Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T21:11:00.645Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘OBAMA STUDIES’ IN ITS INFANCY

Books on Obama, Race, and the 2008 Presidential Election1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2010

Michael P. Jeffries
Michael P. Jeffries*
Affiliation:
Department of American Studies, Wellesley College
*
Professor Michael P. Jeffries, Department of American Studies (Pendleton Hall), Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481. E-mail: mjeffrie@wellesley.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

At the conclusion of Barack Obama's State of the Union address on January 27, 2010, MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews lavished praise on the president, infamously gushing, “It's interesting: he is post-racial, by appearances. I forgot he was Black tonight for an hour.” According to many, this is the greatest of all Obama's super-powers; the ability to sweet-talk the public into a euphoric political hallucination, transporting followers into a world where he is cleansed of the stain of Blackness and the citizenry lives in racial harmony. If this is true, White voters, including Matthews, forgot Obama was Black long before the State the Union. By many accounts, this post-racial amnesia, rather than the nuts and bolts of voter mobilization, fundraising, message-crafting, or opponents' mistakes, ultimately resulted in Obama's victory in the 2008 election.

Type
State of the Discourse
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , Fall 2010 , pp. 403 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

The author thanks Lawrence D. Bobo and the editorial staff at the Du Bois Review for their suggestions and feedback during the preparation of this essay.

References

REFERENCES

Asim, Jabari (2009). What Obama Means … for Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future. New York: William Morrow.Google Scholar
Clayton, Dewey M. (2010). The Presidential Campaign of Barack Obama: A Critical Analysis of a Racially Transcendent Strategy. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dawson, Michael (1995). Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawson, Michael (2001). Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African American Political Ideologies. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Frederick, Don (2008). Uproar grows over Gwen Ifill, debate moderator and Obama book author. Los Angeles Times, October 1. ⟨http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/10/uproar-grows-ov.html⟩ (accessed July 23, 2010).Google Scholar
Han, Hahrie (2009). Moved to Action: Motivation, Participation, and Inequality in American Politics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Heilemann, John and Halperin, Mark (2010). Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Ifill, Gwen (2009). The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Malkin, Michelle (2008). A Debate Moderator in the Tank for Obama. MichelleMalkin.com, September 20. ⟨http://michellemalkin.com/2008/09/30/a-debate-%E2%80%9Cmoderator%E2%80%9D-in-the-tank-for-obama/⟩ (accessed July 23, 2010).Google Scholar
Marable, Manning and Clarke, Kristen (Eds.) (2009). Barack Obama and African American Empowerment: The Rise of Black America's New Leadership. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Mendell, David (2007). Obama: From Promise to Power. New York: Amistad.Google Scholar
Obama, Barack (1995). Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Times Books.Google Scholar
Obama, Barack (2006). The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Crown Publishers.Google Scholar
Plouffe, David (2009). The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Remnick, David (2010). The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Steele, Shelby (2008). A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Steele, Shelby (2009). Obama and our Post-Modern Race Problem. Wall Street Journal, December 30. ⟨http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704254604574614540488450188.html⟩ (accessed July 23, 2010).Google Scholar
Wolffe, Richard (2009). Renegade: The Making of a President. New York: Crown.Google Scholar
Zukin, Cliff, Keeter, Scott, Andolina, Molly, Jenkins, Krista, and Carpini, Michael X. Delli (2006). A New Engagement?: Political Participation, Civic Life, and the Changing American Citizen. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar