"The speech in Selma, with all of its pro-'American' and settler
colonialist sentimentality was delivered with a world audience in mind. Its
ideological objective was to counter the idea of an irreconcilable
black opposition by co-opting black resistance and imposing a
conservative meaning of black oppositional politics.
The presence of George Bush and the imagery of Bush and Obama with the
masses of black people behind them as they jointly crossed the bridge
was meant to symbolically close any gap between the policies of the Bush
and Obama Administrations that may have existed in the imagination of
people outside of the U.S. related to black people and their loyalty to
the U.S. state.
The message that Obama's speech was meant
to convey was that despite killer-cops, mass incarceration and grinding
poverty no one should be confused: you will not split black folks away
from the state because these black folks belong to us."
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