The More Things Change: A Gramscian Genealogy of Barack Obama's “Post-Racial” Politics, 1932–2008

Cedric de Leon

doi:10.1108/S0198-8719(2011)0000022010

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Political Power and Social Theory

ISSN: 0198-8719
Series editor(s): Professor Julian Go

Subject Area: Sociology and Public Policy

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The More Things Change: A Gramscian Genealogy of Barack Obama's “Post-Racial” Politics, 1932–2008

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Title:	The More Things Change: A Gramscian Genealogy of Barack Obama's “Post-Racial” Politics, 1932–2008
Author(s):	Cedric de Leon
Volume:	22 Editor(s): Julian Go ISBN: 978-0-85724-911-1 eISBN: 978-0-85724-912-8
Citation:	Cedric de Leon (2011), The More Things Change: A Gramscian Genealogy of Barack Obama's “Post-Racial” Politics, 1932–2008, in Julian Go (ed.) Rethinking Obama (Political Power and Social Theory, Volume 22), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.75-104
DOI:	10.1108/S0198-8719(2011)0000022010 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Article type:	Chapter Item
Abstract:	Numerous commentators have suggested that Barack Obama represents a new “post-racial” politics in the United States, distinct from a pre-existing contentious form that originated with the civil rights era. Drawing on secondary historical data, Mr. Obama's presidential campaign speeches, and county-level electoral returns from Indiana and North Carolina, I argue in contrast to such claims that post-racial politics comprise the latest in a line of successive attempts by the Democratic Party to articulate the New Deal voting bloc, in which the white suburban middle class is the primary constituency while African Americans are of secondary importance. By addressing the question of “Obama and the Politics of Race” in this way, this chapter seeks to integrate political parties into the study of racial ideologies. Specifically, it suggests that the latter may originate and subsequently develop in the context of partisan struggle.