Backlash to Barack Obama’s masculinity remarks misses the mark

There’s been a media-driven outrage cycle over former President Barack Obama’s comments about Black men and misogyny last week. Much of the backlash is unwarranted.

For those who aren’t chronically online, here’s how it went down: Addressing workers at a Harris-Walz campaign field office in Pittsburgh on Thursday, Obama spoke candidly about the idea that misogyny could lead some men to withhold support from Harris. Obama spoke to a room largely consisting of Black Harris campaign workers and supporters, including several men. Some of the former president’s comments touched on the reasons why Black men, in particular, should reject that kind of misogyny.

But a full reading of his speech shows he wasn’t singling out Black men or even assuming that the men in the room harbored these views:

Y’all know some of those brothers. That’s true the African American community, it’s true the Latino community, it’s true in the white community, but I’m talking to y’all right now in this part of Pittsburgh. So one of my biggest messages, I think, today, is: if you’re here, I’m assuming you’re convinced, or else you’re just trying to get something free. But our job is to challenge and talk to the people who are still on the sidelines, and in that conversation, part of this is about issues, but part of it is about dignity, and part of it is about character.

The media-driven backlash over these comments has been frustrating, to say the least. Op-eds abound denouncing Obama for “lecturing Black men” or “blaming” Black men for Democrats’ purported electoral problems. These positions seemingly ignore the fact that Obama effectively made the same pitch to men more broadly during his speech in Pittsburgh later Thursday.

And look: I’ve been outspoken in the past when I’ve thought Obama was using the perch of the presidency to speak down to Black men. I’ve also been intensely critical of the media narrative that a surge in support from Black men, in particular, stands a chance to propel Trump to victory. But Obama wasn’t actually engaging in that kind of shaming here. He wasn’t saying Black men are the problem, as some have suggested. He was saying Black men who embrace misogyny are a problem — which is undeniably true — while admitting they’re not unique in this regard.  

Obama’s rhetoric is fairly standard to those, like myself, who’ve been involved with organizations meant to root out misogyny. It’s also similar to the messaging we’ve heard from other men targeting voters of various ethnicities. The White Dudes for Harris call featured white, men influencers discouraging other men from letting misogyny determine their political choices. And I’ve written about efforts to use military spokespeople to dissuade Latino men from similar hypermasculinity.

The idea that Obama, one of the most prominent figures in America, wouldn’t make a similar plea when speaking with Black men defies logic. The suggestion that Black men should be offended by this plea — or for some reason, spared from it — doesn’t make much sense to me either. 

And to that end: It’s significant that much of the backlash to Obama’s comments came from paid pundits and commentators rather than people steeped in the day-to-day work of disabusing men of toxic masculinity. I don’t say that to suggest the views of the former don’t matter. But they ought to stop their pearl-clutching over Obama’s remarks and cease with the assumption that these comments are damaging to Democrats. Surely, there are a lot of men who agree with those remarks. And many more ought to hear them.

I fear some people in media are obscuring a real issue — hypermasculinity — to focus on a nonissue: Obama’s condemnation of it.