American Identity in the Age of Obama
TO REGISTER FOR THIS CONFERENCE, CLICK HERE. »Friday March 25 at The Amilcar Cabral Center in the John D. O'Bryant African American Institute
The election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States has opened a new chapter in the country’s long and often tortured history of inter-racial and inter-ethnic relations. Many relished in the inauguration of the country’s first African American president — an event foreseen by another White House aspirant, Senator Robert Kennedy, four decades earlier. What could have only been categorized as a dream in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education was now a reality. Some dared to contemplate a post-racial America. Still, soon after Obama’s election a small but persistent faction questioned his eligibility to hold office; they insisted that Obama was foreign-born. Following the Civil Rights battles of the 20th century hate speech, at least in public, is no longer as free flowing as it had been. Perhaps xenophobia, in a land of immigrants, is the new rhetorical device to assail what which is non-white and hence un-American. Furthermore, recent debates about immigration and racial profiling in Arizona along with the battle over rewriting of history and civics textbooks in Texas suggest that a post-racial America is a long way off. Indeed, in his 1995 book, Dreams from My Father, Obama observed both how far we have come and how far we yet to traverse.
This conference will provide an opportunity to discuss changing and persistent notions of American identity in the Age of Obama. What roles do race, ethnicity, ancestry, immigration status, locus of birth play in the public and private conversations that defy and reinforce existing conceptions of what it means to be American?
Meeting Agenda
Morning Session 8:30AM-12:00PM
Paper 1:
"White Masculinities in the Age of Obama: Rebuilding or Reloading?"
This paper explores three general trends with white masculinities in the age of Obama to theorize what it means for privileged identities to experience partial de-cline. The phrase "partial decline" signifies uneven changes in white masculini-ties, where there have been signs of minor loss with structural and symbolic ad-vantages with gender, a reactionary maintenance of privilege in the context of race, and a progressive transformation in the area of fatherhood. First, there have been a flurry of articles about men being hit harder in the Great Recession than women, with data showing that some men who are indeed losing out. In the arena of race, there is also a cluster of writings that highlights white men as angry van-guards fighting against the Obama presidency. These writings paint a portrait of white masculinity as culturally challenged by the existence of an African-American president, increasing racial and ethnic diversity, and immigration. However, in the area of race there is no significant evidence that white men are losing structurally-based racial advantages. The final area in the realm of father-hood and masculinity views a positive trend where men have become more in-volved in raising children and taking on domestic roles, signifying a transforma-tion in white masculinity. The net result of these uneven patterns strongly sug-gests that scholars need to further cultivate theory that explains identities in a state of uneven development.
Stephen Farough, Department of Sociology, Assumption College
Steven Farough is Associate Professor of Sociology and a faculty member in the Women's Studies Program at Assumption College. He teaches courses on race, gender, social theory, introductory sociology, and research methodology. Professor Farough received his B.A. in Psychology from Western Michigan University, M.S.W. in Community Organization from the University of Michigan, and Ph.D. in Sociology from Boston College. He is currently conducting ethnographic research on stay-at-home fathers and continues to write about white masculinities and privilege. Professor Farough has published in journals such as Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Critical Sociology, and Gender, Race, and Class. He is also the author of a number of book chapters in edited anthologies. He sees his research on white masculinities connecting to his theoretical and methodological orientation as a sociologist in general - to study the relationship between language, identity, social organization, and power in the lives of relatively privileged people.
Paper 2:
"The First Black President?: Cross-racial Perceptions of Barack Obama's Race"
Barack Obama's ancestry can aptly be described as racially-mixed given his "black" Kenyan father and "white" American mother. At the same time, Obama self-identifies as African American and is widely regarded as the country's first black president. These latter facts, of course, stem from the socially constructed nature of racial identities, America's malevolent racial history and pattern of racial formation (think "one drop rule"), and (related) contemporary patterns of racial classification and experience. Nonetheless, the nature of Obama's racial status does not go uncontested in the public arena. African Americans have questioned Obama's racial authenticity ("Is he Black enough?"). And, among many whites, Obama is seen as something other than truly "black" - a fact that made him more palatable to whites as a candidate and likely contributed to his electoral success. These issues all point to the importance of understanding how and why people view Barack Obama as occupying one or another racial status/category in America. This paper explores these issues empirically via an analysis of 2009 polling data from the Pew Research Center's "Racial Attitudes in America II" project (N = 2,850). Our analyses center on whether Obama is seen as "black" or "mixed race." Specifically, we explore how a host of factors - including demographics, concerns about Obama's political focus on Whites and Blacks, perceptions of discrimination, perceptions of the nature of Obama "values, racial stereotypes, and respondents" own racial identities (including a "mixed race" option) - shape how the public views the President in terms of race. In so doing, we hope to shed light on the ways in which persons' social locations, identities, and views on racial and societal issues contribute to how Obama's racial status is constructed by the lay public.
