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About the Author
John L. Jackson Jr. is an associate professor of communication and anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness (2008), Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity (2005), and Harlemworld: Doing Race and Class in Contemporary Black America (2001). He will be writing about racial politics, religion, and contemporary popular culture.
About Brainstorm
Mark Bauerlein
Marc Bousquet
Laurie Fendrich
Dan Greenberg
John L. Jackson Jr.
Stan Katz
Michael Nelson, guest blogger
Stephen Joel Trachtenberg
Brainstorm Alumni
Marty Nemko, guest bloggerBob Zemsky
Recent Posts
New Book on Obama's 'American Journey' | Comment [3]
Pushback on the 'Multiracial Family' Idea | Comment [18]
'Hacking Democracy' Again? | Comment [11]
The Loose Leaf Race Card | Comment [3]
What a Surreal Week of Politicking | Comment [12]
Featured Articles By the Author
Nader Goes After Obama ...
I totally missed it (and had to get a heads-up late last night from other bloggers ), but Ralph Nader hasn’t been mincing words when it comes to his take on Barack Obama.
Some of his recent comments have caused a bit more of a stir than usual, mostly because he accused Obama of pandering to special interests (per the advice of his handlers) and even of trying to “talk white.”
Nader’s invocation of talking white seems to split the difference between (i) a critique of Obama’s policies and campaign priorities (i.e., not adamantly going after the issues that plague poor black communities, such as payday lending) and (ii) a take on the very way in which Obama carries himself (his walk, his talk, etc.), something that pivots upon popular and academic discussions of “acting white,” the notion that people of color can be delegimatized for not behaving in conspicuously (read: stereotypically) “black” ways.
I do think Nader wanted to emphasize the former interpretation over the latter one. However, looking at him make the comment, he did seem to leave a space ajar for the latter reading, too.
And of course, folks have pounced on that alternative with abandon.
Posted at 06:56:51 AM on June 26, 2008 | All postings by John L. Jackson Jr.Comments
Commenting is closed for this article.
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It appears to me that Ralph was trying to get attention and that he succeeded, but in the process made himself look foolish. It is hard to see how he could gain from this.
I think Ralph Nader helped a couple of generations learn to be more critical thinkers and more careful consumers. My guess is that those whose feelings about him have been most positive will not be buying this sort of message.
One of the things that Obama successfully does is help us get past some of the stereotypes of race. He really is what he is, half American of mostly European ancestry and half Luo Kenyan. He has experienced some prejudice because of his appearance, just because that sort of thing is still prevalent, but he was freed from some racial bias early in life by living in Hawai’i and Indonesia. His personal history is not the personal history of generations of slavery and bias in America that is usual for African-Americans. I think he escaped some aspects of bitterness and paranoia that is bred by constant lifetime exposure to raced-based prejudice.
But I think when people from all backgrounds see, hear, and read Obama, there is some resonance of the notion that this guy is like me in many ways—only better equipped for leadership and problem solving. I think he helps us get past the worst aspects of the racial divisions. I think he is demonstrating possibilities that some have not previously seen. I think we are finally on course for substantial numbers of people to not see color first as a basis from which to stereotype.
There may be some truth to what Nader said. He is not a stupid man. There is still plenty of racial bias and white guilt, and such factors might play some part in Obama’s appeal for some people. But Nader has a little paranoia too, based, at least in part, on his awareness that many of us feel that his candidacy in 2000 cost Al Gore the White House—and we blame him, and those who supported him, to some extent, for where this administration has led. I certainly hope he does not intend to do something similar this time around.
A cynical view could be that consumer advocate organizations thrive on the threatening policies of administrations they oppose. I do not want to believe that such NGOs are all about fundraising and self-perpetuation, but a very cynical person could make that case.
— Joe Erwin · Jun 26, 08:41 AM · #
hey john,
i really think nader is just trying to draw attention to his flailing candidacy. just like hilllary, when all else fails, go negative and play up the worst fears in the worst of America, racial sterotypes, prejudices, xenophobia, etc. the very notion that Obama is only winning because he is speaking white, is a racist comment in itself. we all know “speaking white” is code for “educated.” therefore, nader could only be invoking that the capacity to write and speak english correctly is something that whites only possess and black do not. It seems more like nader is talking like a true white bigot than a bold reformist with a populist agenda. so goes the green party…cythnia mcKinney what do have to say about that?!
— thinkingoutloud · Jun 26, 09:09 AM · #
Your blogger didn’t bother to actually link to the excerpt. Here it is: http://youtube.com/watch?v=iO_mleGVvE0. Transparently clear when you watch this what RN is talking about—“talking white” means addressing the political concerns only of the white middle class and who gives a darn about the underclass, black and white.
“Nader has paranoia”! Well, yes he does, as any sane American should—he’s paranoid about the small group of incredibly powerful people who control our lives.
