In summer 2004 at the DNC in Boston, Barack Obama burst on to the national political scene—Senator, constitutional lawyer, best-selling author, early 40s, statue-esque features. He spoke at the Fleet Center in a prime time slot. Gracious yet fierce, Obama was a DNC week highlight. “The Dems’ new Superstar,” is how Geoff Kenyon (now a writer on Medicine) described Obama back in 04 in Boston. Nearly four years later, Obama is the smart money bet in the race to become the next leader of the free world.
(DNC 7/04)
This week, Geraldine Ferraro, a Hillary Clinton fundraiser and former VP candidate, said, “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position.” (On the flip side: Obviously, were Hillary not a woman, Bill Clinton would’ve been married to a man or mutant and never elected President.) But is it true about Obama? Ferraro’s idiotic racism aside, let’s look at Obama’s rise as it parallels recent American history.
Of course, Obama was a “rising star” in the Democratic Party after 2004 in Boston. But Obama rose to mega-Presidential-1000s of people show up anytime I open my mouth-prominence in summer of 2006, with the release of his book “The Audacity of Hope.” In 2006, Hurricane Katrina was still fresh in America’s mind.
(See the dead person at bottom? These three pictures are by the amazing Mario Tama. New Orleans. 9/05)
Katrina placed race, poverty, gross domestic federal mismanagement, and economic inequality at the forefront of the national political debate. Combined with Iraq, the Katrina fallout cost the GOP the House and Senate. Would Obama have been able to rise under other circumstances? If it weren’t a time for hope? Even if the answer is yes, we seem to be a defining moment in black American history (see below) in terms of cultural and political power. Here’s what this blog said a few months ago:
FROM DEC 18TH, 2007
Campaign 08: The Katrina Factor
Oprah and Will Smith live with Obama! Coming to your town soon….Will 2008 be the year of the black American?
For the first time in US history, the most popular television personality, movie star, pop star, and politician are all blacks. This weekend “I am Legnd,” Will Smith’s alien disaster movie, grossed $70 million and smashed December box office records. Last week Oprah and Obama drew 30,000 people to a South Carolina football stadium. And 2007’s biggest pop artist is Kayne West.
Writing about Orpah-Obama, Mike Lupica called 2008 the pop culture election. But what if it’s not pop culture as much as the Katrina-factor that’s changing American politics and culture?
Consider the Friday after Katrina, when NBC aired an impromptu celeb-studded fundraiser. One phrase summed up the national mood: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”–-Kayne West’s words, who at the time was a rising rap star.
(9/05)
At the Oscars a few months later, best picture went to Crash, a film about racial inequality. Best song went to Memphis rappers Three Six Mafia’s “It’s Hard to be Pimp.” Pop culture was confronting the race issues illustrated by Katrina. Then came Obama’s audacious summer. Would his rise have been so meteoric were it not for dead black bodies floating in New Orleans?
(Oscars reflect take on race in America. 2/06)
(6/06)
Maybe I’m overreaching, but Katrina certainly politicized race in America to an extent not seen since at least the Rodney King riots, if not civil rights. Pop culture reacted. Populism developed. Now Obama leads all candidates—GOP or Dem—in the race to become President.Did Katrina force America to care more about black people? So much so that we’re ready to elect Obama? In many ways, I hope so.
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March 13th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
And now New York will have its first black governor