Good Negro Government
The term Good Negro Government is a comprehensive encapsulation of governance with African Americans in position of power. It is also a synonym for the eight years in which Barack Obama was President. On its more immediately level, it is a from of government with African Americas in power that denies the existence of racism and white supremacy yet in doing so intensifies the racism and the urge for white supremacy simply by virtue of illustrating blacks can effectively govern.
The First 44
The first 44 men elected President of the United States established a streak that over two-hundred years of only whites rising to that level. That unbroken streak became symbol, for many more Americans than most of us would care to admit, of the order of things as they should be. Whatever else black people may have been able to achieve after starting out as slaves, they had not taken the most powerful job in the country. Until, of course, the streak finally came to an end.
Whiteness in America
The author asserts that whiteness in America is not just a literal state of being, but also a powerful symbol of something deeper. Whiteness is the country’s foremost symbol of privilege. More than that, white is badge that can be flashed to show solidarity and membership in a society in which advantage is awarded even when not expected.
Donald Trump
Donald Trump is the symbolic incarnation of that badge of advantage which is awarded simply by being born white. That whiteness in America really does confer a high level of privilege and offer advantages which would not come otherwise is embodied in the rise of Donald Trump to the Presidency. He is the ultimate representative of white privilege: “a white man who would not be president were it not for this fact.”
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King, Jr. has a national holiday in his honor. King has the stirring monument in Washington, D.C. MLK is to most of white America the incomparable symbol of the success of the Civil Rights Movement and, ultimately, the election of Barack Obama. The author, however assigns to the role of the symbolic status of “the voice of black America.”
