Spence notes that "The story is really about the nature of democratic discourse within black communities now that Obama has a legitimate shot." I say nothing changes at the local level. For Obama to go from community organizer to Senator is exactly the cherry picking path of black cultural capital, but there's a difference between cultural capital and political patronage. I say blacks are often still in a political stone age because so little of black grass roots activism matures through the normal paths of power in America. Maybe that's why blacks don't understand Sarah Palin - there's nobody black like her except for Doug Wilder, and he had to be Sidney Poitier.
I've argued that Obama's candidacy, win or lose, takes the national spotlight away from the group formerly known as the Civil Rights Establishment - because Obama has worked his campaign magic without any apparent need for their consent or approval. Aside from that, he simply outclasses them in terms of American political savoir faire. You don't get to be editor of the Harvard Law Review, not having written a single article in it, without having some extraordinary political skills.
As much as I think Obama has collected the last bushel of cherries to be picked for 'first blacks' there are still several trees left on the Right side of the political spectrum and perhaps for Blue Dogs as well. It leaves open the question of what the average hard working activists, pundits and other politicos are to do whether or not Obama wins the White House.
An underlying assumption that I have here is that the past two decades of CBC legislation has been all about nothing and the reason that there is no national black political agenda. That is to say no agenda other than spreading racial fear and distrust of the GOP - in the face of the destruction of Trent Lott, Ron Paul and George Allen over racial remarks. The reality is that Jena has little to do with anything other than Jena, and the journalistic coattails of any major media editor who decides that 'the blacks' need a little more coverage. The incredible success of Obama demonstrates how little has been articulated as a black political agenda.
Tavis Smiley deserves credit here in highlighting by Obama's dismissal of his Covenant with Black America how unconnected are the real political games at the national and local levels. But this also brings to light a deeper issue that as far as I know only Lani Guinier has the temerity to address - as little as she counts nowadays. That is that the creation of majority minority districts as a consequence of Civil Rights agitation has created the net national circumference of black political action. If Maxine Waters isn't whispering in the ear of the Clintons, then nothing is happening for South Central, and this monopoly of black political power established a generation ago has yet to be updated and reformed. Except by the GOP which has dynamically attacked those districts for partisan gain. In other words, black national political representation is deadlocked and moribund in the Democratic party because the same incumbents and their designees have had a deathgrip on minority voting districts since their inception. Hell, I was DJing for Maxine Waters receptions when I was 19. I'm 47 years old.
I think the overwhelming majority of black Americans who pay attention to him would say that Tavis Smiley is certainly qualified to be governor of a state. So what state is it going to be?
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