Barack Obama has run his presidential races with an extra weight on his shoulders: being black. Sure, there are some pundits who claim that he benefits from his race – black loyalty, white guilt, and such – but serious scholars understand that his race has been, in net, a notable disadvantage. …
Some researchers have argued that the election of Barrack Obama has paradoxically rekindled the racial animus previously suppressed in American politics. For example, in one study, telling subjects about Obama’s support of health care reforms stimulated the racially prejudiced among them to oppose those reforms; not as many responded that way when experimenters described the reforms as Bill Clinton’s ideas. [cont.]
Claude S. Fischer, UC Berkeley