Race and The Speech
Today, Barack Obama delivered what I consider to be the most important speech about race relations in this country in decades. Well, let me restate that a bit … it should be the most important speech about race relations in decades, but “importance” is something that can only be measured in retrospect. But what it was was an incredibly honest, courageous and moving speech about a central fault line in American history.
It was perhaps the most personal, genuine speech I could possibly imagine coming from a Presidential candidate. You don’t get a speech like that coming out of a communications shop, no matter how good (don’t get me wrong … being one, I love political communications people). It’s just too individual.
And on a personal level, I’m white, I grew up in a neighborhood that was 90% African-American, and this is the speech that most reflected the America I know. The contradictions and complexities of white and black reactions to centuries of oppression and achievement, the rawness of anger and the redemption of forgiveness, the placement of individuals in a greater context without losing the view of each person’s essential humanity … it was all there in that speech. An incredibly honest oration reflecting deep integrity.
I have to say, too, that it will be very interesting to see the reaction unfold. This was a very rich, nuanced speech, with a lot of thinking behind it. The CNN headline for this story started as “Obama: Constitution stained by ‘sin of slavery’” and moved to “Obama: We can move beyond some of our racial wounds,” part of the process of people moving into the speech a bit and getting a little more perspective, but the headlines still all seem to be missing the point.
Like ABC: “Obama Distances from Long-time Pastor in Race Speech” … that’s not even close to the point. He doesn’t “distance,” he acknowledges complexity in his relationship and feelings about Rev Wright. He compares Wright with his grandmother, for instance. How is that distancing? It’s like they are looking for the typical political narrative (“distance” vs “embrace”) and getting completely flummoxed by complexity and honesty. It’s a gutsy move by Obama, and I hope the chattering folks can see it.
And will they ever get to the economic/progressive message in the speech? The idea that we need to heal those wounds so we can work together on fixing an economy damaged by decades of conservative orthodoxy … the fact that these racial divisions have been exploited to create a political coalition that worked to enrich the few over the interests of the many … the history of getting ordinary whites to blame ordinary blacks and ordinary blacks to blame ordinary whites for the loss of jobs, when the real culprit is the corporation that moves jobs overseas “only for profit.”
To me, the central point of the speech was that these racial divisions are holding us back from seeing the real problems that plague all of us, white, black, Asian, Latino, Native-American, etc, and they distract us from the solutions. But just as people look at MLK’s “I have a dream” speech and ignore the part about the IOU to African-Americans coming back stamped “insufficient funds,” I have a suspicion that the pundits will ignore the very progressive message at the heart of this speech in favor of more talk about “Will this help him with white folks in Scranton” …
This was not a speech for soundbites.
Here’s the speech:
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Senator,
As one of your loyal and ardent volunteers from your Presidential election, I urge you to please tell Senator Obama to start fighting back against the smear merchants on Fox News and right wing talk radio.
Does he not realize how badly he is being slandered and smeared on Fox News 24x7 the past two weeks? They’ve always been bad, but nothing like the past week. The talking heads on Fox have basically called Senator Obama a black separatist, militant, and Sean Hannity said he “should resign” from the Senate due to his affiliations with Pastor Wright and several others. What is Obama’s response to these non-stop smears? Nothing.
The talking heads at Fox have only continued their rhetoric after today’s speech and it isn’t going to stop until Senator Obama starts fighting back and hitting them hard.
I have yet to see Senator Obama throw a punch and this deeply concerns me. This is exactly how the swift boat attacks began against you in 2004. Fox takes the lead by smearing, then come the swift boats, Fox cheerleads them, and then the rest of the media starts to chime in and everything else falls to the back burner. As you and I discussed several months after the 2004 election when you visited staff in New York, we didn’t fight back hard enough and confront them. When you don’t fight back against the smears, the rest of the voting public begins to believe “well maybe what they are saying is true”. This is now happening to Obama at an alarming rate. Several friends and family members have told me they are now hesitant to support him because he’s not fighting back, and seems incapable, unable or unwilling to throw a punch.
I hope you have the chance to urge him to start fighting and hitting back. Otherwise, the Republicans are going to have a field day with him during the general election and we’ll be watching ‘President McCain” take the Oath of Office on January 20th, 2009.
Respectfully yours,
Mary from Manhattan
Senator Kerry I have great respect for your record as a person, sailor and senator. I supported your campaign and voted for you in 04. I am asking you as an citizen to organize as many super delegates as you can to commit to senator Obama, I fear that Hilary’s effort well lead to a republican opportunity in the next election. This country cannot survive another four years of that. Just as you rescued those men in that river in Vietnam, just as you did your duty regardless of your own convictions, just as you have served your country for so many years, you are the individual, in my opinion and as history as my guide, that has the resolve to lead this decision.
