The “Newness” of Barack Obama

A review of columns by national black journalists reveals a common theme. There is widespread agreement that Barack Obama’s candidacy is significant whether he ends up winning or not. And while it is true that much of the fervor has subsided a bit in the aftermath of Senator Clinton’s “surprising” wins in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania (margin), the Reverend Wright saga, and general Clintonian persistence, this judgment, serving as the title of a recent Leonard Pitts column, still seems to hold: “We’ve Come a Very Long Way.” Yes, Barack Obama’s run is seen as the most significant racial event in a very, very long time.

It is interesting to note that while many acknowledged some level of racial pride and progress in the wake of (the current) President Bush’s appointments of black Americans to high-profile positions, we saw nothing of the gushing that is taking place over Obama’s run. Sure, we applauded Colin Powell’s groundbreaking appointment, but it was not widely hailed as a watershed moment in American race relations. Dr. Condi Rice was a two-for-one (female and black) yet her ladder climbing engendered very little of the praise being showered on the junior senator from Illinois.

Part of the difference has to do with the offices involved – cabinet positions versus leader of the free world. And it is certain that more than a few people were hesitant because of Bush’s being a conservative Republican, since blacks on that side of the house are never as enthusiastically celebrated.

Still, the phenomenon is noteworthy if for no other reason than what it might tell us of the state of race in America. Stanley Crouch, a writer not known for his penchant for flattery, declared that “Obama’s [Iowa] victory was a reiteration of the grandest goals of the civil rights movement.” New York Times columnist Bob Herbert advised us all to “shake hands with tomorrow. It’s here.”

These sentiments are not hard to find.

We’d be forgiven for thinking that Senator Obama was the first to have this kind of national electoral success. But we’d be wrong, of course. In fact, Jesse Jackson won a whopping 11 primaries and caucuses in his 1988 bid. That’s right: twenty years ago Jackson had already won in places like Vermont and Michigan, not to mention Alabama and South Carolina. And, like Obama, Jackson’s appeal came in no small part as the result of an enormously popular speech at a Democratic National Convention years earlier.

But, let’s not make history the party-killer. The mood in America is an ebullient one. The one main difference between then and now is the palpable sense that this Obama guy with the father from Kenya and the mother from Kansas, this skinny guy with a funny name, just might pull it off.

Well, put me down as hoping he does. Because while I’m not quite convinced that this points to America’s having reached some great threshold of racial harmony, I do agree with Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, “we are witnessing something new.”

And in this arena of the great American experiment something new is, indeed, something to get excited about.

MB Holman is founder and editor of The Blue Journal-Report.
He can be reached at mbholman@bluejournalreport.com.