Abstract
While many scholars attribute Barack Obama's success in the 2008 presidential election to his so-called deracialized campaign strategy, I argue that Obama constructed a persuasive message strategy that was fundamentally based on race. I argue that in pursuing what I call a racial distinction strategy, Obama mobilized race differently than previous Black candidates running in White-voter electoral majorities. Specifically, Obama's racial distinction strategy constructed a seamless racial narrative - deployed through constellations of subtle racial language and imagery - incorporating Obama's own personal biography within a broader narrative of the nation, specifically a narrative of American progress. The fact that Obama employed a racial distinction strategy, and the fact that he succeeded in doing so, sheds new light on, and leads us to reconsider the veracity of popular political theories such as post-Blackness, post-racialism and deracialization, along with the general ideology of colorblindness.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 119-145 |
Number of pages | 27 |
Journal | Social Semiotics |
Volume | 23 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 2013 |
Keywords
- American progress
- Barack Obama
- deracialization
- narrative
- racial distinction
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cultural Studies
- Language and Linguistics
- Communication
- Linguistics and Language