Obama's Race Speech Won't Make Wright or Race Go Away for Him

"There were early warning signals of the ugliness that could come....the message was that Obama was not exempt from a racial dig. That was also evident in the knock at Obama's Southside Chicago church, or to be more exact the minister at the church, Jeremiah Wright. He is an outspoken afro-centric activist on racial and social issues. The inference was that Obama's guilt by membership and friendship with him made him a closet radical and a race baiter."

This writer wrote these words in a column January 6. It was a no-brainer prediction that the Wright card would eventually be played hard by the media and milked for all it's worth. The inflammatory, provocative rants of Wright were well-known. Thousands within and without his church have heard them for years. His afro-centric tinged writings have been widely cited by black commentators. It was only a matter of time.

The only surprise was the timing. This writer expected that the Wright card would be kept tightly in the political deck and dumped on the political table by the GOP "truth squads" in the fall if Obama is the eventual Democratic presidential nominee. But then again why not dump it on the table now. The Wright rants are just too juicy, racially salacious, and media sensational to keep under wraps any longer. And since Hillary Clinton has been so trashed and demonized by much of the media, while Obama got a free pass, all the better to toss out Wright now. If Obama can be hammered with and tainted by the guilt by association tag with Wright that further poisons the Democratic Party well and makes the throngs of independents that are enthralled by Obama waver, maybe even rethink just who and what they're getting into by backing him.

But this writer didn't just make the prediction that the Wright card would sooner or later be used against Obama. He also flatly predicted the instant Obama stood on the steps of the Old Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois back in February 2007 and announced that he was on a history making quest to be president that two things would happen. The first is that the racial innuendos, rumors, gossip, hints, digs, and finger-pointing would be a subtle and tormenting subtext to his campaign.

The second thing was that he couldn't duck and dodge racial matters by simply pounding away that he and his campaign was about hope, change and unity. That was good campaign stump stuff but it is not the reality of race and politics in America.

Now we come to his so-called race speech. Obama did the obligatory sprint backwards from Wright's preachments and philosophy. The idea was not just to distance himself from Wright's views, but to get ahead of the curve and reassure the waverers and doubters about him that his hope, change and unity theme was still alive and well. The problem with this is that it won't quell the doubts.

He made the speech only under extreme duress, namely the beating that he took for his association with Wright, and his fear that it could wreck or at the very least be a horrible distraction to his campaign. As he correctly noted, the Wright speech(s) will continue to resurface and will continue to be a prick in his campaign's side. It won't open up any new dialogue on race that some commentators naively think will or should happen. Obama in fact told us why. He mentioned the O.J. Simpson case, and how the great racial discourse that the case supposedly ignited was grotesquely twisted, mangled, and ultimately botched.

But that doesn't mean race will magically disappear from the presidential campaign trail, or more specifically from Obama's campaign trail. These questions will still be whispered or shouted out whenever Obama's name is mentioned: Is America ready for a black president? Will whites vote for him in a showdown with two white males? Does he really have the experience (read intelligence and competence)? Is he patriotic enough? Is he black enough? Is he too black? Will he tilt toward blacks and other minorities in the White House? Will he be a yes man for (white) corporate interests? Will his election make race a dead issue in America?

This doesn't make for serious dialogue on racial problems, let alone point America in the direction of real solutions to them. This is mere momentary racial titillation. Obama's speech contained the seed for the racial discourse dodge when he spoke of the disparities in the criminal justice system, failing inner city schools, HIV/AIDS, and chronic and nagging Great Depression high rate of black male unemployment, the need for greater family supports only in the broadest of broad generalities. There was not the barest hint of any specific initiatives to tackle these problems.

The Wright issue and by extension race was forced on Obama. One eloquent and flowery speech won't make either go away.

Read more HuffPost coverage and reaction to Obama's speech

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House (Middle Passage Press, February 2008).

Comments

[tomkraj]

With talking heads crying “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”, the easy and politically advantageous thing for Obama to do would have been to disown and condemn Rev. Wright. Throw him under the bus as we say today. As a practicing Christian, Obama could not. Hate the sin, but love the sinner was what Rev. Wright and his Christianity taught him. Adult-baptized Christians seem to take this Christianity stuff more seriously than born Christians.

