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THE RACIAL STALEMATE.
I think Obama's much-anticipated speech on race today hit the appropriate tone not just for addressing the Jeremiah Wright flap, but for framing the relevance of his candidacy in general. It was best in the way it framed the discomfort and resentment in the discussion of race in America that has lead to a "racial stalemate" for so many years, and made race "a part of our union that we have not yet made perfect." That stalemate is reflected in the sermons of Rev. Wright, but they're also reflected in the white community. I found this part particularly salient:
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe. These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
"Race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now," he continued. He referenced our still-segregated schools, our achievement gaps, the legalized discrimination that prevented black Americans from buying homes and joining unions, which created the ongoing wealth and income gaps. Yes, there are ongoing problems, but America is not irrevocably bound to this history. We can overcome those barriers. We can end the racial stalemate and move forward. It was the appropriate tone for the speech, not denying the validity of Wright's concerns while at the same time not embracing bitterness or divisiveness.
--Kate Sheppard
COMMENTS (6)
I'm a Hillary supporter, and I did not see the speech, but just read it.
It is an excellent speech--direct and well-phrased, with significant depth and insight into American life and character. I give the man credit.
I don't think it will help him that much with the Wright matter, however. He's just going to have to take his lumps there.
I'm hoping that people will look more closely at the black church and black preachers' speaking styles and theology.
Wright went way over the top, which sometimes happens, but there is a lot of good stuff being preached in the black church.
Posted by: John Petty | March 18, 2008 11:48 AM
I think the best bit -- most clever at least -- was the use of the campaign's main theme ("change")as a critique AGAINST WRIGHT. Basically, he said that Wright is wrong because he doesn't think that America has (or can) change.
This is a pretty nice bit of rhetoric.
Posted by: Doug | March 18, 2008 11:59 AM
How do you think he does it? (I don't know.) What makes him so good?
-The Who, Tommy
How does he do that? How can he, at the most dangerous moment of his political career to date, take a controversy that threatens to forever turn him into another might-have-been, go several layers deeper, and turn it into something so powerful, so healing?
He's not just the guy we need in the White House right now. He's a national treasure.
Posted by: low-tech cyclist | March 18, 2008 1:02 PM
I am 53 and cannot ever remember a speech of such passion or such candor. I am sure that no other politician has ever encouraged me to live by the golden rule. --Read or listen to this speech--it is more than a discussion on race in America, by someone that understands both sides--this is Christianity at it's best.
Posted by: Diane | March 18, 2008 2:43 PM
Yeah, there was a little straight talk express there.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 18, 2008 8:27 PM
Obama's speech gives us this hopeful glimpse of the true and exciting potential of this great nation - the U.S. of A., but it also reminds us that we have not even began to fully realize what a unified society can truly accomplish in all areas of human interaction. In my opinion, the best political speech since MLK's "I Have a Dream".
Posted by: jvc | March 19, 2008 11:59 AM