Race in the Context of America

When I started to blog on the rhetoric of this campaign I had no idea who I might "meet" or find as an inspiration or reliable source.

I had no idea that Barrack Obama would be leading us into a national discussion on race. In fact, I could easily spend the next few minutes writing my conviction that Barack Obama is already leading this country and that the election is the formal means of confirming that we know who our leader is.

But rather than read my take, I invite you to read what contributor Ray McInnis has collected for your review:

Taken together, in the last few days we have witnessed an assemblage of statements about the wright affair that puts black religion into a historical context that -- for me at least -- is long overdue.

for example here is a link to a bacgrounder about wright et al in the latimes and, below that, another link from nyrb:

The Los Angeles Times does something many Obama supporters have been asking the media to do for weeks: put Rev. Wright in some context. "Examining the full content of Wright's sermons and delivery style yields a far more complex message, though one that some will still find objectionable. For more than 30 years, Wright walked churchgoers every Sunday along a winding road from rage to reconciliation, employing a style that validated both. 'He's voicing a reality that those people experience six days a week,' said the Rev. Dwight Hopkins, a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School and a Trinity member. 'In that sense, he's saying they're not insane. That helps them to function the other six days of the week.'"



the pasted extract below, for example, comes from a piece by elizabeth drew in nyrb: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21231

... Right on top of the Ferraro episode came—not coincidentally, some observers think—the release on television of some particularly inflammatory statements by Obama's pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright—"No, no, no. Not God bless America. God damn America." Such preaching is not uncommon in black churches and Wright's is milder than some others. That Obama attended Wright's church—the biggest and most influential black church in Chicago, a church that had done a lot of civic good—does not at all signify that he shared these particular pastoral views. Obama has had no part in the angry-black world. The controversy over Wright was not a new issue, and Obama had dropped him from giving the convocation speech at his announcement that he was running for president....


Also, folks, Drew's piece, is the best "quick and dirty" summary of the events associated recently with the jockeying between obama and hillary throughout the campaign. Drew writes as an "inside-the-beltway" washington dc resident, but at heart she's like the rest of us, passionate about getting behind obama so that we can get some real change in DC.

This week, Obama seems to have his groove back -- in everything except bowling -- and while some calcified conservatives are determined to get traction out of the wright imbroglio, American voters have concluded that Obama is not infected by his association with what is considered wright's inflammatory rhetoric

funny how -- in life -- events taken unusual turns, often emerging in the opposite direction that was intended.

after typing out the sentence above i began searching for historical parallels,to prove my point, but one doesn't readily come to mind. examples are out there, though

however, check this out:

in the 1940s, when governor of CA, earl warren, approved the enforcement of executive order 9066, in 1942 -- the order that interned the japanese on the west coast, because it was feared that they would assist the japanese war effort against the US -- it was held that he was merely behaving like a conservative.

later, after eisenhower appointed warren chief justice, warren made it his historical destiny to have the supreme court approve "brown vs board of education" in 1954, which out-lawed segregation in schools.

consider the spectacle of, over a short decade, 1942 to 1952, someone going from predictable conservative to "over-active liberal", and thus become detested by conservatives

(historically, it is well-known that eisenhower made a deal with warren, who was himself consider a run for president: "if you don't run, I'll appoint you to the first vacant seat on the supreme court", eisenhower told warren. later, though eisenhower lamented about the appointment: "worst damn mistake i ever made in my life!".)


its is one of my unfilled intentions to check out a warren bio and find out more about this conservative's change of heart, but so far never have