Obama Can't Transcend Race?

Well, I guess race and politics is going to be the hot issue online today, and I'm also having a debate here on the relative propensity for partisan race-baiting, at "Obama's Rise Creates White Supremist Backlash."

So, let me point readers to a couple of posts of interest: On the Democrats as consumed by race, see Jammie Wearing Fool, "Race-Obsessed Democrats Have a Lot of Healing to Do." On Democratic victimology, see Shakesville, "Michelle Obama Racism/Sexism Watch, Part 11."

The latter post, from Shakesville, makes the startling claim:

Obama does not transcend race. Race is not something that can be transcended. There's no level of universal appeal that will somehow erase the color of your skin and all your experiences of living in it. Obama just happens to be the kind of black dude who doesn't automatically make a certain sort of white person uncomfortable -- the sort of white person who goes around the fucking bend if you point out even unconscious racism in something he's said and yet secretly believes our prisons are full of black men because black men commit more crimes, duh. Big difference.

This blogger's responding to Rupert Cornwell, who suggested:

Like the golfer Tiger Woods (and to a lesser extent Colin Powell), Obama transcends race. He is the post-racial candidate...

And for that, Cornwell's slurred as racist. Oh sure, read all of Cornwell for the context, but think about it: Just the notion that the country can transcend race is itself racist?

That's some freaky postmodern victimology, especially since Obama himself's been at pains to push a transformative racial appeal (to little success, as he's the first to call out folks as racists when the going gets tough).

I think we're really just getting into the season's politics of racial recrimination, and it's an odd thing: As the country's on the verge of historic change, if Barack Obama's elected as the nation's first black president, we're reverting to the most primitive debates, often for the most cheap points of partisan political gain. Somehow, I don't think this is what Dr. King had in mind.

Contrary to the suggestion in the comments to my post, it's clear that the lefties are especially intent to drag the country through the slime of racial grievance politics this year.

For more on this see, "Birth of a Meme."