Too Black to Fail: The Obama Portraits and the Politics of Post-Representation

In the past several decades, progressive leftists have gradually replaced socialism with populist criticism of elites and single-issue coalitions. As global economic crisis deepens, the spectre of both the radical left and the extreme right have re-emerged. Max Horkheimer famously stated that whoever does not criticize capitalism has nothing to say about fascism. With a focus on the American scene, Too Black to Fail adds to this the argument that whoever does not criticize identity politics has nothing to say about capitalism. Taking the official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama as a touchstone for the contradictions of our era, Léger questions the Obama legacy in relation to the neoliberalization of society and culture. Arguing for the renewal of emancipatory universalism, Too Black to Fail makes an unsparing critique of woke aesthetics and black capitalism, drawing the connections between today’s racialist agenda and the ideology of post-representation.

Praise

“For those who want to know how economic and racial inequality grew worse during the first black president’s eight years in the White House, look no further than Marc James Léger’s Too Black to Fail: The Obama Portraits and the Politics of Post-Representation. In dialogue with some of the most insightful critics of neoliberal capitalism, from Slavoj Zizek to Adolph Reed, Léger argues that the only effective way to criticize contemporary ideology is to also criticize identity politics. Ranging from astute aesthetic analysis of the Obama portraits to a discussion of the politics of the Obama administration and cultural criticism that takes on woke racialism, Too Black to Fail defends a universalist socialist programme against global capitalism.”

– Andrew Hartman, author of A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars