The Obama Phenomenon

The success of Barack Obama's campaign is a very unique and exceptional topic, one that in its own right is a 'phenomenon'. Last Wednesday in the Woody-Tanger auditorium, The Wolfe Institute hosted a discussion panel to take a look at the movement behind, and the sensational reaction to, Obama's success.

Speakers Keith Brown of BET News, Gary Younge of The London Guardian and Professor Eisa Ulen of Hunter College were the individuals invited to provide insight into the topic.

Keith Brown shared a clip of a BET special aired shortly after the Iowa Caucus, where Kevin Johnson interviewed Obama about the concerns of the black community, especially those who questioned how much he considered himself a black man.

Obama answered the question with a question, asking what is the standard to compare all black people by and what would make him any more or less viable to these communities. He also joked on the matter saying that it wasn't like he ran against Flava Flav to see whose blacker, which drew laughter from the audience.

Gary Younge showed a short segment he did where he commuted around South Carolina, going into barbershops and beauty salons and asking the opinions of the workers and customers.

When he asked people about race being the motive for their support of Obama, most said no. But rephrasing his question to it being a factor, many were quick to say yes. When Younge tried to ask the same people about their understandings of Clinton's and Obama's views and what else they also liked about the candidates, many cited they believed in Obama's intention to bring about change. At one ironic point, one person getting his hair cut for the week responded that he would vote Obama not because he was black, but because Clinton is a woman and women aren't suited for the job of being president.

A YouTube clip was also cited at one point where a cameraman asked a young Obama supporter by the name of Derrick Johnson his reasons for supporting Obama. Derrick defended himself with an abundance of information on Obama's policies and proposals. Through this, Derrick single-handedly dispelled the notions of older generations that young voters na'vely support Obama because it is hip, and that Obama supporters don't know the ideas or goals Obama has in mind.

The clip was part of a larger discussion about the overwhelming support Obama draws from the current voting generation and previous generation as well- much more so then any other candidate. Through this age range he has drawn more independent funds from individual contributions and has more grassroots programs in support of him than any other candidate, making him in many regards a candidate made by the people.

The moderators shared their opinions on the topic, and even experiences voting in the primary elections.

Keith Brown spoke about how he was a supporter of Clinton and had every intention to vote for her, but once in the polling booth his instincts would not let him do it. Instead he pulled the lever for Obama, a move he admitted was motivated by the desire to see a black president. Keith also mentioned this sensation surrounding the candidate is part of a tradition that started with the first black and female person to make a run for the white house, Shirley Chisholm.

Pertaining to the subject of oppression, it was also discussed how this election has transformed into an issue that pits the problematic issues of race and gender against each other. With Obama being a black male and Clinton a white female, the media spin-off of these issues and what some polls have shown certain demographics of people and who they overly supported has become a problematic topic as well.

Ulen mentioned that this has been a historic problem, a divide and conquer technique between two groups of people sharing unequal status in this country and has pitted the white female against the black male. A very complicated issue, it was only briefly touched upon as there was not enough time to delve into how privilege and the possible psychological effects of denial plays into the problem.

After the panel discussion, a Q&A session was held that became very intense, at several points, drawing mixed reaction from the audience. While the issues of White Supremacy and Obama's ability to address non-racial issues were the ones that drove a number of people into a furor, a wide range of topics were mentioned. International policy was a major one, but many other issues including his efforts to motivate black America regardless of winning or losing, the split votes of other minority groups such as Latinos and Asian Americans and his ability to navigate corporate politics once elected were also touched upon during the discussion.