PHILADELPHIA – Eight years after President Barack Obama made history and won his party’s nomination at the Democratic convention in Denver, African-American voters at the convention in Philadelphia are reflecting on what that victory has meant for them and whether Hillary Clinton– a pioneer on the gender frontier –will be able to pick up where he left off.
African-American delegates who shared their experiences with TPM in Philly this week were grappling with the historic and political impact of Obama’s presidency. They recounted how in some ways Obama had fought arduously despite a mostly GOP-controlled Congress: passing his signature health care law, speaking up about criminal justice reform, pushing to reduce gun violence and engaging the country in tough conversations about race from the White House when the weight of it all seemed to be too much. But some also candidly expressed frustration that the president had at times seemed reluctant, or simply been unable, to take up their mantle because of the intense political scrutiny.
“I wanted more, but I understood the parameters in which he had to work,” said Maryland delegate Merrick Moses. “He is the president of the entire United States.”
Many of the delegates TPM interviewed saw Clinton as having the opportunity to continue Obama’s legacy, and in especially poignant exchanges some expressed the hope that Clinton’s own race might enable her to reach audiences Obama couldn’t in a country that seemed to be polarized.
“With Hillary, maybe it will seem like everybody is included,” said Martese Chism, a delegate from Illinois. “When Obama spoke on black issues they would say he was just a black president.”
When Obama took the stage Wednesday night and enjoyed a victory lap of sorts, to the kind of applause and cheers a second term President of any race doesn’t always receive, it represented the end of a historic road.
“President Obama has done a fine job given the circumstances. He has really tried to balance the act. Our country could be cruel at times,” said Dale Jackson, a union worker who came from Chicago to Philadelphia to see Obama, but was not a delegate. “There was always a tendency to say that he just felt a certain way because he was black.”
At the end of Obama’s tenure racial tensions seem to be rawer than ever. Videos of black men being shot by police circulate on the internet, and the targeted police deaths in Dallas and Baton Rouge by African American assailants adds a grim new dimension to the violence.
Throughout his presidency, Obama has sought to balance the weight of his historic presidency and his desire to speak out against discrimination with the political realities of not wanting to push too hard or too fast.
“He has definitely lived up to his promise. He said he was going to be
the president for all people and I definitely think he has lived up to
that,” said Antonio Hayes, a Maryland delegate from Baltimore and
state legislator who represents the same district where Freddie
Gray was killed. “There are always going to be those critics out in the
community who say he hasn’t done enough.”
Whenever Obama has spoken up – whether it was how his son would have resembled Trayvon Martin or how he, too, has experienced a person crossing the street to avoid encountering a black man– conservatives have criticized him and charged him for inciting racial tensions.
“That wasn’t Obama’s fault. It’s the Tea Party. It’s Donald Trump. It’s the blatant stuff. When you have a group of people in Congress who deliberately said before he actually started his first day that they would actually block any of the
bills he put forth and they had never done that to anybody else and they only do that for an African American man, that is racist,” said Diana Carpenter-Madoshi, a delegate from California.
On Tuesday night on the convention floor – the same night Clinton officially clinched the nomination–nine women on Democratic National Convention stage wore red flowers on their lapels to commemorate their children who had been killed by police or gun violence.
“So many of our children gone but not forgotten. I’m here with Hillary Clinton because she is a leader and a mother who will say our children’s names,” Geneva Reed-Veal said as she reflected on the death of her daughter Sandra Bland, who had died in police custody. “Hillary knows that when a young black life is cut short, it’s not just a personal loss. It is a national loss. It is a loss that diminishes all of us.”
The Mothers of the Movement have met with and campaigned for Clinton, but for African-American delegates in the audience Tuesday– the mothers represented outreach and a promise Clinton was making to listen to a community she may not be represent, but will try to understand. As many African-American delegates who supported Sanders had pointed out this week, Clinton supported a crime bill in the 1990s many feel targeted the African-American community. But Clinton, they noted, seemed to be making inroads two decades later.
“I believe that the mothers for the movement with hold her feet to the fire,” said Chism, who came to the convention supporting Bernie Sanders. “I believe she will address our issues.”
