http://www.progressive.org/mag_reed0508/
Obama No
By Adolph Reed Jr., May 2008 Issue
I’ve never been an Obama supporter. I’ve known him since the very
beginning of his political career, which was his campaign for the seat
in my state senate district in Chicago. He struck me then as a vacuous
opportunist, a good performer with an ear for how to make white
liberals like him. I argued at the time that his fundamental political
center of gravity, beneath an empty rhetoric of hope and change and
new directions, is neoliberal.
His political repertoire has always included the repugnant stratagem
of using connection with black audiences in exactly the same way Bill
Clinton did—i.e., getting props both for emoting with the black crowd
and talking through them to affirm a victim-blaming “tough loveâ€
message that focuses on alleged behavioral pathologies in poor black
communities. Because he’s able to claim racial insider standing, he
actually goes beyond Clinton and rehearses the scurrilous and
ridiculous sort of narrative Bill Cosby has made infamous.
