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Having just heard democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama’s entreaty to Americans to end vituperative racial politics, the intemperate and incendiary remarks of Rev. Jeremiah Wright may present a golden opportunity to finally initiate a long-overdue and straight-forward discussion of race and racial politics in America. Obama’s response to his long-time pastor and mentor’s hateful meanderings are being carefully watched in this country and around the world for what it promises to reveal about the racial persona of the candidate as he fills in the blank slate of who he is in the minds of many. His response also has implications for the future trajectory of American race relations, and gives a hint about his leadership style, should he be elected the country’s first African American president in November. How will he proceed to manage racial politics if he is victorious? How well has he done to date in taking the bull of racial politics, so to speak, by the horn?

• Obama faces a huge risk if he tries to establish common kinship with white Americans based on his biracial heritage; in the rigid American racial tradition of defining racial identity the “one-drop” rule still applies: Obama is perceived as black by most white Americans, even as many black Americans initially defined him as not black enough. In retrospect what are the high points of his monologue on race and racial politics?

• Attempts to link Obama to Rev. Wright shifts attention from important issues, such as failing financial institutions, thousands of job losses, foreclosures, migration of jobs to other shores, and trillions spent monthly on a dubious war in Iraq. In hindsight, his maiden speech on racial politics skillfully addressed these problems, which he adroitly linked to the racial wounds felt by many black and white Americans. Many whites feel that they are unfairly called upon to atone for racial injustice through affirmative action programs favoring blacks, or through alleged unfair preferences shown to African Americans giving them an unfair advantage. On the other hand, there are many wounded African Americans particularly among Rev. Wright’s generation, and so skillfully depicted in Richard Wright’s classic novel, Native Son (1940/1991); both Bigger Thomas and Jeremiah Wright are trapped in a complex racial labyrinth from which neither can escape. In the case of Jeremiah Wright, his anger and pain leads him to praise September 11, 2001, as a case of “chickens coming home to roost,” even as he rejects his considerable achievement as a U.S. Marine, a unique brotherhood of men, whose motto “Semper Fidelis—always faithful, always ready to serve!” gives way in Wright’s words to “God damn America!”
• Obama presents race in America as ensnaring even well-meaning people, such as his beloved white grandmother: “… a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who love[d] me as much as she love[d] anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her on the street, and who on more than one occasion uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.” It must have been painful for Obama to acknowledge that this state of being placed his well-meaning grandmother in the company of not-so-well meaning whites such as the late Alabama Governor George Wallace, who stood in the school house door pledging “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”; and with former Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro’s recent comments about the role of blackness in propelling Obama to front runner status, while conveniently overlooking the reality that a black man in America such as Bobby Byrd in the late 1990s, would be being dragged through Texas streets tethered to a pickup truck, based primary on his state of racial being; or that young black males in Jena, Louisiana would in 2006 be penalized for sitting under the “white tree” in the schoolyard.
• Wright’s racial rantings may be a blessing in disguise in presenting the opportunity for Obama to clarify his views on race consistent with his well-demonstrated intellectual honesty and deep understanding of the complexity of America’s racial divide, which made him an outstanding candidate in the first place. Obama’s appeal to progressive whites, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, young voters, college educated, white men and discerning white women, heralds a new day in the politics of racial coalitions.

  Finally, the response to Obama’s masterful address on the perils of navigating the treacherous American racial minefield remains to be seen over the long run, as the campaign moves to Pennsylvania and other states in the coming months. But Obama clearly understands the quagmire of race in America as he acknowledges the resentment of many working-class whites, who although not complicit in America’s shameful past of slavery and discrimination, believe they are unfairly being asked to pay the heavy price of reconciliation through affirmative action and busing, thereby bearing the costs of a situation they did not create. As Obama concludes “[both races] must move beyond some of our old racial wounds. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years; contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy — particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.” And we certainly cannot hold Senator Obama responsible for the intemperate remarks of Jeremiah Wright, just as the late John F. and Robert F. Kennedy were not blamed for the anti-Semitic rantings of Papa Joe. That is why Obama is wise to build his transformative politics upon the new foundation of a multi-ethnic and multiracial coalition of progressive whites, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, young voters, college educated, white men and white women.