48 years ago we decided we could have a Catholic as President. This year we may decide if we can have a practicing Christian as President.

[afgail]

Yeah, just like we have a practicing Christian in the White House now? No thanks. My preference is an honest person not in the thrawl of religion but imbued with an innate sense of human kindness. Like Hillary Clinton.

[Lesjoan]

No, he just threw his grandma under the bus.......­....nice Obama!

[TruthBeHeard]

Earl, You are Wrong!

[resonate]

"It won't open up any new dialogue on race that some commentators naively think will or should happen" There we go again... naive/young/stupid voters who supports Obama. How dare they try to keep the national dialogue on race moving cause it just wont happen... Right? He didnt say race is a thing of the past and he isnt trying to kill the conversation he is trying to shift its focus and he did so very well today. Some mass media have already slightly changed their tone out of embarrassment.

This is the mentality that stalls national examination of the issues. Young naive people should just shut up and deal with things instead of questioning them and discussing them. That is really horrible.


Watch videos of Obama on all sorts of issues:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=900C5EDCAF3C292A

[dknightpost]

Dear Earl,

First of all, I apologize by proxy for those replying to your post who will display the lack of common courtesy and respect that all of us should seek to address one another with.

In the same vein I'm deeply grieved at the lack of respect exhibited by your dismissive summarization of Senator's Obama's moving appeal to our nation today as "One eloquent and flowery speech..."

Bias often is so deeply rooted in us that it hinders us from seeing and knowing when historical moments knock at the door. It's hard to witness someone of your intellect and passion summing up an entreaty for a paradigm shift in racial relations, politics, and media, in the disparaging fashion that you have.

[PKSSK]

People, do yourself a favor and read the bio of Mr. Hutchinson and you will gain a perspective on his views. This is the type of person Senator Obama was speaking about; the person who gains adavantages in life because of his race (affirmative action) then chooses to kick the ladder out to prevent others like him from doing the same.

Senator Obama wants to help all people receive the same advantages, white and black, in order to make us a better nation and country. Mr. Hutchinson wants to add negativity to the debate to create a deeper dvivide in our nation and the world.

[Zentomato]

Earl permit me a question. You're a republican, right?

[SethBLiNK]

Earl, a year from now, Barack Obama is going to be President and you're going to kick yourself that you were so bent on backing your agenda that you totally missed seeing and appreciating history in the making.

[JoyceBains]

Oh, Earl.

*chuckling*

[Buddhabman]

Earl what is the itch in your A$$ regarding Sen. Obama. Ever since you have hit the semi-big time national spot light you have turned from a Progressive to a Larry Elder wanna be. Your mocked "Sarcasm" is a screen for your blatant disdain for Sen. Obama. It's was a speech to let the American people know that he is forged and born form all sides of America, which would help him work as an effective leader.

This notion being spewed, that because he goes to the Trinity Church he must be a Racist is non-sense. Unfortunately that is the way it's being played, and you are feeding the red meat yourself. He didn't say he could solve the racial divide, but that he would lead in a way that could help remove those divisions. The people of America have to do the work, but if we constantly fall in to these convenient isolated racial camps, the unity the harmony that is very much desired can never be achieved. Thus far he has seemed to be the only candidate that is willing to attempt to bridge ideological, political, cultural divisions.

People have to decide.

Obama 08

[Melkor]

Earl I disagree. I'm as cynical as they get about politics, and I was frankly stunned by what Obama said. It was incredibly brave, incredibly honest and frankly showed an incredible integrity. I'm not a hero worshiper, and in fact I have been less than thrilled by Obama's passive approach on race (yet understanding that soft-pedaling on those matters is the only way a black man could achieve the White House).

Well this was anti-passive. He could have gone up and made his 30 second apology, denounce Wright, widen his grin and hopefully wait the storm out. He ran directly into the storm, faced it with an eloquence I've frankly never before seen in an American politician. And he faced it by giving hard, uncomfortable truths for both white and black.

