Obama and the black wave: Deconstructing myths, building strategies

At last the calendar signals the much anticipated 4 November 2008, the day the long marathon of the latest American electoral process would be concluded. It is impossible to ignore the irony that after spending nine years of my life studying in the United States, I found myself in front of the television in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, homeland of Gilberto Freyre. Freyre, of course, was the very author whose racist, sexist, and fairly imaginative visions about race relations in Brazil influenced generations of national and international researchers, politicians, intellectuals, as well as common sense notions about class, race, and racism in Brazil. As the counting of the votes officially begins, a friend cautions me about the possibility of a McCain victory, which triggers an unutterable anguish in the very core of my being. However, that feeling was quickly replaced by the absolute thrill of witnessing the reconfiguration of the American electoral map. At the first hour of 5 November, it was confirmed that the US had elected its first black president. Barack Obama’s triumph was the culmination of a highly competitive political contest; the media and global frenzy surrounding the Democratic candidate’s campaign became gradually more palpable as he gained strength in opinion and voter intention polls. That day I realised that I had spent months holding my breath, immersed in an intense electoral process that was marked by unprecedented circumstances. For the first time, a black man and a woman vied to be nominated for presidential candidate of the Democratic Party.

I have followed the electoral process almost obsessively through the media and daily contact with Americans within and beyond the academic realm. Upon arriving in Brazil, I was compelled to reflect upon the implications of the electoral process within a Brazilian context, a country that currently finds itself engrossed in intense debates about issues of race, racism, racial identity, and the historical influence of these factors on the quality of life of Brazilian citizens. The polemics also pinpoint the intensification of political and academic disputes over the role of race as a key historical factor structuring highly unequal power relationships. The dynamics of such injustices are frequently expressed through the violence perpetrated against those Afro-Brazilian women, men, and children historically confined to the peripheral and less affluent areas of Brazilian cities and society at large. The historical struggles of black social movements in Brazil have played a key role in the process of combating racial inequalities and oppression in the country, fomenting discussions about access to education, the job market, and political power, while proposing public policies that seek to address social, racial, and political inequalities. Moreover, black social movements have been actively participating in the process of proposing and implementing affirmative action policies for Afro-Brazilians at public universities and within the job market, as well as for TV stations and other sectors of Brazilian society that have historically excluded people of African descent.

Therefore, while I euphorically contemplated the conclusion of an electoral process that culminated with the election of a black president for the position of commander-in-chief of the US, questions and speculations about the ramifications of such an important political development for Brazil and the African Diaspora consumed me. The triumph of a high-ranking politician, the son of a continental African from Kenya and a white American woman from Kansas, was consolidated before the whole world. Before me was a black president married to a black woman, both products of the highest quality of formal education acquired at Harvard, a prestigious university, and eloquent lawyers who demonstrated in their discourse and intervention an almost unwavering self-confidence and mastery of words that slowly but surely conquered even the favouritism of the media. As a researcher of racial issues through a comparative perspective, I realised then that such a political moment urged for perspectives and approaches that went beyond pre-established parameters. Aiming to discuss the possible ramifications of such political scenery and its broader implications more adequately, I constantly transferred my thoughts to the Brazilian context.

There is plenty to be discussed and researched about the process that has led to the election of the first black president of the US, a very rich subject for researchers from various fields and disciplines. A candidate of African descent, who was classified as such both phenotypically as well as through the application of the ‘one drop of blood rule’, emerged from an almost anonymous position – particularly if compared to the forthright favourite Hillary Clinton – to become the candidate chosen by the Democratic Party. The necessity of reflecting upon this process through a comparative perspective became even more overpowering a few days later due to what I experienced while participating in a manifestation of black communities on 20 November in Salvador, Bahia. Afro-Brazilian organizations organize protests and demonstrations all over the country on that day. I participated in demonstrations in which Afro-Brazilian rappers, holding their microphones as potent weapons in the struggle against racial oppression, thunderously announced in grave bass tones that the black wave fast approached. A black wave took over the streets, orchestrated by a master of ceremonies who incessantly saluted leaders of black Brazilian movements and organisations, the Formula 1 champion Louis Hamilton, and more specifically, Barack Obama. It still reverberates in my ears, ‘it is the black wave, which approaches (itself).’

