Your Black World: Barack Obama, and the “Lawrence Summers Effect”

By: Tolu Olorunda

It's time to get right down to business. With Sen. Obama finalizing the acceptance of the Democratic Presidential Nomination should come a certain level of responsibility and accountability. Senator Obama descended upon the podium and aroused the audience with his endearing brand of inspiring and motivating speeches. The historicalness of this moment notwithstanding, I would urge the Illinois Senator to be wise and aware of the steps he, hereafter, takes in effort to clinch the presidency. It is no secret that the majority of white brothers and sisters are immensely uncomfortable with the idea of Barack Obama being affiliated with the other half of his DNA. If Sen. Obama is to walk a tight rope into victory, he would have to inevitably compromise certain values that magnetized the Black Youth/Hip-Hop vote toward his campaign initially. Chris Lightly, CEO of Violator Records/Management, recently wrote an interesting piece urging Sen. Obama not to "lower" his campaign to the base of the Hip-Hop generation -- if he intends to attain the highest height of the land: The presidency. Lightly struggled to articulate this perspective coherently, saying, "Don't lower yourself to speak to rappers! Just because you are African-American, don't allow the press to make you step down from the plate of being one of the most powerful men in the world to address a comment from a rapper, no matter how great he or she is. If the Dixie Chicks stand up and attack McCain, the press already knows it's almost worthless to ask him about it." While this idea might be portrayed as beneficial and advantageous on a certain scale, this could possibly rebound on the Obama Campaign and forfeit him the presidency. With the amount of clout amassed by KRS-One, Public Enemy, Dead-Prez, NYOIL, Amir Sulaiman, Lupe Fiasco, Mos-Def or Rhymefest, turning one's back on the Hip-Hop generation - for political expediency - will amount to the gift that keeps on giving. Hip-Hop culture - through some of its own self-indictment - is widely perceived as unworthy of critical-reflection or scholarly-engagement, but a failure to ascertain its significance can be costly, if not cancerous. This multi-billion dollar industry which has captivated the planet in an unprecedented manner is undoubtedly an agent of influence. Its wings are spread beyond the 4 corners of the world. If Sen. Obama is determined on being the 44th President of the United States, he would have to do a lot more than unveil his iPod Library.

In 2001, astute Scholar and Princeton Professor, Dr. Cornel West, was thrust into the spotlight of public debate; not due to his compelling mind, but a squabble with then-Harvard President, Lawrence Summers. The dispute seemingly stemmed from Larry Summer's disappointment in West's production of a rap CD, entitled "Sketches of My Culture." Lawrence Summers believed that Hip-Hop was a culture of embarrassment, and for West to be involved in the participation of a rap CD, alongside Hip-Hop artists, was an ultimate tarnishment of the Harvard legacy. With a story on the front page of the New York Times, this private quarrel soon became the talk of the town. Prof. West, as always, was rapid in responding to Summers’s callous mischaracterization of Black creativity. Michael Eric Dyson, Georgetown University Professor, also lamented this tragic tradition of the academia, which guards against the fusion of intellectualism with street-culture. In a 2007 conversation with TV Host, Tavis Smiley, Dyson concluded that "people in the academy are always suspicious of people who are able to speak beyond jargon, beyond obscure discourse and dialog and language, to say something meaningful in five minutes that somebody out there in the world can actually understand. I don't apologize for that." If Barack Obama is not careful, he would - if not already - fall victim to the demands made upon him by the dominant society, to disregard the humanity of Black and Brown youth, who aren't as enthused about his candidacy as their White neo-liberal counterparts.

Within the last few months, Sen. Obama has – consciously or subconsciously - informed his Black, Brown and Red supporters that he intends to be nonspecific in dealing with their concerns -- if at all their concerns would be dealt with. In his quest for a "United" America, Obama is pushing the lid on Black and Brown patience. Most Blacks don't see any benefit from a collective economic, social, cultural or educational uplift. They live in a society where Iraqi lives are openly deemed unequal to that of American lives. They watched the Natalie Holloway spectacle play out in dramatic fashion, at the expense of Tamika Huston. If Barack Obama is to seal the deal on his 90% African-American voting bloc, certain demands must be met. Whether the Obama campaign strategists are intelligent enough to dissect the complexity of the Black Community or not, Sen. Obama, having emerged from the well of the South-Side of Chicago, is deeply informed of the racial-intricacy that constitutes Black culture. Barack Obama must be guided against sending the wrong message to Black and Brown citizens. Refusing to defend the causes of the undermined and disempowered members of society, will not - and should not - be tolerated. Most Black voters are despondent as a result of the winded history of presidential hopefuls with compelling rhetoric, but unfulfilled promises. If they see a convincing investment in the McKinney/Clemente ticket, most of those voters would, at the drop of a hat, resist the temptation of being immersed in the sheer symbolism of history vis-à-vis an Obama presidency. If the perception that Obama is snubbing Muslim and Black voters is unchallenged for an extended amount of time, such an inference would yield risk of validation, and therefore, render some steep consequences.

The Obama campaign is going unrelentingly for gold, but risking disqualification. Barack Obama's frequent usage of the term "funny name" to describe the prescribed name giving by his father, "Barack Hussein Obama," is to be sure, unflattering to millions of Muslims around the world who see this caricature as a corrupted perception of their culture. Sen. Obama must make amends in the most applicable and practical way possible. It would leave an indelible stain on Black History, if the presidency of a Black Man is attained at the price of Black, Brown, Arab, and Native-American dignity. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?