A Black Man in the White House: Barack Obama and the Triggering of America's Racial-Aversion Crisis

by Cornell Belcher, Howard Dean (Foreword by)

Overview

In this book Cornell Belcher, award-winning pollster who twice served on President Barack Obama's presidential election team, presents stunning new research that illuminates just how deep and jagged these racial fault lines continue to be. He has surveyed battleground voters from 2008 through the 2016 primary season tracking racial aversion and its impact over the course of the Obama presidency. Given the heightened racial aversion as a consequence of the first non-white male living in the White House, the rise of Trump was a predictable backlash. The election of the nation's first Black president does not mean that we live in a post-racial society; it means that we are now at a critical historical tipping point demographically and culturally in America--and this tipping point is indeed the wolf at the door for many anxious white Americans who are now politically behaving accordingly given this perceived threat.

The panicked response of the waning white majority to what they perceive as the catastrophe of a Black president can be heard in every cry to "take back our country." This panic has resulted in the elevation of an overt and unapologetic racist as the nominee of one of America's major political parties.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621343608
Publisher:	Water Street Press
Publication date:	11/01/2016
Pages:	218
Sales rank:	531,086
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Cornell Belcher is an award-winning pollster and one of the premier strategists in national progressive politics. His polling was the blueprint for the heralded 50-State Strategy as Pollster for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) under Chairman Howard Dean-Belcher was the first minority to be lead pollster for either national party. He also served on the polling team for both Obama presidential campaigns, and has worked with both Senate and House Democrats as Senior Political Advisor to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), Special Projects Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and Women VOTE! Coordinator for EMILY's List. In 2015 he was an Institute of Politics (IOP) Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School. He is a highly sought after political commentator, and is currently President of brilliant corners Research & Strategies, www.brilliant-corners.com.

Table of Contents

Foreword g

Authors Note k

Introduction: A Catastrophic Moment 1

A Brief' History of Power Tools 5

January 20, 2009 8

Color in Context 13

The (Dis)Loyal Opposition 13

The (Original) Tea Party 16

A Tea Partier by Any Other Name 23

The (Recent) History of Whites' Racial Attitudes 27

Color by Numbers 34

The Southern Strategy 43

The Roots of the Southern Strategy 48

The Southern Strategy Solidifies 52

The Death of the Southern Strategy 60

The Othering of Barack Obama 63

What is "Race"? 63

Tribes 69

A Long History, Not Over Yet 87

What is Racism? 87

Redlining, and All That Follows 91

When Racism Becomes Treason 117

Conclusion 175

Acknowledgments 185

About the Author 187

Notes 189