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| Jules Crittenden: Obama wants to talk |
| 2008-03-18 |
| “I am not a bigot.” “I did not have spiritual relations with that pastor.” “It was a botched sermon.” “I have a nightmare … “ I dunno, just guessing, but whatever it’s going to be, after several days of being beaten up over that crazy “old uncle” and the “God damn America … white America” thing, Obama wants to make a big speech about race and faith. He was up until nearly dawn yesterday writing it. I entirely don’t get it. Everyone knows it’s not possible for blacks to be racists. Maybe we’re going to get a guilt trip and a lecture about how we need to cut blacks some slack about that, because black racism is historically different from white racism, blah blah blah. . . . I’d say a failure would be a disaster for Obama’s campaign and for race relations in this country, unless it manages to underscore the fact that racism is a two-way street, and racism is not the answer to racism. More likely, if he ends up being sidelined at the convention or crashes and burns in the general, he’ll be seen to have been done in by vindictive conservatives and goddamned white America, which will come out of this smeared as the racists because Obama’s crazy old uncle of a pastor is a bigot with a bad case of verbal diarrhea. Here’s someone who thinks black racism is different, and has to be overlooked for the loftier goal of electing a black man president. “We are the change we have been waiting for” and all that. (Mental note for future reference: Andrew Sullivan is an apologist for racism.) I have a sneaking suspicion Obama’s going to punt more or less along those lines. He is about hope and change, everything will be new and different in his promised land. . . . What I’m not expecting is anything MLK-worthy. The one thing the civil rights movement tragically has not been about in the last 40 years is living up to these words: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. |
| Posted by:Mike |