Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama - Essay Example

Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama Introduction Race is, and has often been anissue of concern in the United States. In his timely writing, “Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial the Age of Obama,” Time Wise explores the way Barack Obama’s victory to political power has taken the race debate to a new level. As Wise argues, many whites perceive that Obama’s emergence implies the end of racism as a persistent social force. To them, he is a justification of the American ideology that any citizen can make it if they put in more effort to realize their goals, and an illustration of how institutional obstructions against the blacks have all vanished.

Tim wonders if a reinforced white perception in color-blind meritocracy actually does not ease addressing continuing institutional racism. To Tim, in justice system, housing, education, and employment, there is enough evidence that white favors and discrimination against the blacks are still lively and actively prevent opportunities despite the fact that Obama is in power (Wise 27). The small but eloquently written book has two chapters. “Barack Obama, White Denial and the Reality of Racism” is a large chapter examining the meaning and effect of racism on the lives of people of color in America.

There is a rich statistical proof to verify Wise’s argument that the black and brown people continue to deal with racial discrimination in most fields such as jobs, incomes, education, housing, healthcare, and most importantly, the criminal justice system (Wise 65). For instance, Wise gives an example that the people who were affected by Hurricane Katrina were the same ones who were affected by the veritable racial cleansing marking the aftermath of the Katrina rebuilding procedure. Racism is still widespread in American societies, right from the massive prison-industrial field, where a big percentage of inmates are young black men to the opinion polls from the entire population where the blacks and whites perceive the reality of discrimination in varying ways.

For whites, racism is no more or is lessening and people of color are guilty of their own misfortunes. On the other hand, to a person of color, racism still exists and is a limiting factor in his life. Indifference to the blacks and the brown people seems to be renewed racism in the 21st century. This was particularly shown in the Bush regime, and how the whites viewed the Katrina victims. Chapter two of this book, “The Audacity of Truth: A Call for White Responsibility,” is a confrontational challenge to the perspectives of the whites.

Wise argues that the whites must learn to listen and consider what the marginalized people comment about racism since white people have for a long time operated with the attitude that racism is nonexistent unless they first find out and experience it. People of color often survive by realizing the perceptions of others about them and by appropriately adjusting their behaviors (Wise 112). Even with Obama as the U.S.’s fourth president, a back-up plan is essential. This is for the reason that Obama alone cannot be relied on, so than any given national leader or president for that case, to lead the State out of wilds of inequality and racism.

This is such a big task for one person’s effort to conquer in a short while. It means that all citizens have to join hands in eradicating the two vices out of the State (Wise 142). If people of color are expected to do better, and that this is right, even if it originates from stereotypes implying their collective pathology, then whites must also do it better. Conclusion Racism is a reality in the American society, particularly in Obama’s age. Wise’s book is full of integrity and sincerity in addressing the issue of racial inequality.

White people’s viewpoint is rarely from the eyes of the other hand and is obliged to do so on the basis of “antiracist white allyship.” Corporation is a necessity especially in circumstances such as in campaigns, where Obama often inspires young people from all races; whites, Asians, Latinos, and Blacks to vote democratically despite their races or the contestants they wish to vote for. Each individual should learn that hope is not daring so much as it is risky. What makes everything worse is to fail to make Obama’s genuine policies liable to ordinary citizens rather than prospective business and sacrificing communal agency in the certainty that everything is possible by electing a black president.

In addition, every one is at least obliged to read this book, especially those whites who are indisputably committed to fight against racism. Work Cited Wise, Tim. Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial the Age of Obama. New York: City Lights Books, 2009. Print.