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Journal of Black Studies
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Barack Obama and the Dilemma of Power

An Africological Observation

Molefi Kete Asante

Temple University

This article examines the prospects and possibilities of presidential power in the event of the election of Obama. A great discourse has ensued about the Obama candidacy for the Democratic nomination because he is the first African American to gain such widespread popular support so soon in the campaign. Indeed, he is the first candidate in history to receive secret service protection so early in the primary campaign because of serious threats against his person by numerous detractors. An Afrocentric examination of the political campaign and presidential prospects of Obama begins with an interrogation of the nature of the political process in relationship to history, location, the American imperium, and the dilemma of power in a racial politic. Any intense interrogation of Obama's concept of himself as an African American locates him in a particular space and time. The overwhelming racial characteristics of American society, even at this date, suggest that should Obama be nominated and elected, he would still face enormous social and political hurdles institutionalized as White racial hegemony, thus complicating an Obama presidency.

Key Words: power • Afrocentricity • politics • presidency

This version was published on September 1, 2007

Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, 105-115 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0021934707304957
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