The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and Rise and Decline of Black Politics

In the latest from the series Trangressing Boundaries: Studies in Black Politics and Black Communities, Columbia University political scientist Harris (Something Within and Countervailing Forces in African-American Civic Activism) argues that unintended consequences of the “race-neutral” strategies used in Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and his presidency “have actually marginalized rather than elevated race-specific issues on the national political agenda.” Harris is a vivid storyteller, bringing to life the men and women responsible for the rise of black politics in the 20th century. He doesn’t shy away from juicy foibles of character, although his focus is on ideological conflict, with debate between several issues: politics of accommodation and politics of confrontation; Chicago’s machine politicians and those who fought against it; independent and coalition politics; and the prosperity gospel and black libertarian theology in Church teachings. W.E.B. Du Bois’s famous call for the Talented Tenth to “guide the Mass away from the contamination and the death of the Worst” has taken root over time, Harris argues, to create “a public philosophy directed at policing the black poor.” The struggle against the “persistence of racial inequality... will be dominated by triumphant narratives extolling Barack Obama,” Harris fears, believing that “the price has not yet proven its worth in sacrifice.” This is an enlightening, readable, important, and deeply worrying book. (June)