GABRIELE DIETZE Barack Obama’s “Identity Performance” and the Intersection of Race and Gender during the Nomination Battle against Hillary Clinton 1 The Political Iconography of Barack Obama in a White Visual Regime The cultural dynamics of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008–2009 simultaneously encompassed two historical “firsts”: A (white) woman and a (“black” 2 ) man competed for the presidency. These extraordinary developments revealed that while the supremacy of white male conservatism, as embodied by George W. Bush, can be identified as hegemonic, this dominance was—albeit briefly—de-authorized and challenged by persons who did not “look like” future presidents. In this sense, the central issues at the outset of the nomination race all concerned race and/or gender. The question was whether a white woman, Hillary Clinton, or a “black” man, Barack Oba- ma, would be the person more appropriate to perform the seemingly im- possible task of assuming the country’s highest office. The contest between Clinton and Obama was conceived of as a battle over the redemption of two particular kinds of historical injustices. The first of these involves the complex of slavery, segregation, and Civil Rights; the second comprises the longstanding and continuing discrim- 1 This newly conceptualized and updated article takes up ideas from the German publication “‘Rasse’ übertrumpft Geschlecht – Warum Barack Obama President und Hillary Clinton Außenministerin wurde” (Dietze, “Rasse”) and the forth- coming monograph Weiße Frauen in Bewegung. Genealogien und Konkurren- zen von Race- und Genderpolitiken (Dietze, Weiße Frauen). The author wishes to thank Greta Olson for inspiration and editing. 2 For various readings of Obama’s hybridic blackness, including his being of mixed race, and his stemming from a Kenyan father and not being a descendant of slaves, see, for instance, Hollinger, Mitchell, Parameswaran, Shawn.