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Monday, October 27, 2008

Discussing Black Angst In the Wake of a Black presidency & More for Thursday's Afronerd Radio broadcast, 7pm eastern!



Stop by Afronerd Radio for imaginary tea and crumpets this Thursday (at 7pm eastern) while we discuss just what our readers/listeners think an Obama administration will mean for identity politics going forward for this new century? Does such a presidency (again, if it does indeed occur) really spell the end of Black grievance style politics (as so many articles have posited)? And despite the fact that an assassination plot has successfully been quelled; will there be more plots forthcoming? Amazing how melanin and power make for a dangerous elixir-for Blacks and Whites. Check out the video (at the top), courtesy of WorldStarHipHop.com and then peruse a snippet of a Miami Herald piece which attempts to encapsulate the above titled angst that Obama's potential presidency might engender:

But surely, how race might tilt the vote isn't the only racial issue worth reporting. What about exploring what an Obama victory would do to race relations? What would become of the myriad, passionately divisive policy issues that have been inextricably tied to race for the past half-century: the huge population of young black males behind bars, early childhood intervention, job training, the war on drugs, poor housing, the whole reality of race-tainted social justice? We're beyond those? Even the subprime lending debacle, which disproportionately hit minority homeowners, has been whitewashed into a race-neutral industry bailout.

I suppose this is partly because the black political establishment has been sidelined. Their constituents are already voting for Obama. So he doesn't need to stick up for their issues -- affirmative action, criminal justice reforms and job programs -- which have made race a perennial hot-button issue and driven off white voters.

But the upshot is Obama has promised black America nothing, and it's impossible to know what his victory would mean for race relations. Already some white commentators say his candidacy alone proves racism is over, and policies meant to compensate for its corrosive effects are anachronisms.

I can't even say what African Americans expect, beyond a powerfully symbolic vindication. Amazingly enough, when I turned to Time and Newsweek magazines for the same week of October, I saw both running columns with ''What if Obama loses?'' in the title -- as if they're unwilling to give up the master narrative of black victimhood , even while the most remarkable African-American politician of the last half-century is within sight of a victory that was once unimaginable.


For more from the Miami Herald piece, click on the link below:

Black issues invisible in this campaign

And for Thursday....as always, don't forget to call in with your comments/questions at 646-915-9620 or via email/IM-afronerdradio@yahoo.


And lastly, for the flipside of the racial issue take a look at a recent experiment which was implemented by GQ magazine's senior correspondent, Devin Friedman. Mr. Friedman (who we are attempting to contact for an interview) in the latest issue of notable mens fashion zine, is trying to find a Black friend. If you haven't figured it out thus far, Friedman is White and started noticing that his world was becoming more detached from people of color. So with the help of Craigslist, he embarked on a trek to find African-American friends. Why so much work on something that should be natural? One can only guess. I found out about this through the Field Negro blog last week and frankly I am confused about the concept. Here's a link to Mr. Friedman's article:

WILL YOU BE MY BLACK FRIEND?

Is this too much work? Is it condenscending? Why not meet people without the specificity? What say you all?

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