Therefore, from a comparative perspective, it should prove worthwhile to exercise our imagination transferring, even partially, in order to locate such political scenery within a Brazilian context. Undoubtedly, herds of Brazilian and foreign researchers, academics, intellectuals, and graduate students would frenetically write research projects and grants, searching for funding in order to investigate, document and theorise about the ultimate and irrefutable proof that Brazil is indeed a racial democracy. After all, Barack Obama would fit perfectly within the ideological and theoretical model proposed by such a myth – a political candidate and son of a white mother and an African or black father who manages to mobilise huge multiracial masses around a political platform grounded in rhetoric of a nationhood that is beyond racial differences. Barack Obama would have been classified as a racial hybrid perfectly imaginable within the universe of traditional conceptions about the racial configuration of Brazil.

More specifically, as we consult a vast amount of research and publications which establish comparisons between race, racial identity, and politics in Brazil and the US, the election of a ‘mulato’ candidate as the president of Brazil would be soundly explained as an apex of a hegemonic historical process fomented by the state and popularly celebrated through novels, songs, movies, soap operas, academic publications, and political discourses. When analysing the majority of discourses delivered by Obama within this perspective, one concludes that his political platform, highly committed to the vision of a nation that is above racial differences, would be the reflex of a historical, if not harmful predisposition of blacks, whites, pardos, mulatos, browns, and “others” of investing in the myth of racial democracy. It would also be compelling proof that black Brazilians do not have a well-consolidated racial consciousness, since it would be at least condemnable that a Brazilian equivalent of Obama would invest in a political platform that was not grounded on vehement denunciations against racial oppression and discrimination, a political strategy that would be analysed as a product of a mentality that is (mis)informed by the influence of the myth of racial democracy.

The political trajectory of the Democratic candidate was also marked by controversies about Obama’s racial identity, with speculations about the possibility that he was ‘too black’ to become a palatable candidate for the taste of white voters. Conversely, questions circulated about the possibility that the candidate may not be ‘black enough’ to be accepted as a legitimate candidate within various sectors of the African-American community. Such debates were particularly rich, evincing that social ascendance, formal education, financial resources, and social class influence may alter racial perceptions and achievements in the US, as much as in Latin America. The aforementioned controversy would likely be discussed and interpreted in the Brazilian context as irrefutable proof that those factors enable the ‘whitening’ of blacks. Within traditional comparative approaches between Brazil and the US, such polemics would also be situated within the perspective that the ‘fluidity’ of racial identities constitutes one of the main characteristics of the Latin American racial classification system. Moreover, within the Brazilian context such ‘racial fluidity’ would typically be evaluated as too inconsistent or unstable to enable political alliances (particularly among Afro-Brazilians) that could effectively result in the consolidation of a black candidate as the nation’s president.

During Obama’s candidacy, the controversies generated by his affiliation with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the leader of the Trinity United Church of Christ, were equally significant within the context of the latest presidential race in the US. The surfacing of a video in which portions of a sermon delivered by Wright included declarations deemed as radical and incendiary by the American media, provoked intense criticism towards the Democratic candidate. Subsequently, Obama decided to position himself in opposition to those comments and sever ties with the church, his mentor, and pastor. In one of the very few discourses delivered by Obama about racial issues in the US, the reverend was described as someone who presented a distorted vision of the country, who defended archaic thoughts and mistaken views about patriotism and race relations in the US. Obama thus counter-positioned himself as the candidate who represented the so called “post-racial” era. Moreover, in this discourse, Obama equalised the tough experience endured by blacks of Reverend Wright’s generation with the challenges faced by white immigrants attempting to establish themselves in the US, asserting that throughout that process racial hatred had negatively affected both groups.

