Outlook: Don't Be Afraid to Believe

Obama's Win Sparks Counterintuitive Worries Among Black Activists

"Sen. Barack Obama will accept his nomination as the Democratic candidate for president on Aug. 28. ... For some civil rights loyalists, myself very much included, it's hard not to feel a spine-tingling thrill. But for a surprising number of others, the overwhelming feeling last week was apprehension. ... Some are concerned that the fall campaign will prove ugly and divisive, or that politicians and cynics might use an Obama loss to conclude that the United States still isn't ready for an African American commander in chief. ... The worriers are right to insist that progress requires eternal vigilance, but even the most jaded among us should allow that vigilance is best pursued when leavened with a judicious helping of hope."

Crisis magazine editor-in-chief Jabari Asim, author of the forthcoming "What Obama Means," was online Monday, June 9 at 2 p.m. ET to discuss his Outlook article on how Obama's victory and the general election might affect the future of the civil rights movement.

The transcript follows.

Archive: Transcripts of discussions with Outlook article authors

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Jabari Asim: Good afternoon everyone, and welcome. I'm very pleased to be back on washingtonpost.com, even if only for a little while. Today we're taking a look at the Obama campaign's impact on the civil rights movement. Many of its supporters, like other Americans, are struggling to find a balance between our deep cynicism and the optimism that Obama's campaign trades in.

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Washington: Thirty plus years ago when I was on New York's Lower East Side, some of the older Jewish residents expressed their fear that Bella Abzug would win her Senate race. "It isn't good to get too high," was the general sentiment. They had visceral memories (some their own, some passed on from relatives) of pogroms and genocide and hatred engendered by any Jew who got "too high." I imagine what you are talking about is much the same visceral fear.

Jabari Asim: Thanks for writing in. I do think you're touching on something there, a vague apprehension about getting too excited about developments such as this one. A variation, if you will, on the mythological risk of euphoria attracting the attention -- and the malice -- of the gods. I remember reading a white viewer's comments about "Roots" some years ago, in which she expressed fear that the miniseries would just "make them angry again." I've heard voices in the black community fearfully speculate that Obama's rise could lead to a backlash on the part of the majority culture. Much of this fear is groundless, but exists nonetheless.

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Washington: I don't believe in Obama. He talks about working together and this and that, but when has he done it? John McCain has stood up to special interests in his party, but when has Obama stood up to the unions, trial lawyers and extreme environmentalists? When I bring this up, people call me a racist for not voting for Obama. I don't think it's a question of believing, it's a question what he has done.

Jabari Asim: Of course it's completely possible to disagree with Obama's positions on the issues you cite without having a racist bone in your body. People who respond to your objections with name-calling aren't helping anybody's cause, let alone Obama's -- but their ire does speak to the volatile emotions this campaign has provoked, to the extent that they sometimes prevent anything resembling an exchange of ideas.

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Washington: Obama's story doesn't track MLK's allusion to "sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners," considering that Obama is not a descendant of former slaves. I wonder to what extent that distinction allows whites to accept an affinity with Obama -- whites often say "we are all immigrants," seemingly unaware of how that notion excludes slaves from an American heritage ... or perhaps they are aware of it. I think it is essential to American progress that we understand the racial mindfulness of whites (certainly not of one mind, as Clinton's white appeal shows). If you agree that slavery remains as a stigma in the American psyche -- in many ways that we do not fully understand -- do you believe that Obama's crossover appeal would not have been as successful, if he were a descendant from black slavery?

Jabari Asim: The fact that Obama didn't descend from slaves may indeed have helped him attract the affinity of some whites, but I don't think that has been much of a factor in the support he's gained from young whites in particular. As hard as it for some of us to understand (myself very much included), young Americans from various ethnic backgrounds seldom exhibit the racial anxieties of their parents. I'm no sociologist mind you, but I am a parent, and I've seen the differences -- often dramatic ones -- in my own kids and their multicultural assemblage of friends.

 I do agree that slavery remains a stigma in the American psyche, yet is hasn't hindered the crossover appeal of descendants of slaves in most aspects of American culture -- especially sports, entertainment, etc. It has lingered longer in other aspects -- e.g. law and justice, corporate life and politics -- but even there its weight is less substantial than in the recent past. In this respect, Obama's timing seems as influential as the other distinction we've acknowledged.

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Eastern Oregon: Jabari: For all the rhetoric about Obama bringing together several diverse groups to win the White House in November, don't you think this last bruising nomination process has revealed genuine concern for the old liberal coalition of blue-collar workers, women, blacks/minorities and Jews/intellectuals?

Jabari Asim: Hi. Yes, that's a good point -- for all Obama's success in coalition-building, there are substantial gaps in his support. I suspect much of his energy will be devoted to mending those gaps in the coming months.

