In first 2009 issue of the online journal Politics and Culture, editors Amitava Kumar and Michael Ryan gave academics an opportunity to chime into the massive conversation that has gone on around Barack Obama and his historic presidency. Scholars addressed letters to President (then President-elect) Obama on topics ranging from rednecks to regiments, grassroots activists to Islamic immigrants. And on Obama himself. Dr. Cynthia Young of Boston College wrote to the president the way an older sister might write to her younger brother at a similar time of upheaval: critically but not sharply, reminding him of his responsibilities and encouraging him, Polonius-like, to follow closely his ideals.
Dr. Young has never been a gusher as far as I can tell and this letter is a prime example of the kind of conscience I think Obama needs to hear from during the next four years of his presidency. As she makes a point of saying in her letter, his careful invocation of and distance from the more brutal aspects of the Civil Rights tradition is perhaps the hallmark of a successful [black] politician but "It is also, however, a destructive habit, one that can hinder true and meaningful change, a habit that asks those who have suffered the most to bear the greatest burden for making necessary change".
So just read the letter and decide for yourself whether Dr. Young asks too much. I'm thinking she's just about right.
1 comment:
Reading this now after this stimulus mess, I agree that he may be trying to hard to placate the right. However, he's also telling them, "I won." There is a division between the youth and older generationw regarding the 60's and the fight for civil rights. Maybe like older feminists, the older generations feel that the youth are forgetting the battles fought for them. The youth seem to say, it's alright now, get over it, move on. Also, there was a thought that we should be color-blind. Children of the 80s were taught this. That was the ideal. Since that hasn't been reached, some might feel the fight isn't over. There's a new school of thought concerning color-awareness and considering how race affects individuals perception of the world and the worlds perception of individuals. I am of the view that we should learn and remember the fight, but it should not be the focus.
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