ePub Racial Realities and Post-Racial Dreams: The Age of Obama and Beyond by Julius Bailey in History

Review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. An Important BookBy readerDr. Bailey presents a compelling narrative describing the systemic marginalization of African-Americans in our country. That marginalization has taken a number of forms over the years and continues to this day. While Dr. Bailey's book sharply criticizes Republicans; conservatives and the GOP; others in our society; including Democrats; liberals and progressives; have also contributed to the current state of affairs. We can achieve genuine racial justice and racial equality only when we open our hearts to each other and work together; across racial and political and economic lines; to achieve that goal. We need to reject the polarization and bigotry that seems to be infecting the current political discourse.Dr. Bailey also presents the most cogent explanation of income inequality that I have read in quite a while.While I do not agree with everything written in this book; it is an important one for all Americans to read.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Thoughtful and Influential Writing on Race in America...By PiarasA timely work; this book will resonate with all those who have experienced racism as well as those who have followed the recent news coverage on violence against people of color. My verdict would be that this work become required reading for all high school students and adults alike. I have read it twice; and continue to learn from it. There are no wasted words. This is a powerful and exceptional book.This book says so much about the community responsibility we all have (or should have) towards one another. I have read a few dozen books this year so far; and I can honestly say that very few have impacted me afterwards the way that Racial Realities and Post-Racial Dreams: The Age of Obama and Beyond has. Even though I'm a 50 year old white man living in Ireland I have not experienced the blatant racism and discrimination that others have; but a book like this shows that you don't have to have experienced the events personally to be impacted and changed by them.At the end of the day it really does take a village to rear a child. And every village needs someone like Julius Bailey to continue to point out the shortcomings of our society. But we also need leaders who can stand up to the plate and actually do something about it. I'm reminded by Desmond Tutu when he said; "If you are neutral in situations of injustice; you have chosen the side of the oppressor."Looking forward to reading more from Julius Bailey in the future. I received a copy of this book for my unbiased review.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. The American Racist DNA vs the American Racist HeartBy Herbert L CalhounThe author uses his considerable skills as a scholar and man of the cloth to ignore the advice given in the rousing preface by the Reverend Dr. Michael L. Pfleger. Dr. Pfleger appealed to America's racist DNA rather than just to the better angels of the nation's racist heart. Yet; throughout the book contrary to this very sane advice; Dr. Bailey; continues appealing to America's racist heart. This strategy; arguably; is a tired; over-used formula that over the course of American history has at best yielded only symbolic victories; and at worse; has led to quick and brutal reversals; followed by deeply hate-filled and organized tribal resistance; the open flaunting of laws; radical restructuring of American society; and as a last resort; political assassinations.By any measures known to man; including to men of the cloth; this is not an enviable track record for a strategy steeped in the biblical tradition of using "love" and "turning the other cheek." Yet; here in chapter one the author announces that if we hope to see further progress in race relations; we must once again direct our appeal to America's racist heart rather to its racist DNA. Dr Pfleger's seems weary of that approach and hints in the preface that perhaps the disease of racism may well be seated in the DNA rather than just in America's heart. His hint is a tantalizing suggestion that as far as I know has not been carefully examined in the context of America's racist culture.Then; as we move on to chapter two; Dr. Bailey then gives his version of a blow-by-blow account of how Mr. Obama was "dogged" by the rabid racist dogs of the Republican Party. In my mind; the author's version of the president's encounters makes Mr. Obama seem too much like a hapless weakling -- one easily man-handled by his much stronger racist pursuers?Another version of that story is the one I recall.I have a rather vivid memory that as Mr. Obama entered his presidency with the world-class mess Junior had left; he skillfully elbowed his way into the halls of power to save the economy from the worse economic down-turn since the Great Depression. He succeeded even if he did in the end have to "sell the store" to Wall Street to get it done. For sure; doing that was a mixed-blessing.And then; while the iron was still hot and the rabid racist dogs were still held at bay -- not yet fully paying attention; just as he had done with Wall Street; he also managed to squeak his ACA through the backdoor; giving the drug companies everything they asked for; including denying the government the right to bargain to reduce the prices of medicines; and avoiding a single payer system of healthcare for the nation in the process. But again; despite this bitter pill; Mr. Obama did get the job done.And then what I remember is that while he was at the very height of his political powers -- having amassed all of the political currency a voter mandate could provide -- instead of using the bully pulpit of the presidency to rally his voters to the rest of his "progressive agenda;" Mr. Obama did something never seen in the history of politics: He made an about-face and began to systematically capitulate; preemptively squandering all of his political capital in one fell swoop: He committed Hari-Kari on the non-existent altar of bipartisanship? In short; as I remember it; he tried to "worm his way" into the "old white boys club" through the backdoor by double-crossing those who had given him his mandate and their strongest support: us black people. He