The Most Important Speech on Race Ever Delivered.

Mar 19, 2008 20:48

A couple of folks on my f-list has posted to this awe-inspiring speech by Barack Obama already, but I felt that I should re-print a comment on the Metafilter board, which conducts the essence of Obama's word's.

" I've been trying to think of something appropriate to say about the speech Obama gave today, and I don't know where to start. I've read dozens of reactions, pro and con, but I feel like no one's managed yet to grasp the meaning of what he just did. There are a lot of people who've effused about oh what a wonderful speech it was, as well as a sizable contingent who've been nitpicking about it, but I haven't seen anyone yet who really seems to have grasped just what it meant. Even the people who've said that Obama "elevated the discourse" in some way don't seem to be able to explain how.

The "how" is that it was a speech that my grandmother, who, like Obama's, is a saint of a woman who nevertheless harbors some racial prejudices that are so very, very hard for me to reconcile with my image of her as one of the sweetest, most wonderful people in my life -- and Obama's speech is the first time I heard anything that I think -- I know -- she would really understand. The first.

I don't know if the speech will make a difference in the primary, and I don't know how the press will ultimately spin it. Elections are complex things, and I don't think the most important effects of this speech are ultimately about the election. I'd like to put the election aside for a moment and just talk about what Obama just did, which by all rights shouldn't have been possible.

What I honestly believe is this: that speech was a singular intellectual achievement, a contribution to the race debate in this country that will reshape everything that came before it and that comes after. I want to be crystal clear that I am not saying this in support of Obama's Presidential bid. Some of the most brilliant, eloquent, educated, dedicated people I've ever met have spent years trying to grapple with the problem of race relations in the United States -- affirmative action in particular -- and none of them has ever come up with a response or a take on the issue that hit home. Not even close.

I'd wager that I've spent more time pondering these issues that most people ever have or will, and it's never been anything but draining and frustrating. Texas Law is, after all, the unfortunate home for Painter, and more recently Hopwood, making it in many respects ground zero regarding affirmative action. There are still people on the faculty here who were directly involved in the case on both sides, and the issue is not far from the surface -- you can feel it. After nine years here, it's become almost palpable to me. And it grinds you down, because the tension never goes away -- every time I hear anyone say anything about race issues, no matter what their angle, no matter how radical or how conciliatory, I cringe inside, because I've heard all the reactions -- far too many times -- and I just know that there's no way anyone on the other side of the issue would react any way but negatively. It's a Möbius Strip of good intentions come to horrible ends. (And some not-so-good intentions as well, of course.)

Much of the commentary on Obama's speech hasn't yet credited just how intractable a political problem this has been for so long -- nor how much effort has been expended here to such negligible effect -- and the almost surreal ease with which Obama just shattered a seemingly-impregnable political barrier. As a long-time supporter of affirmative action, I've been almost despondent at times trying to think of some way, any way, to move the issue forward. Greater minds than mine have tried and failed -- endless volumes of books, treatises, essays, and court decisions have done next to nothing to unravel the Gordian Knot; every statement that's made, you can just feel that it doesn't quite cut through.

And yet, somehow, in one moment, Obama just... did it. That shouldn't even have been possible. I have been waiting for the better part of my adult life for someone to hit that perfect pitch, and Obama finally did it. That speech was the first time I've felt that I could say yes -- that is something I could say to my Midwestern relatives that they would actually understand. He connected their frustrations -- the frustrations that fueled the Southern Strategy, in many ways -- with the frustrations of African-Americans. That's a profound, profound thing.

And it wasn't just Obama's take on the situation or his life experiences, and it wasn't just a pretty speech; he actually connected the intellectual dots in a unique and original way -- in a way that even great scholars haven't yet been able to -- and he did it more than once. All the strands came together -- his pastor, the media circus, his church, his grandmother: those were universal chords. They will resonate.

I doubt that it'll become clear just how amazing this moment was for some time to come, but that was an intellectual and political tour de force on an absolutely unprecedented level. That was a stake through the heart of racism in this country, the Prejudice That Dare Not Speak Its Name, the "I'm not a racist, but..." sentiments that have fueled racial divisions between Americans since the end of the Civil War. That was really something special. "
posted by spiderwire at 10:10 PM on March 18 [142 favorites]
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