In the Age of Obama, Still Playing the Race Card

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Burris: "I'm Truly Humbled and Honored"

It appears that former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris will be the next junior US Senator from the state. Senate Democrats say Burris' paperwork meets Senate requirements and he will likely be seated by the end of the week.

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Taken together, all these ironies might make for a kind of absurdist theater were there not real consequences for voters. Blagojevich knew that he would have had a more difficult time pushing a white candidate, but the truth is that anyone appointed by the Illinois governor would effectively be filling half a seat and would have very little prospect of reelection. It will be exceedingly difficult for Burris to be an effective representative for the people of Illinois, and state Republicans are virtually guaranteed to play the Blago card in 2010.

Only Burris knows why he accepted the Blagojevich offer (losing three runs for the governorship, one for the U.S. Senate and one for mayor of Chicago might have had something to do with it), but the benefits to Blagojevich are clear. The governor gets to thumb his nose at indignant Senate Democrats, at Obama (who said he thought Blagojevich should resign) and at Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (who informed on him). Rush gets to appear like a valiant crusader for black representation in the upper house of Congress. Everyone wins, except the people.

In this instance, we have the unique collaboration of a white politician and a black one, both benefiting from the race card. Perhaps change has come to America after all.

jelani1906@gmail.com

William Jelani Cobb is an associate professor of history at Spelman College and the author of the forthcoming "Change Has Come: The End of the Civil Rights Movement and the New Black America."