Nia-Malika Henderson has an interesting piece in Politico today exploring how Obama's racial signifying solidified his support among black folks even as he wooed white voters by making a "post-racial" appeal. What one gets from this is that Obama's appeal wasn't really "post-racial" as much as it was unapologetically black without seeming forced. Jelani Cobb describes Obama as "fluent" in black culture, and Obama is -- the result of a mixed kid trying to find his place. What makes it interesting is that it's both conscious and sincere at the same time.
Henderson doesn't say this, but it's worth pointing out that Obama performed race far more explicitly as a presidential candidate than he did during his run for the Senate. The religiously inspired cadence he used to locate himself in a cultural continuum with black leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. was not present in his 2004 convention speech, and the differences between his speaking voice then and now are audible.
Obama's cultural fluency with blackness isn't trivial--more than just helping him brush aside concerns that he wasn't "black enough," his swagger and speech convinced black folks that he loved them, that he was one of them, despite his lofty ambitions. This was more than a cosmetic change, it was an implicit statement that Obama cared, that he wasn't going to shed his obligations to black people merely because he was in the spotlight on the national stage, that he was going to be everyone's president. For black folks, it inspired trust. For white folks, it provides an image of "authentic" blackness that remains compatible with the highest forms of excellence.
Henderson makes an implicit comparison with Steele's distinctly affected performance of blackness, which is humiliating because it is so incredibly insincere. The reason I find Steele's behavior irritating is that his invocation of archaic black cultural tropes is plainly not for black folks -- it's for white people. It's to remind them that he's black. His appearance on the DL Hughley show cemented this impression for me -- there was no awkward signifiying, no "off the hook" or "bling bling," as there was in his interview with Curtis Sliwa. There was just Steele being himself and arguing his position. Steele didn't front because he didn't have to -- talking to Chuck D. and DL Hughley, there was no one there to perform for.
-- A. Serwer
