Preach, Brother!
I dunno . . . I think Nia-Malika Henderson, a black reporter at Politico, is reaching too far with her claim that Obama is speaking “dog-whistle code” to blacks by using contemporary slang expressions. I think she has a much too uncritical take on the issue, and both unfairly tars Obama with the Bush brush, and fails to see how truly authentic – the opposite of “dog-whistle” – his presentation is.
Here’s some of that Obama black thang the rest of us wouldn’t understand:
On his pre-inaugural visit to Ben’s Chili Bowl, a landmark for Washington’s African-American community, President Barack Obama was asked by a cashier if he wanted his change back.
“Nah, we straight,” Obama replied.
The phrase was so subtle some listeners missed it. The reporter on pool duty quoted Obama as saying, “No, we’re straight.” . . .
On matters of racial identity, many observers in the African-American community say he benefits from what’s known as “dog-whistle politics.” His language, mannerisms and symbols resonate deeply with his black supporters, even as the references largely sail over the heads of white audiences. . . .
In January remarks about the economy, Obama made a reference to “American dreams that are being deferred,” a phrase black audiences understood without a citation as black poet Langston Hughes’. First lady Michelle Obama often cites her upbringing in the “South Side of Chicago.” On Election Night, the winner promised that “we as a people will get there,” an echo of Martin Luther King Jr. made more powerful by not expressly invoking King’s name.
Or a year ago in South Carolina, when he tried to swat down the persistent rumors that he is Muslim. “They try to bamboozle you, hoodwink you,” Obama said that night, in what many listeners heard as an unmistakable reference to activist Malcolm X, as portrayed in Spike Lee’s movie.
WTF? I didn’t hear the “we straight” clip at the time, but I have no trouble understanding it. I doubt many whites who heard it did. (Was Obama saying he didn’t want his change because he and the diner cashier were both heterosexual? I don’t think so – and neither did anybody else who heard this.) Transcribing the quote in “white speech” rather than “non-standard Negro English” (as they say) is a practice many news organizations follow, to avoid appearing to stereotype blacks, Southerners, Appalachians, or other people with distinct dialects. I doubt the reporter was confused about what he said, or what the words meant, either.
Likewise, I know who lives on the South Side of Chicago, and I got the Langston Hughes quote without help, as well as the reference to King’s “I Have Been to the Mountaintop” speech. I also know that the “bamboozle” line was a call-out to Malcolm X, and, unlike Henderson, apparently, I know it’s an actual Malcolm quote, not just something “as portrayed in” a movie. [See below.]
Now, there’s no question these references and modes of speech are resonant for the black community. But they’re hardly “dog-whistle” or “code”. Henderson notes George Bush’s use of dog-whistle phrases for the religious right, but explicitly equates Obama’s use of perfectly transparent speech that happens to incorporate language or cultural references that have currency in the black community with Bush’s constant use of misdirection and religious propaganda. She includes a long quote from Ari Fleischer, former Bush press flack, noting that Bush and Obama are both authentically products of the religious right and the black community, respectively, which is true, but she doesn’t go further than that. She continually frames “dog-whistling” as merely using language that a core group of supporters appreciates. That’s nothing but ordinary politics, or maybe even just speaking naturally. (There’s a simple explanation why Obama uses black language and cultural references. It doesn’t really require some sort of convoluted political strategy.)
I understand “dog-whistling” to mean using language that is deliberately disingenuous or carries a coded meaning – language that is deliberately intended to convey a bland meaning to the general audience, but an explicitly partisan or more politically extreme message to the target audience. (Only one group of people can hear it – so it’s like the supersonic whistles that only dogs can hear – get it? It’s a code because the words have meanings that only some people know – get it?)
Bush’s code was truly propagandistic. The most infamous was the bizarre episode in his first presidential campaign, in which he responded to a question about abortion by discussing the Dred Scott case. I had to have it explained to me that that is a dog-whistle reference to one of the most perverse and offensive strategies that has been circulating on the anti-choice religious right for some time – the attempt to attract black support by claiming that abortion is a form of “slavery”. (I had seen the argument, but hadn’t heard the code phrase – and I’m hardly ignorant about the abortion issue.) Childishly insisting, for years, on calling his opponents “the Democrat Party” (because they’re not “democrat-ic” – get it?); implying that opponents of the Iraq invasion are Nazi sympathizers by calling them “appeasers” (because refusing to invade the wrong country for a lie is the same as sanctioning the invasion of Poland for another lie – just like Neville Chamberlain – get it?); explaining his refusal to end the disaster in Iraq because it was “just a comma” (religious righters tell each other “never put a period where God has put a comma” – so we should just keep letting people die in Iraq because God was going to save Bush’s shit there – get it?) – that’s all dog-whistling. But Obama’s use of black cultural references isn’t “code” – his words mean exactly what they say, and the message is available to anyone. And they’re hardly obscure. White people who don’t pick up on “a dream deferred” or “get there with you” have only themselves to blame. (And I’m not convinced Obama’s speech is really as opaque to whites as Henderson likes to believe.)
