This is obviously the major news of the day, so I suspect that a number of posts will be in order here. Before I get to the text of the speech, however, some context. Ezra nails it here:
While sound technicians fiddle with the microphones to try and keep yet another black man from being silenced (kidding! sort of!), CNN has been hosting a discussion between a black host and two African-American guests that's been the most sophisticated conversation on race I've heard in some time. The words "white supremacy" were actually used, in a contemporary context, and both the host and the other guest agreed with their usage. It's pretty remarkable. And this is why we don't want to have a conversation on race. Some of what Jeremiah Wright said was nuts -- particularly the bit about AIDS being a government plot. But I don't think folks are offended by his loony views, I think they're unsettled by his racialized analysis of power in this country, and the anger that underpins his conclusions. If you open that conversation, however, you're going to find that many folks share that belief. Not just the Wrights of the world, but the analysts on CNN, and your neighbors, and your co-workers. There are subjects we've agreed not to talk about, but that doesn't mean we agree on them.
Whether this speech succeeds or fails politically, it is clear that it has already had an enormous social impact. Back in 1998, Bill Clinton promised to lead a new national conversation on race. He did his best, but ultimately most of his efforts went unnoticed. Why? What Ezra said. This isn't a conversation that we as a nation have truly prepared to have.
The truth is that most Americans don't want to acknowledge the very real burdens that current and past racial discrimination place on many of our fellow citizens. The truth is simply to painful, so most simply choose to look the other way and deny its existence. Perhaps... just perhaps... this episode with Obama and his pastor will change that. If only for a moment we were to have an honest discussion about things...
Jim Crow ended roughly 40 years ago, less than half a human lifetime.
Slavery ended in 1865. That's only 143 years ago, or a bit less than 2 human lifetimes.
Your grandparents may not have been alive for it, but their grandparents surely were. If you knew one of your great grandparents, it is likely that their parents lived a world in which American citizens owned other human beings.
Throughout the South, there are millions of Americans who happily keep the memory of the Civil War alive. Travel there and you'll come into contact with the rhetoric and symbols of the War on a near constant basis. No one would doubt that in some very real ways the War still impacts Southern culture, society, and politics today. And if that's true - and it surely is - than how can we deny that the impact of slavery and racial discrimination, one of the primary motivating forces of the war, is not also still with us? What was Jim Crow but an extension of slavery into the modern era? And if Jim Crow ended less than half a lifetime ago, how can we deny that it still shapes and mold our society today?
This is a converation we can and must have. Try as we might, we will never transcend this issue until we face it. Ignoring it will not make it go away. Only by facing down our demons will we slay them. So if Obama's campaign does nothing more than force us to confront this issue clearly and realistically, it will have been a success.
On to the speech itself...
[Updated to correct several minor typos]
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