Having just heard democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama’s entreaty to Americans to end vituperative racial politics, the intemperate and incendiary remarks of Rev. Jeremiah Wright may present a golden opportunity to finally initiate a long-overdue and straight-forward discussion of race and racial politics in America. Obama’s response to his long-time pastor and mentor’s hateful meanderings are being carefully watched in this country and around the world for what it promises to reveal about the racial persona of the candidate as he fills in the blank slate of who he is in the minds of many. His response also has implications for the future trajectory of American race relations, and gives a hint about his leadership style, should he be elected the country’s first African American president in November. How will he proceed to manage racial politics if he is victorious? How well has he done to date in taking the bull of racial politics, so to speak, by the horn?

• Obama faces a huge risk if he tries to establish common kinship with white Americans based on his biracial heritage; in the rigid American racial tradition of defining racial identity the “one-drop” rule still applies: Obama is perceived as black by most white Americans, even as many black Americans initially defined him as not black enough. In retrospect what are the high points of his monologue on race and racial politics?

• Attempts to link Obama to Rev. Wright shifts attention from important issues, such as failing financial institutions, thousands of job losses, foreclosures, migration of jobs to other shores, and trillions spent monthly on a dubious war in Iraq. In hindsight, his maiden speech on racial politics skillfully addressed these problems, which he adroitly linked to the racial wounds felt by many black and white Americans. Many whites feel that they are unfairly called upon to atone for racial injustice through affirmative action programs favoring blacks, or through alleged unfair preferences shown to African Americans giving them an unfair advantage. On the other hand, there are many wounded African Americans particularly among Rev. Wright’s generation, and so skillfully depicted in Richard Wright’s classic novel, Native Son (1940/1991); both Bigger Thomas and Jeremiah Wright are trapped in a complex racial labyrinth from which neither can escape. In the case of Jeremiah Wright, his anger and pain leads him to praise September 11, 2001, as a case of “chickens coming home to roost,” even as he rejects his considerable achievement as a U.S. Marine, a unique brotherhood of men, whose motto “Semper Fidelis—always faithful, always ready to serve!” gives way in Wright’s words to “God damn America!”
• Obama presents race in America as ensnaring even well-meaning people, such as his beloved white grandmother: “… a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who love[d] me as much as she love[d] anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her on the street, and who on more than one occasion uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.” It must have been painful for Obama to acknowledge that this state of being placed his well-meaning grandmother in the company of not-so-well meaning whites such as the late Alabama Governor George Wallace, who stood in the school house door pledging “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”; and with former Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro’s recent comments about the role of blackness in propelling Obama to front runner status, while conveniently overlooking the reality that a black man in America such as Bobby Byrd in the late 1990s, would be being dragged through Texas streets tethered to a pickup truck, based primary on his state of racial being; or that young black males in Jena, Louisiana would in 2006 be penalized for sitting under the “white tree” in the schoolyard.
• Wright’s racial rantings may be a blessing in disguise in presenting the opportunity for Obama to clarify his views on race consistent with his well-demonstrated intellectual honesty and deep understanding of the complexity of America’s racial divide, which made him an outstanding candidate in the first place. Obama’s appeal to progressive whites, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, young voters, college educated, white men and discerning white women, heralds a new day in the politics of racial coalitions.

  Finally, the response to Obama’s masterful address on the perils of navigating the treacherous American racial minefield remains to be seen over the long run, as the campaign moves to Pennsylvania and other states in the coming months. But Obama clearly understands the quagmire of race in America as he acknowledges the resentment of many working-class whites, who although not complicit in America’s shameful past of slavery and discrimination, believe they are unfairly being asked to pay the heavy price of reconciliation through affirmative action and busing, thereby bearing the costs of a situation they did not create. As Obama concludes “[both races] must move beyond some of our old racial wounds. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years; contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy — particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.” And we certainly cannot hold Senator Obama responsible for the intemperate remarks of Jeremiah Wright, just as the late John F. and Robert F. Kennedy were not blamed for the anti-Semitic rantings of Papa Joe. That is why Obama is wise to build his transformative politics upon the new foundation of a multi-ethnic and multiracial coalition of progressive whites, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, young voters, college educated, white men and white women.

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