Obama's decades-long support for the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, combined with his refusal to completely disavow this man, suggest that beneath his calm exterior, Obama may be seething with racial resentment. So far he has managed to conceal it, while his wife Michelle Obama lets out the occasional petulant outburst. But inner rage is the only explanation for why the Obama family is so close to Wright. He articulates their deepest feelings about race in America, feelings that they know are imprudent to air politically.
Yet what do the Obamas have to feel resentful about? They are one of the truly privileged families in America. They both got an Ivy League education. They had the benefit of top graduate schools. They have held enviable jobs such as Michelle Obama's hospital post that pays more than $300,000 a year. They live in an upscale neighborhood very far removed from the drug and crime-infested ghettos of Chicago. So what do these two have to whine about? Would they trade places even for a week with a working-class white family?
Well, the standard answer goes, it's still painful despite one's advantages to live in a racist country. But how can America be a racist country if Obama has a serious shot at the presidency? How would it even be possible for Obama to win predominantly white states as he has been doing in the primaries? Would a racist country be likely to have allowed affirmative action and preferential programs to blacks in university admissions, job hiring and government contracts for nearly 40 years?
The Obamas seem to be experiencing what Ellis Cose years ago termed "the rage of the privileged class." Cose accurately identified the rage, although he could not diagnose its source. For many black leaders, there is one obvious source: white racism. Several years ago I debated Jesse Jackson at Stanford University and challenged him to show me a racism today that prevents his family or mine from achieving the American dream. Jackson admitted he couldn't, but then he said this merely showed that racism had gone underground, it was covert rather than overt, racism had now become institutionalized. To italicize his point Jackson went into some impressive rhyme schemes: "I may be well dressed, but I'm still oppressed," and so on.
The racism may have largely disappeared from view, but the rage of the privileged class is real. I think I know where this African American rage comes from. Imagine if you were Michael Jordan and someone said to you, "Every time you reach to dunk the ball into the basket, let's lower the net by six inches." This is basically what affirmative action does: it gives historically disadvantaged groups a break to compensate for the effects of past and present racism. Whatever the justification, however, the effect of such policies is to completely discredit the achievement even of competent beneficiaries. Michael Jordan's claim to be the greatest basketball player ever would be utterly destroyed if he played by a different set of rules as everyone else. And I wouldn't be surprised if Geraldine Ferraro were on hand to say, "Jordan only got where he got because of the color of his skin."
Consequently those who stand to benefit from racial preferences, as the Obamas may have done in gaining admission to university and graduate school, typically accept the subsidy while at the same time resenting the implication that they have gotten an unfair leg up. Their seething anger, however, is not directed toward affirmative action or toward the liberal paternalists who have implemented it. Rather, they ascribe generic blame to societal racism. In this weird framework, more affirmative action is then demanded to fight this unseen bigotry. Needless to say, the rage shows no signs of abating and only intensifies.
Want to learn more about all this? Read my book The End of Racism, a national bestseller which offers a vision for how we can truly transcend this destructive racialization of our society. Don't buy it to pay me reparations for the colonial subjugation of my ancestors over many centuries. Buy it because it's really good stuff.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 29)
1. Here here! With my college grades and ACT scores I would have received a full ride had I been a different skin tone, how is that not racism? And the assumption that because someone is white the must be racist is a fairly racist point of view to take.
I wouldn't neccessarily say that Obama's inner most rage is expressed by Rev. Wright, but perhaps like the senile great grandmother who needs to be cared for by professionals, he fins it hard to extracate himself from a sentimental relationship?
matt herrmann at 1:48AM on Mar 26th 2008
2. Michele Obama no longer works for the Hospital, she had resigned that post.
Michele Obama now works for and is member of CPF, the powerful Council on Foreign Relations. CPF is made up of the extremely powerful and rich people of the USA and has what some call dangerous influence over what happens in Washington. One idea they are pushing is the North American Union, which would be North America without borders, totally open between Mexico, USA and Canada.
robert okane at 2:35AM on Mar 26th 2008
3. #3 correction "CFR"
robert okane at 2:37AM on Mar 26th 2008
4. Wow. I'm really impressed that you wrote this article, and I suppose your book as well. Oh man, it seems like every single person in the media is trying to bury this story, or they try to switch it back onto hating Hillary, etc.
I do agree with this writer.
And I cannot believe that we have a potential American president who went to a church for 20 years with this close Pastor who screams G*d Damn Amikkka! How can a potential president be anywhere NEAR that? Very disturbing. VERY.
