Rumor Persists that Obama was Born in a Manger: Debunking the Messiah Myth

At the Al Smith Dinner in New York back in October, Barack Obama joked: “Contrary to the rumours you have heard, I was not born in a manger.” Nevertheless, the rumor has persisted that Obama is the messiah. I even heard it during “Joys and Concerns” at my church last Sunday as an exuberant white member celebrated her candidate’s win and told us how he would be a positive influence in the lives of all those wayward black kids in the nation who will now pull up their pants and hit the books.

Ta-Nehisi Coates at Time Magazine offers a different take on “The Messiah Myth” suggesting that the expectations some are putting forward for Obama are more than a little condescending toward the African-American community.

Coates writes:

‘“Since Barack Obama's victory celebration in Grant Park, the chattering class has been atwitter wondering what, exactly, his election will mean for African Americans. On Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw asked about the ‘impact ... on the black community and in those neighborhoods where there are dysfunctional families.’ To many pundits, both black and white, Obama's election to the White House signals the end of black America's unchallenged status as sore losers and complaint-mongers. ‘African Americans have just entered the no-excuses zone,’ Jonetta Rose Barras wrote in the Washington Post. Obama ‘won't tolerate ... the long-standing narrative of victimhood that has defined black America to itself and to the mainstream for more than a century.’ The writer John McWhorter, in New York magazine, went so far as to suggest that Obama will finally end the bullying of the black nerd: ‘Whenever a black nerd gets teased for thinking he's white, all he has to say is four words: ‘Is Barack Obama white?’

“That's terrible advice for a kid. But it's in line with those who think of Obama as a messiah who can give black people some manners, a God-child descending from the heavens to teacheth benighted African Americans the virtues of books and proper English and the evils of Pacman Jones and blaming the white man. It pains me to deliver this sobering news to those who think Obama will wave his hand and erase whole ghettos: Barack Obama is a black President, not black Jesus.

“In fact, the very idea that Obama should transform African Americans into the black Waltons is flawed. It rests on the notion that the black community, more than other communities, is characterized by a bunch of hapless layabouts who spend their days ticking off reparations demands and shaking their fist at the white man.

“The truth is that the dominant conversation in the black community today is not about racism or victimization but about self-improvement. In a 2007 Pew survey of black America, Bill Cosby was rated second among public figures believed to have the best influence on African Americans; Oprah, not exactly a doyenne of black complaint, ranked first. That same year, a study of young people by the University of Chicago found that while black kids consumed more rap videos than their white counterparts, about 60% of them thought the portrayals of black women were offensive.”

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