There’s no question Obama feels comfortable in the black cultural context – what else do you expect? Henderson seems, ironically, to have fallen into the same trap as Limbaugh and the other GOP racists – of assuming there’s something notable or politically significant in the fact that Obama has a persona that identifiably reflects black American culture (because their default assumption is that all politicians will cater to white sensibilities, including black ones). She even includes a lengthy analysis of the way he walks, and whether he has been coached on the placement of his left foot (seriously). I think she’s over-thinking this – and in doing so not giving Obama the credit he deserves for not being duplicitous, divisionary, and dishonest in the way of George Bush. I think Obama is not engaging in “code” as much as simply refusing to dissemble. And there’s no question, either, that he lets his guard down more in front of black audiences, but that’s hardly surprising either. It’s the furthest thing from propaganda, “code”, or “dog-whistling”.It’s Obama being Obama – and what more could we want?
UPDATE: I was sure I had heard the Malcolm X “bamboozle” quote before the movie came out, but, as Angus notes in comments, it seems impossible to find a source for it. It’s not in any of the places I thought it was, at least, so I don’t “know” what I thought I did. My apologies to Ms. Henderson, and thanks to Angus.
Oh, so only black people are familiar with the work of Langston Hughes or MLK’s speeches? I see. So, when cracker ass crackers say shit like “the lady doth protest too much” or “the only thing to fear is fear itself” they’re talking over the heads of blacks, with their pedantic references to obscures honkies of yore? That’s not condescending or anything, right…
I’ts not like Obama is referencing X-Clan demo tapes, or a Chuck D. interview on Video Music Box.
Really, dog whistling is saying shit like “states’ rights” when you are trying to say, “Hey, I’m all for separate drinking fountains, but I got a campaign to run…”
Speaking of that, digg, have you seen the clip of Chuck D interviewing GOP chair Michael Steele? If you like uncomfortable comedy, that’s for you!
The one from the DL Hughley show?
Steele is hilarious, I’ve seen him many times on Bill Maher. Here’s what I don’t get – why can’t blacks who have no connection/interest in the hip hop community just admit they don’t know Big Daddy Kane from Citizen Kane? Steele obviously doesn’t know anything about Chuck D; Chuck has never falsely claimed to be from the projects, he proudly shouts out Roosevelt, and Long Island throughout his career. Even if you read something like Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop by Jeff Chang it discusses Chuck D.’s background. (Phenomenal book, btw – a total foreigner to hip hop would be immediately more astute and knowledgeable than 4 out of 5 “fans” just by reading it). If you’re gonna pander to the hip hop community, you can at least read a book or two… or at least a fucking Wikipedia entry before sitting on a panel with a hip hop legend.
Alternatively, you could just be comfortable with who you are. You don’t have to own a copy of “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” to be able to help the black community – why try so awkwardly and transparently to pander to a man who you could relate to better just by being yourself. It’s insulting to Chuck, and to your people in general.
I got a letter from the government the other day,
I opened and read it -It said they were suckers!
They wanted me for their army or whatever
Picture me giving a damn, I said, Never!
/Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos’d
[...] bookmarks tagged dishonest Preach, Brother! saved by 5 others gdsouljah74 bookmarked on 03/03/09 | [...]
Digg, I’m guessing this Chuck D fellow is different than Mike D?
And on that note, I for one couldn’t tell a Langston Hughes quote from a hole in the ground, and I’m a tolerably well-educated cracker ass cracker. (Though I just don’t “get” poetry, so him being a poet may matter here.)
Anyway, KTK’s point can be summed up thus:
I also know that the “bamboozle” line was a call-out to Malcolm X, and, unlike Henderson, apparently, I know it’s an actual Malcolm quote, not just something “as portrayed in” a movie.
You sure? I went looking for the original when the quote started hitting it big, and I got the distinct impression that it hewed a lot more closely to an invented speech from the movie than to anything X actually ever said.
Obama’s use of black cultural references isn’t “code” – his words mean exactly what they say, and the message is available to anyone. And they’re hardly obscure. White people who don’t pick up on “a dream deferred” or “get there with you” have only themselves to blame.
I think some of these references do carry an allusive meaning that goes beyond the literal, though, and I do think that some of the allusions are more likely to be picked up by black (and cosmopolitan/urban/multiculti white) audiences than they are by others.
Henderson seems, ironically, to have fallen into the [...] trap [...] of assuming there’s something notable or politically significant in the fact that Obama has a persona that identifiably reflects black American culture
I think it’s both notable and politically significant, myself. Seeing as how he’s the president and all.
