Race Against Time: The Politics of a Darkening America by Keith Boykin

Race Against Time: The Politics of a Darkening America by Keith Boykin

Author:Keith Boykin [Boykin, Keith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, American, African American & Black Studies, anthropology, Cultural & Social, Race & Ethnic Relations
ISBN: 9781645037262
Google: WGomzgEACAAJ
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2021-11-15T23:35:36.008441+00:00


For many white observers, Obama was an anomaly, a unicorn, a mystery, not just because of his blended background, but because he did not reaffirm the existing tropes of Black identity. For Black people, however, Obama was impressive, but not spectacular. As Ta-Nehisi Coates explained in TIME magazine in 2007, what white observers “fail to understand is that African-Americans meet other intelligent, articulate African-Americans all the time.” When white politicians or journalists swoon over a Black person for speaking English properly, their reaction suggests what limited experience they have had with educated Black people.

Keenly aware of America’s racial history, African Americans approached Obama’s presidential campaign with cautious optimism. Most Black Americans had very little knowledge of Barack Obama when he announced his campaign on a cold day in Springfield, Illinois, in February 2007. Contrary to assumptions, they did not reflexively support him because he was Black. In a country where we make up only 13 percent of the population, we have a long history of supporting viable white candidates. It was the reason I had worked for Michael Dukakis after college instead of joining Jesse Jackson’s campaign. Most Black people have learned to be political realists in a society where our options are often limited.

One day in late 2007, I took a train from New York to Washington, DC, and caught a cab from Union Station to my destination. The cab driver, an older Black man, struck up a conversation with me. I rarely see Black American cab drivers where I live in New York City, so I was particularly interested to hear what he had to say. He told me that most of the cab drivers in the nation’s capital were not Black Americans. As a longtime DC resident, he described himself as part of a dying breed. We talked about our respective cities and chatted about trivial things. And then the subject of politics came up. He told me he supported Hillary Clinton for president. I did not disclose my own choice. I was a TV commentator and had not publicly stated my preference at the time, although I knew which candidate I supported. I had met Clinton and Obama, and I liked them both. As a forty-two-year-old Black man, however, I felt more connected to the forty-six-year-old Black senator. I planned to vote for him, but I would have been satisfied if either candidate had won.

I also knew who I did not want to win. After forty-three consecutive white men as president, I did not want to elect another white man. White men were just 29 percent of the nation’s population but 100 percent of all our presidents. I had even contributed to that trend by supporting Dukakis over Jackson in 1988. But in the two decades that had passed since that campaign, America had changed, and it was hard for me to see how we could continue electing white guys over and over again in a country that was becoming increasingly diverse.

“And what do you think about Barack Obama?” I asked the cab driver.



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