Very thoughtful and well spoken, Senator Kerry. I agree that in this age of the internet and digital communications the media and detractors alike, will pick apart and use only those segments of the speech that they feel will fortify their own agendas, whatever those agendas may be. In my mind this is a complete shame as I believe that the individual who does not listen to Senator Obama’s speech in its entirety is missing out on navigating a small part of the road map that can help put this country back on course and allow the much needed healing to begin.
This was a very moving and compelling speech. It was truly inspiring to hear Sen. Obama speak about the issue of race in such a personal way. It is easy to see why Sen. Kerry has endorsed the senator from IL. I agree with Mary from Manhattan, Sen. Obama is right now concentrating on the attacks from the Clinton campaign, but he must do more to stand up against the attacks from Fixed News, the RNC, and the smear merchants of hate we have in this country. They are fanning the flames of hate and the Obama campaign must be more forceful to fight these attacks and not get swiftboated again.
Senator Kerry, you remain one of my idols and I could still remember that day in November 2004 when I was nervously monitoring the results of the US elections from my office, via my laptop. I celebrated and screamed in delight when Ohio was placed in the modern-day JFK’s (after your own initials and biography that bore some striking similarity with the original JFK) winning column - only to cry buckets when it turned out to be a premature call by the network. Not another loss after Florida!
It really took me a while to get over that depression. Like so many millions of democracy-loving American voters, I honestly thought that your powerful life story and equally impressive track record in the US Senate would triumph over the leviathan that was the Bush/Republican media machine. I was really looking forward to your running in 2008 and would have enthusiastically supported your candidacy for the second time.
Now, while I respect your right to endorse the candidate of your choice - and defend it vigorously - I hope that you would give it some careful reconsideration. Doing it does not make you less a brave person (and we know that you have taken a number of hits in Vietnam, Boston and D.C. only to emerge victorious most of the time) or a flipflopper. I just dread the frightening risks that unqualified support for an undeserving candidate - whose carefully-orchestrated public image has some frightening disconnect with his acts behind the glare of the camera - carry on your own legacy as a fighter for what is good and right.
Your candidate’s belated “confession” (which did not come with an Act of Contrition - and yes I’m a proud, practising Catholic) did not accomplish much, for starters. It was a case of “too little, too late”. Why make this bold declaration on race relations only at this time when it is expedient to do so? Clearly, he is not in your league - when you made that courageous statement as a young, returning war hero.
More importantly, his latest flipflop on his attendance at a Wright-presided service where inflammatory sermons were issued - days after denying it to high heavens - only further builds the case about his trust deficit. Can we still take his word for anything that he would say - after his repeated denials, obfuscations and mischaracterizations on Exelon, Razko, NAFTA, Iraq (via Samantha Powers) and now on Wright?
But what is most appalling to me is his inability to take responsibility for his action (or inaction) and say sorry. After all, doesn’t the buck stop right at the desk of the commander-in-chief? Forget about the 3:00 am call; he failed this one. And to tar a prominent fellow Democrat who served her country well for many years with bigotry is unacceptable in my book. Was it that difficult for him or his campaign manager (who is friends and had in fact received assistance on a number of occasions from Gerry Ferraro) to clarify a point she made - instead of going to the press about it and milking it for all the votes that it would deliver in Mississippi and beyond? This is not change that I would like to believe in!
Given all these newly-unearthed baggages, is your annointee’s candidacy still feasible? To answer that question, one only needs to reference the dramatic shifts in voting preferences as revealed by Reuters/Zogby, Gallup and SurveyUSA. Yes, his speech yesterday was indeed a “Lincoln moment”, but of the “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” type. Let us all join hands to support a candidate who speaks for us all and - and reclaim the White House again! We are in this together to win, aren’t we?
I thought Sen. Obama showed leadership and character in addressing so honestly race relations in his speech. Some people think it will go over the head of people that have “hard boiled” ideas about race. Maybe -but maybe the way to reach them is to ask them want kind of world do they want for their children and grandchildren. I think for the most part hard working people sacrifice a lot for their children and want a better world for them instead of having them go through the same struggles and hardships as they do.
Senator Kerry,
Barack Obama is one of the most eloquent speakers I have heard in a long time. However, something has troubled me from the start about Barack and I just couldn’t put my finger on it and while it’s still not clear to me the latest new story about him and his pastor Rev Write validates some of my in trepidation. It is unfair to paint Barack with the same brush as Rev Write, but I believe it is tremendously concerning that a candidate for President has tied himself so close to someone that delivers such hateful sermons about white Americans. Barack has stated that this man had shaped his spiritual life and he has relied on him as a personal advisor. So the question is how much of Barack’s view have been influenced by his close friend? Will we ever really know the answer to this and if not how can the voters continue to support him? How can anyone justify the risk?