A Refreshing Moment of Truth

Yesterday, while I was sitting on a panel at the 2nd Annual Take Back America Conference, I missed something spectacular. I was told that I missed the most refreshing dose of truth in politics in decades. I was told that I missed Senator Barack Obama make the presidency more than a possibility -- he made it a probability.

Members of my staff joined me after my panel discussion on "The Rogue Presidency" and seemed winded with excitement. In fact, they were late joining me because, as they told me, "We watched the speech in complete silence and sat for about 15 minutes afterward in silence." It was remarkable, they said.

I refused to read the text. I wanted to see and hear it, as it was delivered. I wanted to feel the magic that my staff and so many others described to me.

Upon returning to my office, I sat, for 45 minutes, as I imagine millions across the country did, mesmerized listening to the words he spoke. We all know Senator Obama to be a great orator. But this was much more than "hopeful rhetoric." This was the most honest, considerate and courageous oral argument that I have heard since my mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. told us about his dream in 1963.

As he talked, I thought of the changing times I've witnessed in my life. He is right -- society can change. America can change and we are all agents of change. I thought about the anger of the '60s and how some of our youth harbor anger for experiences they have not had...yet, the emotions have passed on. I thought of my White friends in Michigan and Ohio, the laborers, who have expressed to me their resentment -- in a respectful, yet honest way. And I thought about my personal experiences with racism -- when I was riding my bike as a child and found myself across the racial barrier of Tireman Avenue in Detroit. Whites came onto their porches shouting at me and the pang of being unwelcome still resonates.

My staff was right about many things. The speech was both "remarkable" and "truthful." His words were more honest than we have ever heard from a presidential candidate or a president. I hope that this speech is, as Bobby Kennedy once said, the pebble in the water that starts a "ripple of hope" of honest discussions about race that will change and unite us for a better America.

Read more HuffPost coverage and reaction to Obama's speech

Comments

[NDNlady]

The first racist language heard on this continent was the doctrine of discovery divesting Indians of legal rights to their own land. That language was furthered in the principles of the Founding Fathers, advanced by the Supreme Court and crystallized in the racist "plenary powers" of Congress. It is still alive today.

[NDNlady]

Somehow my entire statement was not posted...here's the rest

[LunaNik]

Obama behaves as if blacks are the only group to experience bigotry. I have yet to hear him issue a stirring call for equal rights for women, or an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation, or righting the wrongs done to native Americans, or...well, you get the idea.

Hey, Barack! What about the rest of us?

If blacks are owed reparation for slavery, then certainly Japanese-Americans are owed for their relatives being interred during WWII. What about modern-day Jews? Aren't they owed because the US denied their relatives sanctuary from Hitler? How about those of Irish descent whose ancestors were horribly mistreated as indentured servants? If we're all created equal, shouldn't homosexuals have the same rights as heterosexuals? Shouldn't the poor have the same rights as the wealthy? What about women? We've experienced discrimination since the dawn of time. And misogyny is still alive and well in the US.

Why don't we hear Obama talking about an Equal Rights Amendment and a Civil Rights Amendment? Why don't we hear him talking about equality for all?

Don't get me wrong: I am not in any way attempting to downplay the fact that blacks experience discrimination. But a lot of us who are not black experience it too. Yet we haven't heard any heartstring-tugging speeches about that.

[vernonbc]

You're not hearing any heartstring-tugging speeches about all those issues because the MSM isn't covering them. He's making them, but they're too busy showing clips of out of context sermons. Listen to some of Rev Wright's sermons more fully and you'll hear that he railed about exactly those things as well - the wrongs done to native Americans, the internment of Japanese Americans. They were all part of his god damn America sermon for one and other sermons as well.

Barack himself has worked very hard on equality issues for ALL regardless of race or gender or sexual preference. Check his record of legislation in the Illinois legislature. He's very very strong on women's issues and gay and lesbian issues. It's a shame the media gets so hung up on a few noisy hullabaloos and doesn't give the average voter a true and honest picture of what the candidates are really talking about.

[NDNlady]

[sa]

obama is politician as artist.
he is the dream of the constitution.
corporations, lobbiests, media, and republicans
will hate him into the sunset.
bobby kennedy was the last politician as artist.
i fear their fates will be the same.

the last speech that good
was given by bobby kennedy
and martin luther king jr.

america is afraid to live up to its ideals.
presidents can only be made by corporations
and i fear they will shut him down by hook and by crook.

we are being forced to imagine
a form of utopia.
corporations will have not part of utopia.
healthcare banks on the notion there is no utopia.
barrack may not bring utopia -
but he is our best shot in generations.

perhaps the pendulum swings all the way back from bush -
that would be barrack obama.
from total corruption,
to total idealism.

the ideal of america is not to be hated,
the only death would be false profits and false prophets.

perhaps there'll be joy in the morning.
the dark night of bush needs to be put behind us.
we need to lick our wounds for decades.
this spell has been grevious.
the world's best chance was given the world's worst steward.

a change is blowing in the wind.