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Alexandria, Va.: Thank you for taking questions/comments. What gets me about the political process this year -- and how the media handles people of color -- is that one person speaks for everyone. I am biracial and a woman and, truth be told, I wasn't enamored with either Obama or Clinton at first. However, according to the the mainstream press, because I was of color, I was a huge Obama fan. Of course, my annoyance with that changed after I saw him in the debates and after Iowa. Do you think his multi-ethnic background will help stop these one-voice-for-all pieces that the press picks up throughout the year?

Jabari Asim: Hi. Unfortunately, the media myopia of which you speak is hardly new this year. We're often writing fast and have little space, and so we pick an opinion and suggest that it's representative. It helps when we have stats to back us up, but we don't always have time or space. These are not excuses -- I'm as guilty of this generalizing as any of my peers -- but explanations of how our shortsightedness develops. The Obama supporter who most impressed me was a white woman quoted in a Post article -- right around the time the press was focusing on his seeming inability to win white female support. Similarly, the most memorable response for me following Hillary Clinton's concession was a passionate, articulate, and somewhat angry black woman quoted on ABC. How we fit these individuals into our larger narratives is often a challenge that we fail to surmount. I feel your pain, but I doubt we've seen the last of the one-voice-for-all pieces you cite.

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Washington: I have an Obama sign on my front lawn that the guys who drink down at the playground make fun of. They seem genuinely upset about my support for him. I have a feeling -- and it's only a gut feeling -- that these guys are so wrapped up in how they're affected by racism that they can't fathom an African American succeeding in life. In my mind it's starting to look like these 25-year-olds with no job who still are living in their boyhood rooms might have been wrong about racism holding them back. What effect will a black president have on the drunks on the corner? Isn't his election really the symbolic end of institutionalized racism? After that, racism is a personal thing, not a systemic thing.

Jabari Asim: You've touched on a painful but resonant thread here. I suspect a black president is going to have more of an effect on young black men who already are daring to dream than those who already have given up. The reactions of the 25-year-olds you mention remind me of similar reactions to black athletes and entertainers who've become successful. An excuse often is offered that makes success stories lucky exceptions rather than outcomes available to all. I'm less willing to see his possible election as a symbolic end to institutionalized racism than as substantial evidence that many Americans of all ethnic backgrounds are willing to leave the racial neuroses of yesteryear behind.

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Franconia, Va.: Did you have a moment when it finally sunk in that this was actually happening? I had a few: when I saw the Ebony cover with the words "In Our Lifetime"; when Obama came on stage after the Iowa victory; and then this past Tuesday as the superdelegates trickled in and suddenly, without any obvious fanfare, the arithmetic had no other remaining outcome. I felt such a power in my body. I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I felt like a million bucks. I felt I was in the sacred presence of history. I am a middle-aged white woman, by the way.

Jabari Asim: You describe it much better than I could. I have to be honest and admit that part of me never could envision it and was hesitant to recognize it even when it became inevitable. I was so leery of proclaiming his victory too soon -- and half-expectant that something would happen to prevent it -- that I refused to allow myself to get worked up about it. It's that apprehension I spoke of earlier, itself a form of racial neurosis. I could go about my awareness of history, blah blah blah, but at some point you should just call it what it is: a tremendous and thrilling step forward.

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Black Non-Obamiac, Washington: I'm a (non-Baby Boomer) professional black woman who's not wild about Obama. I see a lot of contradictions with this man. There's too much candidate worship for my taste -- and basically, if he wins in November, he's got to fulfill some pretty unrealistic expectations to be successful. People want hope and change. If he's not able to deliver those things (whatever they mean) he's not going to survive unscathed. It all leaves me feeling uneasy.

Jabari Asim: I suspect a part of his appeal lies in his willingness to acknowledge his contradictions and confront them. His wife, Michelle, also has expressed a distaste for the messianic visions that others impose upon her husband. Those impulses are wrong and unrealistic, of course, but they speak both to Obama's enormous charisma and much of the country's ravenous appetite for leaders of greater candor and integrity than those (of both parties) whom we've recently endured. But, you're right in reminding us that presidents don't govern alone, and his prescription for change would have to filter effectively through many branches, departments and layers of bureaucracy.

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Washington: I'm white. One of my biggest surprises -- and disappointments -- in the way the primary campaign played out was to learn how poorly white people (generally) are thought of by the black community (again, generally). I'm particularly referring to comments by black voters expressing amazement that there were white people who would vote for a black candidate. Well, of course they would, if they saw his positions as aligning with their interests! That's not to say all white voters would do that, but I can't think of anybody I know who wouldn't, judging from our informal political discussions -- and I'm middle-aged and Southern.

Now I'm concerned that if Obama loses, too many people will dismiss the loss as racist at its core instead of around the edges, and we'll go back to the old, suspicious perceptions. I'm afraid that the loss will be chalked up to white people (again, in general) voting against him because he is black instead of because he was too liberal or too young or or too inexperienced or too whatever, with a small minority of the electorate even thinking of race as a negative in any form. And I'm afraid that's going to set us back further than where we were if Obama hadn't gotten nominated in the first place.