Hence, let us continue our scenery-transposition exercise and discuss possible analytical perspectives framed within traditional comparative models and approaches. One should imagine such discourse being delivered by an Afro-Brazilian political candidate, coupled with his rupture with a black pastor who celebrated his wedding ceremony and baptised his daughters at a black church (in this text I utilise the terms Afro-Brazilian and black as equivalent). The most obvious analytical path to follow would be to situate such polemics as symptomatic of the difficulty of consolidating a strong black political front, since such efforts would be fatally doomed to failure within the context of a country deeply contaminated by the myth of racial democracy. Moreover, the political and ideological conflict that motivated Obama’s severance would then be analysed as evidence of the negative impact of this myth in the capacity of an efficient political mobilisation of Afro-Brazilians. Traditional approaches would prevent a less superficial analysis through which Obama’s political stand could be considered a wise political maneuver aimed at captivating the trust of apprehensive voters who feared the possibility of a possible ‘black revolution’. Within that scenario, Obama’s political platform of ‘racial neutrality’ would be evaluated as an attitude merely influenced by or resulting from a historical investment in the hegemonic project of whitening (excepting the fact that he married a black woman). It is worth noting, however, that such an angle would be substantially corroborated by the fact that his black father had already initiated that process by marrying a white woman. In sum, if we imagine the political process that resulted in Obama’s election within the Brazilian context, theorising about this process would probably involve treading through beaten, simplistic paths and previously established answers – he would represent the triumph of the myth of racial democracy if his victory occurred in Brazil.

Conversely, we should now consider the real scenery in which Barack Obama became the first black president of the US. In Brazil, the celebration of such a historical event has been featured prominently on the front page of all the mainstream newspapers and magazines. A sort of cynical satisfaction has also been displayed on the faces of TV anchors, political commentators, and reporters as they announced and discussed the fact that Americans had elected their first black president. Images from the US of whites, blacks, and others who celebrated Obama’s victory in euphoric tears were exhibited, demonstrating that the country had finally transcended the racism that had infested its social, legal, political, and educational relations for so many centuries. Yet, for the most accurate eyes and ears, what was implicit in accounts of celebration disseminated through Brazilian mass media was the notion that such cathartic and healing experiences were not needed in Brazil. In fact, what was almost cynically celebrated was the fallacy that finally the USA had overcome their racial injuries, while our racial problems had been resolved many decades ago, if they ever existed. After all, according to traditional hegemonic narratives that romanticise race relations in Brazil, Brazilians never had to deal with formal racial segregation that established barriers to the socio-economic ascension of Africans and their descendants, and therefore there would be no wounds to be healed and no damage to be repaired.

A prominent political commentator even argued that it was actually racist to classify Barack Obama as a black president, since such classifications were supposedly dangerous, distorting, and offensive. In sum, while mass media in Brazil celebrated the fact that Obama was elected president of the US, it implicitly asserted that Brazil fortunately does not possess wounds of such nature to be healed. Affirmative action policies for Afro-Brazilians are thus vehemently criticised within this perspective as absurd foreign imports, operating within a context where no formal barriers have ostensibly been imposed against the socio-economic ascendance of Africans and their descendants. However, what also may be observed is the dreading of the ‘black wave’, of reverberations resulting of the consolidation of a black candidate as the president of one of the most powerful nations in the world. This fear manifests itself in ways simultaneously emphatic and subtle. Stratagems utilized by white hegemonic forces in attempting to perpetuate the myth of racial democracy – generally constructed around the fantasy of a harmonious coexistence between races supposedly responsible for grounding Brazilian civilization – become even more evident in such a context. These attempts to perpetuate such traditional narratives would be comic were they not tragic and motivated by disingenuous and criminal intentions.

