Mixed Race Studies

America Is Not Post-Racial: Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Racism, and the 44th President

Praeger
September 2015
170 pages
6.125 x 9.25
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4408-4125-5
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4408-4126-2

Algernon Austin, Senior Research Fellow
Center for Global Policy Solutions, Washington, D.C.

This book is the first in-depth examination of the 25 million Americans with the most intense hatred of President Obama—arguably the most Republican-friendly of recent Democratic presidents—and what the mindsets of these “Obama Haters” teach us about race and ethnicity in America today.

Despite the fact that President Obama was raised by a white mother and white grandparents, and has two degrees from Ivy League universities, he has still been subject to intense racial hatred from a large number of Americans. Even after Obama’s presidency, the “Obama Haters”—and their xenophobia, Islamophobia, and racism—will continue to shape American politics.

America is certainly not post-racial, argues author Algernon Austin, PhD, a noted sociologist and author on racial issues who consults on race, politics, and economics in Washington, DC. In this book, he uses the Obama Haters as an appropriate jumping-off point to consider what strategies might begin to reduce racial animosity in the United States—a real concern, considering that demographic trends are likely to exacerbate and escalate race-based hatred in our society.

Austin sets the stage for the discussion by establishing that President Obama is hardly liberal in the eyes of liberal political activists, raising the question of why Obama is so intensely hated by some conservatives. He then compares the views of the Obama Haters—estimated to be some 25 million strong—with conservatives, moderates, and liberals who are not Obama Haters. The author shows how the Obama Haters are distinctly more xenophobic, Islamophobic, and racist than political conservatives who are not Obama Haters, underscoring the fact that the Obama Haters are motivated by more than just conservatism.

Features

• Offers a critique of Obama from the left on his health insurance reform, judicial and political appointments, civil liberties policies, educational reforms, and strategy for dealing with African American concerns
• Presents hard data showing that Obama Haters are so extreme in their conservatism and in their anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and anti-black attitudes that in comparison, Tea Party supporters appear to be moderate
• Boldly identifies strategies for dealing with white racial anxiety about a diversifying America
• Provides empirically derived estimates of the percentage of the American public with strong anti-black, anti-Latino, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim attitudes