Those who have been enjoying the debate stirred by Trevor Phillips’s article on Barack Obama in our current issue (on this blog and elsewhere) may be interested to read his response to some of the criticisms that have been levelled at him, printed as a letter in the Independent today:
Sir: I was a little surprised to see the front page of The Independent (28 February) and my somewhat apocalyptic claim that “Obama will do nothing for black Americans”. Strangely, I don’t recall saying that.
My article in Prospect, on which The Independent’s coverage was based, was not a personal attack on Mr Obama or whether he would make a great president. The actual focus of my ire is those who are attempting to use Mr Obama’s arrival as signalling the dawn of a post-racial Nirvana in America; those who would use his success to say “job well done” and ignore the hard work of tackling that country’s deep divisions.
A high-profile black figure who gets the whole world talking about race, politics and the mix of the two should never be dismissed in the off-hand way yesterday’s coverage suggested I had. Mr Obama may indeed be a worthy American president. What he won’t be is a solution to that country’s racial divide.
Trevor Phillips
Chair, Equality and Human Rights Commission, London SE1
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[...] 3: Trevor Phillips has responded to some of the criticism his article has received in a letter in today’s [...]
What an utterly banal and intellectually dishonest letter. Who are these people who argue that the election of Obama will lead to a post-racial America? They are straw men who only exist in Mr Phillips imagination.
Nobody has argued with that point because there is no argument. The problem with the article was the interpretation of the election through a purely racial perspective. That led him to insinuate that Barack Obama was manipulating race and that ‘white’ voters were only voting for him through slavery guilt. That was what was offensive and just plain wrong and I understand Trevor Phillips’ embarrassment.
http://www.e8voice.blogspot.com
A clumsy reply by the befuddled Mr T. Phillips.
Mr Phillips categorically states of Mr Obama, “What he won’t be is a solution to that country’s racial divide”.
Fine.
Yet, it’s very likely that most Democratic voters and the great majority of non-voting observers everywhere do sense that candidate Obama may be part of a solution to many pressing issues for the US (including racial) –
Surely no bad thing, Mr Phillips?
Mr Phillips writes: “The actual focus of my ire is … those who would use his success to say “job well done†and ignore the hard work of tackling that country’s deep divisions”. Be real, Mr Phillips. There is no evidence anywhere that this would occur.
Mr Phillips, you should take every victory where you can though – if you can disabuse yourself of the belief that candidate Obama is not Black enough (total humbug). What colour should he be to do what, Mr Phillips?
Readers get that T. Phillips probably does not believe that Mr Obama has ‘earned’ his station as a likely symbol for racial advancement (We think that Mr Obama is genuinely widely admired for more compelling reasons than skin colour, e.g., a fresh narrative, intellect, oratory, magnanimity, cool ambition, etc etc)
Yet, Mr Phillips writes about Mr Obama as “this mixed-race political phenomenon”. Are you or I any less mixed-race, Mr Phillips? And who should care? Why?
Mostly, Mr Phillips, viewers everywhere are just enjoying learning more about a rather talented young character as he runs for high office. Looks are broader than skin colour, Mr Phillips.
Obama is indeed a different looking candidate !
James
My Goodness, Trevor. Shelby Steele? I haven’t seen you for a while but I am wondering whether the mush is getting to your waistline too?
American 101 On achieving the “Post-racial Society”–Consider the non racial explanation(s).
From 1912 to 1924 we produced seven Presidents’s.
From 1925 to 1946, we produced none.
In 1946, with the help of the Last of the class of ‘24 and a politically challenged class of Lugars and Kennedy’s, we produced two divisive, unready, Mistakes for President. Ms. Clinton is married to one.
Mr. Obama is the head of his political class. He is inherently representative of rational political possibilty, particularly of the kind which would permit his generation to face forthrightly, the debacle Mr. Clinton, and Mr W. Bush, with the help of your Mr. Blair, have made of the political instrumentalities of Western Civilization which they inherited. Change!! An opportunity to be Unified in change. It’s enough to make some people exuberant enough to take a chance on O’s articulation of change with the money that would pay for a dinner on the town.
And to what end? I suspect not much more than a commitment to live-up to that most seminal of American declarations of political purpose, The Premable to the Constitution of the United States, the fount of American public interest. A basis for actionable Unity even in Britain, I wager.
Shelby knows none of this. Until now, I would not imagine you not knowing it all.
I’ll frame my comments with I am a 26 year old white middle class businessman, graduated from a top 100 university, raised by a single mother and her parents with one younger brother in Denver.
I assert that the idea of “racial guilt” is not applicable to the generations 35 years old and under. The article was lacking because it did not address “colorblindness”. This is a concept worth mentioning because it is the atmosphere in which the youngest generations have, for the most part, been raised. We do not remember what it was like in the 60s and more than likely we went to school and had friends who were black, asian, and hispanic, without ever seriously considering their color. They were just friends with no racial prefix. We grew up watching the Cosby show when we came home from elementary school. To a majority of younger Americans, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and JFK and John Lennon all go in the same bucket. Wonderful men who were tragically killed. No racial separation what so ever.
