I have mad respect for Prometheus 6, who Liza Sabater accurately described as "the godfather of the black blogosphere," and who threw me one of my first links back when I was a rookie blogger. P6 didn't like my recent piece on Obama's fatherhood agenda because:
The American Prospect is the DLC organ that has always felt the best way to handle the Southern Strategy is to pretend there are no Black people. An article in that magazine that cites John McWhorter and Charles Murray (Charles F*cking Murray!) of The Bell Curve fame (The F*cking Bell Curve!) makes me want to have a problem with it.
I understand, but do not share, P6's visceral dislike of McWhorter, who in the past has veered into what I see as extremely paternalistic language when discussing black issues. Likewise, I find the conclusions of The Bell Curve to be racist, but I felt it was important to get the perspective of a prominent conservative who has written about marriage and poverty. He simply wasn't that reductive in his interview with me. But the purpose of quoting two right leaning individuals was to gauge Obama's success in putting a liberal policy agenda into a conservative frame. I can honestly say I don't know whether it works or not, but ultimately it might: most people are closer to McWhorter on these issues than Murray.
Ultimately, the goal of the piece was to get beyond the culture war aspects of Obama's rhetoric on fatherhood, and to deal with its policy implications, which have been all but ignored, mostly because of the collective news judgment of our predominantly white press. But this may be more a feature than a bug; by telling white folks what they want to hear, Obama may have given himself a freer hand to deal with problems in the black community. At the same time, it's frustrating that every election year, black folks become a foil for Democrats trying to reassure white voters.
On another note, it was not my intention to suggest that marriage is a "cure-all" for black folks in poverty. It isn't. Persistent discrimination, an economy that serves the wealthy but not workers, a terribly destructive approach to criminal justice, lack of health care coverage, and a lingering indifference to inequities in public education mean that it is still difficult for black people to have the same advantages and opportunities white people have. But if there's anything I can be accused of since joining TAP, pretending black people don't exist is not one of them.
--A. Serwer
