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A Black Man in the White House: Barack Obama and the Triggering of America's Racial-Aversion Crisis
Foreword by Governor Howard Dean
“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.”
W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk
America’s racial fault lines run uninterrupted from the days of slavery, to those of lynchings, separate water fountains, and the contemporary Jim Crow of voter suppression, gerrymandered voting districts, and the attempt to nullify the presidency of America’s first Black chief executive.
In this book Cornell Belcher, award-winning pollster who twice served on President Barack Obama’s presidential election team, presents stunning new research that illuminates just how deep and jagged these racial fault lines continue to be. Cornell has surveyed battleground voters from 2008 through the 2016 primary season tracking racial aversion and its impact over the course of the Obama presidency. Given the heightened racial aversion as a consequence of the first non-white male living in the White House, the rise of Trump was a predictable backlash. The election of the nation’s first Black president does not mean that we live in a post-racial society; it means that we are now at a critical historical tipping point demographically and culturally in America—and this tipping point is indeed the wolf at the door for many anxious white Americans who are now politically behaving accordingly given this perceived threat.
The panicked response of the waning white majority to what they perceive as the catastrophe of a Black president can be heard in every cry to “take back our country.” This panic has resulted in the elevation of an overt and unapologetic racist as the nominee of one of America’s major political parties.
Let’s be clear, as Belcher points out: there isn’t any going back. America’s changing population and the continued globalization of our marketplaces won’t allow it. In order to compete and win the future, America must let go of the historic tribal pecking order and a system gamed to favor the old ruling white elite.
To paraphrase DuBois, “The problem of the twenty-first century remains the color line.”
“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.”
W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk
America’s racial fault lines run uninterrupted from the days of slavery, to those of lynchings, separate water fountains, and the contemporary Jim Crow of voter suppression, gerrymandered voting districts, and the attempt to nullify the presidency of America’s first Black chief executive.
In this book Cornell Belcher, award-winning pollster who twice served on President Barack Obama’s presidential election team, presents stunning new research that illuminates just how deep and jagged these racial fault lines continue to be. Cornell has surveyed battleground voters from 2008 through the 2016 primary season tracking racial aversion and its impact over the course of the Obama presidency. Given the heightened racial aversion as a consequence of the first non-white male living in the White House, the rise of Trump was a predictable backlash. The election of the nation’s first Black president does not mean that we live in a post-racial society; it means that we are now at a critical historical tipping point demographically and culturally in America—and this tipping point is indeed the wolf at the door for many anxious white Americans who are now politically behaving accordingly given this perceived threat.
The panicked response of the waning white majority to what they perceive as the catastrophe of a Black president can be heard in every cry to “take back our country.” This panic has resulted in the elevation of an overt and unapologetic racist as the nominee of one of America’s major political parties.
Let’s be clear, as Belcher points out: there isn’t any going back. America’s changing population and the continued globalization of our marketplaces won’t allow it. In order to compete and win the future, America must let go of the historic tribal pecking order and a system gamed to favor the old ruling white elite.
To paraphrase DuBois, “The problem of the twenty-first century remains the color line.”
216 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 24, 2016
46 people are currently reading
536 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 9, 2017
The manipulation of ideology to restore the credit of a race as a whole is brilliantly detailed in these pages. The crucial question in Belcher's book is nothing more than the American destiny and future itself.
He's not launching a campaign here but is determined to display the overall unhealthiness of the American political arena.
It's interesting to read his substantial reluctance towards Trump's reputation while being unaware he would become the president soon after his book was released.
How President Trump happened perhaps will never find its way into the historical records more accurately than through the murky shadow of what hovers behind the scenes depicted in Belcher's book.
It's a must read to those who would like to try and understand where we are as a nation now and where we are heading.
He's not launching a campaign here but is determined to display the overall unhealthiness of the American political arena.
It's interesting to read his substantial reluctance towards Trump's reputation while being unaware he would become the president soon after his book was released.
How President Trump happened perhaps will never find its way into the historical records more accurately than through the murky shadow of what hovers behind the scenes depicted in Belcher's book.
It's a must read to those who would like to try and understand where we are as a nation now and where we are heading.
September 6, 2017
Mr. Belcher's book was published soon after Donald Trump was selected as the Republican Party's presidential candidate. He correctly posited that it would be a close race and Ms.Clinton would not simply breeze to victory despite the Orange Tumor's overt racism and sexism. Hell, the author shows how Trump's racism was a major contributor to him winning the race. The social scientist sure had a better understanding on the lay of the political land than I did. The author's interest was in researching the attitudes about race and how it affected the public's perceptions of President Obama throughout his two terms as president as well as after he rocketed to national attention with his famous speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. His results convincingly refute the poppycock notion that we became a post-racial nation after Barack Obama moved into the White House. My wife and I are Caucasian and our two sons, who are now in their late teens, are African-American. Even here in tolerant overwhelmingly white Maine, we witnessed numerous examples of racial stereotyping towards our sons and Blacks as well as attitudes about our nation's first African-American president.
