Can We Get It?

March 19, 2008

Barack Obama’s landmark speech on race was not the best he has given thus far. His speech at the JJ dinner in Iowa, despite reaching most people via YouTube, surpassed this week’s speech, and many still continue to hail his 2004 DNC keynote address as his finest.

What was remarkable about Barack’s speech this week was the content. His critics accuse him of sounding great, but being light on content. This speech was all content. He apprised white people of things they either don’t know, aren’t cognizant of, or combination of the two because of white privilege.

His interview after with ABC News really drove this point home when he explained to Terry Moran about how differently white and black people react to the news of major crime. He explained it to him, as I [as a person of color] have many times in a nonthreatening way, how one’s initial reaction to news of the major crime is to worry that the perpetrator might be of your subculture. Barack then clearly illustrated to him the privileges of being white in America by asking him if he would ever be worried about resembling someone who had done something bad.

Jon Stewart, as always, nicely summed up Barack’s big gamble now. He has treated us like adults, put forth subtleties and difficult questions for us to digest. He got his message across, despite being asked idiotic question like, “Are you a black man or an American first?”

Funny how being black is like being Muslim…you’re still not allowed to have multiple identities if you’re American.