There has been a very intentional effort to paint [Obama] as
somebody outside the mainstream, other, “he’s not one of us.” I think
the McCain campaign has been scrupulous about not directly saying
it, but it’s the subtext of this campaign. Everybody knows that. There
are certain kinds of signals. As a native of the South, I can tell you,
when you see this Charlton Heston ad, “The One,” that’s code for,
“he’s uppity, he ought to stay in his place.” Everybody gets that who
is from a Southern background. We all understand that. When
McCain comes out and starts talking about affirmative action, “I’m
against quotas,” we get what that’s about.
(August 3, 2008)During the campaign detractors often used “arrogant” and “elite” in their
criticisms of Obama. This was not entirely a matter of chance, as was
made clear in an anonymous Republican campaign strategy memo that
was came into the public domain shortly before the election:
The tactics that got [the Republican Party] to mid-September in a tie
are not going to get them to 50 percent plus one in November. They
need ... an eye toward driving out the range of contrast that makes
McCain different from Obama (action-oriented rhetoric v. grand
prose; accessible v. uppity; humble servant of country v. arrogant.
(Allen 2008)Of the terms discussed here (there are many others deserving
examination), “articulate” may be the most opaque to those who are not
African American (Robinson 2007; Clementson 2007). In her article “The
racial politics of speaking well,” Clementson interviewed successful
African Americans to get their reactions to the word “articulate,” with
some interesting results: “Al Sharpton is incredibly articulate. But because
he speaks with a cadence and style that is firmly rooted in black rhetorical
tradition you will rarely hear white people refer to him as articulate”
(Trisha Rose, as quoted in Clementson 2007).^20
To call any person of color “articulate” is to express surprise at the high
quality of that person’s rhetorical skills. A similar but less direct pseudo-
compliment sounds something like “you speak so well,” which is usually
taken as “you speak so well for an African American,” or “you speak so