After discussing America’s racial history, and describing his mixed race background, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said that the concept that we are the sum of our parts is seared into his genetic makeup.  He discussed the racial tensions surrounding his campaign. “This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black†or “not black enough.â€Â We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.â€
He talked about the divisive turn the racial discussion has taken in recent weeks of the campaign. “On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.â€
Obama gave a direct and clear answer about his views and those of his former pastor. “I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.â€
He continued, “But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.â€
He gave his strongest condemnation of Rev. Wright’s remarks yet. “As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.â€
He said that he went to Wright’s church because there was more to him than the snippets of video that have been played everywhere.  “But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.â€
He explained how his church is like many other black churches across the nation. “Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. 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.â€
He tried to explain his relationship with Rev. Wright in personal terms. And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.â€
“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,†Obama said.
He discussed the anger of Wright’s generation. “They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.â€
“But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways,†Obama said.
“For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina – or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words.
We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies. We can do that. But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change,†Obama said.
Obama said that we should be talking about education, healthcare, foreclosures, and outsourcing. “I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.â€
Unlike Mitt Romney’s speech on his religion where he tried to minimize and avoid the topic, Obama’s address was a rare honest and open discussion about race in America. This is a speech that could have only addressed the political issues surrounding himself and Rev. Wright, but he chose to take it a step further. This was one of those speeches that may not only define his campaign, but go down in history. It is a speech that school children could listen to and learn about the not only the history of African Americans in the U.S., but also where the issue stands in 2008. This was the best speech given by any candidate of any party in the entire campaign.
Yesterday, IÂ wrote a piece ( http://www.politicususa.com/Obama-Wright )Â where I asked why Obama stayed in the church if he disagreed with his pastor? I never thought that I would ever hear a direct answer to that question, but I did. I am normally a very tough grader when it comes to speeches. I expect a lot out of anything that is billed as a major address/speech. Barack Obama delivered everything I expected and more. For the first time in this campaign, I am recommending that you read or watch this speech. It is that good.
Read the speech:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGBbKG
4 users commented in " Obama Delivers With Address on Race "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackObama’s speech on race was eloquent as well as manipulative.
Wright was his pastor for 20 yrs. Obama said Wright was like an uncle; He was his mentor; He is his spiritual guide, and campaign adviser. Those have much to say about the degree of influence Wright must have on him and the extent that Obama must have assimilated Wright. 20 yrs is a long time of moulding. This makes me recall and wonder also on Michelle’s candid statement “… for the first time in my life I am proud of America.” She must be having the Wright sentiment prior to Obama’s candidacy.
It is convenient to be proud of America when your husband’s candidacy is at stake. It is convenient to disown Wright’s words and behavior when Obama’s candidacy is threatened. For all we know, the speech was more tactical than genuine and even guided by Wright himself.
Everything in the speech was good for the hearing but it was suspect nonetheless because Obama went into the campaign knowing Wright full well – Wright’s bitterness and hurt. Yet he took him with him as guide and adviser in a campaign that was suppose to be about unity. It would be impossible not to know the passion and sentiments of the one who moulded you and has been a close friend to you for so long. Wright was his teacher about life and about morality and choices. Obama was his flock and student.
Obama’s words simply do not match his judgment and his behavior. If there is one thing I give Obama credit for – it is his ability to be alternatively savy and savage in attacking his rival one moment and then at the next moment lecture on America to “change and to hope and to unite” after he has stirred or at least allowed a negative word to be spun or a negative behaviour to be exhibited from within his own.
This was an amazing speech, I’m blown away and deeply moved. I we do not elect this man, we are doing america a disservice. He was more honest and genuine than any candidate I’ve see to date.
MG1220, people like you would never vote for Obama so the speach was not intended for you. This is a speach for the educated and the people who trully want to unit in this country. Give up the hate, give up the mistrust and let it all go. You will find that Wright is not the only man who is mad at America, Jerry Falwel was plenty mad and the list goes on and on and on. We the people are ready to heal and to come together and combat what is wrong with our country and if that means educating Rev Wright and others then we are prepared to do that. I sat in church for 15 years listing to how gays are the cause of all evil in this world and how homosexuals caused the HIV decease and how it is okay to be a racist because really it’s in the bible. Yet I don’t think that way about gays and I can see the difference between what my pastor says and what I believe. So give it up…Obama is your new President and you had better get used to saluting him.
Obama, his supporters and Wright apologists spend all their effort explaining why it is ‘understandable’ for Wright to speak this way. All of these reasons are based on the historical inequality and oppression of ‘blacks’ and their suffering in America at the hand of ‘whites’.
However this does nothing to explain Wright’s virulent anti-Semitism (Judeophobia). The Jews were not involved in the slave trade. It is this ‘unexplained’, recurrent and rabid racism in his ‘preaching’ that clearly indicates a darker current of thought. The hatred of Jews espoused by Wright’s movement cannot be excused away by reference to ‘black’ history. Obama has not explained the reasons for White’s anti-Semitic (Judeophobic) rants either. He wants to skate over it and ‘move on’.
If you find yourself characterising all of a ‘people’ or ‘race’ with any quality, you are being racist and intellectually retarded. This is why racists lost the wars of slavery and also the Second World War; and this is why people are so concerned about the effect 20 years of White’s preaching has had on one of the three potential candidates for President.
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