[godsbreath64]

So let me attempt to grasp this post, this definiton of (a) man. Having grown up as concentric to Mrs. Parks, her boss/ my King and your excellance , sir; while being the same pigment as my shame, and reading here about these porches....

I can't figure out what to say now BESIDES THANK YOU. To see your master mastery of Rogers on the surveilance debate last week... , um ; ... /

I'm the one who says we must as a democracy face we have been defeated by the supreme Count and their precedancy so that we may begin another experiment in participatory democracy.

You personally deprive me this ability, sir. I tried to import to you leaving Kari's night that you know how much pride we have in any five seconds of your work/ life. Only after, did I notice your lapel.

May someone begin to thrill you as you have we americans, sir. g

[vsign]

OK - he reached out and Democratic voters will respond and decide. And we get to talk about it all.

Courageous. Hardly. I was at the March On Washington to hear the "I Have A Dream" speech. People with courage DO things other than talk. Dr King was courageous for the things he did. There were years of marches, prison, humiliation.

The speech encouraged a new identity to those who listened and were moved. Dr King tried to teach us to judge one another on the basis of character - not skin color. I do not vote based on skin color.

Voting - thank god - does not require courage. Thank you great country of mine - that I have the vote to express my choices in government.

I knew Dr King. Obama is no Dr King.

We need to focus on the class struggle. We really need Hillary to defeat Obama. She listens to us.

I think of the labor struggles in this country. This was the movement I respect the most from our history. These racial, gender and age divides are useless at this point in our history. What we can come together on is the class issues.

I hate Obama bringing up the race issue like we are all suppose to vote for him because of it.

[NASCARLiberal]

Thank you, vsign! I've experienced many of the same things you did. Dr. King was the epitome of what we should strive for. He was not all talk, he was all action while still being powerfully eloquent. And, yes, Obama is no Dr. King.

I don't vote based on color either. But, sometimes, like this year, the best candidate for all the world is a white woman, who herself has worked so hard for all Americans. We definately need Hillary to defeat Obama so that we truly can have HOPE & CHANGE.

[vickic]

Hillary works only for her own ambitions...when will all you Mrs. Clinton supporters wake up?

[boltaflex]

Obama and King do share a strong church connection that brought both to prominence. Obama had overwhelming credentials from Harvard, but didn't parlay them into a cushy law firm job. Instead, he worked as a street organizer and legal aide in Chicago. One of the reasons he joined and supported Wright's church in particular was its strong dedication to helping HIV, drug, diseased, and homeless in the Chicago area.
As for experience and know-how, Obama is still ahead. Add to his experiences at street level the two terms in the Ilinois State Senate before becoming a US Senator, which means he has more legislative experience than Hillary. Of course, he also made it to the Senate without the help of the entire Democratic Party Political Machine, he was voted in on his own merits and largely on his own efforts. HIllary's so-called First Lady involvement in foreign affairs and domestic policy has already been famously debunked. Her health care effort, the only issue she took an official leading role in, failed miserably.

Advantage, Obama--especially when you're discussing a person of both accomplishment and of sound, wise, selfless choices.

[nazgul]

"I hate Obama bringing up the race issue like we are all suppose to vote for him because of it."

He brought it up because the Clinton campaign keeps bringing it up and the Wright controversy demanded it. What part of that don't you get.

Also, there is a concept in linguistics called a SPEECH ACT. It involves thing like: promising, bequeathing, accusing, etc.

Obama's 2002 speech, for example was a multi-faceted speech act. It INFORMED people about the disconnect between terrorism and Iraq, REMINDED people why Bush Sr and Powell did not invade and occupy during the Gulf War, WARNED people that the War would lessen security, PROMOTED a focused effort against bin Laden and al Qaeda, and IDENTIFIED real homeland security opportunities.

Hillary's Iraq War Vote, in contrast, APPROVED and VALIDATED the Bush administration's Iraq worldview and the War he was determined to wage.

Imagine what might have been had HRC used Obama's speech act.

Ditto for the current discussion on race.

Imagine what might be if HRC had the decency as a progressive and courage to make a substantive, supportive SPEECH ACT in praise of the most important speech on race since the 60s.

