FDR & Obama

There have been a ton of comparisons, it seems, between Obama and Lincoln, Obama and Mandela, and yes, Obama and Roosevelt. But there's one important point that's been overlooked -- what FDR's status as the first disabled president might tell us about what's in store for Obama as the first black one.

http://www.theroot.com/id/48992#

Among the many plot twists in the 2008 campaign has been the return of Franklin Roosevelt as a political icon. After suffering years of disparagement as the architect of big government, the deepening economic crisis has given many Americans a new appreciation for the 32nd president. Advisers to President-elect Barack Obama are reportedly reading up on New Deal policy, and Time magazine recently featured Obama on the cover in a remake of the famous top-hat-and-cigarette-holder image of FDR.

There are obvious reasons for the comparison between Barack Obama and Franklin Roosevelt, not the least of which is the trying economic and military circumstances Obama will inherit. There are other connections between the two men: Both men owe their elections in part to unpopular Republican administrations accused of mishandling and underregulating the market. And both elections marked turning points in the political history of African Americans. FDR's New Deal broke the old GOP coalition by successfully attracting African Americans who had previously been loyal to the "party of Lincoln" for over a half century. Obama's selection as the first black president of the United States strengthened the fraying bonds between African Americans and Democrats for years if not decades to come.

There are odd parallels between their Republican predecessors—for instance, both of them were tied to the mishandling of national catastrophes: the Bush administration's ineptitude in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath was the biggest domestic failure in decades; Hoover, as Secretary of Commerce, oversaw the Mississippi Flood of 1927, where black sharecroppers were rounded up and forced at gunpoint to repair breached levees.

But the most-telling connection between Roosevelt and Obama may be one that we tend to overlook—their membership in groups that have historically suffered from discrimination. Roosevelt—stricken with polio at age 39 and eventually confined to a wheelchair—and Obama, the first African-American president, are tied together on the level of symbolism and metaphor.

At least since his victory in the Iowa caucuses, Barack Obama has been viewed as a harbinger of the post-racial society. Shortly after he won the general election, the Wall Street Journal said that his victory would end "the myth of racism as a barrier to achievement." It's easy to see why the post-racial idea gained traction. If millions of white Americans are willing to vote for a black presidential candidate, it makes you suspect that we really are beyond the race issue. But we aren't, at least not yet, and Roosevelt's experience as the first disabled president can shed light on this moment.

Disability and blackness were understood in surprisingly similar ways in American history; both as physical markers of difference and inferiority. In the 19th century, skin color was intricately connected to a network of biases and superstitions. Republican Thaddeus Stevens, for instance, attributed his lifelong support of black causes to a deformity that provided him insight into what it felt like to be ostracized on the basis of arbitrary physical characteristics. While African Americans witnessed the rise of Jim Crow, hopeful immigrants at Ellis Island were being screened to weed out those with disabilities and birth defects.

Given that history, the existence of a wheelchair-bound president would seem to mark a leap forward for the cause. It was … and it wasn't. The complexities of Roosevelt's situation provide insight into our own social landscape in the wake of Barack Obama's stunning victory. In fact, Roosevelt's experience seems to point to a kind of uneven progress where we move forward as a society but not uniformly. In that light, the presidency may actually be ahead of other segments of American society in terms getting beyond bigotry.

In short, we shall overcome—but certainly not all at the same time.

There's also a kind of symmetry in the way that Roosevelt had to manage his disability—many Americans weren't aware of it at the time—and Obama's careful management of race as a topic during the campaign. The fact that the disabled and African Americans could be represented in the White House marked an undeniable breakthrough, but neither Roosevelt nor Obama could afford to dwell on that fact in their campaigns.

Many worried, for instance, that the Jeremiah Wright affair during the primaries had turned Obama into "the black candidate" in a way that his skin color and ancestry previously had not. That dynamic was present in 1997 when the Roosevelt memorial was built on the National Mall. The image discreetly obscures the fact that the president is confined to a wheelchair. The decision to literally cloak his disability generated so much criticism from advocates of disabled rights, that a second sculpture of him in a wheelchair was constructed.

Barack Obama's election does not automatically elevate us beyond race any more than Roosevelt's automatically erased our biases against the disabled.

