Elizabeth Alexander in Salon.com reminds us that Toni Morrison’s anointing of Bill Clinton as “the first black president” 10 years ago never meant what people have lately taken it to mean. He didn’t get that moniker because of what he did for black people; he got it because of the way he was mistreated by the establishment.
Morrison wrote at the height of the Lewinsky scandal in the fall of 1998, when the House was considering impeachment proceedings.
African-American men seemed to understand it right away. Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. And when virtually all the African-American Clinton appointees began, one by one, to disappear, when the President’s body, his privacy, his unpoliced sexuality became the focus of the persecution, when he was metaphorically seized and body-searched, who could gainsay these black men who knew whereof they spoke? The message was clear: “No matter how smart you are, how hard you work, how much coin you earn for us, we will put you in your place or put you out of the place you have somehow, albeit with our permission, achieved. You will be fired from your job, sent away in disgrace, and—who knows?—maybe sentenced and jailed to boot. In short, unless you do as we say (i.e., assimilate at once), your expletives belong to us.â€
P.S. Morrison endorsed Obama today.
This quote has always bothered me.
I’m not sure whether it’s more offensive towards African-Americans, or to my intelligence.
Here’s where what she’s saying about African-American cultural identity and heritage:
“Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas”
Add the stereotype of a philandering weed smoker to that list.
Maybe she’s allowed to say all this because she’s a successful African-American writer, but it strikes me as the dumbest shit ever. I suppose that it’s no wonder then that the media loves that quote so much.
Joe Johns asked Senator Obama about that quote in the last debate, and naturally there wasn’t much that could be said intelligently beyond “Bill Clinton had an enormous affinity with the African-American community.” Obama then went off on a tangent and ended by cracking a joke about needing to observe Bill Clinton dance to “determine whether he was a brother.” And that’s about the level of discourse that this quote consistently brings us back to.
You can see the exchange here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zARV48q8Ca0
Actually I think a big problem here is the equivocation of race with culture.
When toni morrison says that bill clinton is a “black” president, she means that he has been mistreated as “black” men have. He has a similar cultural experience to which all “black” men can relate.
On the other side, there is the fact that Pres. Clinton was not a black man, and in spite of all his adversity never actually had to deal with discrimination based on the color of his skin.
When it comes down to it, I find that equivocation itself racist – only the “black” man can understand this. Only “black” men can play the blues.
I find this kind of attitude with Jewish people sometimes too— just because I’m not religiously jewish doesn’t mean I don’t know what gefilte fish taste like, or know the male form of shiksa (apparently it’s shagus). I gre up in brooklyn for goodness. Someone who attempts to protect their group from discrimination often in the same breath excludes others from their experience – an experience which I in many ways share.
Sorry for the parallel, I watched the PBS special and this reminded me of it.