OBAMARAMA

An article appearing on the website of the American Conservative magazine and titled “Obama’s Identity Crisis” gives a skewed and racially-charged analysis of Sen. Obama’s personal history, calling him “an updated Black Pride version of the old ‘tragic mulatto’ stereotype” and asserting (without support, obviously) that “He wouldn’t be a serious candidate for president at age 45 if he weren’t part black.” The author is Steve Sailer, a columnist for the xenophobic VDARE website.

The article, which focuses primarily on Sen. Obama’s recounting of his life in his autobiography Dreams From My Father, accomplishes little more than presenting excerpts from the book in negative, racially-loaded terms. For instance, Sailer suggests that Sen. Obama’s father “added two more wives to his collection” and refers to him as his “polygamous pop.” He also claims that Sen. Obama’s “overwhelmingly white upbringing is apparent in his coolly analytical depiction of his mother” — suggesting that only a white upbringing could yield “cool analysis” — and asks rhetorically, “Why was Obama so insistent upon rejecting the white race?”

As for Sen. Obama’s supporters, Sailer claims (once again, without support) that “The message much of white America hopes to send to black America by electing Obama is: Don’t Be So Black. Act More Barack.” Sailer’s misconception is not unlike that of many in the traditional media, who assume all African Americans will support Sen. Obama based on his race. Similarly, Sailer seems to think all Sen. Obama’s white supporters are doing the same, apparently in a bizarre attempt to send a message to the black community.

What unites both misinterpretations is their failure to account for the possibility that Sen. Obama’s supporters back him because of his values, his character, and his policies.

A few other choice gems:

After graduation, he moved to Chicago in 1983, finally finding a home where at least some whites reciprocated his antagonism. He worked as an ethnic activist, helping the impoverished black community wring more money and services from the government. That government money was wrecking the morals of the housing-project residents seems obvious from his book, but Obama never comes out and says it.

Kenya seems like an incipient Chicago housing project, preserved only by its inability to afford the welfare state that has ruined the inner city.

Unless they can bribe their way into a prestigious office job, most of Obama’s male relatives work as little as possible, relying on their womenfolk for food and shelter.

Media Matters for America has documented Sailer’s questionable credibility on matters of race. According to them, he recently used the slur “wigger” to refer to Sen. Obama, and wrote in the wake of Hurrican Katrina that “there was only minimal looting after the horrendous 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan — because, when you get down to it, Japanese aren’t blacks.”

As for me, I thought this article was worth mentioning, though given its lack of substance and clear agenda it hardly warrants further attention. Besides doing nothing to further the conversation about Sen. Obama’s qualifications to be president, it is little more than the racial rantings of an established hack. Best thing to do now is to forget it was ever written. Which shouldn’t be too hard.