Barack Obama's Speech Misses Media Elites

After today's heart wrenching speech by Senator Barack Obama, I listened to countless commentators on MSNBC, CNN and Fox News to see what their reaction might be. Of course, instead of these national new media elites seeing the real substance of what Barack Obama had to say, they were only focused on the issue of the day, which was Senator Obama's former pastor and whether or not he would throw his old friend and spiritual leader under the bus. For most people that I talked to today, they had a completely different reaction to Barack Obama's Philadelphia speech about race relations in America than the major national news media.

Most people that I know that saw the whole Barack Obama speech from Philadelphia today were moved to tears as Senator Obama talked about his own experiences in an American society that is still filled with racism. Also, the way in which Barack Obama reached across race and gender lines to try and move the issue of race relations in America was different than any other mainstream political candidate in my lifetime. Barack Obama did not talk about race relations with a political eye on which constituency might bring him the most votes in the next primary, but instead he spoke from the heart about all types of racism and discrimination, include those suffered by some whites because of Affirmative Action.

While watching Barack Obama speak this morning in Philadelphia and enjoying my first cup of coffee of the morning, I was shocked at how candidate and up front Senator Obama was about all aspects of race and discrimination in America. It was sad when commentators on all three of the major US cable networks missed the importance of what Barack Obama really said in his speech today. Most of these commentators were too busy trying to find the next 'got ya' instead of thinking about what Senator Obama was really saying about a very important issue in this campaign. The good news is that most Americans not only understood what Barack Obama was talking about in his speech from Philadelphia today, they also agreed with his ideas about how to move this issue forward.

I learned a long time ago that if I wanted to get the real story when it comes to a candidate running for political office that I would need to do my own homework and not depend to the laziness of members of the national news media. I have no doubt that media laziness is the main reason why blogs like mine are growing in popularity while their own news shows are being tuned out more and more. Today's Barack Obama speech pointed out loud and clear that the US news media is not only bias when covering most major issues, but they are also tone deaf when it comes to hearing something the is really new and powerful to most Americans.

Obama's Philadelphia Speech About Race

In what was one of the most moving speeches in my lifetime, Senator Barack Obama was the first politician that I can remember that talked honestly about the issue of race without jumping either on one side or the other of this touchy issue. While I will not bore you with all of the highlights of today's Obama speech, some of his comments do deserve to be posted here because what Senator Obama said today will be repeated again and again for many years to come. The US is almost completely polarized right now between conservatives and liberals and in a smaller sub-structure we are even further divided by other issues like race and gender in the workplace.

Senator Obama tried to offer hope to all Americans today for a better tomorrow and by doing so Barack Obama's Philadelphia Speech will go down in history in the same way that many of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's. famous speeches have withstood the test of time. All of the information below is taken directly from the transcript of Barack Obama's speech this morning in Philadelphia. I hope that all of you will read his words and think long and hard about the best way to proceed in the future with race relations in America.

Appended version of Barack Obama's Philadelphia speech about racism and race relations in America.

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. 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 – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. 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.

There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”

“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

March 18, 2008 Archives

Barack Obama Like Ronald Reagan When Speaking

I wrote earlier today about the strong emotional reaction that I had to Barack Obama's speech about race in America this morning. Once again I will say that when it comes to mastery of the English language, both Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan are both exceptional speakers. No two men could be further apart when it comes to the issues that face America, but when it comes to using the spoken word to motivate millions of people – both Obama and the late President Ronald Reagan are true masters of this technique.

When Barack Obama was talking about America this morning in Philadelphia and the problems that face all Americans whether they be black white or brown, I was move emotionally just like I was years before when Ronald Reagan would stand at the podium and speak. It's not just the words that are used by these two great men that cause an emotional reaction that can lead ordinary people to a call to action, but the tone and delivery of those words that make the difference. When President Ronald Reagan was in office he was called 'the great communicator' by members of the media. Those same words also apply to Senator Barack Obama.

In this mornings speech about race relations in America, Senator Obama spoke so well that hardly anyone noticed that he was reading his speech from a teleprompter. Ronald Reagan also had mastered the use of the teleprompter to the point that hardly anyone thought he was reading from a prepared text. There are many great speakers in the world today, but few have the talent to create a since of pride and sadness in a way that the person listening to the speech is moved to action. Senator Barack Obama has that ability and that is the reason that Hillary Clinton is losing to him in the current democratic delegate count.

