Jan 07 2009
Quoting Poetically: Barack Obama on America’s Race Issues
Photo: Associated Press
“The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old — is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen - is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.” - Barack Obama from his speech entitled “A More Perfect Union” given May 18, 2008 at Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA
As someone who had decided to support now President-elect Obama well over a year ago, I was happily tuned into not only the eloquence and deliberation with which Obama delivered the speech but also the ninja-like accuracy of it. It addressed America’s slavery-scarred passed: The Jim Crow laws, the prejudices by all parties equally; and he is a man who sees a fatal error in some people’s immediate need to quench their tendency to scapegoat “the other.” He is seemingly a man of solutions and well-aimed pragmatism and honesty in world more chaotic and riddled with crises than ever before.
Watch the video of the full speech below:
Uploaded by YouTube member BarackObamadotcom
Wax for equality.
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Stumble It!
I wouldn’t count your chickens before they hatched my friend….There is so much evident racism in this country just because it is not on the surface anymore doesn’t mean it’s not strong as ever…..I think Barack Obama can help us to make strives in this case but it’s going to take the common man in all races to come together and really be comfortable with one another….I just smoke some weed with black people and we get along like gravy….
racism by me just isn’t tolerated. I’ve gotten into many heated arguments with racists over this election (you remember my joe the redneck post I’m sure) - and I didn’t even vote for Obama.
David, I never said it went away. It’s just BS is all.
Obama is eloquent and he talks truth. If Wright had been speaking back in the day, his sermon would have been more relevent. While racist and racism still exists, we have all come a long way. My only hope is that we keep moving in that direction where the ugliness and the scars of racism will begin to eventually fade. But there are many of skwguitar’s “joes” still alive and well, living in the good old USA.
davidrude even talked rationally and truthfully about the way it still is. It may not be “in your face” but it still happens “undercover” every day. I live it, I know it!!