American Identity in the Age of Obama

Amílcar Antonio Barreto is Associate Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University. He is the author of Nationalism and Its Logical Foundations (2009), Vieques, the Navy, and Puerto Rican Politics (2002), The Politics of Language in Puerto Rico (2001), and Language, Elites and the State (1998). Richard L. O'Bryant is an assistant professor of Political Science and the Director of the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute at Northeastern University. His research interests focus on science and technology policy and politics, urban and regional studies and politics, and urban and community technology. He published a chapter in Yigitcanlar, Velibeyoglu and Baum’s anthology, Creative Urban Regions.

• Introduction: The Age of Obama and American Identity; Amílcar Antonio Barreto and Richard L. O’Bryant. 1. Obama and Enduring Notions of American National Identity; Amílcar Antonio Barreto. 2. Racial Identification in a Post Obama Era: Multiracialism, Identity Choice and Candidate Evaluation; Natalie Masuoka. 3. The Son of a Black Man from Kenya and a White Woman from Kansas: Immigration and Racial Neoliberalism in the Age of Obama; Josue David Cisneros. 4. Immigrant Resentment and American Identity in the Twenty-First Century; Deborah J. Schildkraut. 5. Browning our way to Post-Race: Identity, Identification, and Securitization of Brown; Kumarini Silva. 6. White Masculinities in the Age of Obama: Rebuilding or Reloading?; Steven D. Farough. 7. "Exceptionally Distinctive: President Obama’s Complicated Articulation of American Exceptionalism; Joseph M. Valenzano and Jason A. Edwards. 8. Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy Leadership: Renewing America’s Image; Mark A. Menaldo 9. The First Black President?: Cross-Racial Perceptions of Barack Obama's Race; David Wilson and Matthew Hunt

"With the inauguration of Barack Obama, pundits and prophets from all across the political spectrum announced the end of race and racism. Yet under the shroud of ‘The Dream’ achieved, sat Trayvon, Detroit, ICE raids, Voter ID laws, the birther movement, Shelby County v. Holder and a host of social conditions clearly colored by America’s racial reality but now made seemingly illegible by the claims of a post-racial society. Barreto and O’Bryant take up the daunting task to confront this critical moment not as an end but a beginning, a world in need of a new language for a new racial landscape. With courage and dare we say hope, these essays tackle the vexing theaters of war surrounding the president’s citizenship, his religion, his shifting status between too black and not black enough, and the meaning of all this for a multiracial America clinging tightly to its image as leader of the free world. The collection boldly demonstrates that only through an honest assessment of the Age of Obama, both its beauty and its ugliness, can we build any sustainable visions for a truly democratic future."—Davarian L. Baldwin, Trinity College"American Identity in the Age of Obama is a must read for scholars of race, ethnicity, immigration, presidential politics, and overall American politics. This is a book that analyzes the dynamic role of America’s first black American president, and how his election has directly affected how the US is viewed internationally, how we discuss race in the 21st century, how we incorporate non-black and non-white individuals into larger discussions of the American polity, and how we view national identity through an increasingly more complex lens."—Christina Greer, Fordham University