ABSTRACT
I recently completed the book-length manuscript, The Politics of Ethnic Incorporation and Avoidance: The Elections and Presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama. From the time it appeared likely that Obama would become the first Black president, I knew I would write a book on his election and presidency. Beginning with my dissertation in 1976, I have devoted much of my research to describing and trying to understand the consequences of the processes of incorporation of Black leaders into the political system. Viewing these processes as a near-inevitable outcome of the civil rights movement, an abiding concern of my research for more than three decades has been that these processes also would inevitably result in the marginalization of the Black poor, leaving them leaderless and the processes of their full incorporation into the society stalled. The Obama “phenomenon,” as it has been frequently labeled, reinforced this concern. Thus, while rejoicing in and contributing to Obama’s election, I told anyone who would listen that his election and presidency could likely be good for America; good for the system but probably bad for Black people because it would likely reinforce the already powerful illusion that racism is no longer a significant barrier to the full incorporation of the African American ethnic community. Related to this illusion, Gary Wills writing of JFK’s election recalls “the old story: for ‘one of your own’ to get elected, he must go out of his way to prove he is not just one of your own. The first Catholic President had to be secular to the point (as we used to say in Catholic schools) of supererogation” (1982, 61). In Obama’s case “supererogation” would require him—probably more so than Kennedy—to lean over backwards so as not to appear to be doing anything “for his own” people.
