Booker Rising on Obama's Speech On Race And Religion

"I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible. It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one."

Since I'm still recovering from my surgery, I saw Sen. Barack Obama's speech on television this morning in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love. Overall, I thought it was a good speech.



Sen. Obama was totally correct that slavery is America's original sin - which was reinforced later by Jim Crow - and how it affected the U.S. Constitution and society. While I disagree with his Big Government focus on policy issues that he outlined, he was right about the need for Americans to come together across race under one America. He was also clever in using his mixed-race background ("seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one") to argue that he can unite folks. He was correct when he said, "On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike." When even my Grandma, a moderate Democrat who supports Sen. Barack Obama for president, was appalled about Rev. Jeremiah Wright's comments and Sen. Obama's association with Rev then I knew there would be controversy. That is Rev. Wright's weak spot: while America has done jacked up stuff, America also changes but yet Rev. Wright acts as though there has been no change.

Since I live in the Chicago area, where Trinity United Church of Christ is located and where members have now been asked not to speak to the media, I had to agree with Sen. Obama when he argued that Rev. Wright is also more than how he has been portrayed and to reduce Rev. Wright to that narrow definition also emphasizes the negative and not the positive. I also liked how Sen. Obama said that to continue building a more perfect union: "For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past." He also admitted that welfare "may have" exacerbated problems in Black America. Sen. Obama was also correct that for white folks, building a more perfect union means acknowledging America's racist past and that current incidents of discrimination exist. It was also interesting that he brought up the notion of self-help - which he acknowledged as a conservative idea (at least it's conservative in today's era) - and then tied it to what his church is doing and how it must be tied to a belief that American can change (which he criticized Rev. Wright for not believing).

However, I had minor quibbles with the speech. There was one part where Sen. Obama claimed that President Ronald Reagan built a coalition around racializing welfare and affirmative action. While true, President Reagan's coalition was about more than those issues: it was also about a stronger military, and having a positive view of the United States when many folks believed that America was losing its power after the economic malaise of the late 1970s. Sen. Obama also commented about conservative commentators in such a way that one would beleive that liberals cannot be racist. Give me a break there.

Sen. Obama also cleverly claimed that he couldn't disown Rev. Wright anymore than he could the black community or his white grandmother who has said some racist things that made him cringe. However, that analogy does not quite work. You can't choose your relatives, but you can choose your pastor. Nevertheless, I liked how Sen. Obama didn't do the political thing and kick Rev. Wright and his church to the curb (which I expected to happen).

I also wasn't feeling Sen. Obama when he did his "you can trust me to feel your pain because I'm part white" part about white resentments, where whites believe they come from an immigrant experience where they weren't handed anything. That's a lie, because white folks historically got a lot of privileges at the expense of black folks: government and bank loans only for whites, jobs only open to whites, unions only open to whites, we could go on and on here. Sen. Obama was too giving to white folks on that one, but I understand that he has to do that to keep winning over white folks.

Perhaps it is because I am not religious, but I still can't understand how someone can be a member of a church for 20 years and not take issue with the pastor's political views with which one disagrees. Would Sen. Obama keep attending a church where the pastor's political views were like, say, Alan Keyes? Doubtful. The churches that my relatives attend focus on scripture and not politics, and church members would bring it up with the pastor if they believed he was getting out of line. However, Sen. Obama addressed the major questions about his association with Rev. Wright. It remains to be seen whether the American public agrees with me.