WORDS are ACTION.

Which is also why HRC's demeaning comment on MLK was WRONG. Without his "dream" and his speeches, which INSPIRED, MOTIVATED and GUIDED the movement, LBJ wouldn't have even had the opportunity to enact the legislation.

[Herrington]

vsign, you have been calling Obama Hitler for weeks. Are we now supposed to take your position as well thought out and carefully considered? As far as being on the march with Dr. King, I seriously doubt the veracity of that assertion. Dr. King may or may not have had issues with Obama, but I doubt that they would have been any more than that race SHOULD be a part of Obama's campaign, when in fact the only reason they are now is because of race baiting by Clinton and Fox News.

[nazgul]

As Hillary likes to say: let's get real.

There is no evidence that Wright's occassional rant against Whites, American policy, or on anti-black conspiracy theories were more than an occassional component of his speeches. The people jumping to that conclusion are doing so for political and/or racial reasons or just plain fear.

Most importantly, Wright's views are relatively harmless compared to those of the politicos playing with our country like its some end-times chess piece, which is a prevalent component of conservative politics. And Hillary is connected to that.

What is end-times philosophy but hate speech against life in the here and now? That's hate that's a heckuva lot more dangerous and important than getting pissed off at America from time to time.

Start with Barbara Ehrenreich's article here on HuffPo.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-ehrenreich/hillarys-nasty-pastorate_b_92361.html

And if you want to talk about smaller, everyday hate speech than The End-Times, take a closer look at Dobson, Robertson, Hagee, Bob Jones (and the late Falwell) and the rest of the evangelical movement that McCain is cozy with.

Get a whiff of truly dangerous hate speech.

Then we can talk about Wright.

Until then, folks aren't being intellectually honest when they talk about Wright.

[FirstShirt]

The effects of racism on blacks can only be expressed at the emotional level by black people. As a white man I can never truly understand the deep pain of racism.

Obama seems to be wanting to have a dialogue and does seem to be willing to express the angst of some white people who are concerned that racism exists in all cultures and as part of all races. It is possible to have black racists. Asian racists. etc. Just as black people don't want to be marginalized and compartmentalized, neither do whites in the 21st century.

Every criticism of a person of another race is not necessarily racism. Just as every patronizing of a person of another race does not necessarily mean that person making that benelovent comment is not a racist.

i applaud Barack Obama for having the courage to open this dialogue.

[paul195]

I"it's possible forblack to be racist" wow arent you a genuis.

As a white kid, who greww up in East New York I can say with total confidence racism is far more apparent and accepted within the black community.

As the Senator tells his tale of woe, of white neighbors yelling at him for simply riding his bike.

I'd offer it's better then me often being shot at for doing the exact same thing.

get over your white guilt, everyone harbors some bigotry and yes, it's ok to admit it, as like being a drunk it's the first step.
So stop the race baiting and lets have a real and open discussion about how we're all EQUALLY f'ed up.

Yes, while my early experinces have clouded my life, I also know that on 911 many of the same people who cursed my 'white azz for being in dey ghetto" also gave me water to rise the toxic cloud from my face.

OH and by virtue that every ex slave was freed by lincoln violating millions of white civil rights (pay 300$ dont serve, no pay, get drafted), I'd offer blacks have most certainly benefitted from racism in thie nation, that of the great white enslaver, Abe Lincoln

Think I'm nuts: Modern day american, Dubya say pay 30K or your off to iraq...... Thoughts?

[Puller58]

Rep.Conyers can't be expected to say anything different. The Congressional Black Congress has had and currently has some shaky flakes. If the country were to be treated to a marathon of their various "positions", Wright's videos would seem like small beer. Whites are accused of not knowing about the black experience. Well whenever someone tries to look at it, blacks throw tantrums to make nosy people go away. Try reading "The End of Racism" by D'nish D'Sousa. It kicked up a small storm among the chattering classes. I've yet to hear anyone say that it was all lies. They might dislike the contents but can anyone challenge the information? Blacks brand certain blacks as sell outs and Uncle Toms. Why? What is important in today's world? Getting an education or "keeping it real"? Obama is trying to have it both ways and be a "brother" to the 'hood, and a "Buppie." Will the real Obama please stand up.

[godsbreath64]

So because his excellance is meeting his constitutional charge, with elite honor to the most proud constituency in the republic he "can't be expected to say anything different?"

That would be because this man is greater then all you know combined and that is because his work stands for truth and justice in the wake of the actual shady fakes.

Take off the pointy hat and step away from the mirror : )

[NASCARLiberal]

There is NOTHING remotely Bobby Kennedy-esque about Barack Obama. I worked in Bobby's campaign headquarters in NYC until that fateful night. Back then racial issues were still in a great deal of flux. Colleges and schools were still newly integrated and a war was still raging against innocent Asian peoples.

If anyone who ran for the nomination this year is reminescent of Bobby Kennedy it is John Edwards. He speaks with compassion, and cares about the same issues that Bobby cared about. He doesn't have to talk about racism --- he is down there helping to rebuild mostly black areas of New Orleans, he is working for healthcare reform for ALL Americans. There is the man who reminds me of RFK. Certainly not O'Bambi.

Obama's recent speech was nothing but playing a RACE CARD in a desperate attempt to CYA. His campaign is the only one talking about race and trying to create a divide among voters. If we don't like him or his lack of experience, that makes us racist? B***S***.

His mentor, father-figure, for TWENTY years was a main who spewed hatred of white people and hatred of the country that permitted him a platform from which to rage. Does that show good judgement? Good enough to be president? I think not.

[Kassandra]

You're all missing the point. Rev. Wright has hurt Obama seriously. Many swing voters and Republicans were considering Obama in the next election. After hearing someone, anyone, Goddamn America, it's goin to to be very difficult to put racial fears to bed. And the racial fears are there, believe it

Hasn't anyone noticed that Clinton has moved ahead in the polls?(for what they are worth)

I remember Bill Clinton promised gays in the military full equality, but when the rubber met the road, he backed down to "don't ask, don't tell". Those of us who'd worked tirelessly for him felt completely screwed.

I hope no one here thinks Obama can wave a magic wand and turn centuries of ALL KINDS of bigotry around in a few months after being elected ( if he is).

The Democrats are in such disarray and it is ours to lose, folks. We need to urge both Obama and Clinton to negotiate this Michigan and Florida mess. If they can't negotiate with each other, how the hell are they going to negotiate with world leaders they don't like/hate????

Yeah, he gave a good speech. It takes more than that to run a country. Especially with the mess that we're going to be in when the Fed pulls the plug on the economy. AND if BushCO starts WWIII while we pick and carp at each other about who is more oppressed. Victims are not happy people, OK? Get down off the cross, we need the wood!

We don't have to moan over things which have happened in the past and continue to hate each other for things that can only be changed starting right now. If Obama can help with that, I'm with him 100%. Let's try to help, not punish each other. Listen to each other's pain, listen, for once! That would be a good starting place.

[Guitarsandmore]

Remember, Wright is not running for president, Obama is. Whatever Wright says is irrelevent.

[veracity]

Dear Rep. Conyers: This 110th Congress has been a major disappointment for Democratic voters out there, and the disappointment can be measured in Senator Clinton's now long-shot candidacy. It is true that this Congress is the only thing that has prevented the Bush-Cheney administration from expanding the war into Iran - and that in doing so the Congress has, thus far, preserved the last shreds of dignity, justice, and democracy in America - but we expected so much more.
It is so clear that the Dem. Congressional "leadership" is willing to let the primary candidates..... and Bush White House.... define the news narrative this past year, define what Americans talk about , and what the news networks lead with in their nightly 'news.' Letting others determine the narrative, and set the nightly talking points, is not _leadership_ - it is _following_ of the "inside Washington CW", or Conventional Wisdom." And as we all know, the DC CW is nothing more than the George Will, David Gergen, David Broder, Tim Russert (et al) rough polish on the Conservative talking points of the day, the ugly talking points of Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, and Murdoch's mininos, given a patina of respectability by Washington's oh-so-wise establishm­ent-centri­c counselors.
Chairman Conyers, Democratic voters did not work, donate to, and vote for Democratic leaders to follow the inside-Beltway establishment "wisdom."
Why were Repblicans and the Washington media able to make a scandal out of President Clinton's overnight guest list, the so-called "LINCOLN BEDROOM SCANDAL," while Alberto Gonzales and Karl Rove thus far dodge any real responsibility for using the Justice Department as a partisan disenfranchisement machine, harkening back to the days when Congress and the states made a mockery of the 15th amendment, and actually had laws on the books doing everything they could (and encouraging an atmosphere of extra-legal violence) to "ABRIDGE THE RIGHTS" of minority voters? Or in plain English, why does the Democratic "leadership" pretend not to notice the Republican party's serial disenfranchisement efforts, even when those efforts might have included the partisan prosecution which robbed a Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, of the election he won fair and square in Alabama in 2002? (Which just happened to be the zenith of Mr. Bush's popularity, and when the public was most unquestioning of his war-time "war on terror" police powers.)
Why do Democratic leaders refuse to notice that Mr. Bush and his administration have pumped, by one estimate, ONE TRILLION DOLLARS into fed bailouts of Wall Street banks and brokerage houses, while mocking the idea of bailouts for individual American families as "SOCIALISM"?
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/7483/Fed-Heads-Back-to-the-Well-Will-It-Run-Dry?tickers=BSC,JPM,TMA
And here is a here-and-now, non theoretical proposition for you, Chairman Conyers: With America bleeding its treasury, and lives our our young warriors, over inthe sands of Abraham in the Middle East, why does the (Democratic majority) Congress ALLOW Chevron to sit on the patent for advanced batteries, batteries which Toyota was able to use to make a 100 mile electric car which looks just like any other RAV4, goes 85 mph in highway traffic, and uses 1/3rd the energy of a normal gasoline powered RAV4?
We know the answer - because the Bush administration LIKES shipping billions of American dollars overseas to pay inflated prices for foreign oil, on the assumption that the higher the price American consumers pay, the higher the markup and profits of America's major oil companies, who since the days when Enron was the major donor in both of Texas Governor Bush's gubernatorial campaigns, have been the major sponsors of Mr. Bush's domestic and international policies.

