The Washington Post Online.
HOW HE CAN
By Diego von Vacano
Wednesday, February 6, 2008; 1:00 PM
The Democratic race may be far from over, but last night's
results show one thing for certain: Hispanics
overwhelmingly support Hillary Clinton. In California,
Clinton won on the strength of the Latino vote, and it also
helped her in Arizona and New Mexico. Her success is due
in part to her positions on the issues and her broad appeal
to the lower and working class, where the bulk of Latinos
remain. She may have also benefited from Barack
Obama's failure to engage Hispanic Americans on the
issue of race.
It is unfortunate but true: There is some suspicion,
competition and uneasiness between Latinos and African
Americans. To the extent that Obama either ignores race
or simply accepts the label of "black," even though he is of
mixed race, he will not appeal to Latinos. But Obama can
improve his standing among Hispanics by better
emphasizing how his own understanding of race matches
theirs.
Throughout his career, Obama has tried to follow Martin
Luther King's dream -- that of a nation where people "will
not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content
of their character." In this dream of a postracial America,
what matters is human dignity, not superficial racial
characteristics. Most people in America, however, have not
yet moved away from the dual paradigm of race. This has
created unfair expectations about what Obama should be
like or what he should do.
There is a way out of this racial conundrum: to point to the
new racial paradigms that are becoming more salient as
Hispanics become more prominent in the United States.
Obama's insistence on treating race as a secondary
matter is morally laudable. Yet most people rely on their
putative "race" to make sense of the world and of their own
identities. Since the arrival of the Spanish to the Americas
in the 15th century, the idea of racial difference has
shaped moderns sensibilities. Europeans came to define
themselves against the Amerindian or African "savages."
Eminent philosophers such as Immanuel Kant posited the
superiority of whites over nonwhites, as did great
statesmen such as Thomas Jefferson. In reaction, some
great African American minds, such as W.E.B. Du Bois,
responded by arguing that blacks "as a race, have a
contribution to make to civilization and humanity, which no
other race can make." Thus did America's view of race
become binary -- you were either white or black.
One way out of this old, often noxious paradigm is to ask
Americans to re-imagine the way they understand race.
Obama, with his visionary approach and inspiring rhetoric,
could be the man to do this.
Hispanics are now the largest ethnic minority in the United
States, having recently surpassed African Americans in
numbers. Obama can learn from their perspective on race.
He should borrow the idea of mestizaje from the Latino
tradition.
This idea is the key racial notion in Hispanic culture, and it
stands for the mixing of races. It argues that all people are
of mixed racial descent, and that there is no "pure" race.
We are all the synthesis of many racial origins, which often
lie below the surface of accidental skin colors. In a country
as diverse and fluid as the United States, this synthetic
paradigm of race makes sense.
From the Latino perspective, Obama is a mestizo, just like
all of us. Hispanics, who are often treated as a single
"race," in fact can be of Amerindian, Spanish, African,
German, Japanese or any other ethnic origin. African
Americans often have roots that can be traced to Africa,
Native American nations and Europe as well. And "whites,"
who we often assume are a monolithic group, in fact can
be of a combination of English, German, Irish, Italian,
Scandinavian, or other European origins, with possible
ancestry also in Africa, Asia, or Native America.
As the great Mexican philosopher José Vasconcelos wrote
in 1925 in his work "The Cosmic Race," we are all
members of "a synthetic race." If Obama more forcefully
embraces this notion, he will go far in gaining the Latino
vote -- for he will show that that he understands that
Latinos, too, are part of one large American family.
The writer is an assistant professor of political science at
Texas A&M University and author of "The Art of Power:
Machiavelli, Nietzsche and the Making of Aesthetic Political
Theory."
:
washingtonpost.com – Feb. 7, 2008
HOW HE CAN
By Diego von Vacano
Wednesday, February 6, 2008; 1:00 PM
The Democratic race may be far from over, but last night's
results show one thing for certain: Hispanics
overwhelmingly support Hillary Clinton. In California,
Clinton won on the strength of the Latino vote, and it also
helped her in Arizona and New Mexico. Her success is due
in part to her positions on the issues and her broad appeal
to the lower and working class, where the bulk of Latinos
remain. She may have also benefited from Barack
Obama's failure to engage Hispanic Americans on the
issue of race.
It is unfortunate but true: There is some suspicion,
competition and uneasiness between Latinos and African
Americans. To the extent that Obama either ignores race
or simply accepts the label of "black," even though he is of
mixed race, he will not appeal to Latinos. But Obama can
improve his standing among Hispanics by better
emphasizing how his own understanding of race matches
theirs.
Throughout his career, Obama has tried to follow Martin
Luther King's dream -- that of a nation where people "will
not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content
of their character." In this dream of a postracial America,
what matters is human dignity, not superficial racial
characteristics. Most people in America, however, have not
yet moved away from the dual paradigm of race. This has
created unfair expectations about what Obama should be
like or what he should do.
There is a way out of this racial conundrum: to point to the
new racial paradigms that are becoming more salient as
Hispanics become more prominent in the United States.
Obama's insistence on treating race as a secondary
matter is morally laudable. Yet most people rely on their
putative "race" to make sense of the world and of their own
identities. Since the arrival of the Spanish to the Americas
in the 15th century, the idea of racial difference has
shaped moderns sensibilities. Europeans came to define
themselves against the Amerindian or African "savages."
Eminent philosophers such as Immanuel Kant posited the
superiority of whites over nonwhites, as did great
statesmen such as Thomas Jefferson. In reaction, some
great African American minds, such as W.E.B. Du Bois,
responded by arguing that blacks "as a race, have a
contribution to make to civilization and humanity, which no
other race can make." Thus did America's view of race
become binary -- you were either white or black.
One way out of this old, often noxious paradigm is to ask
Americans to re-imagine the way they understand race.
Obama, with his visionary approach and inspiring rhetoric,
could be the man to do this.
Hispanics are now the largest ethnic minority in the United
States, having recently surpassed African Americans in
numbers. Obama can learn from their perspective on race.
He should borrow the idea of mestizaje from the Latino
tradition.
This idea is the key racial notion in Hispanic culture, and it
stands for the mixing of races. It argues that all people are
of mixed racial descent, and that there is no "pure" race.
We are all the synthesis of many racial origins, which often
lie below the surface of accidental skin colors. In a country
as diverse and fluid as the United States, this synthetic
paradigm of race makes sense.
From the Latino perspective, Obama is a mestizo, just like
all of us. Hispanics, who are often treated as a single
"race," in fact can be of Amerindian, Spanish, African,
German, Japanese or any other ethnic origin. African
Americans often have roots that can be traced to Africa,
Native American nations and Europe as well. And "whites,"
who we often assume are a monolithic group, in fact can
be of a combination of English, German, Irish, Italian,
Scandinavian, or other European origins, with possible
ancestry also in Africa, Asia, or Native America.
As the great Mexican philosopher José Vasconcelos wrote
in 1925 in his work "The Cosmic Race," we are all
members of "a synthetic race." If Obama more forcefully
embraces this notion, he will go far in gaining the Latino
vote -- for he will show that that he understands that
Latinos, too, are part of one large American family.
The writer is an assistant professor of political science at
Texas A&M University and author of "The Art of Power:
Machiavelli, Nietzsche and the Making of Aesthetic Political
Theory."
:
washingtonpost.com – Feb. 7, 2008
