Why Obama doesn't dare become the angry black man

[impik]

CNN) -- Here's proof that President Obama has indeed ushered in a new era in race relations.

Who would have ever expected some white Americans to demand that an African-American man show more rage?

If you've followed the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, you've heard the complaints that Obama isn't showing enough emotion.

But scholars say Obama's critics ignore a lesson from American history: Many white Americans don't like angry black men.

It's the lesson Obama absorbed from his upbringing, and from an impromptu remark he delivered last summer. Yet it's a lesson he may now have to jettison, they say, as public outrage spreads.

"Folks are waiting for a Samuel Jackson 'Snakes on the Plane' moment from this president as in: 'We gotta' get this $#@!!* oil back in the $#!!* rig!' But that's just not who Obama is,'' says Saladin Ambar, a political science professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Some of the same people crying for Obama to show more emotion would have voted against him if he had displayed anger during his presidential run, says William Jelani Cobb, author of "The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress."

"It would have fed deeply into a pre-existing set of narratives about the angry black man," Cobb says. "The anger would have gotten in the way. He would have frightened off white voters who were interested in him because he seemed to be like the black guy they worked with or went to graduate school with -- not a black guy who is threatening."


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During a news conference last summer, Obama casually said that police acted "stupidly" when they arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates in his home for disorderly conduct after a confrontation with a white police officer.

Obama's comments infuriated many white people, and even some black supporters. Obama had to have a Beer Summit to calm the public uproar.

"He flashed genuine anger," says Ambar. "At that moment, when he touched on the issue of race, he spoke frankly and passionately about what he felt and it got him into a big deal of trouble."


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If Obama wants to go down as a great president, though, he may have to discover the political value of rage, others say.

Franklin Roosevelt was such a president, historians say. During the Great Depression, he went after business leaders who opposed his New Deal policies. Roosevelt once said that he "welcomed the hatred" of the economic elites.

Could Obama become a 21st-century version of Roosevelt, not only in taking on the oil companies but big bankers as well?

Ambar, from Lehigh University, doesn't think so. Obama doesn't share Roosevelt's elite background, which inoculated him from charges of being anti-American. Roosevelt came from a prominent, and wealthy, American family.

"It's easier to do it if your name is Roosevelt," Ambar says. "No one questions your love of capitalism or your patriotism."


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Still, Obama must be careful about getting in touch with his inner-Samuel Jackson, others say.

Just as gushing oil lurks below the Gulf's surface, all sorts of ugly, racial undercurrents exist beneath the surface of American politics, Baick says.

"Our commander in chief has many burdens, and among them is our history and culture," Baick says. "Compared to the weight of that, the current BP crisis and the years of environmental damage and cleanup must seem transient."






http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/08/rage.obama/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[Deep13]

1. Honestly, I find it refreshing to see a POTUS keep his cool.

He's a reasonable man and is handling the crisis reasonably.

[JuniperLea]

2. Exactly!

John Wooden said emotions are your enemy. Heart, head, or penis... all men have the same options. So far, Obama has chosen his head. Good call.

[dave29]

3. He will not morph into what people say they want. He is Barack Obama

and will continue to be so.

[CakeGrrl]

4. Exactly. I think a lot of people underestimate or don't understand this dynamic

Drudge did it right off the bat: As soon as they were able to quote the President about "whose ass to kick", he used it as an excuse to say the President was going "street". They can't wait to stereotype him and use that stereotype to keep scaring white people away.

And they can DO that for the exact reasons the article states: There is a racial undercurrent at play, whether people want to acknowledge it or not.

[OHdem10]

5. Look I personally like Sharpton and J Jackson SR. but there are

those lurking in the wings just waiting and hoping
to equate Obama with Sharpton and Jackson. These
two Public Servants are almost hated in parts of this
country.

Obama is between a rock and a hard place on the emoting
bit, I cannot understand a Media who does not understand
this.

[treestar]

6. It's just not his personality

The media are idiots who do not serve us at all by harping on this.

[angee_is_mad]

7. they tried to portray Michelle as an Angry Black Woman

during the primaries.It amazes me how stupid the media and its pundits can be. This is not a post racial society, no matter how much we wish for it to be.

If the POTUS was to show his ass, some white people would be heading for the hills. The black man is not allowed to show ANGER in this country. Name one legitimate black politician (who wasn't/isn't from a gerrymandered district)who has shown public Anger? The only one I can think of was Ray Nagin during Katrina. Katrina was so f^&ed up that he was given a pass.

That's why it is important to have diversity in the media to explain these things. To be even clearer, have someone of diversity who isn't so happy to be on TV that he/she will suit their comment based on the show that they are on.

[Paul E Ester]

8. CNN