  |
 |
| |
|
|
|
 Obama Walks the MinefieldPosted on Mar 19, 2008WASHINGTON—Once again, the conventional wisdom proved stunningly unwise. Barack Obama was supposed to be on his heels, forced into a backpedaling, defensive crouch after racially charged remarks by his former pastor, delivered from the pulpit years ago, suddenly became the hottest story of the presidential campaign. But instead of running away, Obama issued a challenge to those who would exploit the issue of race: Bring it on. Tuesday morning, in what may be remembered as a landmark speech regardless of who becomes the next president, Obama established new parameters for a dialogue on race in America that might actually lead somewhere—that might break out of the sour stasis of grievance and countergrievance, of insensitivity and hypersensitivity, of mutual mistrust. “My goal was to try to lift up some truth that people talk about privately but don’t always talk about publicly between the races,” Obama said in a telephone interview later in the day. He delivered his speech, titled “A More Perfect Union,” in Philadelphia just yards from Independence Hall. As expected, Obama was categorical in denouncing the incendiary sound bites from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons that have been played endlessly on cable television in recent days. Wright displayed “a profoundly distorted view of this country,” Obama said in his speech, “a view that sees white racism as endemic.” But Obama didn’t stop there. He went on to specify what was wrong with Wright’s preaching about racism in the United States: “It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress had been made; as if this country ... is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.” The consensus among the commentariat was that Obama, as a matter of political tactics, should want to shift the conversation away from the subject of race as quickly as possible. He told me that the decision not to turn away, but to give a major speech on the issue, was his. “What was fascinating over the last three or four days was to see how Rev. Wright’s admittedly offensive comments ... were packaged in sound bites in a way that didn’t contribute to understanding between black and white Americans but only expanded the chasm between them,” he said. “I thought it was both a challenge and an opportunity to use this moment to describe, to black and white, why there is this chasm.” And that may have been the most significant aspect of the speech: The fact that Obama proposes a conversation, not a monologue. He not only laid out the reasons why some African-Americans might feel alienated or resentful, but also the reasons why some white Americans might feel the same way. “Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race,” Obama said in the speech. “Their experience is the immigrant experience—as far as they’re concerned, no one handed them anything, they built it from scratch. ... So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African-American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college ... when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.” These resentments have “helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation,” Obama told his audience. “And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns—this too widens the racial divide and blocks the path to understanding.” Obama called on African-Americans to embrace “the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past,” and to take “full responsibility for our own lives.” And he’s absolutely right. This amounts to a new set of talking points for a discussion about race: Don’t be paralyzed by history, but acknowledge its effects. Recognize that whites have legitimate grievances that are not racist. Don’t cling to victimhood as an all-purpose excuse. Accept personal responsibility. Obama told me afterward that he doesn’t intend to make race a major theme of his campaign. “I don’t think that we are going to be gnawing on this bone at every stop,” he said. But I believe he might have pulled off something that seemed almost impossible: He not only ventured into the minefield of race and made it back alive, but also marked a path for the rest of us to follow. Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com. © 2008, Washington Post Writers Group Previous item: Bush's Legacy of Failure Next item: The Only Lesson We Ever Learn Is That We Never Learn Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.
Comment Pages:
1
»
By bert, March 19 at 5:32 pm # Joe in Maine, March 19 at 1:37 pm “Hope and Change. Hope and Change. Hope and Change. Hope and change. Hope and Change. Hope and Change. Hope and Change. Hope and change.” I take back what I said about you being a good writer. LOL For a really great parody of an Obama speech click on the link below. It is a classic. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/obam a_speaks.html
By Conservative Yankee, March 19 at 9:17 am # Maani the clinton Troll“However, consider that Murtha is a senator from Pennsylvania, and is extremely respected” For what? his enormous earmarks, the graft he takes, or his ability to steal, lie, and defraud without consequences… In a fair world he’d be in jail. I agree he and Hill-the-business-shill should be on the same side.... they smell the same.
