2006). In a book that has seen multiple editions and reprintings, the
conservative popular historian Paul Johnson makes no bones about his
distrust of all things intellectual: “Beware intellectuals. Not merely should
they be kept well away from the levers of power, they should also be
objects of suspicion when they seek to offer collective advice” (1988:
342).^18
With the election of Senator Barack Obama to the office of president,
anti-intellectualism has continued to escalate at a rapid pace. In Obama’s
case, allusions to education and elitism are complicated by race.
The media – specifically Fox News commentators – have played a large
role in framing Obama as an out-of-touch elite, an intellectual who doesn’t
understand and harbors disdain for the common man. Discussions of
Obama as an elitist often skew toward the silly, as was the case when the
president stopped to have lunch at an Arlington, Virginia, diner on May 5,
- Commentators and newscasters including Sean Hannity, Laura
Ingraham, Mark Steyn, Rush Limbaugh along with dozens of bloggers and
a Cornell law professor all joined forces in deriding Obama’s preference
for Dijon mustard. The implication was that American mustard wasn’t
good enough for the president. Six days later, the Dijon débâcle had
reached the mainstream media and Jason Linkins of The Huffington Post
declared that this attack on Obama’s choice of condiments had become a
full-blown right-wing talking point (see Media Matters for America, 7
May 2009, for a summary of Dijon-gate commentary).
At first, many saw the election of an African American to the highest
office in the country as a huge step forward in race relations. But racism in
the United States did not go away with the Emancipation Proclamation or
the Civil Rights Act, and it did not disappear with Obama’s election. Those
who think in racist terms – at least those who depend on public opinion for
their jobs – know better than to voice racist opinions openly. On the
surface at least, overt racism is rejected by all institutions, including the
mainstream media. Nevertheless, prejudiced sentiments are still voiced,
but by use of code words or euphemisms. During the 2008 campaign and
the first year of Obama’s presidency there was ample opportunity to watch
such rhetorical strategies develop.
Code words can be used to a politician’s advantage in reaching a
specific audience within an audience. One African American journalist
drew attention to the way that [Obama’s] “language, mannerisms and