John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and the Politics of Ethnic Incorporation and Avoidance
John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and the Politics of Ethnic Incorporation and Avoidance

Author: Robert C. Smith

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2013-02-19

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 143844561X

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Political analysts and journalists often draw analogies between John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic Irish president, and Barack Obama, the first African American president. Their election to the nation's highest office was historic, but for reasons not fully appreciated. In John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and the Politics of Ethnic Incorporation and Avoidance, Robert C. Smith provides a fascinating comparison of the challenges both men faced in their bid for the presidency, while at the same time providing comparative histories of the Catholic Irish and African American struggles to overcome racial and religious subordination in America. Kennedy's Catholicism was an explicit issue in the 1960 election, and once elected he was extremely careful to avoid appearing either "too Irish" or "too Catholic." While Obama's race was not an explicit issue in the 2008 election, he was just as careful to avoid appearing "too black." Paradoxically religion—thanks to rumors and lies about whether Obama was a Muslim—became a substitute for race, allowing Republican strategists to "otherize" Obama by raising the issue of religion in the context of national security and terrorism.

John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and the Politics of Ethnic Incorporation and Avoidance
John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and the Politics of Ethnic Incorporation and Avoidance

Author: Robert Charles Smith

Publisher:

Published: 2013-09-03

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 9781461921394

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Political analysts and journalists often draw analogies between John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic Irish president, and Barack Obama, the first African American president. Their election to the nation s highest office was historic, but for reasons not fully appreciated. In "John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and the Politics of Ethnic Incorporation and Avoidance," Robert C. Smith provides a fascinating comparison of the challenges both men faced in their bid for the presidency, while at the same time providing comparative histories of the Catholic Irish and African American struggles to overcome racial and religious subordination in America. Kennedy s Catholicism was an explicit issue in the 1960 election, and once elected he was extremely careful to avoid appearing either too Irish or too Catholic. While Obama s race was not an explicit issue in the 2008 election, he was just as careful to avoid appearing too black. Paradoxically religion thanks to rumors and lies about whether Obama was a Muslim became a substitute for race, allowing Republican strategists to otherize Obama by raising the issue of religion in the context of national security and terrorism."

The Persistence of the Color Line
The Persistence of the Color Line

Author: Randall Kennedy

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2012-04-17

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0307455556

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A “provocative and richly insightful new book” (The New York Times Book Review) that gives us a shrewd and penetrating analysis of the complex relationship between the first black president and his African-American constituency. Renowned for his insightful, common-sense critiques of racial politics, Randall Kennedy now tackles such hot-button issues as the nature of racial opposition to Obama; whether Obama has a singular responsibility to African Americans; the differences in Obama’s presentation of himself to blacks and to whites; the challenges posed by the dream of a post-racial society; the increasing irrelevance of a certain kind of racial politics and its consequences; the complex symbolism of Obama’s achievement and his own obfuscations and evasions regarding racial justice. Eschewing the critical excesses of both the left and the right, Kennedy offers an incisive view of Obama’s triumphs and travails, his strengths and weaknesses, as they pertain to the troubled history of race in America.

American Identity in the Age of Obama
American Identity in the Age of Obama

Author: Amílcar Antonio Barreto

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-11-12

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1317937163

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The election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States has opened a new chapter in the country’s long and often tortured history of inter-racial and inter-ethnic relations. Many relished in the inauguration of the country’s first African American president — an event foreseen by another White House aspirant, Senator Robert Kennedy, four decades earlier. What could have only been categorized as a dream in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education was now a reality. Some dared to contemplate a post-racial America. Still, soon after Obama’s election a small but persistent faction questioned his eligibility to hold office; they insisted that Obama was foreign-born. Following the Civil Rights battles of the 20th century hate speech, at least in public, is no longer as free flowing as it had been. Perhaps xenophobia, in a land of immigrants, is the new rhetorical device to assail what which is non-white and hence un-American. Furthermore, recent debates about immigration and racial profiling in Arizona along with the battle over rewriting of history and civics textbooks in Texas suggest that a post-racial America is a long way off. What roles do race, ethnicity, ancestry, immigration status, locus of birth play in the public and private conversations that defy and reinforce existing conceptions of what it means to be American? This book exposes the changing and persistent notions of American identity in the age of Obama. Amílcar Antonio Barreto, Richard L. O’Bryant, and an outstanding line up of contributors examine Obama’s election and reelection as watershed phenomena that will be exploited by the president’s supporters and detractors to engage in different forms of narrating the American national saga. Despite the potential for major changes in rhetorical mythmaking, they question whether American society has changed substantively.

