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What "Race Card" for Obama?

By Jack M. Balkin

A Wall Street Journal columnist today suggests that ?Obama?s ?Identity? Beat Hillary?s ?Identity.?? His argument is that the Democratic party is dominated by identity politics, and Senator Clinton lost because the race card beat the sex card.

The columnist claims, furthermore, that Obama (influenced by legal theorists at Harvard) sees matters in terms of identity politics, regardless of his professed desire to move beyond it. The columnist writes:

After South Carolina, the campaigns accused each other of playing the race or gender card. Obama deflected this charge. "I don't want to deny the role of race and gender in our society," Obama said. "They're there, and they're powerful. But I don't think it's productive."

I'm not convinced. I think Barack Obama is more inclined to interpret American life in the formal categories of identity politics than is generally thought, or even than would older "conventional liberals" like Al Gore or John Kerry. Legal theorists have been a main source of its ideas; it's hard to imagine that Barack and Michelle Obama didn't hear a lot about "marginalized constituencies" at Harvard Law School. Sen. Obama may not be so conventional after all.

Speaking last July about picking Supreme Court nominees, he said: "We need someone who's got the heart . . . the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old ? and that's the criteria by which I'll be selecting my judges." This is the language of identity politics. It's not just talk. It's an ideology designed to produce . . . change.

This is pure crap (and not just because of the laughable claim about the purported influence of ?legal theorists,? never mind that Harvard has never been a hotbed of critical race theory). Unfortunately, we will likely see a lot more of this kind of talk in coming months.

My question for those who make this argument: What "race card" is Obama playing?

I am not just pointing out that he is not playing the race card (note that in his victory speech he did not once mention the historic significance of being the first black to win the Democratic presidential nomination).

My point is that I can?t figure out how the "race card" helps him. He?s (half) black, of course, but it's not clear how this is an advantage outside the African-American community (and keep in mind that many African American political leaders, and a significant proportion of black voters, steadfastly supported Hillary).

The suggestion that people (Democrats, Republicans, or independents like me) have voted or will vote for Obama because he is black?which is what the charge of playing the race card means in this context?is absurd. If Obama wins the general election, like he did the primary, it will be because lots of people want positive CHANGE. I, for one, can't wait...

Full post as published by Balkinization on June 05, 2008 (boomark / email).