Why Obama is Black: Language, Law and Structures of Power

14 Pages Posted: 18 Jul 2012 Last revised: 28 Feb 2014

See all articles by SpearIt

SpearIt

University of Pittsburgh - School of Law

Date Written: July 24, 2012

Abstract

This essay offers a theoretical backdrop for mapping the law’s influence on common language, and more importantly, how concepts rooted in racism maintain in the American lexicon through the force of law. It examines the legal and social constructions of whiteness to argue that racial language and ideals of white superiority work in tandem to produce structural racism. Centuries of racial sedimentation have made some aspects of racism invisible to the eye, yet analysis of the post-racial concept as it relates to the president shows that debates on race and color are fundamentally flawed. Today’s racism is not simply the aggregate of individual interactions, but also political and institutional discrimination, and in particular, language authorized by law. This essay exposes the post-racial concept as a type of wishful thinking, and more critically, explains how the law prevents this wish from being fulfilled; indeed Obama has been offered up as the first “black” president despite the relentless “one drop” logic that supports the evidence.

Keywords: Post-racial, Obama, Structural Racism, Language, Law

Suggested Citation

SpearIt, Why Obama is Black: Language, Law and Structures of Power (July 24, 2012). 1 Colum. J. Race & L. 468 (2012), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2112111

SpearIt (Contact Author)

University of Pittsburgh - School of Law ( email )

3900 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
178
Abstract Views
1,802
Rank
303,586
PlumX Metrics