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, makes an unsparing critique of woke aesthetics and black capitalism, drawing the connections between today's racialist agenda and the ideology of post-representation.