Katherine at 2:44AM on Mar 26th 2008
5. It's all so clear to me now thanks to you Mr. D'Souza thanks (yawn). A short time ago you said that you knew nothing about this man and now in about 6 days now you can tell me the inner workings of the kid from Chicago. I have read many of your posts, Mr. D'Souza and as I am sure you'll call yourself being thoughtfully analytical of them as a culture, and a people but it's always the worst things you can come up with or something you can makeup. Needless to say, I won't say that your a racist, no, thats a little to simple. I noticed that you no longer have the Senior Rishwain Fellow listed near your name anymore. Odd, you can toute your ethnic associations but others can't. Indeed he has lived a priviledged life in comparison to most people in America, but it is you and your cadre of fake analysts and commentators who made this a race issue with Obama. Your bone of contention is the statements of Rev. Wright or they should be. You have a problem with that, take it up with him, not with someone who heard him. Not long ago Obama being a potential Muslim was your gripe, your bloggers jumped on the bandwagon in standard Pavlovian manner. Just call it what it is, you don't want this guy to be President, I mean maybe just maybe, this guy will bring some of the jobs back this country has been bleeding off. I mean heaven forbid he might tell these companies sending all their jobs and factories to Mexico they'll lose American company status and be forced to pay import fees and tarrifs on everything that comes from Mexico like other foreign companies. I mean do we honestly want a President that will take care of America first. Do we want a President that will demand new schools built in America first as opposed to Iraq. I don't know that sounds too much like, right. Still I need to check him out a little more, I most assuredly won't dismiss him because you Mr. D'Souza think you know everything about him in under a week, and everything you know is somehow all bad. I mean as an Independent and a guy who was rooting for Ron Paul, I see a trend. The average Joe takes an interest in this kid or Dr. Paul, they listen to them and wonder. Now people who don't dig ditches for a living or pickup trash are attacking this man at every trick of the turn. Makes me wonder, why are the well to do so concerned about this guy, why do they attack him every chance they get. Maybe because they think he'll stop the corporation tax breaks and bailouts. Maybe the next tax cut will be for those who need it only. Maybe the banks won't be able to make predatory loans to people with changing interest rates so they can get the peoples money and then their homes. Maybe he'll protect the farmers from the banks. Hmmm, I just don't know but I tell you this as an Independent, you've given this guy the wrong type attention. Now I'll look at him more as will many more. Though I didn't vote for him and can't say I care for him, Bill Clinton passed Welfare Reform helped create 23 million jobs and things were getting done. Long before Lewinsky, rich and well to do folks were attacking him left and right. Maybe Mr. D'Souza doesn't want more people working, more kids with health care, I mean when things are going good, people like Dinesh are miserable. More words from Logan
Logan at 2:43AM on Mar 26th 2008
6. Non withstanding the his fair critique of Affirmative Action, DD's suggestion that Obama is resentful because of Affirmative Action is pure and wild speculation. It would be just as fair of me to speculate that DD is contriving his opinion here just to plug his book(maybe a little more likely.)
abe at 4:09AM on Mar 26th 2008
7. So now you can add psuedo shrink and poor journalist to your list of job disqualifications. Give it a rest.
SusanM at 5:01AM on Mar 26th 2008
8. So can you give us a breakdown on why Hillary is a pathological liar who stays married to a serial philanderer? I'm seeing a lot of rage there.
RandyJ at 5:05AM on Mar 26th 2008
9. I'd assumed from the last post that Dinesh had actually watched/read Obama's speach. I don't get that at all from this post.
Obama's not angry or resentful, Rev. Wright is. And Rev. Wright's anger and resentment is justified from experience. Makes sense to me.
"...This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them".
Ryan Anderson at 7:06AM on Mar 26th 2008
10. Dinesh - "The racism may have largely disappeared from view..."
Where do you live?
Maybe in whatever gated community you live in, it is. But not in the wider world.
Maybe you should take your head out of the sand from time to time, especially if you are going to write books.
Ryan Anderson at 7:11AM on Mar 26th 2008
11. This is total nonsense. Neither Obama or is wife have indicated any kind of rage. This is a total fabrication on the part of a racist journalist who writes sub-standard books.
As for Affirmative Action, the biggest beneficiaries have probably been white women. The blacks only comprise 13 percent of the population. They can't all be in jail and taking our kid's spot at Princeton at the same time.
randy at 7:12AM on Mar 26th 2008
12. Affirmative action is so well publicized, so all it does is add to racism. Think about it, at Cornell, I know that the standard has been so lowered for blacks, it's almost impossible for me to assume that the blacks are going to be as smart as the rest of the student body.
ins at 7:25AM on Mar 26th 2008
13. Logan - Nice paragraph. A few corrections: That should be "you're a racist" not "your a racist". Also, the word is "tout" not toute. And what are "potential" Muslims? Is that a new sect? Somehow you know that Dinesh doesn't want people to have work or health care? As if Obama is the only one who can bring us those things. That's just silly.
Spelling, grammar and logical fallacies only count when you've decided to tediously lecture other people.
Dave at 7:25AM on Mar 26th 2008
14. "Buy it because it's really good stuff." --Dinesh
___________________
Dinesh...I never realized before just what a comic genius you are!
Paul at 7:28AM on Mar 26th 2008
15. Randy #8- Did you somehow miss the latest Hillary whopper where she "misspoke" about dodging sniper fire? And are you actually denying that Bill has had multiple girlfriends for some time now? Not even his friends try to deny that. And it has nothing to do with "rage". Dinesh is citing facts. You can do that too.
Dave at 7:41AM on Mar 26th 2008