While die-hard liberals and conservatives will shutter at my use of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama in the same sentence, the truth is that these two great men are very much alike in their ability to use the English language to move and motivate millions of Americans. Let's face it, when it comes to listening to a politician speak – would you prefer to listen to President Bush or Barack Obama/President Reagan? I think that is an easy question to answer. Whether you personally agree with Barack Obama's stand on the issues, people are starting to recognized exactly why he is so popular with Americans. That reason is the same as it was with Ronald Reagan. Both men can talk to average everyday Americans in a way that is friendly without sounding condescending.

March 18, 2008 Archives

Emotional Reaction To Barack Obama Speech

This morning I watched a speech given by democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama which was designed to address some controversial comments made by his former pastor. Instead of going on the defensive or throwing his old friend under the bus, Senator Obama instead gave the best speech I have ever heard in regards to race in America. I have no idea if Barack Obama will ultimately be successful in earning the democratic nomination for President, but this I do know – Barack Obama is one of the smartest men in America.

As Senator Obama's speech made it's way from the issue of race from an African-American viewpoint to one facing white Americans, he was able to touch a cord inside of people that caused them to think about events in life from a different persons perspective. Rather than trying to divide blacks from whites in a cynical political way, Barack Obama spoke from the heart and gave me more hope for my country than I have had in a long time. Maybe it is because Barack Obama is neither all black or all white that makes the difference, but whatever it is – Barack Obama has a positive view of where America should go in the future.

On several occasions I found myself wiping back tears as Senator Obama talked about how great our nation was, even though it started out with a constitution professing that all men were created equal – while at the same time holding on to legalized slavery. From Barack Obama's point of view and my own, America is a work in progress that never stays the same for long and much of that progress has been positive. When Barack Obama said that while all African-Americans should never forget their past, they also should not let the events of the past effect their future and turn the black race into a group of victims.

Senator Obama also addressed a powerful issue to many white Americans and that issue is how Affirmative Action has caused some better qualified white men to be pass over for a job that was given instead to a lessor qualified black or female applicant to correct old wrongs. I personally I have thought, since Affirmative Action was first started that, it was wrong for a better qualified job applicant to be pass over for a lessor qualified candidate based strictly on race or gender. White candidates that are being passed over today had nothing to do with slavery or how their great grandparents treated African-Americans.

After listening to Barack Obama's speech from Philadelphia today, I believe more than ever that Senator Obama is a real element of change in the United States. Whether his brand of change is something most Americans will vote for next November is still a very open question.

March 18, 2008 Archives

Democrats On Verge Of Self Destruction

A few months ago I wrote about the possibility that Democrats might find a way to snatch defeat right from the arms of victory in election 2008 and today it appears that they are on course to do just that. Rather than focusing to the issues that Americans care most about, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have gone negative against each other while John McCain visits Iraq and looks presidential. It is not surprising that Hillary Clinton went negative in her campaign against Barack Obama, but it is surprising to me that Obama is starting to do the same thing to Hillary Clinton.

Today, Senator Obama is making a speech where he will talk about his views on race in America. While that subject is of the utmost importance, it is being made at a time when most Americans are concerned about the US economy as record high mortgage foreclosures and big business failures are the top headlines of the day. A month ago, Barack Obama would have been more in tune with the American people and their top concerns, but today Senator Obama has fallen into the Hillary Clinton trap where his campaign is spending more it's time fighting back against the latest Clinton attack.

In a way it is good that Barack Obama has been forced off of his winning message because that has allowed all of us to see what Senator Obama is really made of at his core being. I must admit that my initial support of Barack Obama is not as strong as it was a few weeks ago after hearing his former preacher spout out words of hate from his church pulpit. What effected me more than this preachers words was Barack Obama's response that he had no idea that his minister had this point of view even thought he had attended his church for years. When Obama made that statement, in my eyes he changed from a modern day political leader to just another Washington politician.

While Hillary Clinton has been successful at slowing down the Barack Obama campaign for President, she has not helped her campaign at the same time. It has always been easier to destroy than it has been to create and Hillary Clinton is proving that statement once again. The democratic party has a huge problem right now as both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continue to fight for the nomination. The sad truth is that Hillary Clinton's negative campaign against Barack Obama will not win her the nomination, but it does have the effect of muddying up the water just enough to turn moderate Republicans and independents against Obama. The ultimate winner in this messed up strategy is John McCain and the Republican Party.

March 18, 2008 Archives