By Tyler Howard
Too often politicians cater only to our surface-level desires.
They tell us they’ll lower taxes, reform everything that needs reformed and protect us from the big bad monsters of the world. They shape their words to match the current polls, telling us not what we need to hear but what we want to hear — or, perhaps more accurately, what they want us to hear. In short, they speak to us as if we were children.
But last Tuesday, around 11 a.m., something extraordinary happened. A politician risked his presidential bid to tell us the truth about race relations in America. A politician with everything to lose laid it all on the line. A politician treated us like adults.
Unfortunately, due to the timing (11 a.m. on a weekday?) and length of Barack Obama’s speech on race (nearly 40 minutes), many people missed it. What they surely did not miss, however, was the 5-second clips of his reverend, Jeremiah Wright, ranting and raving about the wounds left from decades of racism in America. And that’s a shame.
Sure, Wright’s comments were offensive but in no way should they define who Barack Obama is.
First, it should come as no surprise that Wright, a black man who lived through the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, has some anger towards white America. I know we collectively have a short memory but some pretty bad things happened to blacks during those decades.
And second, Wright is by no means the first religious leader affiliated with a politician to say something outlandish. John McCain recently received the endorsement of anti-Catholic stalwart John Hagee and spoke at the anti-Catholic Bob Jones University.
Some of Hagee’s gems include calling the Catholic church “the Great Whore,” saying that Roman Catholics were linked with Hitler “in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews,” blaming Hurricane Katrina on gay pride parades, and saying the only difference between a woman with premenstrual syndrome and a terrorist is that you can negotiate with a terrorist.
How did McCain react to this endorsement?
“I am very proud of Pastor John Hagee’s spiritual leadership to thousands of people.”
Never mind that McCain attacked Bush in 2000 for embracing Hagee and speaking at Bob Jones University, a place where interracial dating was still banned at the time. Now that he needed more support from the conservative community, McCain was all too happy to embrace the backing of a man who he once used as ammo to attack Bush.
When it comes to delicate issues, politicians time and time again have done what is politically convenient for them, not what is historically important for us. McCain could have used the Hagee situation to open a dialogue about a number of issues. Instead he used it to attack Bush in one election cycle and them embraced it to win over conservatives in the next.
Obama could have used a similar approach. He could have simply waited for the issue to blow over. Or he could have disowned Wright and pretended he was shocked and mystified by the realization that some blacks think racism still exists.
But he didn’t. He took the risk that Americans are wise and mature enough to handle a discussion on race.
In his speech, Obama denounced the words of Wright but he did not denounce the man.
“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 — 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 her by on the street, and who on more than one occasion, has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.”
Imagine if each one of us disowned every person in our life who ever made a racial comment. Our social circle would quickly shrink and there would probably be a couple empty chairs at next Thanksgiving’s dinner table. Some of us may even have to disown ourselves.
Or, like Obama, we could admit that racism still exists in many forms. We could use all the energy, time and money spent on vilifying those who make inappropriate comments to try to make things a little better. We could discuss the sin, not the sinner. That’s the challenge Obama bravely laid before us. And in many ways, the situation is no longer in his hands. It’s in ours.
Of course, there are some for whom a mature discussion of race is still elusive, such as the Glen Beck’s and Sean Hannity’s of the world, those who exploit soundbites for ratings and jump to ridiculous conclusions all in the name of finding a good controversy.
But pointing your finger at others and demonizing them for making unseemly comments does nothing to solve the problems that face us. It is merely an act of using the problems as ammo. Wright used race as ammo to attack white America. The media used Wright as ammo to attack Obama. Obama said let’s put down the weapons for a minute and let’s talk about why we’re fighting.
And in the process he delivered a speech that will undoubtedly go down in history. One that will be used as the barometer for racial progress in the 21st century.
Don’t take my word for it. Set aside a half hour, go to YouTube, and watch Obama’s speech. It’s not about Democrats and Republicans. It’s not about liberals and conservatives. And it’s not about blacks and whites.
It’s about the possibility of progress. A possibility that will always remain impossible until someone steps up and tells us the truth. Thankfully, a politician named Barack Obama did just that. The question now is, were enough people listening?