Barack Obama announces that he's black
One of my most loyal readers asked why I hadn't commented on Senator Obama's speech on race, which is seemingly the hot topic (or was yesterday) in the presidential campaign. I told her I didn't think it was terribly important.
But in fairness, I decided to take another look at the speech as a speech and as a news story. (For those who haven't read it, the full text is here, and there's a video of it [which I haven't seen] on the same page.)
There is a chance that it's such a hit because of the way he delivered the speech: Obama is a good speaker, so that's always a possibility. But since I didn't see it, and I'm not willing (or able) to sit through watching it on the computer screen right now, all I have to go on are the words. And judging from the words, it's a good talk, but I don't think it says anything terribly new or inspiring.
In the speech, Obama talks about his black father and white mother, his family of many religions and different backgrounds, and growing up in the United States knowing that racism and other forms of bigotry exist. So far, he's not so very different from my family (my father isn't black, but aside from that…). It's a stirring recitation of how he got to a point where he, a black man, is a serious candidate for the presidency of the United States, but for those of us raised with the "anyone can grow up to be president" ideal, it's not news that a qualified candidate looks a little different than most.
He also talks about the fact that racism, both overt and covert, has been a factor in the development of US society since the nation's founding. And again, it's true, but not really new or interesting to those of us who have been paying attention over the years. Judging people as "different" or "same" is an unconscious act: we all do it, just as we all judge situations as "dangerous" or "safe" before putting any conscious thought into it. The fact that some people don't then take a few more seconds to ask if "different" does or does not equal "dangerous" is, again, something we know about, and something that thinking people have been combating for years.
And he addresses the current flap over remarks his church's pastor made. Actually, this is the point that I'm laughing about: his enemies are screaming that he must condemn those remarks or be branded a racist himself. Who among us doesn't have a family member who loudly, and sometimes embarrassingly, makes crude, rude, obnoxious comments? Not many. But we don't have to stand up and say "I'm no longer part of that person's family. His/her remarks are not mine." We all know that it's possible to associate with someone—heck, even love someone—without necessarily agreeing with anything that person says.
So what's the big news with Obama's speech on race? I'm still trying to figure that out. I mean, other than this is the first time during the campaign that he's explicitly talked about the fact that he doesn't look like the majority of the voting public, he didn't say anything new.
Those of us who think know that there are US citizens who don't look alike, and that distrust bred solely from that fact is not logical. And those of us who think know that the best way to choose a president (or a governor, or any employee, for that matter) is to look at the candidate's experiences and abilities, and completely ignore his height, hair color, age, skin color, sex, etc.
And for those of us who don't think, for whom this speech was an entirely new thought, a radical departure from the status quo, yeah, it's a very important speech that they should read again until it sinks in. But those who most need it won't ever bother to read the speech, they'll turn off the news commentators discussing it, and they won't ever think about the issues Obama raised in it. I guess that's more of a statement on the growing divide I'm seeing between people who want to be educated and those who don't; people who want to think, reason, and understand versus people who are content living in unreasoned, unenlightened ignorance. But that's not what Obama was discussing.
Obama's speech, I think, boils down to "judge me as a person, not as a black person." That's what I hope everyone will do, not just to him, but to all the 10 or 20 candidates who'll be on the ballot in November.
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ianrandalstrock) wrote,
