The Speech
I should of worked this morning. Instead I watched the telecast of Senator Barack Obama’s amazing speech about issues of race in these early years of the twenty-first century. I think it was one of the most amazing speeches I’ve ever heard, and I think it will rank with King’s “I have a dream” speech. It was both thoughtful and practical and soaring when it needed to be. He did not play it safe. It was a gutsy speech both as a black man and as a Democrat. He invited people to have the discussion — to talk about their anger and resentment _one both sides_. He acknowledged the anger of whites against busing and affirmative action. He acknowledged the anger of blacks, particularly black men, against decades of Jim Crow
Just as we’ve been fighting the Vietnam war over and over again between Bush and Kerry, we’ve been fighting the civil rights struggles of the 1960’s over and over again. Obama is inviting us, urging us to see how far we’ve come, accept that we have a distance to travel yet, and join forces to make that journey.
You can read the speech, but I urge folks to watch it and read it at www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/18/obama-race-speech-read-t_n_92077.html
March 19th, 2008 at 7:08 am
I thought it was a great speech too, but I’m not at all sanguine about the effect it’s going to have beyond the folks who already support him.
I do hope I’m being too cynical.
March 19th, 2008 at 7:32 am
I confess the speech moved me to tears. I hope you are just being a cynic. Maybe people will realize that we are in a bad place, and we’re all in it together, and it’s time to start healing some of these wounds.
And HIspanics ought to be on-board with this too. Growing up in NM where _I_ was the minority, I’ve been very comfortable with the Spanish culture. When I went out to L.A. I was stunned and shocked at how anti-Hispanic they city had become. Or maybe it always was, and I just didn’t see until I had to live there.
I know tribalism is basically hardwired into us, but we have to strive to rise above these reptile tendencies if we’re ever going to get off the planet.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
*nods*
Jabbing a spear into anything that frightens or angers us is hardwired in too. So far most of us have managed to avoid stabbing anyone.
Unfortunately, we compartmentalize and call some tribalism good and some bad. Racism bad, my country right or wrong, good. Making fun of the culture of hispanic americans, bad. Making fun of ‘towel heads and camel jockeys’, good.
As long as we keep this compartmentalization, we cling to unhealthy tribalism.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Not an encouraging poll at AOL. (One of the reasons I retain my AOL account is because I like to see what the average conservative, tech-averse AOL user thinks, a group that, in one poll, believed in creationsim by 70%.) Anyway, in their latest poll, 68% of respondents believe that Obama still has more work to do in renouncing his pastor.
People hear what they want to hear.