Chairman Conyers, we worked to elect Democratic Representatives in Congress and the Senate in 2006 to give ourselves a voice of opposition to that oil-company agenda, but instead we have (if I may say so) Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Dianne Feinstein, Jay Rockefeller, Harry Reid, and a host of other Democrat "leaders" sounding just like Republicans, on issue after issue after issue, from unlimited, warrantless government surveillance, to unspervised, even subsidized oil company profits, to a Justice Department which still has partisan prosecutors already set to create mischief in the 2008 election - with the 'Democratic' Congress' blessings. I'm reminded of the quote alleged to have been said by Prime Minister Winston Churchill about the Allied invasion of Anzio in Italy, "we had hoped to get a raging wildcat, but instead we got a stranded whale."

[veracity]

Here is the link for a working, production electric car, SABOTAGED by Chevron oil company, to prevent Americans from paying lower prices (and producing far less pollution) for their automotive transportation needs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_RAV4_EV

[iswearington]

the blame for reverend wrights blistering diatribes....and barack obamas need to address the issue...can be fairly laid on white america.let me explain.after the allied forces lead by the united states defeated nazi germany...they did three things right. 1. they released every jew from every jail...root cellar and concentration camp in europe. 2. they rounded up the ring leaders and put them on trial at nurnburg for crimes against humanity.3 the forced the germans tp pay reparations.the germans are still paying reparations and building holecaust monuments.

the greatest generation...then went home to america...and took up where they left off and continued discriminating against and lynching blacks for another 25 years.

then...in the 60's when LBJ pushed through...civil and voting rights acts...to end 600 years of slavery jimcrow and racism...they using the worst double standard in the history did neither of the three things they did on behalf of european jews.

1. the prisons throughout the southern united states were full of black men...whose only crime was forgetting to say mister to a whiteman or not jumping off the side walk into a mud puddle...quick enough to let a white man walk by. not one innocent negro was freed from a georgia chaingang.

2.neither bull connors...senator eastland...richard russel or any other klan grand kleagle was rounded up and tried befor an international tribunal for crimes against humanity as the european racists were.

3. any mention of the word reparations envokes apopletic fits...complete with eye bulging..heart pounding and profuse sweating in both the benificiarys of 600 years of black exploitation and their fawning boot licking...uncle tom and aunt jemima minions.

reverend wrights painful upsetting statements are nothing compared to what jews and the rest of the world would be making...if at the eve of the 2nd world war war...we had left the jews imprisoned and under the control of the nazis...and if himmler...­goering...­goebels...­speer...ei­chman and the rest had been left in power...and reparations were never ordered...as was so shamelessly done in these united states..

[LDW]

Yes, isn't it amazing, how, when backed into a corner and presented with videotaped evidence that he was lying, Obama can finally tell the truth so artfully and so refreshingly and so honestly? It's nothing short of miraculous, really, but one would expect no less from The Messiah!

The new chant, to be adopted by all, except of course the nasty racist Hillary supporters, is, "Yes, We Can Believe, With All Our Hearts, Whatever Latest Version of The Truth Our Dear Messiah Deigns to Proclaim!!!"

[Mojane]

HuffPost's Pick

I feared on hearing Obama's speech that it would fall on some ignorant, close-minded whites with the attention span of a gnat. It was too intelligent and thoughtful for these folks who cherry-picked his speech, misheard, misinterpreted, just plain didn't get it. The pastor's comments, too, have been taken out of context, first by YouTube, then the MSN -- 2 or 3 inflammatory statements cherry-picked from 1,500 sermons over a 30-year history.

