{"id":1294,"date":"2013-07-30T12:24:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-30T12:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/07\/obama-black-paternalism-and-the-passive-revolution-part-1.html"},"modified":"2013-07-30T12:24:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-30T12:24:00","slug":"obama-black-paternalism-and-the-passive-revolution-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/07\/obama-black-paternalism-and-the-passive-revolution-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"#Obama: Black Paternalism and the Passive Revolution, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

by Joseph Boston<\/a><\/span>
R3 Contributor<\/span><\/p>\n

*Parts of this first appeared in the Joseph Boston<\/a> blog<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The greatest principle of all is that nobody, male or female, should be without a leader. Nor should the mind of anybody be habituated to letting him do anything at all on his own initiative; neither out of zeal, nor even playfully. But in war and in the midst of peace\u2014to his leader he shall direct his eye and follow him faithfully. And even in the smallest matter he should stand under leadership. For example, he should get up, or move, or wash, or take his meals .. only if he has been told to do so. In a word, he should teach his soul, by long habit, never to dream of independently, and to become utterly incapable of it.- Plato<\/i><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Gil Scott Heron once famously said \u201cThe revolution will not be televised\u201d and like the spoken word that gave us light in the biblical narrative of Genesis- the word became flesh.<\/span><\/div>\n
We\u2019ve been in the midst of a revolution since the election of President Obama in 2008 but not in the manner in which we think. The election of Barack Hussein Obama brought with it much excitement and many mentions of\u00a0\u201cHOPE\u201d<\/i>.<\/span><\/div>\n
Hope for the present and hope for the future, in particular for people of color. The election of Barack Obama signified a historical turning point, manifested in the hope that the election of the first black president of the United States of America would in particular bring forth a change for Black Americans. A change that they had been fighting for before there even was a United States. Many would state that this \u201cchange\u201d has indeed happened.<\/span><\/div>\n
The report however, isn\u2019t good. Black Americans by and large aren\u2019t doing better despite the presence of a president of color. As black intellectuals engage in a form of verbal mandingo fighting in regard to the job this president is doing as it relates to Black Americans, I lean toward the small but growing dissenting voices that are calling the president to task.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
Using the President\u2019s recent comments in regard to the not guilty verdict from the racially charged Zimmerman trial and murder of Trayvon Martin as a reference point, I contend that what we are privy to is a selective form of \u201cblack paternalism\u201d where the president deftly and hypocritically, conveniently plays the role of \u201cblack daddy\u201d to what White America believes to be its bastard problem children of America: Black Americans.<\/span><\/div>\n
As Black Americans applaud the candour and welcome comfort of his words (even I do to a degree) there is a duality to them that speaks to long held beliefs that White Americans have about Black Americans of which due to the political correctness of this era they are unable to freely express. Who better than the \u201cblack president\u201d to convey that message without a backlash of anger and calls of racism? In Obama, white patriarchal power has the perfect messenger to speak to Black America.<\/span><\/div>\n
Symbolically, what Obama said was deep, and spoke much truth about the Black experience. This has tremendous import because no one from such a position of power had stated what he said before and more importantly, stated it from a place of connectivity. That aside, there is a vacuous hypocrisy that lacks any weight other than the power of emotive rhetoric and in light of the contemporary struggles that African Americans are now facing in the 21st century what we need from this president and administration is effective policy, not rhetoric.<\/span><\/div>\n
Follow Joseph on Twitter @josephlaboston<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Joseph BostonR3 Contributor *Parts of this first appeared in the Joseph Boston blog The greatest principle of all is that nobody, male or female, should be without a leader. Nor should the mind of anybody be habituated to letting him do anything at all on his own initiative; neither out of zeal, nor even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n#Obama: Black Paternalism and the Passive Revolution, Part 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Joseph BostonR3 Contributor*Parts of this first appeared in the Joseph Boston blogThe greatest principle of all is that nobody, male or female, should\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/07\/obama-black-paternalism-and-the-passive-revolution-part-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"#Obama: Black Paternalism and the Passive Revolution, Part 1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Joseph BostonR3 Contributor*Parts of this first appeared in the Joseph Boston blogThe greatest principle of all is that nobody, male or female, should\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/07\/obama-black-paternalism-and-the-passive-revolution-part-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-30T12:24:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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