Obama’s universalist framing sidestepped race-specific policy for black Americans

Evidence

The most disturbing example of this inability to talk substantively about race is how President Obama handles the subject. He replies to claims that he ought to develop a specific policy agenda to help African Americans with a quick dismissal: “I’m not the president of black America. I am the president of the United States of America.” His responses to African Americans reflect an overall attempt to avoid race matters or, minimally, to avoid being perceived as doling out favoritism to black people (although the deaths of African Americans at the hands of the police and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, in some ways, forced or freed him to talk more explicitly about race matters). — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 179

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to rhetorical analyses of Obama’s post-racial universalism and the constraint imposed on the first black president. — connects to: Obama consistently avoided a specific policy agenda for black Americans — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 179; Obama’s exceptionalism narrative framed personal ascent as proof of American racial opportunity — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 1192; Narrowed political options made Obama appear the only black choice — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 409 (+4 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Obama consistently avoided a specific policy agenda for black Americans — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 179; Obama’s exceptionalism narrative framed personal ascent as proof of American racial opportunity — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 1192; Narrowed political options made Obama appear the only black choice — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 409 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Obama consistently avoided a specific policy agenda for black Americans #expands (0.95) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 179