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Between Barack and a Hard Place
Tim Wise
Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama
City Lights Books
January 2009
On Sale: January 1, 2009
120 pages
ISBN: 0872865002
EAN: 9780872865006
Paperback
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Non-Fiction
Race is, and always has been, an explosive issue in the
United States. In this timely new book, Tim Wise explores
how Barack Obama’s emergence as a political force is taking
the race debate to new levels. According to Wise, for many
white people, Obama’s rise signifies the end of racism as a
pervasive social force; they point to Obama not only as a
validation of the American ideology that anyone can make it
if they work hard, but also as an example of how
institutional barriers against people of color have all but
vanished. But is this true? And does a reinforced white
belief in color-blind meritocracy potentially make it harder
to address ongoing institutional racism? After all, in
housing, employment, the justice system, and education, the
evidence is clear: white privilege and discrimination
against people of color are still operative and actively
thwarting opportunities, despite the success of individuals
like Obama. Is black success making it harder for whites to see the
problem of racism, thereby further straining race relations,
or will it challenge anti-black stereotypes to such an
extent that racism will diminish and race relations improve?
Will blacks in power continue to be seen as an “exception”
in white eyes? Is Obama “acceptable” because he seems
“different from most blacks,” who are still viewed too often
as the dangerous and inferior “other”?
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