Did Obama 'Diss White Guys' in His Election Message?

There are some who are accusing President Barack Obama of "dissing white guys" in his message about the 2010 mid-term elections. In the message, designed to get voters rallied to go to the polls, Obama stated that, "It will be up to each of you to make sure that the young people, African Americans, Latinos and women, who powered our victory in 2008, stand together once again. It will be up to each of you to keep our nation moving forward."

These words were taken with offense by Julie Mason at the Washington Examiner, who seemed to feel that by excluding white males from his list of constituents, the president was tossing them an insult.

While Mason's column wasn't particularly scathing, it presents a reality that Obama has had to face since being elected: His support among white males has declined dramatically. After last year's election, it was 41 percent, higher than John Kerry, who ran for president in 2004. His support among white men started to go into serious decline after the controversy surrounding Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates last summer.

Since that time, he has been labeled by Newt Gingrich as "the most radical president in history," and his support among white men has declined by another 10 percentage points. What is most ironic is that Obama and Gates being labeled as "radical black men" may have been uncalled for, since Gates actually seems to believe that white people have been blamed too much for slavery.

When watching the press conference Obama gave on the night he made his unfortunate comments about the Gates debacle, I recall wondering why he would throw away hard-earned political capital on a simple and racially divisive dispute between a professor and a cop. This showed us that if Obama has any weaknesses, his loyalty to political cronies might be one of them. The scandal on which Obama lost so much respect from white America actually had almost nothing to do with race.

President Obama's acknowledgment of the strong support from women and minorities is a powerful, symbolic statement. It implies that he fully understands the significance that disadvantaged groups played in getting him elected, and that he is determined to pursue our interests more than other recent presidents. But his lack of support from white males is an ominous revelation that he might have serious trouble in 2012. By challenging Wall Street and working to defend the poor, Obama has shown that he has at least a moderate amount of interest in challenging the power structure in America. Much of that power structure consists of white men, who can create powerful backlashes when they feel that they've been marginalized.

The best way to support the president (which I believe we should) is to ensure that women and minorities become politically active and educated on the process. We must learn how to play the political game from the front, rather than assuming that having a black president means that we can have whatever we want. We must also realize that being progressive and active in our public protest is the best way to ensure that we are at the top of Obama's agenda.

With regard to Obama leaving white guys off his list of constituents, I am not sure how natural it would have been for him to end his sentence by saying, "Oh yeah, I get support from white males, too." What is most ironic about all this, however, is that Obama is just as much a white male as he is a black one. The fact that he marked "African American" on his census form and married a black woman says a great deal about how race is as much a matter of personal identity as biology. Were Obama to have identified himself as a white male (which he would be perfectly entitled to do), we would have looked at him sideways: African Americans would have considered him to be a sellout, and whites would have wondered if he was truly one of them. Is Obama running away from white males? And if so, does that mean he is also running away from himself?

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book 'Black American Money.' To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here.