March 19, 2008
Using a lot of words to say very little
Dawn Summers "live-blogs" the Barack Obama race speech:
When I came home, I popped open youtube. I played the 2 minute 45 second speech and was surprised that it had no beginning…or real end…then I saw that it was just a clip of a longer 7 minute 11 second long speech. Okay. I clicked on that. And while this one had a beginning, still there was no end…again, I saw that really the 7 minute thing was just a clip from a longer still FORTY MINUTE speech. And so, here I go again…this time…I swear if this forty minute thing is just a clip from a four day long race symposium, I’m going to kick Barry’s ass with my shoe.
I read the excerpts and listened to clips but there's no way I'm sitting through 40 minutes of this man lecturing me on race in America. I know about race in America. I had one of everyone on my block growing up.
My general impression is that he loves hearing himself speak and that he generally says nothing and makes no overall point. Even this speech, so highly regarded by many is mostly vacant. What is the audience supposed to take away from it? That we're all racist? That we all know racists? And that somehow make it ok that a potential president has as his spiritual leader a racist, America-hater? I don't think so.
The key part of the speech is when Obama says he will not "disown" Jeremiah Wright:
That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. 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.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
The first paragraph describes his church. Dancing, clapping, mix of people, good, bad and ugly. Then he says "And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright." Um, actually, no, it doesn't. How does the description of the church explain the relationship? That's exactly the type of word game that Obama never gets called on. What does one thing have to do with another? You're not making sense, man!
What's awesome, for Republicans anyway, is that he does say he can not disown this man, he is like family to him. Except, of course, he isn't family, he is a choice Obama made to include in his life. And I am willing to bet the house that when Obama says he has never heard Pastor Wright reveal his racist tendencies, he is lying. If only we had some group of people that did things like fact-checked what a candidate said, perhaps by matching Obama's church attendance with the sermons of Wright, we could get to the bottom of it. But that group of people, let's call them "The Media", is just a little too starstruck by this empty vessel to do much digging. (Sidenote: Is anyone ever going to call Obama on the obvious lie he tells about sleeping in the street with a homeless man his first night in NY? Anyone? Hello? Or is it just myself and Dawn Summers who know that a 27-year old starting law school probably has some money for a hotel, or at the very minimum, a credit card. That story sounds completely phony and yet it's accepted as Obama gospel.)
Vodkapundit notes that Obama disinvited Wright from speaking at his candidacy announcement telling him “You can get kind of rough in the sermons. … It’s best for you not to be out there in public.” Gee, whatever can he mean by that?
Again, Obama's close affiliation with Wright would be campaign-ending if he were white. But, as his empty campaign holds the promise of "history-making", he will forge ahead. I'll be rooting for him to be the candidate of the Democrats. Someone who makes the bad decision to make a man like Wright part of his family just won't hold up to general election scrutiny.
UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan points to a "fascinating take" that Wright is actually a black conservative. Of course he is! He's just as much a black conservative as Andrew is a white conservative. Which is to say, of course, not at all.
Technorati Tags: Barack+Obama Barack+Obama+Race+Speech
My general impression is that he loves hearing himself speak and that he generally says nothing and makes no overall point.
His overall point is that racism still exists, and people in Chicago, and most of America still feel it, and still deal with it...and the result is the anger in the sermon of Pastor Wright. To pretend it does not exist is turning a blind eye to a major problem.
And while your experience with a diverse community may have left impressions on you does not mean that is how it works in every other city, on every other block, across the rest of this country.
You don't have to agree with or like what he said - but the central point seemed pretty clear.
I completely agree that racism still exists. Pastor Wright is a great example of that. Tie it in for me, please: Racism still exists, Obama's pastor is racist, and this is ok because...?
Posted by: Karol at March 19, 2008 11:47 AMI think the central problem that Obama is going to run into is the "hypocrisy" factor. A large number of whites have been told, especially over the last ten years or so, that the worst thing to be is a racist. Next to that is associating with a racist, even if the person may do many good things. (See Imus, Don for a rather clear example of this one.)
So many people probably listened to this speech to hear Obama explain how, if associating with a David Duke or Robert Byrd taints them by association, it is okay for a man running for President of the United States to associate with someone of the same ilk?
