{"id":39037,"date":"2014-12-21T22:14:56","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T22:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=39037"},"modified":"2017-02-19T21:47:27","modified_gmt":"2017-02-19T21:47:27","slug":"obamas-message-of-hope-and-change-is-all-but-lost-amid-the-chaos-of-ferguson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=39037","title":{"rendered":"Obama\u2019s message of hope and change is all but lost amid the chaos of Ferguson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obama\u2019s message of hope and change is all but lost amid the chaos of Ferguson<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/a>
\n2014-08-22<\/p>\n

Patricia Williams<\/strong><\/a>, James L. Dohr Professor of Law
\nColumbia University, New York, New York<\/em><\/p>\n

The president is being pressed to take sides in a personal, political and structural tragedy in a divided nation<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2008, the year that Barack Obama<\/a> became president of the United States, the New York-based artist Carrie Mae Weems<\/a> created a video installation<\/a> in which Obama\u2019s face melts from one thing to another: model citizen, communist infiltrator, immigrant, foreigner, friend, black Jesus, brown Hitler, American dream, chicken, monkey, zebra, joker, minstrel. As Weems\u2019s voiceover describes it: \u201cA reason to hope, a reason to change, a reason to reason \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, Obama has always been somewhat shape-shifting in his symbolism \u2013 it\u2019s probably what got him elected to begin with. The \u201chope and change\u201d that became his trademark was more than mere slogan; the very idea of a first black president became a mirror for whatever people wanted to see in him.<\/p>\n

Now we come to a situation all too familiar in America with the death of Michael Brown at the hands of a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri<\/a>. Obama is being pressed to take one of two sides in a layered personal, political, and structural tragedy for which carelessly drawn lines in the sand could not be more unhelpful. The last two weeks of anguish in Ferguson<\/a> cap a difficult season for Obama. Already besieged by the situations in Ukraine, Iraq, Gaza, Libya, Afghanistan and Pakistan, he has had to manoeuvre his way through attacks at home from every side. From Congressional Republicans threatening to sue him for trying to implement healthcare reform to the snarkily undermining comments of Hillary Clinton \u2013 this summer has been a season of confrontation. Is Obama too aggressive in his exercise of executive power? Or too chicken to invade? Is he passive on immigration? Too intemperate with Congress? Rarely has a president been so buffeted by such a variety of inconsistently projected personality traits…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obama\u2019s message of hope and change is all but lost amid the chaos of Ferguson The Guardian 2014-08-22 Patricia Williams, James L. Dohr Professor of Law Columbia University, New York, New York The president is being pressed to take sides in a personal, political and structural tragedy in a divided nation In 2008, the year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,63,1467,8,26,20],"tags":[17765,17766,773,3058,3411,2103],"class_list":["post-39037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-law","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-usa","tag-ferguson","tag-michael-brown","tag-missouri","tag-patricia-j-williams","tag-patricia-williams","tag-the-guardian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51647,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39037\/revisions\/51647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}