Obama's courageous speech
Power Line
[Linked below] is the text of Barack Obama's "major address" on race relations and Pastor Wright. Obama says he can no more disown the White America-hating Wright than he can disown his grandmother who, he says, occasionally uttered racial epithets [correction: she occasionally indulged in racial stereotyping]. "These people," he intones "are a part of me, and they are a part of America, this country that I love."
But there is a key difference between Obama's grandmother and Rev. Wright. Not only is his connection with Wright voluntary, but Obama selected Wright to be his spiritual leader. Since he still says Wright is "part of me" (and he can longer claim that he doesn't know the full scope of Wright's hatred of "white America"), he should be judged for containing that "part."
It will not do to say that Wright is "part of America." Lots of deplorable people are part of America, including white racists. Political candidates are not required to embody every strand of America, much less the most noxious hate-filled ones. Political candidates embrace the strands that speak to them, and we should embrace the political candidates whose strands of thinking speak to us. No other candidate for president contains Wright's thinking as "part of them." In all likelihood, no other remaining candidate takes Wright's views seriously.
Obama admits the obvious -- that he does take Wright's views quite seriously. He states:
<<< The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American. >>>
Here, Obama not only welcomes the comments and issues raised by Wright into our national dialogue, but claims that we can't "solve challenges like health or education" without working through these comments and issues. Obama should be required to explain why he thinks, for example, we can't substantially improve our health care system without "working through" whatever "complexity" is associated with such comments as Wright's claim that the U.S. brought 9/11 on itself. Part of the answer, though certainly not a sufficient one, is that Obama takes Wright's comments seriously, even though he does not agree with them. They are, as he has said, provocative from his perspective.
Although Obama's speech is not without its evasions, I consider it a courageous one by usual political standards. He has refused to walk away from Wright's black liberation theology when it might well have been expedient to do so. The rest of us now should have the courage to take Obama at his word and decide whether it is acceptable to elect as president of the United States someone who carries Rev. Wright around as part of him, and who takes his ranting seriously.
UPDATE: Kathryn Lopez views the speech in a similar light. Her summation [of Obama]:
Damn straight, Rev. Wright is angry. That's how I wound up
at his church. That's why I stay there. I'm mad too, I just
control it better. Now let's get [on with] electing me
president so we can all feel good.
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