Whites, all of us, do not have a clue about what Rev. Wright was speaking to, both his world views as well as his personal and social perspectives.

Blacks have been exposed to the white world for nearly 3 centuries in our American history, first those blacks working as slaves inside their owners's/captors' homes. They were considered invisible, so there was little editing of the speech, the gossip, the internal struggles, the thoughts and feelings of their owners...they saw and heard it all. Blacks have been exposed to white newspapers, films, books, magazines, i.e. the white point of view, our culture, societal norms and "morals". Freed blacks have worked in whites' homes as maids, butlers, nannies, cooks, chauffeurs, again exposed to the white's unedited conversation and behavior. Blacks have worked for white-owned businesses, usually at the lowest level for the lowest pay, again, unheard, unseen.

In stark contrast, whites have not shared blacks' history, their world. Whites have not worked in blacks' homes, intimately exposed to their employers as whites have been to blacks. Whites have not read blacks' newspapers, books, journals or magazines. Whites, though, have been exposed to films and TV serials (most produced, written, directed by whites) that have depicted or portrayed blacks variously as fools, silly, superficial beings. True, there have been thoughtful, intelligent films and plays about and with blacks, but unfortunately not seen by the ignorant whites I address this to.

In short, blacks know our world intimately; we whites do not know theirs, and therefore have no grounds to attack the black perspective, their rage. We whites need to pay attention, listen to Barack Obama's eloquent, thoughtful, thought-provoking, brilliant words again. His honesty, his integrity, his courage, and his strength shine.

[Guitarsandmore]

Yeah, all true, but blacks need to listen up, too. When Joe Biden said Obama was an articulate eloquent intelligent speaker, Joe Biden was accused of being a racist. As long as we are having this national dialogue now listen up: when some offers that kind of a compliment it really is a compliment and there is nothing racist about it. Being articulate, eloquent and intelligent are all good things and if you believe there is something racist about it then you need to talk to more white folks.

[rucognizant]

This white woman saw the black world. What it takes is a 'heightened sense of awareness,
and a large measure of empathy.".
Sadly, those qualities seem to be a part of the past century, NOT this one?

[NASCARLiberal]

And, what many whites and blacks, who've failed to study African history closely enough, do not remember is that MANY Africans were sold into slavery by other Africans. There were tribal wars and the losers were loaded up onto the slave ships by fellow-bla­ck-African­s who had "defeated" them in battles. True, they did it because there was an economic demand for it, placed there by the white traders.


But, once again, getting into race leads us back to the fact that there is and always has been conflict between members of the same race. In the old days, this put many into slavery.


It is convenient to forget, too, that many white people came to this country as indentured servants. They were often shipped from the prisons of Englad to the southern states of America. When that no longer became an option, they were shipped to Australia. It was basically an economic issue for the Brits back then too.


So, blacks are not the only people who have slavery or indentured servitude in their family past histories. It is unfortuantely a fact of life for many. One of my white friends in Australia is quite proud that she can trace her family all the way back to the servitude ships they came in on and the prisons they were put into before being given places in homes as servants.


So, it would be preferable to talk about ECONOMIC issues since that is actually what race and indentured servitude was all about.

[vsign]

LDW

I have often thought Obama has the personality of a dictatorship.

He seems very clever and sinister to me now after watching his campaign.

I always thought he was trying to make voters believe that he could more likely win the General when he absolutely can not.

He is a magician - an impersonator.

Yes He Can - be worse than Bush.

Imagine him as your dictatorship wanting to punish us if we don't vote for him or follow his latest accusation of racism.

Bush is not doing that to me. Obama is trying to pull that on all us Democrats.

Take back the party!

Let everyone have their vote Obama. What are you afraid of? Votes?

Sissy!

[feo]

Nobody can worse than Bush.

[todayslies]

It was, in many ways, a brilliantly written and delivered speech—something we've come to expect, of course, from Barack Obama. It did an excellent job of providing context for the black experience in America, explaining how the average African-American could gravitate to a controversial church like Jeremiah Wright's, and how those experiences might understandably be misunderstood by white America. It took a stab at uniting the black and white American experiences under the common problem of economic anxiety, brought on by the real enemy of working people in our country: unfettered corporate greed. In this regard, the speech still should have gone much further. More on that in a minute.