Matthew Hunt, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Northeastern University
Matthew O. Hunt is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University. His primary research interests involve intersections of race/ethnicity, social psychology, and inequality in the United States. His work has appeared in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Psychology Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, Du Bois Review and other publications. Most recently, he co-edited a Volume (March 2011) of the Annals of the American Association of Political and Social Science titled "Race, Racial Attitudes, and Stratification Beliefs: Evolving Directions for Research and Policy."
David C. Wilson, Department of Political Science & International Relations, University of Delaware
David C. Wilson is an expert in public opinion and survey research methods. He is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware, and holds joint appointments in the Department of Psychology, and the Department of Black American Studies. He conducts research examining political behavior including social cognition, and the psychology of survey response. His academic research has appeared in prominent journals like Public Opinion Quarterly, and the Journal of Applied Psychology. Wilson earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science, and an M.PA.- Urban Affairs degree, all from Michigan State University.
Paper 3:
"Racial Identification in a Post Obama era: Multiracialism, Immigration and Identity Choice"
In 2008, 2.2% of Americans identified with two or more racial categories. Indeed, assertions of non-traditional identities evoking a mixed race (or multiracial) back-ground are more prevalent in society today, particularly among younger genera-tions. The rise of multiracial identification is indicative of new social norms that govern racial identification which offer a more inviting environment for individu-als to assert multiracial identities. Yet, as a trend of multiracial self-identification grows, it demands the attention of those that self-identify with the established ra-cial categories, such as white or black, who must then consider and respond to these identities. I anticipate that response to multiracial identities will vary by ra-cial background. As a general pattern, I argue that whites tend to interpret multi-racial identities with normative optimism about U.S. race relations while racial minorities generally respond more unfavorably to the assertions of these identi-ties. Because of this, racial minorities will be more critical of multiracial identi-ties and challenge the legitimacy of these identities. Using recent public opinion data, I examine the relationship between views on multiracial identities and other racial and political attitudes and compare how this relationship may differ across whites, blacks, Latinos and Asians.
Natalie Masuoka, Department of Political Science, Tufts University
Natalie Masuoka received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine. She specializes in the area of American racial and ethnic politics with a focus on political behavior and public opinion. Her work pays particular attention to the role of racial identification in American politics and the relative comparisons among African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos. Professor Masuoka's dissertation entitled "Rethinking Race and Politics: Mixed Race and the Trajectory of Minority Politics in the United States" examines a possible new identity group: those who self identify as mixed race or multiracial. Her most recent project examines the use of implicit racial appeals in debates involving immigration policy and their impact on the public opinion of both whites and racial minorities. Her research has been published in journals such as American Politics Research, Political Research Quarterly, and Social Science Quarterly. She teaches courses on political participation, racial and ethnic politics, immigration policy, research methods and introductory classes on American government.
Paper 4:
"Conspiracy Theory and Racial Paranoia in Obamerica"
This paper examines popular racial discourse surrounding Barack Obama. Some predicted that the election of the first African American president of the United States would denote the end of anti-black prejudice and racial subjugation in pub-lic life. Instead, the Obama presidency has arrived with the resurgence of racial paranoia and hate-mongering. This paper explores how conspiratorial claims have been used to "other" Obama and deny blackness as a valid expression of Ameri-canity and humanity. I examine the discursive strategies involved in popular Obama conspiracy theories including: Obama as Kenyan-born, Muslim terrorist; Obama as reptilian space-alien; Obama as New World Order, Illuminati opera-tive; and Obama as closeted ("downlow") homosexual. Building on Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's notion of colorblind racism, I argue that these theories represent "new" ways to forward anti-black/Muslim/gay ideology in an era of supposed post-racial, colorblindness. In addition, John Jackson's theory of paranoid racial framing is used to (re)consider both the political and entertainment work accomplished by these claims.
