Algernon Austin - America is not Post-racial: Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Racism, and the 44th President

America Is Not Post-Racial

Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Racism, and the 44th President

Algernon Austin

Copyright 2015 by Algernon Austin

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Austin, Algernon.
America is not post-racial: xenophobia, islamophobia, racism, and the 44th president / Algernon Austin.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4408-4125-5 (alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4408-4126-2
(EISBN) 1. Obama, BarackAdversaries. 2. Right-wing extremistsUnited States. 3. United StatesPolitics and government2009 4. RacismUnited States. I. Title.
E908.A89 2015
305.800973dc23 2015016083

ISBN: 978-1-4408-4125-5
EISBN: 978-1-4408-4126-2

19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5

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This is the only book to identify and analyze the 25 million Americans who are the most angry and afraid of Barack Obama as president. These Obama Haters are so extreme in their political views that they make average Tea Party supporters look like moderates. Obama Haters are more likely than other Americans to vote in a presidential primary or caucus, to contact their U.S. representative or senator, and to donate to a political campaign. This high level of political participation gives them political power greater than their numbers. Even after Obamas presidency, theyand their xenophobia, Islamophobia, and racismwill likely continue to shape American politics.

This study emerged out of my confusion over Obama-hatred. To me President Obama does not seem like the radical his opponents paint him to be. For example, the Republican Party is apparently incensed over Obamacare, yet Obamacare looks an awful lot like an expansion of Romneycare, the health insurance reform put in place by the former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts. Why is Obama attacked by Republicans for advancing a Republican idea? To unpack where conservatism ends and where irrational hatred begins, I closely examine the views of Obama Haters and compare them with conservatives who are not angry and afraid at the thought of Obama. I find that Obama Haters are motivated by much more than simply conservatism.

There are essentially three different analyses occurring in these pages. The first is a detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Obama Haters. I move the discussion of Obama-hatred beyond suspicion and speculation and provide solid evidence about who the Obama Haters are and what motivates them.

At another level, this book is a type of case study of Americas response to a nearly perfect black male. Obama is, in the words of Vice President Joe Biden,is post-racial, Obamas race should not matter in Americas response to him. For many Americans, it does not. But for more of us than we have been willing to admit, it does. We think that people who voted for Obama are free of antiblack prejudice, but I show that this is not the case.

Finally, I am also using the Obama Haters to highlight issues that may be useful to engage to reduce racial hatred. Beyond the Obama Haters, many more moderate Americans are anxious about the idea of a more racially and ethnically diverse America. As the proportion of people of color in the U.S. population increases, a body of social science research predicts that there will be more racial animosity. We must take action to see that Americas increasing diversity does not lead to increased racial and ethnic conflict.

I received support and encouragement from many people in many different ways while writing this book. Ill highlight only a few for special recognition. I thank the five D.C. policy wonks I interviewed for their time and insight. I really appreciated learning their views on the Obama administration. Thanks to Janelle Wong, Zoe Sullivan, James Mwombela, Enid Logan, Roberta Gold, and Roger Clay for their useful feedback on drafts of the proposal and manuscript. Thanks to Brian Smedley for hosting a discussion of my research.

All American presidents are subject to outrageous attacks. As one presidential historian has noted:

Harry Truman was condemned for being soft on communism and thereby risking the deliverance of America to Russia. Franklin Roosevelt was called a socialist. Thomas Jefferson was called the anti-Christ. Andrew Jackson was called a Caesar. Over-the-top criticism of presidents has a long history.

But there still appears to be a difference in the anti-Obama attacks. President Obama has been called all of the aboveand much more. He has been called a communist and a socialist and the anti-Christ and a dictator as well as an illegal immigrant and a Muslim and a nigger. In terms of the variety of over-the-top criticism of presidents, Obama cant be beat. The most sustained attacks on a presidents legitimacy have been directed at Barack Obama, argues the political scientist, Gary C. Jacobson. It is doubtful that any other president has had to deal with such widely believed misinformation about his place of birth and his religion.

Obama has faced a strong and unified opposition. Republicans disapprove of Barack Obama more than any other Democratic president on record. It may be expected that the popular presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Clinton would have higher Gallup-poll approval ratings by Republicans than President Obama. But Obama is also rated lower than the relatively unpopular presidents Truman and Carter.

Much to the annoyance of many on the left, Barack Obama has worked very hard to appease those on the right. He has been hated by many conservatives in spite of his efforts.

Obama has been hated for reasons that cannot be explained by his policies; hes a centrist politician. Hatred of Obama caused some people to change their policy positions from agreeing with Obama to opposing him.

Part of Obama-hatred is due to the increasing partisanship and vitriol in American political life. But part of it is also about race. And ethnicity. And religion.

Others have examined the attacks on Obama by media personalities and partisan politicians, but these analyses leave some of the most important questions unanswered. It is not surprising that professional anti-Democrats like Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Michele Bachmann would attack a Democratic president. Essentially, doing so is their job.

An analysis of the professional anti-Democrats cannot tell us what proportion of the American public hates Obama and why. Or whether Obama is hated more than one would expect or less. Or whether he is hated for rational reasons or irrational ones. Analyzing individuals like Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin does not give us a sense of the size nor solid evidence about the motivations of the Obama-hating public. This book does.