The Race Whisperer
The Race Whisperer

Author: Melanye T. Price

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2016-07-26

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1479853712

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Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Barack Obama and Black Blame: Authenticity, Audience and Audaciousness -- 2. Barack Obama, Patton's Army, and Patriotic Whiteness -- 3. Barack Obama's More Perfect Union -- 4. An Officer and Two Gentlemen: The Great Beer Summit of 2009 -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Index -- About the Author

Barack Obama and the Myth of a Post-Racial America
Barack Obama and the Myth of a Post-Racial America

Author: Mark Ledwidge

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-08

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 1135080526

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The 2008 presidential election was celebrated around the world as a seminal moment in U.S. political and racial history. White liberals and other progressives framed the election through the prism of change, while previously acknowledged demographic changes were hastily heralded as the dawn of a "post-racial" America. However, by 2011, much of the post-election idealism had dissipated in the wake of an on-going economic and financial crisis, escalating wars in Afghanistan and Libya, and the rise of the right-wing Tea Party movement. By placing Obama in the historical context of U.S. race relations, this volume interrogates the idealized and progressive view of American society advanced by much of the mainstream literature on Obama. Barack Obama and the Myth of a Post-Racial America takes a careful look at the historical, cultural and political dimensions of race in the United States, using an interdisciplinary analysis that incorporates approaches from history, political science, and sociology. Each chapter addresses controversial issues such as whether Obama can be considered an African-American president, whether his presidency actually delivered the kind of deep-rooted changes that were initially prophesised, and whether Obama has abandoned his core African-American constituency in favour of projecting a race-neutral approach designed to maintain centrist support. Through cutting edge, critically informed, and cross-disciplinary analyses, this collection directly addresses the dimensions of race in American society through the lens of Obama’s election and presidency.

A comparison of John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama
A comparison of John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama

Author: Natascha Drews

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2013-11-21

Total Pages: 21

ISBN-13: 3656546568

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Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Applied Geography, grade: noch nicht bekannt, , language: English, abstract: In 2008 a promise of hope and change, especially for Americans, but also for all others went around the world. “Yes, We Can” was a synonym for the “American Dream”. It was first said by a candidate of the Democratic Party, who wanted to become the first African American president. But Obama was not the first politician, who wanted to follow the citizen’s wish for improvement of an old system and more humanity. Fourty six years before, another man told all Americans, that “We Can Do Better”. The meaning and choice of words is quite similar. Both talked about solidarity, a wind of change and equality of all people, because “We” means everybody without exceptions. But is it only the slogan, which shows similarities of both or do they have more in common than this? And why is research and knowledge about it necessary? In my opinion we should have a constant awareness and knowledge about failures and procedures in the past, also in foreign affairs, in view of their influence on our current and future situation. As the biggest economic and military power, the United States of America have had huge influence on Europe and the rest of the world. To understand and analyse America’s policy, it is best to focus on its head of state, the president. So, I concentrated on the current democratic president Barack Obama by comparing him to the former democratic president John F. Kennedy. Often Barack Obama is called the black Kennedy, as a person on whom hopes are focused like on Kennedy in the past. To analyse more deeply, biographies made by their companions and contemporary journalists are needed. Internet platforms and blogs give also interesting insights and points of criticism, which are partly sabotaged by public authorities or by the Kennedy Clan. By enquiry on the current president a very low amount of information about his private life and his background is officially known.