And I think it’s fair to say that at least some of this stuff is, if not “calculated,” exactly, at least performative. It’s a choice, and it’s a choice with intent behind it.
Angus:
I went looking for the original when the quote started hitting it big, and I got the distinct impression that it hewed a lot more closely to an invented speech from the movie
I distinctly remember feeling a sense of recognition when the movie came out – i.e., that I believed the quote was authentic and not something I was hearing for the first time in the movie. I thought it probably came from the Autobiography, or one of Malcolm’s better-known speeches. But now searching the book, it’s not in there, nor is it in any of the dozen or so speeches I have searched. It looks like you’re right. I’ve updated the post.
I think some of these references do carry an allusive meaning that goes beyond the literal, though, and I do think that some of the allusions are more likely to be picked up by black (and cosmopolitan/urban/multiculti white) audiences
Well, that’s likely true, but I don’t think it contradicts what I said. We all use slang or informal speech, and speech that has its roots in our particular upbringing. It’s unavoidable that that resonates more with people from the same background. But that’s different from saying he’s trying to send secret signals to his homies that leave the rest of the country out.
I think [the fact that Obama has a persona that identifiably reflects black American culture is] both notable and politically significant, myself. Seeing as how he’s the president and all. And I think it’s fair to say that at least some of this stuff is, if not “calculated,” exactly, at least performative.
Well, of course it’s historically significant. And I agree that his public persona is somewhat “performative”, in that, in an understated way, he seems to revel in black cultural signifiers, especially in front of black audiences. (Cue Dennis Hopper: “He feels comfortable with his people. He forgets himself with his people.”)
But I don’t think he’s consciously working his cultural identity to curry favor in a disingenuous, deniable way, as Bush constantly did with evangelicals, or so many Republicans did with white racists. “We straight” doesn’t work for him the way “Dred Scott” did for Bush, or “Confederate heritage” does for racists. It doesn’t even work for him the way “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” did for Bill Clinton, who legitimately connected with black audiences but couldn’t stop calling attention to that fact as well.
Watching Obama, I just get the sense that this is comfortable and unself-conscious with him – and that parsing it too finely is akin to getting into conniptions over his and Michelle’s “terrorist fist jab”. One thing I noticed when watching the “we straight” video clip, which I had never heard of until Henderson described it as some sort of black-culture landmark, was that it’s actually almost negligible. The phrase shoots by in a fraction of a second, delivered quickly and dismissively, over his shoulder as he’s leaning away from the counter – then he steps on his own moment by immediately demanding “You got my iced tea?”. Not exactly the stuff of rhetorical greatness – which is part of why it’s cool. He just says it without thinking – which was my point. Obama’s not playing black cool. He has black cool. Neither he nor we need to make a big deal of it.
That makes sense, K. Some of Obama’s language is a dog-whistle, deploying the metaphor in a literalistic way — it’s intended to be audible to some and not to others.
Is he trying to send secret signals? I think sometimes he is. He was never going to embrace Malcolm X in an overt way on the campaign trail, but the “hoodwinked … bamboozled” business gave some of us a hint as to how he situates himself in relation to that legacy.
But yeah, to suggest that “we straight” was an example of that kind of thing is just silly.
If you’re not reading Ta-Nehesi Coates’ blog, by the way, you should.
And a trip over to TNC’s place just led me to this post by Adam Serwer, which gets at what I was trying to say in the above comment, though much more lucidly than I managed:
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=03&year=2009&base_name=the_talk
First of all, the fact that Malcolm X is ostracized from the small, exclsive country club of intellectuals that the general public finds acceptable for their leaders to derive any sort of inspiration, insight, or edification from is just plain silly.
Many of the (white) exalted thought leaders of our country’s history could easily, and sloppily be cast of as anti-black. This doesn’t mean that a black man need be suspicious of a white candidate simply because that candidate makes an allusion to a slave-holding (and fucking) signer of the Declaration of Independence. That’s a false dichotomy. Malcolm X was an important historical figure, with a distinct and informed view and he earned a place in the history of American Civil Rights and racial discourse on his merits. So, it’s something of an affront that a measured recognition of Malcolm X as a thinker is out of bounds in the first place – and it should be our problem, not Obama’s.
Second, wasn’t all this stuff aptly communicated through his well-publicized love for basketball, as opposed to pheasant hunting, or even baseball – as was the case with many other Presidents? Didn’t we cover this when it was considered news that he had Jay-Z on his I-Pod? “Nah, we straight” is not only benign, but it is also played out, as it is just a less salient nugget the likes of which aren’t new in the first place…
6 weeks in, and reports are that the President is still black. Back to you in the newsroom…