Obama confronts America's racial stalemate

Tue, 03/18/2008 - 2:12pm

EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images

There have been many good one-liners and a few memorable speeches during this campaign, but Barack Obama's speech this morning in Philadelphia is in a class of its own. Whatever you think of his candidacy, it is one of the most frank, nuanced speeches on race we've heard in a long time:

Trinity [Obama's church] embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger.... The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.... The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect.

And it's remarkable to hear a black politician speak so frankly and with such understanding about white anger, acknowledging that blacks and whites may harbor "resentments [that] aren't always expressed in polite company":

Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience -- as far as they’re concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

As they say, read the whole thing or watch it here.

Carolyn O'Hara | Permalink | | Comments? Login or register
( filed under: )


Advertisement

 

Obamas live press release

by GemStone on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 2:22pm

MSNBC is now slobbering over him but CNN is worse! Every single person they have on as a guest is a avid Obama supporter. All we hear is most wonderful speech ever that will cure all ills and resolve all issues forever more.

What I heard was a good speech that was frank but filled with the right words for his voting base that he is losing ground in. Not much in there for people who are not already his supporters. In fact his closing part about vote for me or go down the wrong path was horrible.

The speech didn't address the real issues with Barack Obama on these stories that are coming to light and finally getting long over due coverage. The issue is not his growing list of associates that could cause one to pause and raise an eyebrow but rather it is his avoidance to address hard questions at all. Senator Obamas usual first response is always a charming ambiguous answers. We do not like the fact that we have to count on the media to ask the same set of question 2 or 3 times before we get a answer that is clear and straight forward and not some charming ambiguous response.

He has had a rumored reputation of avoid hard questions and issues and he is proving that to be true. He really was gone during the hard vote or voted present on them. That is of more concern to me then the growing list of associates that raise your eyebrow, although that does concern me also but more for electable reasons then anything else.

In no way was this speech as good as the I have a dream speech, even though the people on MSNBC & CNN think so. Here is why, it was a political repair speech. The first part was good and had substance but then he quickly went to pandering for his support base. By the middle of the speech he was so busy hitting us with the right words to reaffrim his voting base to make it anything more then a self serving politcal press release. The ending was incredible selfish and horrible. For him to have the gall to bascially say Vote for me or you will be chosing to go down the wrong path was a total self pandering statement. The convention speech was a victory for all people with no agenda needed or added.

I read the whole thing...

by superpawn on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 3:47pm

I thought the speech did a very good job of going racially where most politicians often fear to tread. Political correctness often muzzles what I should normally be said.

That said, the fact that Obama is willing to go there doesn't mean he is the answer, either.

But then again, I have serious doubts that any of the candidates are the answer. :)

Well clearly we know the

by cigrainger on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 3:55pm

Well clearly we know the above has already made their decision regardless of what may be presented to them.

That speech was a monumental piece of American electoral history. For those of us born in the 70's and 80's, it was the finest piece of oratory we have ever seen. The content and delivery were both first class; it was poignant and thoughtful, and provided an unquestionably honest and insightful look into modern race relations among other things.

In response to the above: it is less a matter of pandering to his support base than that those who will not support him will find ways to undercut the magisterial nature of that speech and of his vision. The gall? He is right. Hillary Clinton and John McCain are both divisive, dishonest figures caught up in their personal desires to become president. They are running for themselves, whereas Obama is running for the people and for the country. One needs only to look at Hillary's early comments about how she 'deserves' it, or McCain's flip from calling Falwell an agent of intolerance to seeking his support when he realized he needed the fundy vote.

Be honest with yourself, and you'll realize that speech represents an image of America for which we all yearn. Only the weak of mind and/or dishonest of heart can say otherwise.

Obamaism

by Lure D. Lou on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 3:56pm

Thank you for Barack for bringing the racial reality of the United States back into the campaign. A color-blind race would be a false race as long as there more young black men in prison than in college. A color-blind race is an affront to all parents of inner city kids trying to get a job or a decent education for their children. It's been said that Barack Obama appeals to white voters because, well, he isn't all that black, ala Reverends Jackson or Sharpton. Well wake up America: Barack is a black man, but a new breed of such who stands on the shoulders of the leaders of the civil rights movement but who is also able to fluently navigate the world of the white man.
Frankly, having grown up in the suffocating pieties of the Catholic church I would have preferred the passion and entertainment value of a preacher like Rev. Wright. The purpose of individuals like him is not to put us to sleep with platitude or obtuse biblical nit-picking but rather to shake the very foundations of our alleged moral certainties. If the paintywaist white population is going to be offended by a man like Rev. Wright speaking from HIS heart about HIS reality and then somehow try to pin something on Barack Obama...well that is moral distortion and misdirection at its most petty.

This may sound harsh, but the civil rights movement is not over in this country and there are still bills to be paid to the black population. If Barack Obama is derailed over this petty nonsense those bills might be larger than anyone now imagines....because the disappointment will certainly be registered as another slap in the face. The idea that the US might suffer blowback from radical crazies because of our foreign policy is hardly news...the idea that someone would be deemed unpatriotic for saying so is, well, downright un-American.

Hang tough Barack, you're the man.