American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom
American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom

Author: Hanes Walton, Jr

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-12-30

Total Pages: 473

ISBN-13: 1000328724

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This dynamic and comprehensive text from nationally renowned scholars continues to demonstrate the profound influence African Americans have had—and continue to have—on American politics. Using two interrelated themes—the idea of universal freedom and the concept of minority–majority coalitions—the text demonstrates how the presence of Africans in the United States affected the founding of the Republic and its political institutions and processes. The authors show that through the quest for their own freedom in the United States, African Americans have universalized and expanded the freedoms of all Americans. New to the Ninth Edition • Updated sections on intersectionality, dealing with issues of race and gender. • Updated section on African American music, to include the role of Hip Hop. • Updated sections on mass media coverage of African Americans and the African American celebrity impact on politics, adding new mention of the CROWN Act and the politics of Black hair. • Updated section on the "Black Lives Matter" movement, adding a new section on the "Me Too" movement. • Updated sections on African Americans in Congress, with a new mention of the Squad. • Updated voting behavior through the 2020 elections, connecting the Obama years with the new administration. • A comparison of the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. • A discussion of the way in which race contributes to the polarization of American politics in the 2020 presidential campaign. • An analysis of the racial attitudes of President Trump, and the institutionally racist policies of his administrations. • Updated chapter on state and local politics, including a new section on state executive offices and Black mayors. • Updated sections on material well-being indicators, adding a new section on the coronavirus pandemic and the Black community. • The first overall assessment of the Obama administration in relation to domestic and foreign policy and racial politics.

Post-Racial or Most-Racial?
Post-Racial or Most-Racial?

Author: Michael Tesler

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-04-04

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 022635315X

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When Barack Obama won the presidency, many posited that we were entering into a post-racial period in American politics. Regrettably, the reality hasn’t lived up to that expectation. Instead, Americans’ political beliefs have become significantly more polarized by racial considerations than they had been before Obama’s presidency—in spite of his administration’s considerable efforts to neutralize the political impact of race. Michael Tesler shows how, in the years that followed the 2008 election—a presidential election more polarized by racial attitudes than any other in modern times—racial considerations have come increasingly to influence many aspects of political decision making. These range from people’s evaluations of prominent politicians and the parties to issues seemingly unrelated to race like assessments of public policy or objective economic conditions. Some people even displayed more positive feelings toward Obama’s dog, Bo, when they were told he belonged to Ted Kennedy. More broadly, Tesler argues that the rapidly intensifying influence of race in American politics is driving the polarizing partisan divide and the vitriolic atmosphere that has come to characterize American politics. One of the most important books on American racial politics in recent years, Post-Racial or Most-Racial? is required reading for anyone wishing to understand what has happened in the United States during Obama’s presidency and how it might shape the country long after he leaves office.

Contours of African American Politics
Contours of African American Politics

Author: Georgia A. Persons

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-12

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 1351525999

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Contours of African American Politics chronicles the systematic study of African American politics and its subsequent recognition as an established field of scholarly inquiry. African American politics emanates from the demands of the prolonged struggle for black liberation and empowerment. Hence, the study of African American politics has sought to track, codify, and analyze the struggle that has been mounted, and to understand the historic and changing political status of African Americans within American society. The notion of a post-racial America is one that was birthed by the election of Barack Obama as the first African American president of the United States. However, another reality is equally compelling: that for some time now, many African American aspirants for elective office have run against race-specific issues, putting individual desires to win office above the conventionally defined collective interests of black folk. Clearly, the Obama presidential election crystallized a complexity of change that had been underway in America prior to his election. Indeed, did the Obama election signal the end of black politics? Does race remain a useful construct for framing the collective interests of African Americans? Volume III of Contours of African American Politics examines all of these questions in an effort to understand the more poignant question of the future of that which we have known as black politics.