Travis Gosa, Africana Studies Research Center, Cornell University
Dr. Travis L. Gosa is an Assistant Professor of Social Science at Cornell University. He holds faculty appointments in the graduate fields of Africana Studies and Education, and is affiliated with the Cornell Center for the Study of Inequality. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from The Johns Hopkins University in 2008, along with a Certificate in Social Inequality. He has been an education policy analyst at both the Maryland State Department of Education and American Institutes for Research in Washington, D.C. Prof. Gosa teaches courses on race, education, hip-hop, and the African American family. His research examines the social worlds of black youth, new racial politics, music, and digital inequality. Gosa's recent essays have been published in Teacher's College Record, Journal of Popular Music Studies, Popular Music and Society, and The Journal of American Culture. He has a manuscript in progress entitled, "The School of Hard Knocks: A Hip- Hop Theory of Black Schooling and Educational Reform."
Afternoon Session 1:00PM-3:30PM
Paper 1:
"Immigrant Resentment: When the Work Ethic Backfires"
Barack Obama's presidency has brought renewed attention to the meaning of American identity as well as to the contentious politics of immigration reform. As such, understanding the causes and consequences of modern attitudes about im-migrants and immigration has become imperative. Even though data show that many non-white Americans, immigrant and native-born alike, define the norma-tive content of American identity the same as whites do, think of themselves as American, and differ minimally from whites in their sense of obligation, patriot-ism, and trust in political institutions, many white Americans think otherwise. They believe that today's immigrants reject American norms. This belief generates "immigrant resentment," which is similar to the racial resentment many whites have toward blacks but differs in important respects that involve the nature of the norms being violated. Rather than being seen as lazy (though some Ameri-cans do see immigrants that way), immigrants today are seen as working quite hard. Yet rather than being praised for embodying the Protestant work ethic, they are criticized with claims that their devotion to work detracts from other important facets of American identity, including active citizenship. In this paper I develop measures of immigrant resentment. I compare it to racial resentment and to "old-fashioned" beliefs about the preferred racial and religious background of immi-grants (a.k.a. ethnocultural resentment). I show that immigrant resentment, racial resentment, and ethnocultural resentment all exist yet that all are distinct concepts with both distinct and shared roots. Then I show how immigrant resentment is a powerful influence over public opinion about immigration policy.
Deborah Schildkraut - Department of Political Science, Tufts University
Debbie Schildkraut received her Ph.D. from Princeton University and her B.A. from Tufts University. Her courses include the Politics of Ethnicity and American Identity, Political Psychology, Political Science Research Methods, Introduction to American Politics, Public Opinion, and Political Representation in the United States. She is the author of Americanism in the Twenty-First Century: Public Opinion in the Age of Immigration (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and Press 'One' for English: Language Policy, Public Opinion, and American Identity (Princeton University Press, 2005). Both books examine the implications of the changing ethnic composition of the United States on public opinion in a variety of domains. She has also published articles in the Journal of Politics, Political Behavior, Political Psychology, Political Research Quarterly, and Perspectives on Politics. She previously served as an Assistant Professor of Politics at Oberlin College.
Paper 2:
"Barack Obama's Latina/o "Credibility Gap": Immigration, American Identity, and the (Im)Possibilities of Racial Transcendence"
This essay interrogates the disconnect between the promise of a new, transcendent American identity promised by the 2008 election and the fracturing of that vision among Latina/os in 2010. I analyze Obama's immigration rhetoric to show how it is driven by the same transcendent view of race and American identity that was so celebrated in his campaign. Nevertheless, this celebrated rhetoric of transcen-dence holds limited possibilities for sustained coalitions and progressive racial politics. Comparing Obama's immigration rhetoric to his administration's immi-gration policies, I argue that the very discourse of universal and transcendent American identity offered by Obama in his speeches and writings falls short of the particular struggles faced by immigrants and Latina/os. Increasing disaffection found in Latina/o and immigrant communities points to broader problems in transcendent (universal) discourses of American identity purportedly proffered by Obama's election and speak to the necessity for particularized political struggles in the continual fight for racial equality.
