Do black presidents matter?

By Clarence Lusane

Tribune News Service

How did it happen that the most signi-ficant black protest movement in decades, blacklivesmatter, erupted during the tenure of the first black president?

Civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin famously argued that, following the major victories of the 1960s, African-Americans needed to move from “protest to politics.” After the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, black politics shifted dramatically to a focus on voting and electoral engagement. After President Obama’s two electoral triumphs, the trend is reversing, from politics to protest.

The first wave of protest came in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin by self-styled community cop George Zimmerman. When Zimmerman killed the unarmed teenager and was subsequently acquitted, many in the black community saw a failure of politics. A lot of young folks, in particular, asked: “Is there another way?”

Then came case after case, in rapid succession, of black people needlessly killed by law-enforcement officials. It seems that the only incident not captured on video was Martin’s death. The viral footage of black men and women being beaten and killed by those ostensibly empowered to uphold the law sparked regular protests and demonstrations in every part of the country.

In some instances, state and federal officials launched investigations of horrendous practices by local police departments that had previously escaped scrutiny. It was absolutely clear that these investigations would never have happened without massive pressure from protesters in the communities. This was not an advance through the high-minded efforts of elected officials, black or otherwise. The black lives matter movement drew national and even international attention to the crisis of police abuse. And actions against deadly policing grew into campaigns calls for economic fairness and for greater political inclusion at every level.

Mass protest

Obama’s presidency is symbolically significant. But it turns out that getting one man to the top does not get us close to an even playing field for the vast majority of black people. We need an active black civil society that engages in not just electoral politics, but mass protest and resistance, as well. The long game in black politics is not just breaking down the walls of political segregation but, more importantly, facing up to structural and institutional racism that is alive and well in the United States, even under Obama.

Clarence Lusane is a professor of political science and international relations at American University. He wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues.