White fear forces black politics into deference and universality, not solution

Evidence

White fear requires that we make white people feel comfortable about race. Black people have to be the “Uncle Remus” of American national politics: nonthreatening, loyal, and generally happy. If we are angry, we have to express that anger in a way that white people find politically acceptable. We have to march, vote for some Democratic candidate, or watch a gaggle of civil rights leaders hold a press conference and invoke the legacy of Dr. King—the King of 1963, mind you. It also entails translating the specific concerns of black communities into something more universal. The issue can’t be all about black people. We have “to lift all boats.” All of this happens because of one unmistakable fact: if we talk directly about black suffering in this country we risk alienating large segments of white America, jump-starting their fears. Without a hint of irony, this approach to race matters acknowledges the long-standing and dangerous racial habits lurking beneath our politics. And Barack Obama’s election did little, if anything, to uproot them. In fact, he conceded to their terms. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 253

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows what Glaude means by the ‘fear of white fear’ as a mechanism of racial habit and sets up his later argument for why black electoral loyalty is a trap.
• XREF: The ‘Uncle Remus of national politics’ framing anticipates discussions of performative black loyalty in the 2020s; connects to the reader’s broader knowledge of racial liberalism.