J. David Cisneros - Department of Communication Studies, Northeastern University
Josue David Cisneros (Ph.D., Communication, University of Georgia, 2009) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. His research and teaching interests lie at the intersections of rhetorical studies, critical race studies, social movements, democratic theory, and cultural studies. Dr. Cisneros' research explores the relationship between race, democracy, and citizenship, and/in public culture, especially the discursive efforts of racial minorities and immigrants struggling for full political and social inclusion. He has published articles in Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Quarterly Journal of Speech, and Argumentation and Advocacy, among other venues. He is the recipient of the Robert G. Gunderson award for scholarship from the National Communication Association's Public Address Division and the Daniel Rohrer Memorial Outstanding Research Award from the American Forensics Association. Currently, he is working on a variety of essays, including studies of historical and contemporary immigrant movements and work on Barack Obama and discourses of racial neoliberalism. His ongoing book project traces how several Latina/o groups have negotiated discourses of U.S. citizenship over time.
Paper 3:
"West African Immigrant Social Networks"
This paper examines West African immigrants' social relationships with native-born Black and White populations. Network analysis, in-depth interview and eth-nographic data from an in-depth study of Nigerian and Ghanaian immigrants in Maryland are used to illustrate the form and quality of interpersonal connections based in the school, workplace, neighborhood, and voluntary association. Social integration scholarship suggests that social networks reveal an individual or groups degree of integration within society. I find that structural, individual, and contextual factors including racial hierarchy, socioeconomic background charac-teristics (e.g. class, race/ethnicity, gender, age, language, religion) and social con-text or space (e.g. workplace, public space, geographic location) shape the tenor of Black African immigrants' interracial and interethnic relations in 21st Century America. Patterns of integration or isolation among these new immigrants have implications for their self-identity and imposed identification in contemporary U.S. society.
Mindelyn Buford II - Sociology and Anthropology and African American Studies, Northeastern University
Mindelyn Buford II, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northeastern University. She earned a B.A. in Sociology with minors in Anthropology and Policy Studies at UCLA and a Ph.D. in Sociology with a certificate of concentration in social inequality at the Johns Hopkins University. Her scholarly interests include social inequality and mobility, racial and ethnic minorities, international migration, and qualitative research methods. Her research has received support from fellowships and grants from organizations including the National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, Mathematica Policy Research, and the American Institutes for Research.
Professor Buford is currently writing journal article manuscripts that examine the socioeconomic integration of Nigerian and Ghanaian immigrants in the United States. She is also writing a book manuscript about how class and race shape highly-educated, foreign-born black immigrants' assimilation trajectories in the United States.
Paper 4:
"Barack Obama's Visionary Leadership: the Transformation of American Identity through Foreign Policy"
Barack Obama's presidency marks a watershed moment in American and world politics. He represents America's multiculturalism and its shifting identity. Since the time of the American founding, American identity has been an integral part of the image that the United States projects to the world. American leaders have con-sistently defined the national interest with an eye to upholding the American creed: freedom, equality, and democratic government. As a result, they presup-pose a stable American identity defined by core values when handling foreign af-fairs. This paper examines how Barack Obama's self-styled visionary leadership fits within this long established tradition of American leadership vis-a-vis foreign affairs. In addition, I examine how his unique political vision seeks to reinvent America's international image while shaping American history and identity.
Mark Menaldo - Department of Social Sciences, Texas A&M International University
Mark A. Menaldo is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Texas A & M International University. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University in 2010. His research and teaching interests focus on the history of political thought, leadership, and the intersection of political thought and international relations. Menaldo received his B.A. in philosophy and sociology from Colorado College. He is originally from Mexico City.
Paper 5:
"Racial Democracy, from FDR to Obama"
This paper contrasts Obama's conception of racial democracy with other charac-terizations of American identity that require positive rights from government. Obama has been compared to FDR; but by embracing "positive rights" as an essential part of American identity, Roosevelt ironically had a broader conception of that identity. Obama's candidacy and style-of-governance shows the limits of the symbolic representation that his Presidency represents.
Dean Robinson - Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts @ Amherst
Dean Robinson received his Ph.D. from Yale University. He teaches courses on U.S. Politics and Health Inequalities, Black Politics, American Political Thought, and Introduction to American Politics. He has published articles in Health Affairs and the Revue Francaise d'Etudes Americaine and authored Black Nationalism in American Politics and Thought (Cambridge Unviersity Press, 2001).