It was a brave speech. Barack Obama has been running as a post-racial candidate this entire election cycle. Today, he turned into the wind, and tackled the racial crimes, conundrums, and tragedies that have buffeted our nation since its inception. Obama challenged our country to deal with the race issue in the here and now, to no longer keep this conversation tucked away in our racially homogeneous tribes, where our separate white and black safety zones allow us to say what we really think about the other.

He did so knowing that after today, there is no going back. As an unnamed Obama adviser was quoted as saying, "Race is now officially on the table. It’s not going away after this,”. Race will be a part of his candidacy for the remainder of the primary, and, if he is so lucky, the general election. This is not something Obama wanted to happen, but at this point in the midst of the Wright controversy, it is obvious he felt he had little choice. Even braver, rather than offering banalities on unity and togetherness, he picked at some of the ugliest scabs in our national discourse, in effect claiming that his candidacy possesses the unifying power to do so without making the wounds worse.

That said, while I feel that the speech was a rhetorical victory, I am worried that in certain ways, it was a missed opportunity, and possibly a political failure.

The speech can be judged by who its intended audience was, and who it ended up becoming. His intended audience should have been the white blue collar males that, after the Virginia primary, were flooding towards his candidacy, but after Ohio, and Jeremiah Wright, have been flooding away from it.

Instead, the speech seemed more tailored towards the media, and Obama's base. Political journalists have swooned over it all day long. Chris Matthews probably had to change his pants twice on Hardball tonight, calling it "the greatest speech on civil rights in our nation's history".

It's a fine civil rights speech, and deserves much praise, but Barack Obama is not running to make a point, or win the argument about race in this country. He is not running for Civil Rights Leader of America. He is running for President of the United States. In a country with a still-white majority population, the two are unfortunately incompatible.

Fascinating frames like the following are crack for the media:


"I can no more disown him (Wright) 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."


Brilliant, honest, touching, hard-hitting stuff. But is it really helpful to his political prospects? I love the parallel. The entire blogging unit of The Huffington Post loves the parallel. His base of young white liberals and African-Americans loves it more than anyone.

But I've since heard more than a handful of other white folks—on both the left and right—say things like, "that wasn't a very nice thing to say about his poor old grandmother." Instead of getting the intent of the story—to remind people that Obama's experience is actually as a black and white man—a lot of white blue-collar folks hear that anecdote and think how rude it was for this young black man to say that about that poor old white woman. Plus, they're reminded about how they too, sometimes get scared around young black men. And soul-searching introspection on those feelings is likely not their next step.

As Obama himself said today, "I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own." So why is he attempting to do that very thing at its greatest crisis point?

I've even heard from some Democrats—yes, Democrats—who say maybe it was Obama's resentment of his white grandmother's attitudes towards blacks, that led him to a racially charged church like Jeremiah Wright's. I think such arguments are absurd and deeply narrow-minded. Unfortunately, so is the state of typical white racial thinking in this country.

What Obama also did not do with the speech was explain why he spent 20 years listening to a pastor condemn America, hate on white people, and spit on Israel. That's not what's really been happening the last 20 years in the Trinity Church of Christ, of course, but it effectively is what much of white America has come to believe.

Yes, Obama described Wright's outlook as "a profoundly distorted view of this country". And yes, Obama explained that Wright is more than the sum of these snippets of controversy: "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."

Fine. The retort I hear then is why does Wright say the U.S. government gave AIDS to black people?

What the speech really needed to do today was, at length, directly address the economic considerations from on high that have intentionally spurred the racial divisions in our country since the American Revolution. It needed to be, in many ways, his Howard Zinn speech.

It was good for Obama to start by empathizing with lower-income white Americans who feel robbed by affirmative action, who see no special value in their own white skin, who "don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race." But the argument stopped with empathy. It is absolutely critical that if you venture into why lower-income whites are resentful of affirmative action, you must complete the circle by explaining how our corrupt economic system requires whites to focus their anger on tiny programs like affirmative action, rather than the massive, non-racial corporate forces that are taking away black and white jobs, black and white health care, black and white homes.

The reason Obama must focus primarily on economics, rather than race, is that with two wars being fought abroad, a looming recession, a housing crisis, trade deals shipping our entire manufacturing base overseas, blue-collar white Democrats really don't feel the urgent need to solve this race problem in America. It is, unfortunately, probably the last issue on the plate—if it's even on the plate.

With one candidate focusing his attention on a controversial topic, which, though eloquently discussed, isn't at the top of voters' concerns, which other candidate is poised to jump right into an opening on the economy? Yep.