'A Black Man in the White House' is a small book written in an clear easy-to-understand style. The author avoids falling into academic three-hundred-syllable words and social science jargon. There is a few pages explaining the format of how he went about his study, but it was understandable as long as I slowed down the speed I was reading. Mr. Belcher also preps the reader by giving historical examples of how racism has shaped our nation. Some of the topics cover are the Republican's Southern Strategy, the Compromise of 1876, voter suppression laws, gerrymandering, the nature of race, tribalism, redlining, racial profiling, mass incarceration, substandard housing, blaming the victim, symbolic racism, and the condition in which racist people individuate. The one problem I had with the work are the handful of graphs used. They seem to have been originally presented in color but converted to black-and-white for the book. Some of the graph's keys were difficult to differentiate.
The book validated many of my assumptions that racism and the ripple effects of slavery are still very much with us. Since I concluded 'A Black Man in the White House' with the attitude that Mr. Belcher somehow did a Vulcan mind meld with me and regurgitated my thoughts into his book, naturally, I think it's an excellent work. At only 189 pages and printed in large type, 'A Black Man in the White House' will not bore nor challenge even the most lackadaisical reader. It's informative and will help you understand who we are as nation when it comes to race.
'A Black Man in the White House' is a small book written in an clear easy-to-understand style. The author avoids falling into academic three-hundred-syllable words and social science jargon. There is a few pages explaining the format of how he went about his study, but it was understandable as long as I slowed down the speed I was reading. Mr. Belcher also preps the reader by giving historical examples of how racism has shaped our nation. Some of the topics cover are the Republican's Southern Strategy, the Compromise of 1876, voter suppression laws, gerrymandering, the nature of race, tribalism, redlining, racial profiling, mass incarceration, substandard housing, blaming the victim, symbolic racism, and the condition in which racist people individuate. The one problem I had with the work are the handful of graphs used. They seem to have been originally presented in color but converted to black-and-white for the book. Some of the graph's keys were difficult to differentiate.
The book validated many of my assumptions that racism and the ripple effects of slavery are still very much with us. Since I concluded 'A Black Man in the White House' with the attitude that Mr. Belcher somehow did a Vulcan mind meld with me and regurgitated my thoughts into his book, naturally, I think it's an excellent work. At only 189 pages and printed in large type, 'A Black Man in the White House' will not bore nor challenge even the most lackadaisical reader. It's informative and will help you understand who we are as nation when it comes to race.
June 10, 2017
Every white person in America should be required to read this book. We are so far from being a harmonious racially diverse country and we have a long way to go. This book is a good way to get the conversation going and to head in the right direction which is to accept every person as an equal. I learned a lot and most of it was sad to me. Or else I got very angry at the way minorities are being treated - it is so beneath us (white people) and there is no reason for not treating everyone the way we want to be treated. We're all just people - no better, no worse than others.
March 10, 2019
A well crafted argument.
The author does a great job of reminding readers how we got here and points toward the path to redemption and recovery for our country. I did feel that the empirical section near the end dragged a bit and that some of numbers he used to make his case were less persuasive than the picture he painted with his words.
The author does a great job of reminding readers how we got here and points toward the path to redemption and recovery for our country. I did feel that the empirical section near the end dragged a bit and that some of numbers he used to make his case were less persuasive than the picture he painted with his words.
September 27, 2025
Well-argued and concise, and every bit as relevant in 2025 as when it was written in 2016. But the references - perhaps a bit too concise? Many of the boldest claims lacked citations, and of those which remained a good number were were nameless, context-less YouTube URLs, at least one of which no longer works.
September 17, 2020
Although written before the election and based on research into how President Obama was perceived by different voting blocks, the results are a very potent description of attitudes surrounding Trump and his voters.
May 8, 2018
Powerful read.
December 28, 2016
Excellent book
Belcher's book is well written, well researched and doesn't gloss over social and racial truths of our country. He builds a strong case for his conclusions and for insightful recommendations for healing. A must read--especially for Trump voters who can better understand why they think as they do--without judgment of them--with hope that they won't do it again.p
Belcher's book is well written, well researched and doesn't gloss over social and racial truths of our country. He builds a strong case for his conclusions and for insightful recommendations for healing. A must read--especially for Trump voters who can better understand why they think as they do--without judgment of them--with hope that they won't do it again.p
July 6, 2020
I love this book.
Concise and profound, it numerically lays bare what the true reactions were to America's first black president.
Concise and profound, it numerically lays bare what the true reactions were to America's first black president.
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October 28, 2017"Direct survey questions to a respondent about politically sensitive questions can often result in respondents reporting what they think is correct to say, rather than what they truly feel. Questions about what 'others' would do, on the other hand, are easier for respondents to answer in terms of their own attitudes should they hold negative, and possibly politically incorrect attitudes." p 33
^^^ #TheKaiserNod
"You cannot make it deliberately more difficult for people to vote at the same time that you call yourself a lover of constitutional ideals. When you deny your fellow citizens their rights and privileges under the law, you lose the right to call yourself a true American. And indeed when you want to win not by competing best in a free market of ideas, but instead by gaming the system to determine winners and losers, you strike me as a communist instead of someone who loves and believes in Democracy." p 115
^^^ #TheKaiserNod
"You cannot make it deliberately more difficult for people to vote at the same time that you call yourself a lover of constitutional ideals. When you deny your fellow citizens their rights and privileges under the law, you lose the right to call yourself a true American. And indeed when you want to win not by competing best in a free market of ideas, but instead by gaming the system to determine winners and losers, you strike me as a communist instead of someone who loves and believes in Democracy." p 115
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews