{"id":19,"date":"2008-03-18T11:59:56","date_gmt":"2008-03-18T11:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/03\/i-feel-winded-listening-to.html"},"modified":"2008-03-18T11:59:56","modified_gmt":"2008-03-18T11:59:56","slug":"i-feel-winded-listening-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/03\/i-feel-winded-listening-to.html","title":{"rendered":"A Black Man Articulating White Resentments"},"content":{"rendered":"

I feel winded listening to that speech.<\/a> I\u2019m sitting in my chair but feeling like I have to catch my breath. It was remarkable and will take some time to process. But here is my quick, gut reaction.
\nHis distancing from Jeremiah Wright’s statements was effective because he not only said he disagreed but why he disagreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren\u2019t simply controversial. They weren\u2019t simply a religious leader\u2019s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country \u2013 a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this:<\/p>\n

“The profound mistake of Reverend Wright\u2019s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It\u2019s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve believed that Obama\u2019s primary (short term) task was not to explain what he agreed with and disagreed with but rather why he stayed in the church. His answer on that was twofold: 1) This church does a lot of good 2) Wright brought me to God. I ultimately think that the second answer will be the more effective one. \u201cHe strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children.\u201d Quoting from his book, he said:<\/p>\n

“And in that single note \u2013 hope! \u2013 I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion\u2019s den, Ezekiel\u2019s field of dry bones. Those stories \u2013 of survival, and freedom, and hope \u2013 became our story, my story..<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

”
\nFor many white Americans it will be the first time they hear Obama say things that only a black politician can say:<\/p>\n

“The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Most remarkably, and most importantly, he attempted to speak to the anxieties and wounds of both blacks and<\/em> whites. He spoke both as a black man and the son of a white woman. Probably the most extraordinary passage was this one:<\/p>\n

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother \u2013 a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this, which is probably the most empathetic I\u2019ve ever heard a black politician be toward angry whites:<\/p>\n

“And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns \u2013 this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Embarrassingly, I want to end on a pedestrian, tactical note. Obama had made a mistake in an earlier tatement implying that he had only ever heard Wright speak about loving one\u2019s neighbor. This made Obama seem dishonest (it just didn\u2019t seem plausible) and meant he would have to explain every newly discovered Wright soundbite. He walked back from that a bit in this speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely \u2013 just as I\u2019m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I actually think this was the one paragraph in the speech that wasn\u2019t quite pitch perfect. \u201cCould be considered controversial\u201d? He could have gone farther than that (and certainly has in regard to the clips that have gained prominence).
\nBut in the end, the real risk of the speech was that he dove directly into the central issue of race. He realized that he could no longer \u201ctranscend\u201d race by not talking about it. He had to wade directly in. I don\u2019t know whether it will be effective or not. But it surely was historic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I feel winded listening to that speech. I\u2019m sitting in my chair but feeling like I have to catch my breath. It was remarkable and will take some time to process. But here is my quick, gut reaction. 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