alternative hippopotamus

I see some of us are upset that Bill Clinton felt that he needed to defend himself against charges of racism. I will argue that the question of whether Clinton, or McCain, or any of the propagandists for the Republican party are racist is a misleading one. The question is not racism, per se, but whether or not one is using a favorite Republican straw man. One that is taken out of mothballs and dusted off for each presidential election. And how that straw man is used to paint Obama as a “challenger” in the language of black politics.

The straw man I’m referring to is kind of a cross between Mandingo and Falstaff: his physical presence threatens the white folk, while it horrifies and fascinates the women folk. His licenscious ways are an affront to decency. Here, I’ll attempt to coin the term Mandingstaff to refer to such a caricature.

It’s such a mythological creature that Lynne Cheney wrote about in her acclaimed Republican porn novel Sisters:

Wilson put out a hand, a stubby filthy hand, and rubbed his fingers over the side of Sophie’s face. “Mmmm, soft,” he said. “Soft and smooth. Ain’t like mine, is it?” He fingered the suppurating scab on his cheek. “You see what that whip done? You see what your sweetheart done?” Suddenly he screamed in her face: “And last night he burned my goddamned shack!”

…

He kissed her, forced her lips open with his mouth. She could taste the whiskey he had been drinking, feel his whiskers and the scab on his face. A wave of revulsion swept over her, and she pushed him away. As he fell back, the white bulldog moved toward her, his growl becoming louder.

“Ah, feisty, ain’t she, Luper?” Wilson stroked the dog. “Well, sometimes that kind’s the most fun.”

Like the figure of the werewolf or vampire, Mandingstaff takes on the essence of his particular time and place. In Nixon’s time this was known as the Southern Strategy. In the Dukakis campaign it took the form of Willie Horton. In this campaign, Rev. Wright has that honor. It may be argued that this was one meaning of Clinton’s Sista Soulja Moment, that he would keep the white folks safe from Mandingstaff.

My argument is that this straw man is the cartoon version of what Shelby Steele refers to as a challenger. Steele distinguishes between bargainers and challengers on Bill Moyers Journal:

BILL MOYERS: Yeah. You say in here, white people like Barack Obama a little too much for the comfort of many blacks.

SHELBY STEELE: Yes. Yes.

BILL MOYERS: Why?

SHELBY STEELE: Well, the black American identity, certainly black American politics are grounded in what I call challenging. It’s basically, they look at white America and say we’re going to presume that you’re a racist until you prove otherwise. The whole concept is you keep whites on the hook. You keep the leverage. You keep the pressure. Here’s a guy who’s what I call a bargainer who’s giving whites the benefit of the doubt.

BILL MOYERS: Give me a simple definition of what you call a bargainer. And a simple definition of what you call a challenger.

SHELBY STEELE: A bargainer is a black who enters the American, the white American mainstream by saying to whites in effect, in some code form, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I’m not going to rub the shame of American history in your face if you will not hold my race against me. Whites then respond with enormous gratitude. And bargainers are usually extremely popular people. Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Sidney Poitier back in the Sixties and so forth. Because they give whites this benefit of the doubt. That you can be with these people and not feel that you’re going to be charged with racism at any instant. And so they tend to be very successful, very popular.

Challengers on the other hand say, I presume that you, this institution, this society, is racist until it proves otherwise by giving me some concrete form of racial preference.

I can’t say whether or not WJC was invoking language to paint Obama as a “challenger” when he compared him to Jesse Jackson after the South Carolina primary. I would argue that it has that effect, but indeed it’s unfair to say that this was Clinton’s objective.

McCain’s campaign, however, is a different matter. They are quite aware of what Steele is describing, and will likely tailor their language to fit the notion of a “challenger.” And if this provokes a reaction from the Obama campaign, even better, as one of the characteristics of challengers is that they believe that white people are racists. Q.E.D., Obama is a “challenger”, according to this logic, because he thinks that calling him “presumptuous” is racist.

Now, back to WJC for a minute. As I said previously, it’s unfair to call him a racist for his remarks. I would argue, though, that he knew getting into this race that he would be put in an awkward situation. He has a role as an elder statesman which, while not being a role of entire partiality, puts him in a position where he needs to be above the fray. Yet, he can’t do that while actively arguing for his wife as candidate. Put another way, it’s not fair for him to use his role as elder statesman to create a family presidential dynasty. That there would be fall-out from that should have been expected.