Do not be fooled into thinking that Paint the White House Black is another Obama-oriented text that either articulates biographical fascination with the current President or tackles his political contribution at the supreme level of government. Instead, Michael Jeffries negotiates an ambitious topic – “the meaning of race in America” – deploying Obama as an exploratory tool to probe “race in action” and “talk about race sensibly” (3, 17). His book joins a burgeoning body of more spontaneous accounts of Obama from both journalists and media pundits, as well as more formal academic works by (among others) Daniel Kriess, Dewey Clayton, Enid Logan and Kevern Verney.Footnote ¹

This perceptive and captivating book deduces that we can use “Obama-mania” to grasp how racial meaning is made. To do so, Jeffries's so-called “guiding lights” are “metalanguage” (that “race operates like a language, because … it signifies things beyond the obvious; because it is flexible, adaptable, and dependent on context”) and “intersectionality” (deliberating how gender and class overlap with race) (150, 7). He convincingly reasons that these two theoretical approaches are “the keys to triumphing over the intimidating messiness and shame of race,” using a range of academic sources for support as well as more practical evidence in the form of interviews with multiracial young adults; Obama's memoir Dreams from My Father; and various statements, articles and cartoons about the President (from both sides of the political spectrum) (150). Jeffries engages these concepts and case studies to work methodically through various discussions of the impact of race – in relation to nationhood, multiculturalism, “post-racialism” and Michelle Obama. His time frame does not commence with the 2008 election, but rather takes necessary momentous leaps backwards (for instance, surveying the history of interracialism in the US, including legislation pertaining to mixed-race marriages). In fact, the title of the book itself could be read as setting a historical precedent; it invokes the British burning of Washington in 1812 (after which the “White House” was painted white).Footnote ²

Had Paint the White House Black been published a little later, it would arguably have included the recent Trayvon Martin furore as another discerning case study for analysis. Indeed, the justice system that delivered the Zimmerman acquittal resonates with chapter 4 (“Postracialism Reconsidered”), which debunks the myth of Obama's America being somehow “beyond” race. Yet for me it was chapter 5 (“The Perils of Being Superwoman”) that is the pièce de résistance. This section explores Michelle Obama in the context of historical black female stereotypes in addition to a “newer, more complicated racist construction: the uppity black superwoman,” which problematizes the economic gains made by African American women (116).

Michael Jeffries, assistant professor of American studies at Wellesley College in the USA, is well equipped to explore the “meaning of race” using first-person accounts. His 2011 book Thug Life probed race and gender to understand the “meaning of hip-hop,” drawing on extensive interviews with the music's fans and listeners. In many ways the dialogues at the heart of chapter 3 (“Mutts Like Me”) elicit the richest and most innovative materials for analysis. Jeffries asked his forty-nine respondents how their perceptions of Obama inform multiracial identities. I would like to have heard even more from the interviewees and Jeffries's subsequent assessment. This is not a criticism of a book which confidently tackles a range of evidential sources, but rather speaks to the quality of insightful comments crafted by Jeffries's clear proclivity for asking productive questions.Footnote ³

Paint the White House Black was a pleasure to read. I am confident that its accessible prose and beguiling content will ensure that it secures a place on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses (whether political-science, cultural-studies or history modules) that tackle race in the US, particularly in the post-civil rights era. Jeffries's regular propositions for what could be done in future (such as suggestions for a “new American nationalism”) do not merely provide fascinating food for thought when read in solitude, but will energize classroom discussions to determine racial meaning and injustices (45–46).Footnote ⁴