Title: Race, Ideology, and the Polarization of America in the Age of the Obama Presidency
Subject Classification:  Politics and Government, Race and Racism, History  
BIC Classification: JP, JFSL, HB
BISAC Classification: SOC070000, HIS036070, POL030000
Binding: Hardback, Paperback, eBook
Publication date: 23 Jun 2024
ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-80441-707-2
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-80441-708-9
ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-80441-709-6

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Description

The author contends that the 2008 election of President Barack Obama and his subsequent 2012 re-election were viewed as transformative events that should lead America into a post-modern, post-racial, and post-ideological America.

That idealized vision of America turned out to be the incorrect. With the shift in demography, coupled with white American conservatives and Republicans’ fear of losing America to minorities, especially to Blacks, Obama’s presidency failed to transform America into a post-racial nation. The author argues that America became more, rather than less, racially and ideologically polarized, exacerbated by identity politics between Liberals and Conservatives, as well as between Democrats and Republicans. The incompatible and ultimately unreconcilable perception of America made no room for effective collaboration between Obama and Republicans, and has led to subsequent problems and tensions.

Biography

Author(s):  Dr. Blanchard Onanga is a former diplomat, an Assistant Professor at Omar Bongo University in Gabon; and an Instructor at Rivermont Collegiate, Bettendorf, Iowa, USA.

Reviews

"Dr. Onanga provides a searing examination of the proposition that the election of Barack Obama led to a post-racial America. Through a comprehensive overview of Obama's first presidential campaign and the legislative fights of his first term, Onanga demonstrates how Obama was engaged in a delicate dance of attempting to achieve meaningful gains for the African American community (such as the passage of the Affordable Care Act) while at the same time distancing himself from more overtly racial controversies (such as charges filed against 6 black teens in Jena, Louisiana). Onanga relies in particular on statements made by the Reverend Jesse Jackson to show how Obama's words and actions were sometimes at odds with non-elected leaders of the African American community. At the same time, this book affirms that Obama's political mechanizations were based in the reality of overt resistance from conservative republicans. Onanga shows how Obama threaded the needle to move the country substantively forward in terms of racial and economic equality in spite of an increasingly polarized electorate."
- Collin Lawrence, Assistant Head of School, Social Studies Instructor, Rivermont Collegiate