Has he lost the nomination? Will he not be president? I don't know. A lot of the comments here are showing an empty cynicism that nothing can get through. Maybe some people have been battered by politic speak for so long that it's all they know. But I know this, I witnessed real integrity today, and if you haven't been touched by it then Barack Obama isn't the problem.

[PKSSK]

Melkor, your comment is straight, honest and poignant and I agree whole heartedly. As far as Earl, don't wast your time, he is a republican who wants Clinton as the opponent in the genral so they can win (read his bio).

[Melkor]

Actually I'm quite familiar with Mr Hutchinson's work. I regularly read and comment on what he writes here and at Alternet.org. I doubt he's a Republican and he has certainly been willing to face a lot of backlash for speaking out strongly against racism (I mean the white on black kind).

So I'm not going to denigrate him like a lot of these posters seem to be doing. We disagree about Obama (and I really don't understand your logic Earl) but that's no reason to get insulting and assume some hidden sinister motive on his part. After all, isn't that what Obama was talking about in the very speech we are championing, putting an end to divisive politics?

I hope you see the light, Earl. I sure did.

[dutchess2]

There are those highly motivatedd to say something, do something, and so they post here. Few of them even vote, most are tied to their computers by habit or disability, and their worlds are small.

Al Gore won the 2000 election wtth 50 million more votes than George Bush received.

There has never been more than a few thousans posts on any of these threads, and most posters actually have conversations with other familiar names..... so you have a very small population of
hard core racists that would never vote for a black.

Incidently, an extimated 100,000 Texas votes were Texas republicans crossing over to vote for Hillary to skewer the primary. Their hope is that she so angers republcians they want her to be the democrat nominee so republcians will be galvanized to vote for McSame even if they can't stand him.

This is more sick republcian dirty tricks - sheep doing what Rush Limbaugh tells them to do. But it also demonstrates the lack of republican ideas and interest. In evey primary, the numbers of republicans voting have been 1/4 the number of total democrats voting. They have no money...Mc­Cain's fund raising for a month is a mere fraction of Hillary or Obama's fund raising for
a week.

a rightwingnut is a lonely person these days.

[UCLAdy04]

Wow....man­, you're lucky you're not important enough to go down as the biggest crab in a barrel in Black History.

[leftLibertarian]

Earl is up to his game of kissing Hillary Clinton's Ass hoping for a nice cushy job if she becomes President.

[ladygreenslippers]

you're like ed rendel, PA gov., who stated the obvious by saying that there are whites in pa who will not vote for a black man.

Idiot. if that's all you have to say.

[distant mirror]

Earl

We have never had a real discussion about race in my lifetime in this country and this I think is a pretty good place to start. You are just jealous. that Obama is running for President and not you!. Get over it !

[Jazz42]

Very well stated.
I agree completely.

[AnninCA]

It's tough to fall so far off of so high of a pedestal. However, mostly I don't think voters care to make race the centerpiece of someone's campaign.

I didn't hear much to connect me to his "vision." I heard about him, as always. About his issues. Frankly, I'm not sure I really care all that much.

I care a great deal more about other people than about Obama. I would like a president to be for others more and himself less.

[Jazz42]

Everyone understand how you feel. It has been displayed for quite sometime.
We have come to accept that you don't like Senator Obama, nor are you going to vote for him. You are entitle to your opinion, as we who support Senator Obama, are going to continue to support him

[griffon2k]

Come off it Ann.

Obama was far from making race the central issue of his campaign. He made clear that the divisive nature in which we've continued to treat race is precisely what his campaign is against, whether that divisiveness comes from people in the media, his political opponents or even those close to him.

After reading or hearing this speech, all of America knows who Barack Obama - not his pastor or anyone else- is and what he stands for.

Only those unwilling to turn the page on politics of the past will be blind to that.

By the way, when has Hillary Clinton put up her own political capitol to ask the country to set aside race or gender from our political discourse?

[AnninCA]

I'd vote for Earl. *haha.....­.

Obama is just too much all about Obama for me.

That type of politician leaves me cold.

[illinB]

are you real? or a robot? 000101011100011000?