The election of Barack Obama as our 44th president gives us a clear indicator that racism has greatly diminished in this society, but it's not dead yet. Last year, the EEOC received 30,510 racial discrimination complaints that resulted in $67.7 million in monetary benefits for plaintiffs—not including monies awarded through litigation. Amid our euphoria over this accomplishment, it seems almost distasteful to bring up the nagging racial disparities in health care, life expectancy, income and within the criminal justice system, none of which seem poised to disappear on Inauguration Day.

In coming years, there will be endless debates on the meaning of Obama's election—just as there were debates over the meaning of Roosevelt's disability on the National Mall. But history seems to suggest that we should congratulate ourselves after the Obama presidency: Grand moments of symbolism are important, but the real victories come in the incremental steps to ensure that opportunity filters down to every corner of society, not just 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Comments

[Tanzina]

Just wanted to drop you a line to tell you that this blog has been wonderful reading for me over the last few days and I love your sense of humor and your wit. I've never thought of FDR and Obama in conjunction like this and it was terrific reading Thanks for writing!

[ari]

Nice post. Again. I'd offer a more substantive comment, but my commenting style runs the full gamut: from flip to glib. I'll try to get the lay of the land before inflicting my irreverence on you.

[M.]

It's an interesting point you make by taking the parallels of their presidencies beyond the economic quagmire; as a side note, I keep wondering for how long we will continue to read about "the worst X since the Great Depression" before we can admit to ourselves that things may, in fact, be worse.

I'd ask, though, what you think about the FDR v. Obama impact on our social understanding of masculinity? One of the things that I've found striking about the impact of this election is the way that all kinds of brothas have seemingly come out of the woodwork, willing to express emotion (it wasn't JUST the Rev. Jackson who was sobbing like a baby that Tuesday). And while I cannot say anything particularly novel about his relationship with Michelle, as a single Black woman, I can say that having their relationship in the spotlight has significantly changed the ways in which single Black folks approach dating and relationships. I wonder if FDR's presidency did much/anything for the correlation of masculinity with able-bodidness?

Getting back to what Obama means, though, we would obviously be foolish to believe the hype about a "post-racial" age. Not only is white supremacy alive and well, as the statistics you sited ably demonstrate (not to mention incarceration rates, child poverty rates, infant mortality rates, educational funding and outcome differences, etc.), but, as ever since post-1964, the difficulties in calling it out as such make dealing with it that much more difficult. What I find intriguing, however, is how many white folks seem to miss the point that desiring the end of white supremacy/racial discrimination and the end of race is not the same thing, you know?

[Oneita Jackson]

Hello, Jelani and ari and M.

M.: Interesting questions you raise about masculinity and about the effect the Obama's marriage has on dating. I am curious to hear Jelani's response. Jelani?

[jelani c.]

At the risk of self-promotion, I actually talked a little bit about this masculinity question in a piece I did for Essence. It's called "Brother President" and it is in the Obama issue on newsstands now.

The basic point was that Obama's balancing act between being an intellectual, a leader, a visionary and a down brother who can hit a reverse lay-up has publicly challenged that idea that we have to be one or the other. And the fact that he visibly loves and admires his wife and is a doting father only further states the case.

And if you wanted to see brothers showing emotion you needed look no further than the democratic convention --LOTS of black men were up in there crying openly and en masse. Aside from the Million Man March I don't think I had seen anything quite like it.

I've heard more brothers than I can count make some version of the "I'm looking for a Michelle" statement in recent months and I think that is a good thing because you certainly do not attract a woman like that without having your own game straight.

But I think these will be those intangibles of history, something we can't exactly measure but we know they've had an impact on us as a whole.

[M.]

Thank you for the reference. It seems to me that once you start blogging, you're already far enough down the slippery slope of self-promotion that probably quibbling about it is beside the point...

I have also definitely noticed what you've noticed in terms of brothas saying they are looking for a Michelle. In fact, a completely non-scientific anecdotal survey of personals ads shows that a reference to the Obamas is shorthand for all of the qualities you mentioned, but without the grimy residue of the "I'm not a typical Black man" claims.

[KGC]

I must echo an earlier poster: GREAT blogging Mr. Cobb. As a student of history I am really appreciating this content. Keep it up and I'll keep reading.

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