Jabari Asim: I think some of the black voters you're referring to may be influenced by the Bradley effect (or Wilder effect), which has occurred when whites indicated their preference for black candidates only to decline to vote for them in the privacy of the ballot booth. There were also exit polls in places like West Virginia in which white voters indicated the race of the candidate was at least as important as whether his/her positions aligned with their interests. Of course -- as Bob Herbert (a black journalist) has objected in the New York Times -- it would be very insulting to judge the behavior of all white voters by those with extreme positions. On the other hand it was a white journalist (Evan Thomas) who in Newsweek lamented the possibility of Obama losing because of "a handful of racists."

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Harrisburg, Pa.: What do you think of the analogy that Sen. Obama used to suggest that his is the generation of Joshua -- that while the great civil rights leaders before his day brought great things, it is now up to his generation to bring African Americans to the symbolic land of "milk and honey," and that it will be up to younger people to create a vastly improved America?

Jabari Asim: I was impressed with the analogy and surprised that more wasn't made of it in the press. Actually I'm not surprised, because it's a concept fairly devoid of controversy. I especially liked his talking about his generation and its obligations to fulfill the legacy of those whose struggles brought him and his peers so far. It's hard to argue with the logic of that.

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Chicago: I feel that some of the pessimism that you and others speak of stems from how you were somewhat caught off-guard by Obama. Three years ago, not that many people outside of Chicago knew of him. Before learning about him, had you asked the average African American if they thought there could be an African American president in their lifetime, I feel most would've answered no. This is compounded by the let-downs of our yesteryears that you speak of in the article, such as Brown vs Board of Education, the emancipation of slavery, and furthermore the death of our most prominent leaders.

Jabari Asim: Hi, you make a good point. Most of the discussions I saw regarding the possibility of a black president involved names familiar to most of us. If we'd drawn up a list of potential candidates three years ago, Obama would not have been on that list precisely because of his lack of national stature. I and others would have dismissed Obama's attempts to insert himself into such conversations as hopelessly naive; now we've learned that "audacious" would have been a better description.

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Belfast, Maine: How long after his inauguration do you think Obama will be able to retain the faith of his supporters? Are expectations for an Obama presidency so high that disappointment and disillusionment are inevitable?

Jabari Asim: I think it's important for Obama to start speaking now about the hurdles his mandate for change undoubtedly will encounter, and he has to do it without appearing to back away from this message or cave in to the powers that be. I don't envy him, and consider his task an especially tall order. But I've also seen the folly in underestimating his considerable skills.

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Washington: Jabari, how different would this conversation be if it were Colin Powell instead of Barack Obama as a presidential nominee?

Jabari Asim: That's a fabulous question, and I wouldn't know how even to begin to answer it. Like McCain and Clinton, he'd first have to address his support for the war -- actually he'd have to go one better and explain how he helped sell it to the public via his presentation at the U.N. It would be fun to just study that scenario and consider all its possibilities.

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Johnson, Vt.: Jabari, thank you for taking questions and for hosting this discussion. I don't know if this is within the scope of things you are wanting to talk about, but I find it very puzzling that a large number of women would not support Obama, and instead would cast their vote for McCain -- who, when asked by a female supporter, "how can we beat the b----," merely smiled and complimented the questioner with, "that's a good question." If someone had asked the same question about Obama and had substituted an equally offensive racial epithet, I cannot believe that McCain would have let it slide (and no one else would or should have either). I guess I just point all that out as example of how complicated peoples' feelings are about these matters. McCain's tacit approval of that should have been a lot more troublesome than it was, regardless of race, gender, color and so on.

Jabari Asim: Yes, complicated is the operative word here. I also suspect Clinton's supporters would not have been so forgiving of McCain's awful "joke" about Chelsea Clinton of some years ago if it had fallen from Obama's lips instead. Obama's greater sin seems not to be being brutishly insensitive as McCain was, but having the temerity to run for the nation's highest office because it was Hillary's "turn."

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Arlington, Va.: Obama was selling himself as the antiwar candidate, yet he went all the way to please the Israel Lobby (AIPAC), even though this specific lobby was prowar. How do you interpret this? Can the voters really trust Obama?

Jabari Asim: One of the most enduring descriptions of Obama, known to his supporters, is "optimistic but practical." As we've discussed earlier, the coalition he's put together so far is impressive but hardly sufficient to guarantee a victory in November. I think of one our correspondents here referred to the "Old Blue" coalition of liberals. Jewish voters are critical to that group, and Obama has to convince them to join. I'm guessing those in his camp understand that, in this case, it's not a matter of trust but a matter of bolstering his ranks.

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Jabari Asim: I'm afraid I have run out of time -- work calls. I've really enjoyed participating in a Post chat again -- my first in quite a while. Thank you all for your timely comments and questions, and let's do this again sometime.

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