Jan 21 2009
Obama: the first black (and green?) president
Well, if you were like me, despite rushing out of the seminar early to get to a television that would be broadcasting Obama’s inauguration, I nonetheless missed a large chunk of the speech. Although there is no way to connect to the elecricity of that particular historical moment again, we can easily and readily watch the speech again below (so thank goodness for such “gadgets” like youtube, to think back on what we said about technology in Aldo Leopold’s essay). It’s a rather short speech, and I found it’s emphases surprising and a bit different than I was expecting. Instead of a feel-good, kind of self-acknowledgement about the historicity of a black American becoming president and this bearing out the pragmatic idealism of the American multicultural dream–proving it in essence works–the speech had darker, even plangent tones here and there. The New York Times writes how:
what Mr. Obama did say in his speech must have come as a bit of a shock to Mr. Bush. No stranger to criticism, over the past eight years he had rarely been forced to sit in silence listening to a speech about how America had gone off the rails on his watch.
Mr. Obama’s recitation of how much had gone wrong was particularly striking to anyone who had followed Mr. Bush around the country, especially during the re-election campaign of 2004, when he said it was his job “to confront problems, not to pass them on to future presidents and future generations.”
Yet Mr. Obama blamed America’s economic peril on an era “of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some,” and talked of how “the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.” It was an explicit critique of an administration that went to war in the Middle East but rejected the shared sacrifice of conservation, and reluctantly embraced the scientific evidence around global warming.
So, in fact, there was a slight nod towards the environment in Obama’s speech, perhaps a first in the history of inaugural addresses. It is interesting to note that if Obama had said “globe” instead of “planet,” this sentence would lose its environmental edge: for whatever reason, in English, “planet” has acquired a certain environmental valence in a way that globe has not (except, of course, when you specifically say “global warming”). It remains to be seen if this lofty and often vague rhetoric is met by practical policy changes in the new administration. But, to have these words present at the start is very promising.
Devin Zuber
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Well, I was sitting in front of my computer – mobile switched off and begging that the bbc-page would not break down – for an hour or so, watching his inauguration being quite amazed about a few things. This post will not have a lot to do with environmentalism, ecocriticism etc. and I apologize for this, but still, I’m curious for other reactions to yesterday’s event and hope that it’s alright to use this blog as a platform for talking about this.
First, I was amazed since I didn’t know that even the ceremony itself would be so laden with Christian proceedings – and frankly spoken, I didn’t expect this since I thought that one of the “achievements” of the independence from Britain was that the government is not anymore connected to the church – or is that wrong? Second, although very kitschy, I too was spellbound by this historical moment when the 44th President of the United States fluffed while taking the oath but then became the first minority president ever. Not only that – finally – his predecessor had to shut up and leave the White House (sorry, but that’s about as non-negative as I can force myself to be here), but that it is a half-Kenian with an Arabic middle name who has moved in in his stead was stunning indeed. Seems about as unlikely as it seemed just a good decade ago to have a female chancellor from the former GDR over here.
Devin, you said you’d expected him to rather emphasize the “pragmatic idealism of the American multicultural dream–proving it in essence works” – to be honest, I would have been surprised if he had done that. That would have cost a lot of his credibility, wouldn’t it? He not only won the election because he’s mixed-raced (by the way, I find it interesting how he’s called “black” everywhere – why do you think that would be?) but especially because he has NOT mentioned this during his campaign. The importance is, that this should not be important and this is what he has tried to maintain, and what the people and the media still have to learn to do. If he’d emphasized his “blackness”, he’d given it an importance that it should not have and by doing so, he would have made it much less important than it is now. There were more than enough statements about this as it is, beginning with the media, the performing artists (the violinist was white, I remember, but all others were non-white if I remember correctly), and, finally, the reverend Lowery at the end, who used old Big Bill Broonzy’s lyrics as basis for his prayer: “We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around. When yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right.”
