Why I Liked Obama’s Race Speech
There are several reasons I liked Senator Barack Obama’s recent speech on race:
1. By correctly refusing to disown Pastor Jeremiah Wright, Obama showed loyalty.
2. By speaking at length about the good points and bad points of the black church, Obama acknowledged the basic humanity and complexity of the average person.
3. By addressing the historical experience of both blacks and whites in the United States, Obama asked us to consider context. Although this is something increasingly rare in our fragmented and quick-paced society, context is a starting point of seeing the lives of others in a humane and caring way.
4. By speaking in a reasonably forthright manner about a difficult subject, Obama respected the intelligence of the average voter.
5. By offering the opportunity to move past divisive racial concerns in the 2008 Election, Obama offered voters a positive choice.
Here is a good USA Today story on the speech (No, you don’t need to read the 11,821 comments so far made about the story).
I bow to no one in my support of Barack Obama; I have been with him since he announced. But I do not think his speech on race was one of his best. He did not deliver it with conviction; I think he was holding back. And I think he was too willing to discount the truth of what Rev. Wright said. Obama should have said: any person who thinks Rev. Wright is going overboard should look at the book “Without Sanctuary” by Jimmy Allen and then SHUT THE HELL UP!! All right?? You see those lynching photos and you can say without a doubt that any black person would be totally justified for never trusting a white person in America ever again. (I am white in case you wondered.) And now white people are getting all sanctimonious about race? Give me a break. And Geraldine Ferraro, for God’s sake, who appointed her head of the NAACP? If Kwame had said that the only reason Hillary got votes was because she was a woman, whose head would be on the platter, you reckon?
I am so tired of this hypocrisy about race, and this time I think Obama helped condone it. Had to call it like I see it, EC.
I felt Mr. Obama held back as well,but that he was as forthright as circumstances allowed. And the speech had many other merits as well.Given the stakes and the chance for history, that is good enough for me.
I am speculating, I see a lot of handlers behind Obama.
The Wrights, Sharptons, Farrakhans can mobilize too many believers.
So why to mess up the relationship with that public?
Where are the enlightened people?
Why is somebody studying at college level and goes into a ministry of demagoguery?
“Wright was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Jeremiah Wright, Sr, was a Baptist minister, who pastored Grace Baptist Church of Germantown, from 1938 to 1980.
In 1959, Wright entered Virginia Union University, a historically black university, but became disenchanted and left in 1961.[3] He then joined the United States Marine Corps and later transferred to the United States Navy where he worked as a cardiopulmonary technician.[1] Wright then enrolled at Howard University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1968 and a Master’s degree in English in 1969. In 1975, he earned an additional Master’s degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in 1990 where he studied under Samuel DeWitt Proctor. He also has eight honorary doctorate degrees and has taught courses at many seminaries and universities in the nation. [4][1]”
Wright needs rehabilitation, a path from extremism to civility.
Obama has set back the clock on this phenomenon by decades.
Sorry for the dissonant voice.
Hey, dissonance is what makes jazz music. But I don’t get your point, Steve. I haven’t heard Wright say anything anti-Semitic like Farrakhan. Am I missing something?