Obama Talks Race

In a characteristically powerful speech on race yesterday, Senator Barack Obama condemned the incendiary remarks of his former preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Rev. Wright is responsible for Obama's devotion to Christianity but has made controversial remarks about America's racial divides. A clip of Rev. Wright's most publicized sermon follows:


In his speech, Obama addressed Wright's remarks thusly:
"I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy...But 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...As such, Reverend 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 "

Racial resentment and tension, Obama remarked, is not exclusive to the black community:
"I can no more disown [Rev. Wright] 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. "
"When [White Americans] are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time."

There was no condescension in his tone. He was candid and spoke with high expectations of his audience:
"I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union."

Click here to view the full address:
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=4104d9c83acfb43a3d072fee0e13fbdc80b87d96