began this ignominious campaign by right-shifting his policies; sending out racist dog whistles; and "being seen" insulting his own base.But as we now know; those maneuvers failed utterly; Mitch McConnell and his rabid right-wing junk yard dogs were buying none of it. Mitch did not even smell it; let alone bite into it. The House leader did not need an upstart pseudo-liberal to tell him how to suck racist eggs. So; another version of the "Obama victim" story is that Mitch McConnell left him hanging out on a limb with his right-leaning; race-baited hook dangling in the wind. If you get my meaning?Thus; by my way of reckoning; Mr. Obama must at least share part of the blame; as he brought a great deal of this upon himself. This author's more sympathetic version does not take into account the fact that Mr. Obama was also quite a Machiavellian operator himself. The fact that he failed to seduce the other side with his own version of the racist dog whistle; does not return his virginity; nor quite make him a victim does it?Plus; those of us who labored in the trenches to help elect him were astonished at his intentional; willful betrayal and double-cross: announcing loudly; often; and clearly; that blacks had nothing coming from him because he was the president of "ALL the people;" calling us all "professional liberals;" telling the members of the CBC to "get up off their couches and out of their house shoes;" and then he hurled a racist insult that hurt the deepest; mostly because it was taken right out Oprah Winfry's and her serial rapist friend; Bill Cosby 's playbook: that black men were the cause of all the miseries in the black race? (Ouch; that hurts!)All of these insults were gratuitous; none were subtle; all were carefully targeted to hurt; and all were repeated often -- even as Mr. Obama was repeatedly caught ladling goodies out to other members of the rainbow coalition. It seemed to us that Mr. Obama was the president of all the people except for black people? When Obama's Machiavellian right-shifted racist strategy failed; he then inveigled upon us; the brothers; "to cut him some slack?" (Go figure?)So; is it unreasonable to ask the author: why now defend Mr. Obama as a victim of racist politics? Mr. Obama; with Joe Biden; Valery Jarrett; Rham Emanuel; David Axelrod; and Michele Robinson-Obama; backing him up; constructed his presidency based on a clear strategy of pandering to the racists elements in the Republican Party by ruthlessly ignoring the one group that had voted for him at the 95% level: blacks.Not once did the Obama Administration go out of its way to assist black people: There were no winks; or nods; or reverse dog whistles; or even promises: not a single bone was thrown in our direction? We didn't even get the usual crumbs from the "master's table" that racist white politicians give us. In fact; whenever blacks looked askance; Mr. Obama repeatedly slammed the door shut in our faces; with the stern mantra: "I am the president of ALL the people; not just black people." It was a mantra never ever used when he was ladling out goodies to the rest of the American rainbow coalition?There is yet another point that the author's sympathetic rendition of the Obama victim story omits: Is it not true that Barack Obama still holds the most powerful job in the world? And is he not head of one of America's two most powerful political parties? And if this is not enough; are we to forget that Mr. Obama cut his teeth in the rough and tumble cesspool of politics called Chicago? Indeed; who could be more prepared for the test of racial politics than Barack Obama?And as one final point on Mr. Obama being a victim of racism. Since he had already been "pre-awarded" the Nobel Prize; should we not mention that in a rather perverse poetic sort of way; maybe he has already been paid in full before the fact for his none actions.So; unlike the author; I am not shedding any crocodile tears over the way the racist GOP has man-handled Barack Obama: If you play with fire; you can expect to get burned; and our first black president did indeed get burned playing the race card dumbly against his own race. And thus; I see no martyrdom flags waving in the wind for a Barack Obama legacy.Then in chapter three; without even acknowledging it; the author recounts the bitter fruit pre-emptive capitulation and playing the race card dumbly; inexorably reaps: the avalanche of police murders followed by the racist coup de grace: Dylann Storm Roof's execution of nine "praying-missionaries" at "Mother Emanuel Church."And; as racist Americans are wont to do; their eyes all then quickly turned away from the white mass murderer; Dylan Roof and his dastardly deed; to the meekly bowed heads of the black families "grieving with so much grace;" as they peered into the nine caskets of their murdered loved ones. "Grieving with grace" has become a trope reserved only for black victims of white crimes.Had the situation been reversed: had a black man marched into a white church with an assault rifle; mowed-down nine praying white Christians; the whole black race would have been on trial charged for mass murder. And then a desperate call for new laws to "take all those savages off the streets" would burn up the airwaves. Why is it that only white savagery gets a pass?In relief; on the back side of these murders; we saw "no action Obama;" the president of all the people; leading the mourning procession. He has always been ready to play his part for blacks; so long as it does not involve anything substantive; such as hustling them for votes or making some meaningless symbolic gestures.At Mother Emanuel; he chimed-in to reinforce and raise to new heights the motif of blacks "always being graceful victims; especially when they are being killed by white men." He milked the moment for the last ounce of "turn-the-other-cheek" love and redemption emotion; even to the point of leading the mournful singing of "An Amazing Grace."But other than a few homilies; and his customary incantations about gun violence; this; the most powerful man on earth; did nothing else. Singing Amazing Grace was all he did? And even though Dylann Roof wore to the murders every racist symbol known to man (the racist South African Flag; the Nazi Swastika; the KKK symbol); Mr. Obama led the chorus denying that the carefully staged