Not Post-Racial At All
Mark Steyn on why Obama's big speech proved that Obama is not a post-racial candidate. By embracing the Reverend Jeremiah Wright rather than renouncing Wright's ugly conspiracy theories, Obama proved he could not get beyond the type of nastiness he promised to end.
Before the speech, Slate's Mickey Kaus advised Sen. Obama to give us a Sister Souljah moment: "There are plenty of potential Souljahs still around: Race preferences. Out-of-wedlock births," he wrote. "But most of all the victim mentality that tells African Americans (in the fashion of the Rev. Wright's most infamous sermons) that the important forces shaping their lives are the evil actions of others, of other races." Indeed. It makes no difference to white folks when a black pastor inflicts kook genocide theories on his congregation: The victims are those in his audience who make the mistake of believing him.
The Rev. Wright has a hugely popular church with over 8,000 members, and Sen. Obama assures us that his pastor does good work by "reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS." But maybe he wouldn't have to quite so much "reaching out" to do and maybe there wouldn't be quite so many black Americans "suffering from HIV/AIDS" if the likes of Wright weren't peddling lunatic conspiracy theories to his own community.
Nonetheless, last week, Barack Obama told America: "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community."
What is the plain meaning of that sentence? That the paranoid racist ravings of Jeremiah Wright are now part of the established cultural discourse in African American life and thus must command our respect? Let us take the senator at his word when he says he chanced not to be present on AIDS Conspiracy Sunday, or God Damn America Sunday, or US of KKKA Sunday, or the Post-9/11 America-Had-It-Coming Memorial Service. A conventional pol would have said he was shocked, shocked to discover Afrocentric black liberation theology going on at his church. But Obama did something far more audacious: Instead of distancing himself from his pastor, he attempted to close the gap between Wright and the rest of the country, arguing, in effect, that the guy is not just his crazy uncle but America's, too.
To do this, Obama promoted a false equivalence. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother," he continued. "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." Well, according to the way he tells it in his book, it was one specific black man on her bus, and he wasn't merely "passing by."
When the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dumped some of his closest Cabinet colleagues to extricate himself from a political crisis, the Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe responded: "Greater love hath no man than to lay down his friends for his life." In Philadelphia, Sen. Obama topped that: Greater love hath no man than to lay down his grandma for his life.
This one is a must read. The ugly and vicious theories that Wright has championed for at least twenty years now are beyond the pale. They are either the product of a deeply disturbed mind or of one utterly indifferent to the truth for whatever selfish reasons. This is going to haunt Obama's candidacy and cause him serious grief if he wins the nomination. Bet on it.
By martian, Saturday, 22 March , 2008 @ 1:06 pm
At this point, the Clintons are not going to let this go away. The Republicans can sit back and take the high road and let the Clintons do the damage for them. The Clinton campaign has already siezed this one with both hands and turned it into a war club. The carnage should be impressive.
By curtis, Saturday, 22 March , 2008 @ 2:03 pm
I still say that it was only Hillarys opening volley. I think she still has a couple of more goodies for us. I’d say at least two more. 10 days before Penn. and two weeks before the convention.
By KendraWilder, Saturday, 22 March , 2008 @ 2:10 pm
As a White woman born and raised in Camden, NJ, amid all the other poor folk including Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Irish, Italian, Polish, Russians, and many more, I find it especially insulting that Obama’s Pastor thinks that the Black experience is the most egregious in our country’s history. As a poor "white trash" woman in the 60’s and 70’s I can attest to the prejudices with which such women were burdened when trying to get a decent education, decent paying jobs, and decent housing. One place where I worked and did well refused to let me sign up for their "assistant manager training program" because it was for men only.I resent Pastor Wright’s characterization of Whites, and I especially resent Obama’s "typical White" comment. I lived and worked side-by-side with people of all races, and it never occurred to me to view Blacks as any more of a threat than the Hippies of my generation. Whatever the "generation", there’s always a faction that is radical and/or criminal that gives that generation a "bad" image to the rest of the world. Can’t be helped, because that’s the way the Mainstream Media plays things up to sell papers and TV news programs.So if Obama thought he could win my vote by running me down worse than others already did even as I struggled hard to pull myself out of poverty and make a good life for myself, then he is grossly misjudging this "typical" White woman.
By Mwalimu Daudi, Saturday, 22 March , 2008 @ 2:32 pm
The Republicans can sit back and take the high road and let the Clintons do the damage for them.
Still…the GOP will get blamed anyway. This is Standard Operating Procedure for the MSM and their Democrat pets.
That is why I believe that Republicans need to take the lead in denouncing the Messiah’s race-baiting. I believe that the country is sick of racist double-standards and the MSM telling us that it is soemhow not racism if it is done in the name of "civil right". A strong stand on this issue could breal the backs of Democrats.
However, I think that the GOP will do what it usually does - boot the problem into the future hoping that it will go away.
By Mockinbird, Saturday, 22 March , 2008 @ 2:38 pm
Rev. Wright is a classic example of a black leader attempting to hold black people from joining the greater American community. Obama is a classic of affirmative action ivy college law grad who went back home to work in "community organising". I really wonder about the state of Illinois.
By Rich Horton, Saturday, 22 March , 2008 @ 3:54 pm
That is a real good piece by Steyn.
By Maggie, Saturday, 22 March , 2008 @ 4:07 pm
Gaius, et al -
Just look at a small part of the MSM orgasm over BHO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7kGZ2Mm6GY