Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy inspired millions the year before his victory in November. On the 4th, when it became clear that the nation’s first African American president had been elected, many groups had cause for celebration. For veterans of the civil rights movement, it seemed like the final barrier had been cleared. For children from diverse backgrounds, Obama provided hope for their future. The group with most cause for celebration on election night, however, comes not from an underprivileged background nor a place of exclusion but rather from one of the most visible positions in society–the public intellectuals. For them, Obama’s victory and subsequent presidency begs interpretation, requires analysis, and demands synthesis. In a country where slavery existed merely generations ago and our parents can recall a time when African Americans could not eat in the same restaurants as white Americans, go to the same schools, or drink from the same water fountains, President Obama’s ascendancy is the event of a career.

Enter Tim Wise. A prolific author, anti-racist writer, and activist interprets Obama’s election in his latest book, Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama. Published by City Lights Publishers in February of 2009, Wise’s book weaves history, contemporary sociology and political developments in the campaign to explain what Obama means for America.

A provocative writer, Wise interprets Obama’s victory through a pessimistic lens, arguing that his win signals neither the end of racism nor the opening of new opportunities for the nation’s historically marginalized groups. Instead, racism made its appearance in the election in a new form, what Wise dubs “Racism 2.0,” in contrast to Racism 1.0, an easily recognizable expression of bigotry.

Racism 1.0, Wise explains, is the “traditional old-fashioned kind, rooted in conscious bigotry and hate…which historically has caused many whites to act toward black folks with suspicion, violence, distrust, fear and anxiety” (24).

In the context of the recent campaign, Racism 2.0 needs further attention. Newer, slicker, Racism 2.0 is characterized by “enlightened exceptionalism,” in which “whites hold the larger black community in low regard and adhere, for instance, to any number of racist stereotypes about African Americans–and yet carve out acceptable space for individuals such as Obama who strike them as different, as exceptions who are not like the rest” (23). Far from being less destructive, Racism 2.0 erects new barriers to achievement for African Americans by removing national consciousness away from very real and enduring structural constraints and toward white self-congratulation, Wise argues.

From income and jobs, housing, education, criminal justice, and healthcare, Wise masterfully demonstrates the continuing disparities between black and white America. He notes the absence of these issues in the Obama-Biden campaign or the attempt to read structural inequalities through a race-free lens called CLASS. At every step, Wise absolves the Obama campaign of responsibility for their less than candid approach to racial issues, saying that campaign strategists confronted the reality of white racism by side-stepping the issue.

Wise’s book is a good antidote to the Zoloft of the Obama campaign, “From one [Obama supporter] we hear that Obama is his pick because he makes white people ‘feel good’ about ourselves. Though the reason for which this Obama supporter values his candidate as the political equivalent of Zoloft…is unclear, venturing an educated guess isn’t an especially duanting task” (85). However, his call to white responsibility should be accompanied by a call to politicians of every color, including Obama, to candidly address issues of race. The “Campaign for Change” decided that white America wasn’t ready for the truth; instead of addressing race issues with respect for the intelligence and moral courage of Americans of every background, the campaign reinforced Racism 2.0. For this, the Obama campaign team needs to be held accountable.

Wise’s book provides welcome relief to the obnoxious self-congratulation that followed Obama’s election to the presidency. His call for white responsibility in demolishing the continuing walls of oppression are similarly worthy of praise. However, his analysis of contemporary racism is neither insightful nor suprising. One wonders how quickly his book will recede into the background before another urging QUICK, DECISIVE ACTION against racism is published. A catchy (if not tacky) title distinguish the book from other informative works on racism. Its brevity (149 pages) allows for a quick review on racism and a solid introduction for people new to the literature.

To purchase Tim Wise’s book, click here

I never thought I would buy a book titled He’s Just Not That Into You. Who needs a book to insult you and make you question your judgment about relationships? Everyone. Since I flipped through it at a used bookstore and decided it was worth the $4.00, I have passed my copy of He’s Just Not That Into You to fifteen of my closest friends. That doesn’t even include the guys who endured lectures on their poor behavior with the book in our hands as a reference!

Maybe my real friends are just too nice, but I find we always end up at the same coffee shop saying the same things when relationship red flags are popping up all around. No one wants to be the one to scream what everyone is thinking: “YOUR BOYFRIEND IS AN ASSHOLE.” Author Greg Behrendt is like that one friend you know will freely share his unpopular opinion. You know, the friend you avoid all contact with when you know you screwed up? The one you hate to admit is right? The good news is since he is safely contained within the pages of the book, getting defensive and rude in response to his brilliant guidance doesn’t result in a real life argument. Trust me: you’ll need to save your energy for leaving your deadbeat boyfriend.

How can I be so sure that this book applies to your situation, that you actually need a strong-handed push from your romantic situation? I believe readers of HJNTIY self-select. If things are going well with my flavor of the month, the book stays on the shelf next to my rarely used history textbook. At the point where I have enough doubt in the arrangement to seek outside council I can’t talk back to, I know it’s time to take Greg seriously.

