scholarship on the challenges of repoliticizing post–civil rights political subjectivities and the
relevance of public intellectuals within the promise of black politics in the wake of Barack
Obama's historic ascension to the presidency of the United States. Parsing cultural strains of
racial triumph and vexation, of political elation as well as mourning, that mark the Obama
phenomenon, the piece underscores the urgency of critically interrogating the post in …