02/06/07
In The Racial Politics of Speaking Well,
we learn how important context is. The author, Lynette Clemetson, chooses her context very ably, and puts one over on the reader.
Why would Barack Obama's ability to speak well, and maintain poise, seem so amazing? Why would any black object to such a characterization, by Senator Biden or anyone else? Well, here's the nut of Clemetson's argument:
Being articulate must surely be a baseline requirement for a former president of The Harvard Law Review. After all, Webster’s definitions of the word include “able to speak” and “expressing oneself easily and clearly.” It would be more incredible, more of a phenomenon, to borrow two more of the senator’s puzzling words, if Mr. Obama were inarticulate.
That is the core of the issue. When whites use the word in reference to blacks, it often carries a subtext of amazement, even bewilderment. It is similar to praising a female executive or politician by calling her “tough” or “a rational decision-maker.”
“When people say it, what they are really saying is that someone is articulate ... for a black person,” Ms. Perez said.
Well, maybe. There sure are a lot of black entertainers who speak profanely and act like clowns, sort of one-upping the minstrel show in modern, Live at the Apollo form. So there's good reason to notice a difference in style. With vulgar rappers and stand-ups prancing around in public, one does want to make note of the more acceptable alternatives. Who to blame for this? (Maybe we should ask Chris Rock.)
But the context that amazes many of us who observe politics is this: politics. (Shocking, eh?) Barack Obama is articulate, well-spoken, poised. Yes. Oh, dear, yes. Amazing to behold in a . . . politician.
We've suffered through several years of a bumbling boob in the White House, a man who can barely put two words together without making a fool of himself. A man, no less, who gets cranky easily, and comes off defensive at the merest provocation. His unease in public is embarrassing, a national disgrace.
Next to Obama, he appears as a hillbilly nincompoop ignoramus ultramaroon. (Come to think of it, even without that context he may appear as a hillbilly nincompoop ignoramus ultramaroon.)
Previously we endured a more articulate man, an obviously smarter man, as president, Bill Clinton. But this man's poise was so phoney that you could see the con coming a mile away. That is, you could see it if you hadn't sold your soul to the Democratic Party.
Before that we suffered from four years of the bumbling, foot-in-mouth stylings of our current president's inept father. This man was horrible as a communicator, and left a bad taste in one's mouth. One had to spit out invective after every speech. Egads, what a mentally disabled verbal catastrophe in a suit. He should never have been elected president.
Now, Reagan was called The Great Communicator,
but his grasp on the facts — and even on the theory behind his own ideology — was weak. Very weak. And so his articulations were often silly. And his stance, his poise
? Problematic at best. He convinced few people by reason, and those, mainly, who wanted to believe ahead of time. He spent eight years preaching to the choir. He ran in cowardice when challenged on issues that required real communication skills, like his positions on property rights.
Before that we had James Earl Carter, an almost pathological case, a man who didn't learn how to speak until long after being booted from office. Apparently, he couldn't set his mouth in order until he set others' houses in order, literally. He didn't stutter so much as stammer, pause long enough for half his audience to writhe in their seats a few times. He's the one who began our current streak of unacceptably bad political rhetoricians.
Now, when you look at the current Democratic candidate list, you see at least one other articulate person, the boy ex-senator from the Carolinas. How many others, really? Let's face it, Hillary may not be the bozo at speaking that our current Chief Executive is, but she's no Bill Clinton. Her voice is unpleasant and she does not have that mystical thing, poise.
Listen, Lynette Clemetson. You've done your de rigeur public service, channeling the old anti-racist scolds of the past. But this is the context that matters: Barack Obama is exceptionally articulate and poised for a politician. Not to see this, not to understand the yearning in some Americans' souls for a leader who speaks well and doesn't seem like a used car salesman at the same time, is to miss the most important part of the story.
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