However, yesterday was, somehow, a moment when Obama did not only stand there for the Americans (or even the American minorities) but for all, representing, embodying “change” and “hope”, not only for minorities, but all, down to the last (and quite America-sceptic) gal sitting in front of her laptop in Osnabrück, staring at the screen — anxiously. Anxious for several reasons. Of course, Obama cannot live up to the expectations the people put on him; they’ve been picturing him as a black savior but he’s neither black nor is he Jesus. But I was anxious when seeing that the people were silent while he reluctantly acknowledged the US’s responsibility for the planet (by the way, Devin, I never thought about this before but I’d guess that “globe” is a rather technical word whereas “planet” has a more real note to it). It was scary to see how, completely opposed to that reaction, the people could hardly control themselves, how they cheered till they got hoarse when Obama (again) reached for the stars – just as he did in Berlin in the summer – and made it clear that America, and America alone, is the remaining superpower, that it is America that’s going to lead the whole world into a better future, that it is America that is going to destroy whoever opposes its ideals. It was not only a declaration of power, of position (and clearly the pole position), but also a threat, a declaration of war, turned positive by propagandistic words, by emphasizing the benevolence of the Americans, who only have “relative plenty”, but would still take the pains of leading the rest of the world. And, finally, I was afraid, silly as this might sound, that Joe Biden might one day have to take Obama’s position, because connected to Obama’s position, to the expectations towards him, to the hope and the will to at least begin anew at one or other minor point, is of course an increasing menace. He has already become a symbol for so much that an assassination would be a major blow not only for the USA but for the whole world. He’d been protected by an unusual amount of security during the campaign already, but still, the underlying fear remains that something might happen to him. He’d become a martyr, yes, but the danger remains that fear would overtake again, that on a small level, I’d again have to fear being proud of my ancestry, and on the large scale, peoples would turn back to the old ways of dealing with their fear: segregation and hatred.
Anyway, one shouldn’t meet trouble on the halfway, as they say in Britain (and maybe in the US as well?). At the moment, I am still rather optimistic, especially because of my own, positive reaction. I have to admit that, although I am laden with prejudices towards the USA that cannot exactly be called positive, the fact that a half-African has taken over the highest position in that country seemed impossible after seeing the aftermaths of Katrina less than four years ago – and yes, it has touched me personally, I have indeed cheered, too, for someone who shares an experience so peerless like being a minority in your home country and who has now become the leader of his. Let’s see what will happen now…
Well spoken Nadja I agree to your explanations. During the election campaign I was pleased that Mrs Clinton might be the first female President of the United States. (In fact I always said: There is always a Clinton between two Bushes
) and I liked Billy Boy verry much but during this campaign I changed my mind away from Clinton to Obama. He reminded me to speaches of Melcom X and Marthin Luther King and especcially to the speach: ” I had a dream”, in some way we all have this dream of equal rights, of fair play and that you are able to become what ever you would like to be. In fact that is the reason for me to become a teacher. I am pleased that there is still a vision of a better world and I must say that this feeling moved far away from me during the last eight years while George W Bush Junior was President of the United States. If Obama turns more into domestic policy and I guess he will it might be possible that the changes he was and is talking about are convertible. Connected to the german history I agree to your fears about the speech of Obama in Berlin that the position of power is still in US hands.
I hope that my knowlege of human nature is right and Obama is the man I belief he is, I hope and pray that he is not a war lord.
Perhaps I am a naive dreamer but if 200 years of racism and apardheid didn’t left Obama cold hearted he will think about his responsibility. Just imagine what this world could be like if these dreams of Malcom X and King might be come true. If equality comes true in the USA Obama hast to put an eye more on the domestic policy and if he does that there is no time for war. The economic situation scares me to death compared to the situation before the Nazis established in germany in 1933. If Obama is able to change the economic crisis in the USA it might be one step away from world crisis. So far I keep praying that he can!!