O P I N I O N
It was an issue he couldn’t ignore, one that shows the frightening power of the Internet to affect nationwide (and worldwide) opinion.Sen. Barack Obama chose the right time and perfect hour (for news cycles) to address an issue that continues to simmer in this nation: race.
Obama was forced to address the issue now after videos of his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, surfaced on the Internet recently. Wright’s sermons were brutal in tone — an “us versus them” response to the state of black and white realities in America.
This speech today, delivered brilliantly through Obama’s compelling gift for oratory, is one for the ages. While critics will say it fell short of Obama severing his ties completely with his opinionated pastor, Obama was able to show the nuances of racial mindsets that exist in America. His own white grandmother who he loved dearly, he explained, would make racist comments in front of him about her fears of blacks. Yet there is no way he would, or should be forced, disown her.
Obama hit on a reality about race in America, how we act one way in public, but think and say other things in private. He said what his pastor suffers from is being mired in cynicism and not acknowledging the real change that is going on. He lauded the younger generations who grew up in a post-Jim Crow America and do not have the same fears or feelings toward other races and ethnic groups that their parents and grandparents did.
When I was a child, I remember the horrible ethnic and race jokes that were spoken openly. You don’t hear that type of “humor” often from younger generations. Thanks to what some would call the politically correct movement in America, the Archie Bunkers of this country were forced to “stifle themselves.” The change is palpable in young generations, but as Obama suggested it’s right under the surface for older people.
In my entire grade- through high-school education, there was one student from Latin America, two black teachers and two black students. Things were quite different at the newspaper where I worked. My coworkers were white, black, Latino, Asian, immigrants, old, young, gay and straight. These differences, though, you had to remind yourself about because in the regular workday, it just wasn’t noticed or an issue. I often thought it would be wonderful if the rest of the country could co-exist like that newsroom did.
Let’s hope this speech will inspire new, open, and probably some cases brutally opinionated, dialogue about this issue that must be addressed. As Obama said, it keeps the nation from moving forward; it’s time to make our union grow stronger.
Here is a brief excerpt from his speech:
“The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country — a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old — is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen — is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope — the audacity to hope — for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.”
You can read Sen. Barack Obama’s speech here.
Feed me 5 Under the Radar
