Spring Break
'Skids had been greased' before Obama's election
But Obama was elected on his plans for country, not because of his race
Gordon D. Morgan
Issue date: 11/14/08 Section: Opinion
A student, a football player, came late to my morning class last week, carrying in his hand a copy of the school newspaper that had on the front page a picture of Barack Obama, the president-elect.
He wanted me to be very elated about Obama's win. He wanted me to identify with Obama as a member of the black race. For the student, the problems of the world would be washed away with his win.
The class was one in the sociology of whiteness in which the intent has been to divorce the students from reasoning in terms of phenotype, mainly by showing that whiteness is an idea that had been put into practice. I reviewed the materials leading up to that conclusion, stressing that complexion had no real meaning before the period of colonialization, and from around 1500 A.D., the idea had been drilled into people practically worldwide until they came to accept it as natural.
I told them about having to give speeches on "The Last Colonial Sociologist" and tried to stress that now that colonialism is dead, so is the idea of race declining in significance, as specified by William Julius Wilson in his 1978 book by that title. I reminded the class of the work of Peggy McIntosh that claimed whiteness is a bag of privileges. The class had seen that members of the Kentucky Mountains, though phenotypically white, could not be listed with the whites of the higher classes because they would not have the same advantages. Indeed, I told them, there are many activities and events I would be more welcome to attend than these people, and I am not white.
Earlier I had told the class that the more accomplished one is the less there is a need for reliance on a phenotypic identity. The question of LeBron James came up and whether he is black. I responded that James is not the best example, that when he makes $200 million dollars there will be no need for him to define his ethnicity. Michael Jordan, I told them, has not been black in 20 years, and neither has Oprah Winfrey, for neither needs that sort of identity. Accomplished people do not need those artificial props.
He wanted me to be very elated about Obama's win. He wanted me to identify with Obama as a member of the black race. For the student, the problems of the world would be washed away with his win.
The class was one in the sociology of whiteness in which the intent has been to divorce the students from reasoning in terms of phenotype, mainly by showing that whiteness is an idea that had been put into practice. I reviewed the materials leading up to that conclusion, stressing that complexion had no real meaning before the period of colonialization, and from around 1500 A.D., the idea had been drilled into people practically worldwide until they came to accept it as natural.
I told them about having to give speeches on "The Last Colonial Sociologist" and tried to stress that now that colonialism is dead, so is the idea of race declining in significance, as specified by William Julius Wilson in his 1978 book by that title. I reminded the class of the work of Peggy McIntosh that claimed whiteness is a bag of privileges. The class had seen that members of the Kentucky Mountains, though phenotypically white, could not be listed with the whites of the higher classes because they would not have the same advantages. Indeed, I told them, there are many activities and events I would be more welcome to attend than these people, and I am not white.
Earlier I had told the class that the more accomplished one is the less there is a need for reliance on a phenotypic identity. The question of LeBron James came up and whether he is black. I responded that James is not the best example, that when he makes $200 million dollars there will be no need for him to define his ethnicity. Michael Jordan, I told them, has not been black in 20 years, and neither has Oprah Winfrey, for neither needs that sort of identity. Accomplished people do not need those artificial props.
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