Five little words — "I forgot he was black" — have exposed a
contradiction in the idea of a post-racial nation.
The comment came from MSNBC host Chris Matthews after President Barack
Obama's State of the Union speech Wednesday.
"He is post-racial, by all appearances," the liberal
host said on the air. "I forgot he was black tonight for an hour. You
know, he's gone a long way to become a leader of this country, and past
so much history, in just a year or two. I mean, it's something we don't
even think about."
The staunch Obama supporter meant it as praise, but it
caused a rapid furor, with many calling the quote a troubling sign that
blackness is viewed — perhaps unconsciously — as a handicap that still
needs to be overcome.
Apparently, Matthews forgot to ask black people if
they WANT to be de-raced.
"As a black American I want people to remember who I
am and where I come from without attaching assumptions about deficiency
to it," said Dr. Imani Perry, a professor at Princeton's Center for African American
Studies.
Although she thought Matthews was well-intentioned,
she found his statement troubling, because "it suggests that if he had
remembered Obama's blackness, that awareness would be a barrier to
seeing him as a competent or able leader."
"The ideal is to be able to see and acknowledge
everything that person is, including the history that he or she comes
from, as well as his or her competencies and qualities, and respect all
of those things," Perry said.
That's a very different vision of "transcending race"
— a consistent theme of Obama's political history — than one in which
race has disappeared altogether.
"It's important for us to remember that everyone has a
race," Blair L.M. Kelley, an associate professor of history at North Carolina State University.
"When you say we're going to transcend race, are white people called on
to transcend their whiteness?"
"When (black people) transcend it, what do we become?
Do we become white?" she asked. "Why would we have to stop being our
race in order to solve a problem?"
Matthews didn't get that far down the post-racial
road on Wednesday night. But his comments instantly exploded online,
especially on Twitter.
Ninety minutes later, he clarified his comments on the air.
"I'm very proud I did it and I hope I said it the
right way," Matthews said, noting that he grew up in the racially
fraught 1960s.
"I walked into the room tonight, you could feel (racial tension) wasn't
there tonight and that takes leadership on his part, to get us beyond
those divisions, really national leadership," Matthews said.
"I felt it wonderfully tonight, almost like an
epiphany. I think he's done something wonderful. I think he's taken us
beyond black and white in our politics."
Plenty of people supported Matthews on Thursday,
saying his sentiments, although poorly worded, reflected the view that
all Americans are now equal.
But for many blacks, it was hard to forget the word
"forgot."
Kevin
Jackson, a black conservative and author of "The BIG Black Lie,"
hews to the same philosophy as the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck — that people
should be judged on their merits, not their color.
Yet Jackson does not want his blackness to be forgotten.
"Absolutely not," he said. "Because we have an amazing history."
He pointed out that if Don
Imus had made the same comment as Matthews, "everybody on God's
green earth would be out to hang him by his you-know-what."
Sophia Nelson, a black attorney, former lobbyist and founder of PoliticalIntersection.com,
which focuses on politics, race and gender, said she has been offended
by people calling her articulate and intelligent: "That's saying that
people who look like me normally aren't those things."
She said Matthews' comment showed the same unconscious bias as those by
Vice President Joe Biden when he was still a senator that Obama was "clean" and
"articulate," and Sen.
Harry Reid's saying that Obama was more electable because he was
light-skinned and lacking a "Negro dialect."
"Matthews was saying exactly what he meant," Nelson said. "He forgot he
was black because he's so articulate and so compelling."
Another common interpretation of Matthews' comment was that if he forgot
Obama was black during his speech, it must be part of his thinking the
other 23 hours of the day.
Which is not necessarily a bad thing, said Kelley, the North Carolina
State professor.
"Obama is forcing people to see blackness," she said, "in a way they
haven't had to in the past."