Obama’s Historic Speech On Race
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Transcript of Obama’s speech on race available via CNN at:
www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/18/obama.transcript/index.html
Video of the speech available via MSNBC:
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23691239#23691239
It’s Not About Him Now–It’s About Us by Jim Wallis
It was an amazing day, and, we may look back to conclude it was a historic day. Before Barack Obama’s speech yesterday, after the now infamous statements from his former pastor; the issue seemed to be a test of him. But after what may go down as one of the most significant addresses ever given about the history and future of race in America, the issue may now be a test of us. The examination of a candidate was transformed yesterday into an examination of a nation.
A young African American leader, more than four decades ago, told us about his dream for our nation. Yesterday, another young leader, who is also a black man, outlined what it would take to make that dream into a “more perfect union.” No political leader has ever delivered such a comprehensive and, I would say, prophetic treatment of race in America.
Every American needs to watch and listen to Barack Obama’s speech about the future that the U.S. could have. And I would suggest we watch the speech with our children. After watching, we should ask ourselves, and ask our children, if this is the vision for the U.S. that we and they really want. If it is, we will have moved from an issue over controversial comments to much higher ground. After the constant replaying of the same video tapes (which seems like a metaphor of our recent racial history in America), we listened to an invitation to turn the page and move forward.
We heard the vision of a new generation today, one that understands how injustice does indeed breed frustration and anger, but that to remain stuck in past anger and present frustration can be counter-productive and even self-destructive. We heard a vision characterized not by incendiary recrimination but by the possibility of changing the realities that have kept us stuck in a racial “stalemate” and a mired in a “cynical” and “static” view of America’s painful divides. This was a speech that actually posited new hope for opportunity and equality, and even the beginning of the kind of racial reconciliation and unity which few have dared to speak of since the end of the civil rights movement.
We heard a political leader who, as a black man, can also sympathize with white resentment and frustration over racial politics, and who can see both the anger of a black mentor and the racial stereotypes of a white grandmother as both part of him and part of America. The most honest and compelling speech about race in decades could open the promise of a deeper national conversation about our racial past and future than we have had for some time. Obama’s speech leaves the choice to us. The issue now is whether we will choose not to allow the angry and frustrating past prevent a more fair and hopeful future; or whether we will be forever bound by that past. To the question of whether race will continue to divide and conquer our hopes for a better America, Barack Obama had his answer, “Not this time.” Now we each have to answer the question for ourselves.
This is not just about a candidate now, or a campaign; it is about the country and the choices we have to make about whether we will decide to bind our progress to one another - including those beyond our own tribe. Ask your children what they would have us do.
The Speech, part 2 by David Kuo
I’ve watched the speech again in its entirety and I am more blown away by it than I was the first time around.
There are few political speeches in the last 50 years that are its equal and fewer still that are superior to it. One is left to think of RFK’s speech on the back of a truck in Indianapolis in 1968 telling the city that King was dead or of Rep. Barbara Jordan’s opening statement in the Nixon impeachment hearings or of King’s Dream speech or of Reagan at the Wall.
It was a speech of profound respect for America and for Americans. It didn’t try and sound bite its way around dicey issues, it didn’t try and spin its way out of trouble. Instead it paid tribute to its audience by treating the audience as grown men and women capable of understanding and appreciating a nuanced argument on a controversial and divisive issue.
Ironically this very fact may lead to short term political tribulation for Sen. Obama. It was a hard speech to synthesize for the evening news and for newspapers and for bloggers. No sound bite, taken alone was representative of the speech as a whole.
To wit, one of the quotes that has appeared in many stories is the one in which he said he could no more disown Rev. Wright than he could disown the black community. Without the benefit of context that sounds like a fairly incendiary remark.
But read the context:
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.
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.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.
It is a stunning section of oratory. This liberal black politician is saying yes, there is cruelty and shocking ignorance and bitterness and bias not only in his church but in the black community. This is something that conservatives have been chiding liberal politicians about for years and here Obama is saying it.
The speech must be seen in full or read in full to really appreciate its genius. If you haven’t done so, take the time and watch. If you have, watch again because you will probably have to wait a very, very long time to hear anything like it ever again.
A note here. I do not write this as an Obama partisan. There is much, much that I admire about him. I love the campaign that he is running. I love how he is inspiring once apathetic kids to get involved. I love his vision for a united states of America.
But there is much about him that I do not like. I am, at the end of the day, a conservative and he is a liberal and there are lots of policies differences between us. I fail to understand, for instance, how a man who wants to unite could have been one of the few people to vote against banning partial-birth abortions.
I am also gravely concerned about the exploitation of faith for political ends. It is no more admirable in Barack Obama than it is in George W. Bush.
I say this to emphasize my estimation of the speech. It was that good. He is that good. I just hope the rest of America - including the media - is up to the challenge he laid out today… a challenge to have a real dialogue about the things that ail us.
