Barack Obama’s Faustian Bargain and the Fight for America’s Racial Soul

This article provides the theoretical and conceptual grounding for understanding how critical race theory (CRT), as a discourse of liberation, can be used as a methodological and epistemological tool to expose the ways that race and racism affect the lives of Blacks in the United States, post-Obama. To that extent, the goal is threefold. First, CRT is adequately defined by situating it within a specific sociohistorical context. Further, an argument is presented for why there is a need for CRT in current racial discourse. In doing so, a discussion is presented of why the term postracial is meaningless as a critique. Finally, the current racial discourse in the Obama presidency is examined, including his attempt to discuss race in a nuanced way that placates Whites and panders to Blacks, some of whom are so caught up in the symbolism of his presidency that they are willing to collude with many Whites who do not want a Black president but a president who happens to be Black. But the devil is in the details. As such, the case is made that Obama’s racial bargaining—as in the metaphorical Faustian bargain—is dangerous and tantamount to a deal with the devil.