health care. But there are these moments-you know, I've heard people say maybe what President Obama is doing is the rope-a-dope strategy of Muhammad Ali, laying back and taking the body blows to tire out the opposition so he can come out with a knockout.
But one of the things that was true about Muhammad Ali, is that when he saw racism, he always spoke to it. He always said it. It was part of what we loved about his brashness. I wish it was a little bit more Muhammad Ali in Barack Obama today.
Sorry, Melissa, you must be thinking about the anti-Obama. Because Barack Obama would never go there. He accidentally stumbled vaguely in that direction when he called the arrst of Henry Louis Gates "stupid" (not "racist") and that's as close as he's ever going to get.
My explanation for why Obama lies about race has three parts: First, understanding how he lies about race. The way he does so is by embracing the framework of colorblind racism, which includes the key tenets of minimizing and naturalizing racism. To repeat, the four core frameworks of colorblind racism:
(1) Abstract liberalism.
The frame of abstract liberalism involves using ideas associated with political liberalism (e.g. "equal opportunity," the idea that force should not be used to achieve social policy) and economic liberalism (e.g., choice, individualism) in an abstract manner to explain racial matters.
(2) Naturalization.
Naturalization is a frame that allows whites to explain away racial phenomena by suggesting they are natural occurrences.
(3) Cultural Racism.
Cultural racism is a frame that relies on culturally based arguments such as "Mexicans do not put much emphasis on education" or "blacks have too many babies" to explain the standing of minorities in society.
(4) Minimization of Racism
Minimization of racism is a frame that suggests discrimination is no longer a central factor affecting minorities' life chances ("It's better now than in the past" or "There is discrimination, but there are plenty of jobs out there).
Indeed, Obama uses the very fact of his election to explicitly make the minimization argument himself, then furthers the minimization by treating the whole thing as a joke--telling Letterman, for example, "I was actually black before the election." There would be nothing wrong with such a use of humor, if it were used to ease our way into a serious discussion. But Obama uses it for the opposite purpose--to cut off any sort of serious discussion, and thus to perpetuate a lie.
Colorblind racism functions as cohesive framework of legitimating myths to help sustain America's racial hierarchy, as described by social dominance theory:
Thus, by reinforcing the ideology of colorblind racism, Obama is helping to perpetuate the existing racial dominance hierarchy, even as his skin color constitutes an implicit attack on it. This is the more accurate version of the bargain I spoke of earlier--a black individual is allowed to rise, and thus symbolically, at least, the entire race is allowed to rise, but only at the price of explicitly pretending that there is no longer any systemic or institutional barrier to the entire race rising as well.
White supremacy remains America's implicit national ideology. It won't do to express it openly in polite company, but white identity remains dependent on the persistence of a black underclass who can safely, regularly, and even subconsciously demonized as other, as an essential mechanism of maintaining our own good opinion of ourselves. This is how the group psychology or racism always works, at it's core, even though it may vary endlessly in its details. And even black professionals like Obama can partake of the psychic benefit involved by means of the bargain he has struck, validating the larger racial bargain that everyone enters into by perpetuating the framework of colorblind racism.
I think that the price of admission into a culture is the acquiring of its projective identifications (Young, 1992). That is why racism is historically and culturally contingent. It is quite specific in its utilisation of scapegoating and stereotyping. To understand a particular form of racism is to bring together psychoanalytic understanding with social, cultural and economic history - quite precisely.
Anti-black racism is much attenuated from what it once was. But all manner of indicators tell us that it is far from gone, and thus the essential core function remains operative--the black underclass other assures everyone else that we are not like them. We do not commit random acts of violence. "America does not torture." See how Obama lies? See why he lies? He lies to be innocent. He lies to be white--no, make that "post-racial."
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