Yesterday’s Observer–the Sunday edition of The Guardian–carried a big two-page story detailing how Barack Obama is the “man for young Americans.” Writer Amy Larocca interviewed a bunch of hip, downtown Millenials all donning Obama couture, and the article is adorned with photographs of them looking pensively into the camera doing their best Kate Moss impersonations (they all look supremely uninterested; they certainly don’t seem excited about Senator Obama). “For the first time since Bill Clinton, politics is cool again as America’s youth embrace the message of change preached by Barack Obama,” the sub-headline explains. What is that message of change? Apparently, that Barack Obama’s visage looks great on a t-shirt.
No, really. “Obama has become like Che Guevara in terms of what his face represents on merchandising,” says Jordana Zeldin, a 24-year-old photographer. And indeed, like those images of Che Zeldin refers to, Obama’s face seems to have been drained of any historical meaning. (Note: this is NOT to compare Obama’s politics with Che’s.) “Wearing this T-shirt is of course about supporting Obama,” says 16-year-old Ki Smith, “but it’s also a fashion statement.” Thankfully, Mr. Smith is too young to vote.The same can’t be said for 30-year-old Kellam Clark, described as a “furniture maker and artist.” He will ultimately be supporting Ralph Nader in November, but doesn’t “see it as a contradiction to wear the T-shirt.” Why?
I live in a black neighbourhood in Brooklyn, and I work with a lot of young African-American people who have no hope, and it’s interesting to hear them finally engaged a bit in politics. I want to support those conversations that are occurring in my neighbourhood by wearing a T-shirt with a black candidate.
It sounds as if Clark fears that he would not be able to participate in political “conversations” amongst his black colleagues and neighbors were he not wearing an Obama t-shirt. Wearing the shirt, it seems, is a way for Clark to signal to his African-American colleagues that whatever disagreements he might express, they’re all on the same team (even though, as an acknowledged Nader supporter, Clark isn’t). Are Clark’s black colleagues and neighbors so oversensitive that they can’t bear to converse about politics with someone not wearing an Obama t-shirt–or is Clark just unbearably patronizing?