By Harry H. Snyder, March 20 at 4:40 am # Re: Re: Maani the clinton TrollCheck the screen name Joe, and the part of Maine I live in, Washington County, is the only county in the State to vote against Clinton twice. Usually, I vote Republican, however, My conservatism is purely fiscal, and so I was not in the Bush camp. While I am no supporter of Obama, I may vote for him in the general election if (on the day of the vote) I believe he will get us out of this costly war. Eight years of Clinton-crap make me sure I’ll never vote for her under any conditions, and I believe John McCain is in reality a fiscal liberal. You say you are from Maine, then I assume you know where “Old Town” is? When Bill took office, there were five shoe shops in Old Town, After he signed NAFTA it took two years for those jobs to vanish. Hill-the-business-shill, ex Walmart board member, cares deeply about Microsoft’s expenses, takes hush money from Citi-group, and who speaks loudly about anti-terrorist initiatives, while avoiding the FACT that she advocated the Clinton-exit pardon of the FALN terrorists who placed 86 bombs in and around New York City.... evidently she believed this pardon would help her get votes for her 2000 run for the Senate from the Puerto Rican community. I Will vote for the candidate with the best chance of derailing this corporate whore. Actually I would have preferred Rep. Tom Tancrado but that ship has sailed.
By Big E, March 19 at 8:58 am # It’s fascinating to see comments and hear ‘experts’ on TV I noted how many Pat Buchanan types were horrified Above all though, there was a ‘ring of truth’ to Obama’s speech, almost
By Tony Iovino, March 19 at 8:51 am # InterestingThat he didn’t throw his pastor under the bus, while still convincingly repudiating his words, showed class and a maturity not often displayed in recent American politics. It was a well-executed high wire act. It is something that has to be a part of the new politics-- we simply have to break out of this pattern of playing gotcha with the other side, of Bork-anizing each other. As a nation, as a media, as a bodypolitic, we have to ...grow up. I think Obama’s speech was a clarion call for maturity. My problem? I follow him until I hear his solutions to America’s problems, and then he loses me. Because although I’m “only” 49, I am old enough to know that the liberal plans he is pushing are doomed to fail because of two undeniable facts: they go against human nature and they always have.
By sns, March 19 at 8:46 am # WAKE UP ROBINSON ET ALOh the mendacity! Obama point blank LIED claiming that he never ever in the dozen plus years of attending his racist church never heard even so much as an utterance of the projectile vitriol racism by his preacher-man. So you want a dialogue not a racist monologue. I am not surprised by your vapid and ineffectual or lack thereof intellectual capabilities. Of course he won’t make race a major issue because if he did he’d be busted at every turn for LYING point blank. Why not read the charter at his church that he was privy to since day one of becoming a member. Please don’t forget that he also indoctrinated his children into this hateful ludicrous religiosity. WAKE UP! We have a pool more at cesspool of candidates for prez on either side of an insignificant divide. WAKE UP Robinson and read between the lines before you start writing about it.
By Bill Blackolive, March 19 at 7:27 am # Racism rotted this said democracy before 1776Obama was powerful. It will be seen can his reasonableness effect the most brainwashed population in this world. Yes, I speak in congnizance of Middle Eastern heathen, Chinamen etc.
By Conservative Yankee, March 19 at 6:51 am # Do I believe? I believe that there was no “drug problem” in the New York City of the 1940’s 1950’s because all the drugs were in Harlem and Brownsville. The “drug problem” became a “problem” when the white girls from Scarsdale got hooked. I believe that Colt 40’s were sold in the ghettos before anyone saw them in Westchester or Long Island. I believe The US government countenanced Using Human Beings as Laboratory Animals from 1932 to 1972, and believe our Public Health Service conducted experiments on 399 black men, illiterate sharecroppers with syphilis. one of the doctors involved explained, “we have no further interest in these patients until they die.” After all these PROVEN abuses, why not believe that aids is just one more “gift” from our government. OH, BTW the government could have dispelled this “myth” had it acted forcfully to stem this disease at its outset, BUT the Reagan administration did NOTHING in the face of this plague. That’s outlandish enough without any “deliberate introduction” For a brief view of the “truth we know” read “And the band played on” Add Your Comment |
|
Newsroom Carnage Continues at The Washington Post
Email
Print
Share
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Ma.gnolia
Newsvine
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo
Jump to Comments
COMMENT TOOLS:
Hide comments
Show comments
Comment on this article