— a tired rambler · Jun 26, 10:33 AM · #
And some of us are a little bitter that Ralph Nader, who had no prospect of winning, pulled votes away from Gore, who actually had the potential of doing something positive about addressing environmental issues.
Don’t get me wrong. I am very supportive of Nader on many issues, but he has not been capable of convincing enough people on the positions he holds to effectively address those issues. Sure, he is trying to get a “mainstream” candidate to back his positions. I saw/heard what he said. I don’t think it was an accurate or constructive characterization.
“Tired,” I agree with you that we should all find what has been going on pretty scary and abominable, but I don’t the term paranoid refers to realistic fears. Then again, “the whole world hates a paranoid.”
— Joe Erwin · Jun 26, 02:14 PM · #
Did Nader misspeak? If your mother is white, how can you claim to be entirely African-American? This is typical Nader. He speaks the truth and does not play politics. Obama is a charlatan.
— Fellman · Jun 26, 03:05 PM · #
In case anybody’s tempted to argue with “a tired rambler,” here’s a sample, from another thread, of what he’s really up to (might save you the effort for something better):
“I save the convincing efforts for elsewhere. Here, I just have a good time calling stupid people and ideas what they are…Catharsis. F*cking academics, Christ. $25 words when I said I was having FUN. Don’t turn my childish fun into your high falutin’ conceptual crapola, if you please.”
— Just Passing Through · Jun 26, 04:24 PM · #
I just don’t see paranoia in Nader. He’s sort of a George Carlin without the dirty words to me, and I always saw Carlin as a truth-teller, not as a paranoid, however dark and scary the truths he told.
To get technical, Nader did “missspeak”—Obama’s father was African, not African-American, so he’s not “half African-American”—he’s FULL African-American (Kenyan dad, white American mom). The “talk white” thing is getting spun by all sorts of people in all sorts of silly ways, when it’s pretty clear that what Nader was saying with that was an attack on Obama from the left. Of course, we are perhaps now at a point in American history where one can safely reduce to the same category racist statements and radical left statements—e.g., Fox News’ work to make ‘socialist’ the equivalent of ‘fascist’ and ‘Klansman’ (and bad Klansman, not the kind of soft Klansman the Foxies like, e.g., Strom Thurmond or Trent Lott).
Did no one even note that Nader positively referenced Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns (which were substantially more left than Obama’s) when he made the “talk white” ref? I heard him as simply noting that politics in America has devolved into a game where only the issues and interests of the upper-middle-class white part of the population really resonate in the media and any partisan positioning elsewhere marks one as “unelectable” and “too radical” and so on. It might be true, but that don’t make it right.Oh, and just shut up, JPT—go cry because I wouldn’t play your little game of “JPT is the moral arbiter for the Chronicle blogspot universe game’ somewhere else, eh?
— a tired rambler · Jun 26, 04:34 PM · #
if throwing “tired’s” own words back at him constitutes being “moral arbiter,” then put the title on the door and the bigelow on the floor.
got a rise, though “just shut up” and “go cry” isn’t up to even “tired’s” lax standards. but it’s a lot of fun for very little effort once the template quote is set. think i’ll keep this up.
— Just Passing Through · Jun 26, 05:34 PM · #
What a sad little boy you are. I bet you got beaten up a lot when you were in school, didn’t you? Maybe you still do.
— a tired rambler · Jun 26, 05:56 PM · #
Is it not natural for a man whose genetic make-up is half-white, and whose mother and the extended family who raised him are white, to act and speak white?
Time will tell (and it is beginning to, indeed) whether such a person is able to be all things to all men and women – when the expectation from the shade of his skin is that he not reflect his white inheritance to the black community, while simultaneously “comforting” the white community that he knows first-hand their needs and desires (likely far better than the needs of the black community).
It is not an accident that the first African-American to become a presidential nominee is a man whose heritage is not from the African-American slave-descendant community. No accident at all.
It is simply obvious that this candidate’s background provides/imposes intersections and cross-cultural shifts and comparisons which make him truly difficult to predict: for the black community, for the white community and, I daresay, for the candidate himself. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage for his campaign.
As Howard Stern has received an encomium from the blog host for his own version of outrageous speech on race in America so, too, must we consider that Ralph Nader is making his contribution to the goal of “speaking truth to power” by encouraging our speaking truth, as perceived, to each other.
If the candidate is listening, he is hearing things he needs to know.
— Anti-hypocrisy advocate · Jun 26, 06:18 PM · #
tired rambler,
its not so much the literal utterances of nader that are important as is the subtext whether intentional or not.
— thinkingoutloud · Jul 1, 12:04 PM · #
Nader is a conceited charlatan.
— Lydia Clymidia · Jul 1, 02:04 PM · #