race-inspired murders was anything but a racist act? Our first black president was content to file the incidence away under the rubric: just another senseless act of gun violence?However; after the Michael Brown police murder; "the Black Lives Matter Group;" had figured out the racial realities of the post-modern "Barack Obama minstrel show:" For Mr. Obama; Kayne West seemed correct; killing blacks in America was indeed of no consequence to him. This was so evident in fact that; even Reagan appointee; Eric Holder was so incensed that he had to bolt away from Obama's stranglehold on him not to go to Ferguson. Holder went anyway; without Obama's consent; using as a thin pretext that he was going there on FBI business. (Well; let us hope so.)Mr. Obama remained catatonically mute throughout the Michael Brown street execution. America's racist realities for "the president of ALL the people;" apparently had already triggered circuit overload. But "Black Lives Matter" got the Kanye West message: Even if Mr. Obama did not dislike black people; he was not burning any of his political capital on their behalf. For eight years; he just tipped-toed right pass us. Symbolically giving us his middle finger; while pretending to be looking out for our interests? With friends like BHO; who needs enemies?So Blacks in Ferguson had no choice but to take to the streets. Why they remained so loyal to our lackluster; spineless; cowardly; ceremonial president; beats the hell out of me? Even our worst racist Southern president in the past; would have gotten off his butt and gone to Ferguson; taking charge of the police violence and insurrection. But as usual; Mr. Obama; like Junior did during Katrina; stayed ensconced in the Oval Office allowing Holder to issue a report on the systemic police violence taking place in Ferguson. (Shame!)For the rest of the book; Dr. Bailey continued to artfully tell us all of the bad news that we already know; and then he makes a curious final appeal to rely on the better angels of the racist American heart?At the end of the book I thought maybe the author had not been listening to his own council; to his own horror stories about the utter evil tucked away in America's racist heart; or to what they had done and were continuing to do to us all? All the stories he told us in this book from chapter three onwards were true; even if embellished a bit in a direction that would give America's better angels a fighting chance.Yet; we all already know the end of this story: that every time those better angels raised their heads and leaned in the direction of that "bending arc of justice;" as JFK; RFK; MKL and Malcolm X did; the rifles of America's racist heart; like that of Dylann Storm Roof; just keep cutting them down -- even in the house of the lord itself. There is a message there that cannot be missed: Racism is a part of the American DNA; and thus goes much deeper than its heart.Only then do we hear; as replacement for the cynical lack of any real positive actions; the funereal refrain from "An Amazing Grace" being sung from the pulpit of the crime scene by the most powerful man in the world. And then we hear more favorite biblical passages recited with great feelings and solemnity too. And finally; ending this sorry stereotypical pageant of death; we hear Congressman John Lewis say once again from high on the Capitol steps: "Yes; we have made progress; but we still have a long way to go?"Are these people all tone-deaf; or just not paying attention?I recall that right here in these very United States of America; that the white women's movement began in 1971. And exactly one decade later; it was essentially complete; all that was left to do was to tie up the loose ends; like getting equity in boardrooms jobs; and getting an equal pay for equal work amended into the US Constitution. Even Gay Rights took only a couple of decades more to be completed. And now we are preparing to make marijuana legal all across the USA; while after 250 years; Congressman John Lewis is still mouthing his anachronistic mantra that: "We have made progress; but we still have a way to go;" like a broken record.When I hear his words in my sleep; I dream of getting out of bed and going to his office in the Capitol building to crack him across his head again like the racists did to him on the Edmund Pettus Bridge back in 1964; because; today; even Germany; the only country with a worst racial history than the USA; has in less than two generations; completely purged racism from its national DNA.They did not "pray their way to victory" either. They did not argue about reparations for their Jewish victims. They simply stopped lying and remaining in denial about their history; about what had happened in their racial past. And then they chose not to live on moral credit; as Americans do about everything in its bloody and brutal past. They faced up to the horrors they had committed in their past and swore collectively as a society that it would not happen again. And then they put in place laws that are not just given lip service as is done in the US; but strenuously enforced against racism in any form; and to the letter. Thus; Germany is no longer a nation that confuses morality with making money; or panders to the crudest racist elements in its culture; or covers up its pass sins as a nation.A Donald Trump would be sent straight to prison in Germany for inciting violence through racist hatred -- as surely should be done to him in the US too. A Donald Trump could never ever happen in that country; a country which just two generations ago had engineered the "Final Solution" to the Jewish problem; by incinerating 6 million of them. Yet; in two generations; Germany has purged the racist DNA from its gene pool. It is now free of its brutal past.So; I ask the author; when is the US going to do the same? Are we going to pray and sing "Amazing Grace" forever; while the Dylann Storm Roof's of the world keep high-fiving each other as they shoots us down like flies?Until racism is purged from our gene pool just as it was done in Germany; we Americans cannot stand before God for His judgment; or even before the mirror and see anything but weak insecure cowards; hoping that God will save us from ourselves. (I thought that God only helped those who helped themselves; no?) Your move; Reverend Bailey. Three stars..