Writes: James N. Kariuki
An old book by philosopher Reinhold Neibhur, Children of Light and Children of Darkness, postulates that people are basically negative, (children of darkness) others are inherently positive, (children of light).
Have Blacks endured so much suffering that it is now second nature to be children of darkness, especially when our tormentors are involved? Is it virtually instinctive that we distrust the white man who has perpetrated so much suffering upon us?
For example, take our response to Barack Obama’s political success.
Some see the Obama phenomenon as redemptive for the US. By his political advances, Obama has vindicated the claim that America is much bigger than the racist monster that it is cranked up to be.
Obama could never have gone as far as he has in the absence of support of countless whites. There is another side to the US, a colour-blind America that differs vastly from the racist bigots.
When Obama announced his presidential candidacy a year ago, many dismissed him as wasting time and money. In addition to the racial baggage associated with blackness, his principal rival is a well-established name of Hillary Clinton, the former First Lady.
Clinton had declared her presidential candidacy well in advance and was way ahead in the polls. What chances did poor Obama stand?
A year later, Obama has done the unthinkable. He leads in delegate counts for the nomination of the Democratic Party. He has been a political tsunami to all, including the hitherto untouchable, Hillary.
Yet, Black folks’ reaction to Obama’s tumultuous success has been tentative at best, in some quarters. There are those who are thrilled that a Black person has come within the grasp of the most powerful office in the world. As one African-American woman recently put it: “We are sure he is going for the gold!”
Yet, many Blacks have become children of darkness towards Obama’s odyssey. Some swear that he cannot be US president. That America will never allow him to muster the needed white support to reach the mountaintop.
These doubters are oblivious to the obvious: that Obama has already attracted incredible support of the white community to be where he is. And he has done so while his chief opponent is a famous white person. Despite the evidence, these Blacks refuse to believe. To them, the entire phenomenon is unreal.
Hopes of African-Americans
Conceivably, these Blacks are not necessarily Obama’s detractors. Indeed they want him to win so much that they are merely forearming themselves psychologically for the worst. If their man does not make it, they will say: “We told you so”. In short, their current position is a strategy — a defence mechanism.
An even bolder school of Black denialists has emerged, arguing that it would be a ‘bad thing’ for Obama to win the US presidency.
The proposition here is that, by becoming president, Obama would raise the hopes of African-Americans unrealistically high and lead to disappointment.
A similar scenario is contrived relative to Africa where leaders would expect too much from an African-American US president. Yet, this president would be too constrained by American interests to deliver. Ultimately, Obama would not be able to help Africa more than his white predecessors.
The latter logic may also be driven by a compulsion to deter unbearable disappointment in the future. Its adherents too want Obama to win so much that, for now, they are prepared to delude themselves that he should not win.
But the reasoning is faulty; it presupposes that the US president is so constrained by national interests that he has no room for initiatives. Question: Does the US presidency shape the man or does the man shape the office? Perhaps it is a case of both. Obama already indicates that, if elected, he would talk unconditionally to the Cuban leaders. Until now, that position was anathema.
John F Kennedy steered America away from believing that Blackness was a badge of perpetual underclass. Lyndon B Johnson pushed that process a step further by inventing affirmative action. Obama could go one more step by apologising to Global Africa for centuries of American slavery and racial abuse. For that alone, he shall not have lived in vain.
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