Within this context, pearls of worthless synthetic value are produced, as illustrated in a Christmas special aired by one of the most influential television networks in Brazil in December 2008. Gilberto Freyre moribundly wanders through the corridors of this media conglomerate reflected in the ideological conceptions put forth in this TV programme. In a Christmas tale which revolved around Emperor Dom Pedro II’s upbringing, the viewer becomes acquainted with his childhood memories. He is portrayed as a lonely and unhappy rich child, whose life is profoundly transformed when he meets someone very special during a trip through the vast gardens that adorn his palace. An enslaved child whom we first meet at the top of a tree, comfortably placed in his “natural element”, saves the young white emperor who became stranded from his guard, a rather illustrative image which conveys various problematic aspects of this tale. Such unexpected friendship brings joy to the cheerless king’s life. As a ‘Christmas gift’, the emperor receives this black child, who jumps out of a package like a jack-in-the-box placed before his throne. I must remind the reader that this programme aired in 2008, and I received the insulting fable as a Christmas gift. A merry racial Christmas to everyone!

What does jump out of the TV box, however, is the fact that all of the scenes in which the king and his ‘Christmas gift’ interact perfectly illustrate the profound social inequalities that have historically characterised the purportedly harmonious racial relationships in Brazil. The black child, constantly barefoot and shirtless, coexists as a subaltern of his emperor ‘friend’. The child is unfairly accused of a crime he did not commit, supposedly breaking the law by playing with and then misplacing the monarch’s precious crown. The façade of such a fantastical Christmas tale (or nightmare) is strongly evinced when the monarch regrets having betrayed his ‘befriended’ property. In the end, the emperor generously and symbolically gives the boy a pair of shoes as a gift, and grants him “freedom”. The emperor’s apologies culminate with a discourse about freedom and the apex of the tale is the carnavalisation of the Portuguese court, seasoned by a song that glorifies the merging of races in Brazil and centuries of the supposedly harmonious coexistence. Blacks and whites then dance, sing, play capoeira, and effusively celebrate Brazil’s so-called multiracial roots.

This television show evinces a perpetual investment in a myth that has been thoroughly refuted by research carried out by Brazilian and foreign institutions and organisations that have put forth the enormous socio-economic disparities between blacks and whites in Brazil. More importantly, such work has substantiated the tragic results of the lack of investment in adequate policies that could to foster racial equality in Brazil. Therefore, the media’s approach is not accidental and certainly not naïve: Brazilian mass media, which almost invariably represents and defends the values of dominant classes and white hegemony, demonstrates a profound awareness of the fact that the myth of racial democracy is a failed, bankrupted entity. I would further argue that it is illustrative of an apprehension of the black wave propagation that has been significantly unleashed and reinforced by the consolidation of Barack Obama as president of the US. Despite the complex facets of the historical and contemporary processes that have led President Obama to conquer the highest post in American government, some fundamental aspects become undeniably evident. Obama’s triumph is the result of a successful historical investment in a number of policies, even if imperfect and limited, which have led to the implementation of measures and initiatives seeking to repair historical socio-economic disparities between blacks and whites in the US. This broad social investment was also established due to an acknowledgement of the existence of racism in American society, a result of the struggle of black organisations which have historically mobilised against racial oppression in the US.

The current economic crisis as well as the ascension of the recently inaugurated US president became more evident almost simultaneously. We are facing a set of challenges posed by a complex historical moment in which the capitalist system, grounded on and enabled by the institution of slavery, manifests troublesome signs of possible collapse. A political leader, derived from a group that was historically brutalised, exploited, and socio-economically and politically marginalised, emerges as the individual responsible for re-establishing and restoring the economic system’s credibility and (dis)equilibrium. Ironically, Barack Obama seems to have configured himself as the messenger of hope in the survival of the capitalist system. Such awkward contradictions notwithstanding, Obama’s victory has profound implications for the discussion of racial issues and politics in the African Diaspora. The challenges presented by the analytical exercise of scenario transposition proposed here, which was favored by intricate political development in the US, demonstrate the pressing necessity of new theoretical models. We must move beyond pre-established parameters and ready-to-use formulas in order to recognise and establish more accurate and adequate comparisons between different contexts of racial formations. Consequently, we would be able to configure more efficient solutions, generating sound public policies which effectively address the challenges that mark the historical trajectory of Africans and their descendants.

* Raquel Luciana de Souza is a translator with a Master’s degree in American Studies and History from the University of Maryland. She is currently a doctoral student in Social Anthropology and Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas in Austin.
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