Editorial: Obama opens race discussion; next step is ours
Sen. Barack Obama's speech on race Tuesday has the potential to be a liberating moment for the campaign, for black and white Americans alike and for the nation.
Obama put the issue of race squarely on the table for discussion in a speech aimed at addressing the inflammatory remarks of his pastor and spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. Now, it is up to the other candidates and to Americans, as a whole, to face the issues as squarely and Obama did.
Otherwise, race remains a cobra that sleeps until somebody kicks the basket and it sticks up a venomous head. The basket has been kicked frequently during this presidential campaign. Out pops the cobra to do its damage until someone successfully shoves it back in the basket. It never sleeps for long.
Obama tried to defang the cobra with his speech. He did it at a time when his detractors have tried to put him in the same philosophical category as the pastor, who has made racially charged and seemingly anti-American comments from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Obama's home church.
In his speech, Obama repudiated the most incendiary remarks made by the recently retired pastor. Videos have been widely circulated that show Wright preaching about racial inequalities, condemning white America and using the phrase "God damn America" instead of "God bless America."
"Rev. Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity, racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems," Obama said in the speech, which was delivered at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
Obama, whose mother is white and whose father is black, spoke of being caught in the middle during his life. He said that while he disagreed with the pastor's statements, he could not turn his back on him.
"I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe," Obama said.
He likened his relationship with Wright to that of parishioners who find themselves in occasional disagreement with their own pastors, priests or rabbis.
He sought to put Wright's comments in context of a generation that grew up under the weight of Jim Crow laws and entrenched social injustice. He said Wright's mistake was not taking into account that there have been changes in America. Obama embodies the progress, as he could become the first African-American president, but that does not mean race has ceased to be an issue.
It is an issue because pollsters slice and dice who's likely to capture support from distinct voter groups, and race is one of the defining traits of those groups.
It is an issue because black political leaders and prominent black religious leaders who had pledged themselves to Clinton long ago have switched allegiances to Obama.
It is an issue because even the mention of race as a factor in the contest between Democratic candidates was enough to spark a controversy so hot that Clinton adviser Geraldine Ferraro had to resign.
Putting race on the table means that everybody gets to talk honestly about it, not just Obama. As long as the discussion is honest and people make a sincere attempt at personal reflection rather than accusation, then real progress can be made.
It's time.
Rockford Register Star