In this book, Melanye Price masterfully explores the many ways in which the first black president, Barack Obama, navigated the complexities of race—not only as a politician but also as a candidate. The book’s success lies in Price’s ability to peel back the layers of racial significance within President Obama’s rhetorical approaches. Even when he does not speak directly about race, he is viewed through a racial lens. Thus, the foundation of the work is built upon the belief that “all politics regarding Obama is racial” (p. 4). This premise makes for an interesting discussion and an intriguing book.

In The Race Whisperer, Price establishes a unique characterization of Obama as the titular race whisperer—a person who has the ability to use rhetorical frames to match particular audiences without seeming to be pandering to certain racial groups. This was made possible by the president’s ability to forge an authentic connection to the black community without creating the perception among whites that he is a racial threat. Moreover, he was able to make multiple authentic “racial appeals as instruments of mobilization to bring together diverse and divergent groups” (p. 19).

One of the central claims of the book is that President Obama, as the race whisperer, relied on his rhetorical charisma and membership status to galvanize support among African Americans, as opposed to coalescing this support through public policies that would represent progress by improving political and social conditions in the black community (p. 8). Despite this lack of attention, the black community demonstrated an immense affinity for the idea of having the first black president. Price astutely points out that black voters’ unconditional and unwavering support of Barack Obama drastically limited their ability to petition the government for improved policies that would address racial inequality or create racial progress in America (p. 34). Thus, Price does not simply assess the words of the first black president; she goes on to explore the political consequences that Obama’s words had on the racial group to which he claims membership (p. 31).

Price delves deeper into the unique messages that President Obama offered specifically to the black community on political responsibility and black blame. The author conjures up several examples that illustrate the president’s use of black blame: referring to African Americans as “cousin Pookie,” criticizing black youths for being obsessed with money, chastising absentee fathers, and admonishing black parents for allowing their children to watch too much TV or eat Popeye’s chicken for breakfast. The author goes on to point out that many of the speeches with these examples were given to predominantly black audiences. She is critical of these messages of black blame, particularly given that President Obama often delivered these speeches to a national televised audience and thus engaged in the transgression of “airing the black community's dirty laundry in public” (p. 63). The political consequences of these transgressions were that the larger public interpreted the remarks as support for the decision to increase expectations of what black people can do for themselves instead of pursuing policy solutions that address racial inequality.

Price also explores the unique messaging that President Obama offered to predominantly white audiences, laying out how his discussions concerning his grandparents’ personal experiences during World War II—a period that many believe produced the greatest generation—amplified his white identity in connection to patriotic whiteness. Price is critical of Obama for discussing the G.I. Bill favorably while failing to address its discriminatory past (p. 82).

Arguably, the weakest discussion in the book is Price’s attempt to examine the president’s “A More Perfect Union” speech through the lens of feminist theory. The chapter reads as being disjointed and in search of relevance as the author traces the historical waves of African American and women’s activism. Nevertheless, Price concludes the chapter with valid observations: President Obama embodies third-wave feminism, and his rhetoric at times captures Rebecca Clark Manes’s syntax of whiteness, which shores up white privilege by offering appeals to equality as a universal value, while distorting both historical and contemporary contexts (p. 117). However, this observation is tainted by the author’s limited focus, as Price examines only one speech through the analytical frame of only one theorist.

Price concludes the book with a passionate discussion of race and policing. She relives the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (and the contentious public response to it), the unfortunate death of Trayvon Martin, and the tragic police encounter of Mike Brown. After describing Obama’s gut reaction to Gates’s arrest, Price points out that in this “teachable moment,” Obama learned to be measured and prepared when offering rhetorical reactions about race. In the end, she proclaims that Obama was not a deracialized candidate or president; rather, she argues that he used significant narratives that were steeped in racial significance to engage with the American public (p. 165)

The Race Whisperer is persuasive and well argued. However, I often had small questions about Price’s research approach that nagged at me. A valid critique of the work is that the author provides evidence in terms of rhetorical examples as opposed to rhetorical trends. Thus, Obama’s discussion of race is discussed through a snapshot of only a few speeches. This is fine if the snapshot reflects Obama’s broader discussion. The reality is that he grew in his approach to race and his discussion about racial injustice over the course of his presidency. I felt myself wanting to hear Price discuss Obama’s rhetorical growth in response to greater appeals from within the black community to openly address issues of race, especially in Obama’s second term of office.

To further this point, Price blurs the lines between Obama’s rhetoric as a political candidate on the campaign stump and his rhetoric as president. There is an important difference here that must be recognized. In the former, Obama was trying to get elected, but in the latter, he was trying to pass policies. Surely, much of Price’s critique of candidate Obama also applies to President Obama. However, compared to candidate Obama, President Obama engaged in fewer statements of black blame and was more uplifting toward black people.

Price’s discussion of black blame is intriguing, but it left me with an internal conflict regarding the best approach for achieving racial progress in the black community. Yes, President Obama did engage in black blame. However, he often presented these remarks in conjunction with larger critiques of institutional bias and historical racism. His realization that there is room for improvement on all sides strikes me as a virtue. Price’s critique of Obama’s use of black blame makes me wonder how black political leaders can question and challenge the efforts of the black community without being rebuked for sincere efforts to call out and eliminate that community’s weaknesses.

In addition, returning to the snapshot methodological approach, Price speaks about black blame by citing only specific passages of larger speeches. In doing so, she does not provide the reader with a clear understanding of the overall context of the larger speech. Perhaps the individual paragraphs that she cites in which Obama engaged in black blame come from speeches containing a hundred other paragraphs that engaged in criticism of the predominately white American system that has discriminated against blacks. Moreover, She does not provide an understanding of how the speeches that included black blame relate to the overall collection of rhetoric that the president engaged in while in office.

These are only minor quibbles, however. Overall, Price’s work was extremely impressive. Among the tasks that Price executes brilliantly is her ability to capture the moment of each of President Obama’s speeches. She puts readers literally in the room on many occasions, giving them an assessment of the audience, the political atmosphere, the media presence, and more. She has the gift of assisting readers to experience the moment and help them realize why “the race whisperer” was successful when conveying his messages on race. The Race Whisper will be a staple for academics and the larger public. It will be particularly informative for those in future generations who seek to learn what it was like to live through the administration of the first black president.