Carolyn Fowler, a delegate from California, said she believes Clinton has been preparing for the chance to reach out to a diverse coalition for decades.
“I think people don’t give her credit for a lot of things that she has exposed herself to deliberately so she’d have those experiences to bring forth,” Fowler said. “I feel confident that she will address it and I don’t think she is going to try to do it single handedly either. I think she is good at taking counsel.”
If you’re African American in the US, the Democrats are your only hope to reach equality. The Republicans want to make sure you don’t vote, make sure you stay poor, make sure you are feared, and keep you marginalized. They don’t care about black issues, because they don’t have more than token black people in positions of power in the party, and aren’t bringing young minorities into the party either. One look at their convention shows this, it was essentially only for white people.
Sure, the Democrats could do more, but they need to have control of the levers of government to do anything. All of us, white and minority, need to step up to make sure they have those levers, and then press them to do the right things as much as possible.
It’s in part because he hasn’t been too aggressive in his approach that I have confidence that President Obama’s changes will stick. I don’t want to diminish the courageous efforts of the activists of the 60’s and 70’s who fought for equal rights for all citizens – minorities, LGBT, feminists – but I grew up in the politically conservative 80’s when Reagan / Bush were able to roll back many of the gains those activists made. It’s tempting to wonder what kinds of lasting gains could have been made had history been different – Dr. King leading a civil rights movement into the 70’s and 80’s, President Carter winning a second term and possibly able to ratify the ERA, Harvey Milk leading a gay rights movement of the 80’s and 90’s… Yet the unfortunate reality is that we moved backwards during these years, then had to regain lost ground later on.
Had President Obama patterned his administration after President Johnson (i.e. make big progress legislatively, public perception be damned), we might have the same situation here – ten, fifteen, twenty years of backlash where conservatives roll back the progress made. As it is, I firmly believe President Obama has taken the right approach. Maybe the sheer amount of progress hasn’t been what many progressives would like, but what progress has been made will stick.
And now Sec. Clinton has an awesome task before her to lock in those gains and then make even further gains.
'“With Hillary, maybe it will seem like everybody is included," said Martese Chism, a delegate from Illinois. “When Obama spoke on black issues they would say he was just a black president.”
I hope but ‘they’ will say the same thing about Hillary when she works on women’s issues. That is absolutely ALL the other side has. They could do so much more if they stopped viewing themselves as victims.
Agree, President Obama was wise to reach consensus on reform efforts.
Ezra Klein has a great piece on how Hillary is an underrated politician because her best traits are more feminie in nature and not respected by our male dominated political system. She’s a gifted listener, a contemplator who evalutes gray areas, and she uses people skills to builds coalitions. Press and a lot of people don’t put value in that as they should. They want masculine traits like people who stand behind a podium and wag their finger and scream about how they’re going to go charge up the hill.
Obama is a gifted orator, more gifted than Hillary. However I always thought that was a supplemental asset behind his more feminie traits of being a listern and a coalition builder (thanks to his time community organizing in Southside Chicago). Building coalitions is how elections are won. Winning elections is a numbers game. A math problem, not a purity test.
LouisCK made a similar observation…
It’s very emotional. There is a fear of Hillary, you know? I think some of it has to do with Hillary being such a strong candidate and being a woman. The response to her is very male. The other side is very male-oriented. Trump is a man. Well, he’s a boy, and Bernie is an old man. Neither is a feminine person. Obama’s a very feminine person. I don’t mean effeminate.
You mean he’s not macho?
Everybody has both masculine and feminine sides, but Obama is feminine inside. There ain’t no femininity in Trump. There’s none in Bernie. These are both really emphatic guys saying, “We got to do this!” Hillary’s trying to say, “Guys, this is reality. These are complex issues.” And those two are going, “I don’t want to fucking hear it!” It’s weird to watch. It’s like if you had an election in your family. Imagine that when you were a kid there was an election to decide whether Mom or Dad would be in charge for the next four years. Or if some group of siblings got together and said, “We’re going to get this woman to replace Mom.” After the election, imagine how you would feel about each other. It’s terribly, terribly interesting.