But, you say, Obama had to address this Wright controversy—it was eating his candidacy alive! I completely agree. The way in which I believe he would have been better served is by unifying the discussion of race more fully with the economic pressures that have caused these racial fractures in American life in the first place. It was still a brilliant speech. He has retaken the news cycle—no small feat after what he's been through the last couple of weeks. But it's just a news cycle, and the questions will continue to linger among lower-income white voters about Obama's racially questionable church-going.

It's not fair that Barack Obama should be judged by what Rev. Wright has occasionally said. But as life is not fair, many white voters still will do so.

He is still the front-runner for the nomination, and will still likely obtain it. The problem isn't with getting the nomination—it's how does he defeat a cultural icon like John McCain in the general election without grabbing a big share of independent white votes in swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Missouri.

His current base—young, affluent educated whites, and black voters—can't bring him over the finish line. And if he is ever going to silence the critics who say he is all hope and no results, he is going to have to throw some serious economic red meat on the table—sooner, rather than later. If he cannot get away from the race discussion, he must drag it over to the economic one.

My advice? Call John Edwards, and start the rewrites. Pennsylvania is a month away.

[Clem2]

Totally see it the way you do, Todayslies. I loved the speech, tho some I know are wondering why he picked this church to go to for 20 years. That means his kids grew up hearing such vitriol Together with Michelle Obama's remark, I think this spells problems for him.

The remarks against Israel are going to resonate with a lot of people, as well. It is going to scare them. In the US, there is a lot of anti-illegal immigration talk against Mexicans. I understand that, and happen to agree with it. Now think if your next door neighbors were Palestinians. Suddenly our problem doesn't seem so bad.

Some people I know who were for Obama are now saying, gee... we really don't know what he believes.

We do know Hillary is bought and paid for, and we know what McCain believes, so I will take my chances!

But you're right.... bring in John Edwards!

[kae]

Great speech - I did have to turn off the TV today because the MSM would not stop telling me otherwise.
I expect this from the MSM but, why today instead of talking about this great speech, are the Dems on this post bickering as usual.
I get it....Clinton supporters do not like Barak Obama & Obama supporters do not like Hillary Clinton.
Just ask yourself where this scandal came from and remember that united we stand but divided we fall. The enemy wants all this displaced hatred and anger and if you listened to Obama's words he was asking us to not go there. This "scandal" has just shown me the truth in Rev. Wright's words.
Last I checked we still had freedom of speech. Rev. Wright is a black man and I believe his "anger" is more of an intense passion for justice than a hatred of ALL white men. (Ignore the neocon spin)
It's total B.S. if you want to insist that Barak Obama end this friendship because of words.
People on this site, myself included say much worse on a daily basis about our government. I personally would like a president who listens to unhappy americans.....the line is soooooooooo long.

PEACE:)

[PardonMyFrenchFries]

kae says,"Last I checked we still had freedom of speech. Rev. Wright is a black man and I believe his "anger" is more of an intense passion for justice than a hatred of ALL white men."


Would you forgive or understand "white" racism?

[kae]

Sure I would, living in Los Angeles I've had people treat me like a p.o.s. because I am white...I take it because I know the hate is superficial, they do not know me but, I do know who they think I am and lately I can't help but feel as though maybe we are all racist if we do not speak out. I watched an episode of Cops a couple weeks ago and I am still amazed that they put it on the air - the cops in that episode were treating minorities as though they already have no rights - as though martial law has already been declared on poor minorities in this country. This makes me angry and that is why I can defend Rev. Wright. If when you speak of white racism you are referring to white americans who feel screwed due to affirmative action...then I would think that you should again fault the government here - they do not want equality for all, they do not want to help the black community, they do not want to help the white middleclass- affirmative action is just another pathetic - ineffective band-aid that is more for show than sincerely intended results. Do you not realize what a perfect distraction the race card has become. They have pitted us against one another - if we hate each other maybe we will ignore the war, economy, etc. I'm from Ohio, I've been paying very close attention to what is happening to the middleclass - Ohio, Michigan, every state I guess. Went home this summer to help my parents pack-up and sell their house (no profit) before the bank took it. I can see and understand this side as well. Stop the hate, admit things are F@%*ed and DEMAND REAL ANSWERS from these twits in washington. No one is currently listening but after Barak's speech yesterday I'm hopeful.

[ronday]

I listened to what is most likely Reverend Wrights worst statements. They came across as angry condemnations, not a racist rant. Last I checked there is still plenty of discriminaton in housing and unemployment. Still plenty to be angry about.

Stll here you have Obama, like King, telling both sides that their anger is not addressing the real concerns that threaten us all.

I grew up in the south, I think I know racial hatred when I see it. There is a HUGE difference between anger and hatred my friend.