I take a modestly more positive view of Obama's speech than does my colleague, Professor Schaff. Obama did a lot of things I predicted in my previous post, and some of the things I recommended. He surrounded his treatment of the issue at hand with a pious and strong treatment of the problem of race in America. He also defended his association with Jeremiah Wright in terms that most of us can understand. Sometimes we love people who are, in some important sense, unlovable. I would like to have seen him deal with some of Pastor Wright's wacky views more specifically. I would like to hear explicitly that Obama doesn't believe that the U.S. created the AIDS virus as a weapon against homosexuals and third world peoples, that indeed he regards such an assertion as loony.
But he did pretty well in this passage:
the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
That bit about "a profoundly distorted view of this country" is strong, as is the bit about "stalwart allies like Israel." He might have gone a bit further, to point out that these views, so unfortunately common among Black Americans, are among the obstacles to racial progress. He might have accepted the role that is clearly part of his portfolio, first viable Black candidate for President, to speak to Black Americans and tell them that they can no longer afford to indulge in such fantasies.
But if there was a major failing in his speech, it is that he didn't really come clean. He did not suggest that, in the twenty years he spent in Trinity United Church of Christ, he ever objected to the distorted view of America that was apparently church doctrine. Did he ever tell Pastor Wright that he had a problem with his wacky preaching? Probably Obama did what a lot of us do when we think that everyone else in the room agrees about something: we go along. This is why a lot of White Americans find themselves listening to racist jokes without objecting. Who wants to spoil the evening by making everybody feel bad?
If he is being honest about what he believes, Barack Obama probably found himself in a similar situation. He heard his Pastor say a lot of crazy things about America, and heard the Congregation say Amen!, and he went along. Why make trouble with your friends? Why alienate people whose support you need? This is the way that racism subtly corrupts people who ought to know better. Obama might have been more honest about this.
ps. I have a piece in today's Aberdeen American News on this topic.
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