What they got was a bunch of equivocation about anger and cherry-picking. Sorry, but pardon me if I'm unconvinced. Walking away from someone incredibly important because of their comments and actions is hard--but so is being President of the United States. If Obama truly disagree with these comments, he should have walked away. The fact that he didn't means he either agrees or he's feckless--neither of which is a reason to vote for him.
This isn't intended as a barb, and is slightly off-topic.
I know about race in America. I had one of everyone on my block growing up
That may be a little off. In a lot of places in America, race boils down to Us and Them. In Brooklyn, really any significantly pluralist population, defining Us and Them is hard (think trying-to-hold-a-coalition-government-togethr-in-a-multiparty-system hard). Defining Us and Them in Montgomery, AL is pretty straightforward.
Posted by: David at March 19, 2008 11:59 AMDavid, I assure you I was the "them" on my block. But you just get on with it.
Posted by: Karol at March 19, 2008 12:03 PMYeah, but basically Obama said, "Us" and "Them" is okay as long as you have a reason for your anger. Um, no--racism is a cancer. You let a cancer spread or germinate, you end up with a dead patient.
It doesn't even have to be overt racism. Even if someone takes in only 10% of what Wright said, I'd argue that makes him/her more susceptible to assign blame where none may exist.
It's seductive to want to blame others for your problems. However, a leader has to say, "Okay, wait a second...". Now, I'm sure Obama didn't do so because it wouldn't be politically expedient, but hasn't he been running as someone who whom political expediency is not something that motivates him?
Great post.
A man that did not have the courage to question, diagree or walk out on a pastor definately will not have the courage to step up and defends the United States best interest to a Castro, Chavez, or the crazy dude in Iran (yeah, I am too lazy to try to spell the name or look it up. Crazy dude works fine.)
Posted by: StB at March 19, 2008 01:17 PMI read a transcript of the speech last night. Judging by the reaction I've seen, it's either a love it or hate it affair.
Me? I thought it went too long and got away from the core message near the end. I don't know if he was scheduled to make a speech about his policies and what not when this scandal broke, but it seemed like he was padding at the end.
Posted by: Shawn at March 19, 2008 01:33 PMThis is an excellent analysis of the speech. I heard it and agree that it's full of nice sounding cover ups and makes no sense. I too called BS when Obama said he didn't hear any derogatory comments from his pastor, ever. In 20 years, when the church was even selling these videos, he never once heard anti-american or racist comments from Wright?
A lot of people got pretty angry when Obama's "spiritual mentor/ advisor" turned out to be a rabid anti-American racist.
Now, those same folks are just utterly dumbstruck by the cavalcade of "black leaders" denying that Wright is racist, and that white folks are somehow lacking in understanding by claiming that he is.
Obama and his preacher are going to set this country back decades in race relations because:
(1) Blacks will claim that Barack's failure proves America is racist; and
(2) Whites and everyone else have come to clearly realize that most blacks are as racist as whites used to be in the 40s and 50s, and that blacks think that their racism is perfectly acceptable.
The question is: what happens afterwards?
I think it will all come down to how Obama handles the defeat. His concession speech will either be a teachable moment, or launch us down a dark road.
Posted by: Sean at March 20, 2008 04:34 AMSean,
Yeah, that's why I'm hoping Obama loses in the general rather than in the primary. The greatest fear I have is that he will get screwed over by the superdelegates. That won't be pretty because to many blacks it will prove Point (1). Now, throw in the number of black males of military age who have gotten to see the inside of our prisons thanks to the drug war and, yeah, dark road doesn't even begin to cover it.
Which will lead to your (2). The sad thing is, I can't say that (2) is incorrect. Years of 'victimhood' and being told that, "Well, _they_ don't want you to succeed..." has led many to believe that, yeah, the last advance America made in race relations happened in the 1960s. Real fun is when you run into folks who are convinced that this is because of the Republicans. ("Really? I'm sorry, who was it again that appointed the first black male and first black woman Secretary of State again?")
Bad things are coming, methinks. It's going to be a nasty next couple of months.