One key tenet of the HJNTIY philosophy is that you already have the answers. Most people in failing relationships are holding onto whatever scraps they can find, thus interpreting clearly bad behavior as mixed messages. If he’s not texting you back, he might be working out, driving, feeling ill…or at the bar with your sorority sister. You shouldn’t have to sift through unreadable signals. In fact, the signals are usually clear; we just complicate them to make a case for “love.” But when someone loves you, as a friend or otherwise, it is clear. And it is good. Don’t let mythicized visions of a fairy-tale ending hold you captive to any situation that has a glimmer of potential but is making you currently miserable. When you stop wasting your time on people who make you question yourself, you realize just how much authentic love is in your life. Or at the very least, that TV or DVD is better than facebook stalking for clues.

Some quick highlights:

1. Don’t let your desire to be loved and feel affection cloud your judgment.
2. Busy is not an excuse. People are never too busy to get what they want.
3. Better than nothing is not good enough for you.
4. Let his mother yell at him. You’re too busy.
5. Your lost self-esteem may take longer to find than a new boyfriend. Prioritize accordingly.
6. Honor yourself.

A Review of The Torturer’s Wife, by Thomas Glave

City Lights Publishers, Dec. 2008

www.citylights.com/

When I was a Freshman in high school, my world history class watched Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece Schindler’s List. This was considered a pretty big deal for a class full of 14 and 15-year-olds; we had to have permission slips signed by our parents and our teacher warned us about the film ahead of time. Still, a couple girls started crying and a few people had to excuse themselves from the classroom. When I got home that day, my mother asked me what I thought of the movie. My only response was: “I’m glad I saw it.”

Today, I feel much the same way about Thomas Glave’s collection of short stories, The Torturer’s Wife. I didn’t always enjoy reading these stories, but I left feeling their importance. Glave’s tales of desire, love, and fear during times of trauma simply should not be ignored.  The first story, “Between,” is a tale of an interracial gay couple, and the pressures and fear upon each member of the relationship. Cleverly enough, Glave never reveals the race of either man, who each refer to their opposite as “one of them” in their innermost thoughts.

The transition from the first story to those that follow – filled with images of war and life under the whip – is somewhat jarring. What connects them thematically is the constant presence of fear and trauma, and the power of desire to ward off one’s demons. The collection’s title story follows a woman who, in a decline mirroring that of Lady MacBeth, is driven mad by the knowledge of her husband’s crimes as part of the ruling military junta of an unnamed tropical paradise. It is here that I found the images present in Glave’s writing most disturbing (and, at the same time, his command of prose most impressive). Horrid, fantastical images haunt the mind of the narrator, named only as “She”. Screaming corpses are pushed from airplanes into the ocean, and dismembered body parts rain from the sky, only to sprout legs and scurry off into the thick jungle.

Glave has a knack for these sort of bothersome, gut-wrenching images. This is a collection of stories filled with dripping bayonets, rape, and screwdrivers ripping into a man’s neck. Glave’s portrayal of life aboard a slave ship, in “He Who Would Have Become ‘Joshua,’” is nauseating in its horrible effectiveness – in the course of ten minutes, I stepped out twice for a cigarette, just to put some distance between myself and the scene unfolding between the covers of this book.

Thankfully, Glave occasionally allows some light to shine through. He is at his most hopeful when describing the passions that erupt between human beings in times of trouble, such as his description of the desire that erupts suddenly between two men, cowering in a bomb shelter, in “Invasion: Evening: Two.” Indeed, Glave seems to have a knack for the erotic, lending style and class to situations that would, without his skill as a writer, seem downright pornographic.

It is these skillfull moments of eroticism that make the impact of these stories all the more brutal. Glave’s fluid prose, full of ellipses and poetic digressions, drifts seamlessly from descriptions of two lovers caressing in the bushes to a militiaman impaling women with his bayonet. As a whole, this collection is filled with some of the most graphic depictions of violence and sexuality I have recently read. I won’t be surprised if grandmothers around the nation give it the Catcher in the Rye treatment, and start campaigns to have it banned from library shelves.

Of course, before this could happen, those grandmothers would first have to read, or at least hear of, Glave’s work. That, sadly, is something I don’t see happening very soon. This sort of work doesn’t exactly have mass-market appeal. Then again, in a world where’s everyone’s favorite book is also a movie starring Tom Hanks (no disrespect to his skills as an actor, of course), I’m not sure how much I trust large groups of consumers anyway.

Most people simply aren’t going to be able to digest the fluid transitions between images of horror and desire, between love and brutality that make Glave’s work so remarkable. At times these stories were sickening, deeply bothersome. But I finished each one feeling, if not exactly enthused, most certainly gratified. The stories in this book are not pleasant, but they are important nevertheless. I would love to see Middle America give this book a try.

Buy this book