The idea that Barak Obama is potentially the undoing of some ability that black people in the US have to guilt white people in the US is simply absurd. There are many arguments I could make but one is that in the next 8 years the oldest people in my generation will be nearing their mid 40s. This means that nearly half the voting population will be “colorblind”. This is also the generation that most strongly supports Obama. One realizes that it isn’t Obama that will erase the racial guilt. It will be erased by the irrelevance in the minds of our young who have no real concept of racism in action on a wide scale.
The truth is that America’s younger generations already have their racial innocence back and we never lost it to begin with.
Anyone so stupid as to quote Shelby Steele regarding anything is, by definition, too stupid to be worth reading. So I didn’t read this article. But I will note that I have read many articles in the British press from all angles trying to understand or explain the Pbama candidacy and none of them seems to have a clue whatsoever. On the plus side, they aren’t as hopelessly clueless as the Germans. But here’s a bit of advice: you don’t understand what’s going on here, so just shut up and watch.
i am pleased that most repsonses have already said most of what i wanted to regarding this matter and trevor phillips’ response. Mr trevor phillips, you are by and large by your own description, one of the UK’s Bargainers. You may be some head of an equality commission which frankly has less power than zoe phillips radio show, talk less of vanessa feltz’s BBC london show. A mere talking point to make the government feel like its doing something.
i suggest you turn your attention to the UK and look at how ‘equal’ british policitics is to even HAVE a barack obama. now your new commission is even going to be more sidelined and you are there occupying yourself about mr obama. Oh but of course as a pure bargainer you are fine with the new post. your article was complete fraff, and wether it was spiced up a bit by the editor, one can only do so much damage to an already fluffed up article.
I’m shocked by the assumptions stated regarding race in America in 2008. Obviously, you do not understand the “Main Street” changes lived everyday in our evolving ethnic landscape. And all without Barack Obama as our President…yet! My husband and I (both white Republicans) have lived in an integrated(by choice)middle class Chicago neighborhood for the last 30 years with a 70/30 white to black ratio. Blacks attend our Catholic church three blocks away. When we first moved in, you never saw mixed couples in the area. In the last ten years, we have four married couples within a three block radius and no one thinks twice. And this isn’t unique. It’s happening all over America.
My nephew (from a very conservative Christian home in OH) married an African American two years ago. They met at an integrated church in NC. They would’ve married sooner, but her parents (not his) were wavering on the mixed marriage. They just had their 1st child!
My conservative aunt and uncle from ID were thrilled last year when their granddaughter and husband adopted an African American baby and a year later adopted an American Indian baby. They’re so proud of their two grandsons.
To suggest we’re expecting Obama to change our hearts and souls would be absurd. He’s the face of America now and our future. He represents the right person at the right time to lead us in the right direction. He stirs us, as JFK and MLK did, to think beyond ourselves and become our brother’s keeper for the good of America, the world, but most importantly, ourselves. His message of “we” is captivating because all humans want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. He certainly doesn’t represent a way for white Americans to rid the guilt of slavery. Americans are repelled and heartbroken by the dark history of slavery, but the vast majority feel no guilt since most are from immigrant families from the 20th C. It was the courage and sacrifice of MLK that transformed America in the 20th C. Now it’s our own heart and behavior that’s changing America; not Obama’s election as our next President.
I’m a white feminist Republican who is supporting Obama totally because he’s the best candidate for America and the world. He’s the best because of who he is…brilliant, compassionate,charismatic,calm & collected under pressure, the right temperment, emotional intelligence, family man, emotionally stable, Christian, comfortable in his skin, respectful to all, down to earth, solid, likeable, personable, talented, honorable, ethical, inspirational.
He’s a born leader.
Lastly, I want Barack Obama to be the face of leadership for all little boys and young men of color in the US and the world so they may dream bigger and have an additional sense of dignity and pride in their future manhood. That’s where Barack Obama will have the greatest influence on the world stage. We all need him and I pray God will bless us with him as our next President!
A man who doesn’t have the backbone to stand up and defend what he plainly said in his essay should not be trusted with high political office. While you’re backtracking, Trevor, why don’t you back yourself right out of your expensive office and stop wasting everybody’s time? Maybe you could get your own chat show and show Oprah how it should be done – I’d say she needs some tips on this, wouldn’t you agree?
Trevor Philips shame on you; and I thought you were a ‘public intellectual’. Clearly not! the mere fact that Brack Obama and Michelle Obama are together has done more for black pride, than the black panthers the the black power movement and the emabarssing attempts here in the UK to duplicate such movements.
Trevor Philips, Darcus Howe, Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall,Michael X, Bernie Grant, I am not quite sure you have had the same impact on black family life in the UK. Obama understands praxis.