Not guilty by association
Unless you were in the Middle East accompanying Dick Cheney on his latest “Iraq’s goin’ great” tour, you’ve undoubtedly heard by now that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama gave arguably the most historic speech on race in America in 45 years.
The U.S. senator from Illinois, whose mother was white and whose father was a black man from Kenya spoke honestly and openly about not only the frustrations, anger and fear that African Americans keenly feel but also those of white Americans. It was powerful, honest and eloquent; unlike anything heard before in a political speech.
Obama, the first truly viable African American to seek the presidency probably wouldn’t have given the speech had it not been for the media frenzy surrounding his pastor and spiritual advisor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who had made what many consider anti-American and racist statements from the pulpit.
What Obama failed to address, in my estimation, was how he could not have known long ago about such statements which he says he disavows. What’s more, if he did know about them, how could he remain a member of the congregation for 20-years and not expect it to be an issue when he’s seeking the presidency? Obama may have stopped the bleeding, but great damage has been done and if he is the Democratic nominee, these made for television sound bites of Rev. Wright are far more powerful than any Swift Boat or Willie Horton ad the Republicans have used before.
But while I strongly disagree and was made uncomfortable by what Rev. Wright said, I can appreciate that they are coming from a man of color who came of age in the 1950s and 60s. I also can’t help but notice the double standard when it comes to the reaction over some of what he said. I see no difference between Rev. Wright saying the 911 terrorist attacks were “America’s chickens coming home to roost” and presidential candidates’ representatives. Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich claiming that they were caused by America’s heavy handed foreign policy and military presence in the Middle East. Similarly, when Rev. Wright talked about racism and not “God Bless America” but “God Damn America”—I see little distinction from Religious Right preachers Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson saying that God “damned” America on 9/11 because of our support of secularism and gay rights.
Sadly, we are charting new territory in politics when we measure a candidate not only by who they are, what they say and what they stand for; but also by who the candidate’s supporters are and what their associates might have said. If we were all judged by such a formula I doubt many of us could pass the smell test in the political arena.
With the new mix of 24-hour news, blogs and YouTube information, images are available immediately without any chance to place them in context. The more sensational images are put into a media driven echo chamber and blasted to the American public with little or no explanation. I think we do a disservice to the democratic process by not stepping back and taking a lot of this in with a grain of salt.
Whether it’s the sermons of Rev. Wright currently plaguing Obama or Geraldine Ferraro’s recent flap for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign saying that Obama’s recent success is solely because he’s African American or Sen. John McCain having to apologize for a radio-jock repeatedly injecting Obama’s Muslim middle name during an introduction—associates and supporters have long caused headaches for all of the candidates.
Indeed, Barack Obama gave an historic and timely speech—I’m just a little concerned that the catalyst for that speech may cost him the presidency if he wins the nomination. While he is fortunate that all of this is happening during the primaries it will only be amplified in the general election. I just hope for our country’s sake that the American electorate is as open minded as Obama gives us credit for. He spoke to us as adults on the topic of race and no matter how this shakes out, we’re better for having had the discussion.
You can e-mail Colin Murphy at colin_murphy@sbcglobal.net.
