I think you'll find those were Your Words, actually. To directly quote you : The problem is that it's really obvious what "black" means when it's a black man on the t-shirt. With which I disagree. Among other Things, precisely because the Picture is of a specific person (Baldwin), and includes a Smiths quote, each of which comes With its own context.
Then you followed it up With this:
Of course it's possible that another meaning can be constructed but you can definitely "take as implied a connection between black as a skin color ... and black as a state of mind." It's very obvious. Otherwise we're playing this game where we pretend we see him as a man and not as a black man, and doesn't that strip him of some of his identity?
It is not merely "possible that another meaning can be constucted", there are other meanings positively leaping out at anyone who is prepared to see them and is aware of the context. Secondly, the point is what does "black as a state of mind" mean? In this specific case at least, there are at least two different viable meanings. One is "depressed", for which "black" is conventionally used as a metaphor. Re for example the Expression "The Black Dog". This is obviously the sense in which "black" is used in "Unloveable". It is also the sense in which a Goth would motivate his Choice of clothing, whatever his or her skin color. The other refers to skin color, and being "black on the inside" in this sense would refer to a person possessing a sense of Identity tied to his or her skin color. In the spceific case of James Baldwin, who was famously depresseive as well as a strong advocate of black civil rights, both meanings obviously apply, and taken together, they say something strong about him. But, that does not amount to a claim that there is an essential Connection between being depressed and being black. Most People of black skin color are not depressed, and most People who are depressed are not of black sin color. They are juxtaposed elements, not Connected elements. The different meanings of "black" being homonymic, not synonymic - they just happen to meet in the specific case of James Baldwin.
"Now explain to me this quote about Morrissey's views of President Obama's handlng of race relations in America, “Obama seems to be white inside.” In what sense is he using the term "white?"
If you'd like to put that in context for me in a way that isn't obviously about skin color as cultural identity, I'd be glad to read it"
Firstly, so what? Is it inherently objectionable to say something involving Someone's skin color? To a lot of people, their skin color is rather an important part of their identity, in many cases because the continued existence of racism as a social fact has caused it to shape the experience of their lives, however arbitrary it fundamentally is as a point of definition for people. Which is why a slogan such as "Black Lives matter!" make sense. Secondly, it's the first I hear of it. But if the statement was made in the context of the handling of race relations in America, it would seem resonable, at least as an immediate reaction, to see that as a claim that Obama encapsulates American mainstream values, rather than values emanating from the specific experience of being a black-skinned person in America, and an outsider. In other Words, a counterpoint to how he depicts Baldwin, and it is obviously tempting to see the two statements in conjunction. If so, there is little doubt which of the two he would be extolling. The fundamental point he would be making if that is the case does not seem to me objectionable, nor different from the general attitude he has consistently had to the world in general over the past 30 years. Although I personally do not share his appetite for Identity politics, and certainly would neither think of nor describe Obama in this way.
