Sunday, March 23, 2008
A More Perfect Union
Below is a video of Barack Obama's speech on race a few days ago. It is one of the best speeches I have ever heard, that neither defends the remarks made by his pastor but also acknowledges that racism has always been and still is a pervasive element in our society, and that he won't be able to fix it by himself over the course of four years.
He may be young(er). He may be inexperienced at the national level. He may also be somewhat naive. But if he can inject even half of the optimism and unity he speaks of into his presidency, I might be able to not silently cringe when I hear people speak of the United States as "the best country on Earth."
As a side note: based on some of the clips I've seen of Reverend Wright's speeches on television and online, I actually don't understand why he's seen as such a radical. To paraphrase a member of his congregation, "He's not a radical, he's just a black man living in America." A lot of the stuff he says is true, or at least has elements of truth in it. He's right when he says that blacks have been mistreated and still are mistreated. He's right when he says that American politics are in general run by old, white men. He's right when he says that for a long time the United States has had a Eurocentric attitude (and in many ways still does). He's right when he says that the 9/11 attacks weren't random, they were partially caused by our own mistakes in foreign policy and by our own aggression towards other countries. He's right when he says that in claiming God is on our side in the war we are no better than Al-queda members who claim Allah is on theirs.
In fact, the only major issue I have with Wright is that instead of calling for unity and change, he instead claims, "God damn America" for its mistakes. The problem here isn't that Wright is criticizing the USA - he's simply speaking from his own experience as a black man living in America, and God forbid we be made to acknowledge our problems (that might make us feel uncomfortable!). The problem is that he is condemning it rather than promoting change and unity, and giving up rather than continuing to hope.
He may be young(er). He may be inexperienced at the national level. He may also be somewhat naive. But if he can inject even half of the optimism and unity he speaks of into his presidency, I might be able to not silently cringe when I hear people speak of the United States as "the best country on Earth."
As a side note: based on some of the clips I've seen of Reverend Wright's speeches on television and online, I actually don't understand why he's seen as such a radical. To paraphrase a member of his congregation, "He's not a radical, he's just a black man living in America." A lot of the stuff he says is true, or at least has elements of truth in it. He's right when he says that blacks have been mistreated and still are mistreated. He's right when he says that American politics are in general run by old, white men. He's right when he says that for a long time the United States has had a Eurocentric attitude (and in many ways still does). He's right when he says that the 9/11 attacks weren't random, they were partially caused by our own mistakes in foreign policy and by our own aggression towards other countries. He's right when he says that in claiming God is on our side in the war we are no better than Al-queda members who claim Allah is on theirs.
In fact, the only major issue I have with Wright is that instead of calling for unity and change, he instead claims, "God damn America" for its mistakes. The problem here isn't that Wright is criticizing the USA - he's simply speaking from his own experience as a black man living in America, and God forbid we be made to acknowledge our problems (that might make us feel uncomfortable!). The problem is that he is condemning it rather than promoting change and unity, and giving up rather than continuing to hope.
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 3/23/2008 02:43:00 PM 
