Obama confronts racial division in US
By NEDRA PICKLER and MATT APUZZO, Associated Press
Writers
56 minutes ago
PHILADELPHIA - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday
tried to stem damage from divisive comments delivered
by his pastor, while bluntly addressing anger between
blacks and whites in the most racially pointed speech
yet of his presidential campaign.
Obama confronted America's legacy of racial division
head on, tackling black grievance, white resentment
and the uproar over his former pastor's incendiary
statements. Drawing on his half-black, half-white
roots as no other presidential hopeful could, Obama
asserted: "This union may never be perfect, but
generation after generation has shown that it can
always be perfected."
Obama expressed understanding of the passions on both
sides in what he called "a racial stalemate we've been
stuck in for years."
"But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply
wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its
roots, only serves to widen the chasm of
misunderstanding that exists between the races," he
said in a speech at the National Constitution Center,
not far from where the Declaration of Independence was
adopted.
Obama rarely talks so openly about his race in such a
prominent way, but his speech covered divisions from
slavery to the O.J. Simpson trial to the recovery
efforts after Hurricane Katrina. He also recognized
his race has been a major issue in the campaign that
has taken a "particularly divisive turn" in the last
few weeks as video of his longtime pastor spread on
the Internet and on television.
Obama said the sermons delivered by the Rev. Jeremiah
Wright "rightly offend white and black alike." Those
sermons from years ago suggested the United States
brought the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on itself and
say blacks continue to be mistreated by whites.
While Obama rejected what Wright said, he also
embraced the man who inspired his Christian faith,
officiated at his wedding, baptized his daughters and
has been his spiritual guide for nearly 20 years.
"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black
community," Obama said, speaking in front of eight
American flags. "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 by her on the street, and who on
more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic
stereotypes that made me cringe."
Obama said he knew Wright to occasionally be a fierce
critic of U.S. policy and that the pastor sometimes
made controversially remarks in church that he
disagreed with, but he said he never heard Wright talk
about any ethnic group in derogatory terms. The
comments that have become a source of debate recently
"were not only wrong but divisive" and have raised
questions among voters, he said.
"I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright
were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an
endless loop on the television and YouTube, or if
Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the
caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there
is no doubt that I would react in much the same way,"
he said. "But the truth is, that isn't all that I know
of the man."
He said he came to Wright's church because he was
inspired by Wright's message of hope and his
inspiration to rebuild the black community.
Obama said Wright's comments have sparked a discussion
that reflect complexities of race in the United States
that its people have never really resolved.
"We do not need to recite here the history of racial
injustice in this country," Obama said. "But we do
need to remind ourselves that so many of the
disparities that exist in the African-American
community today can be directly traced to inequalities
passed on from an earlier generation that suffered
under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow."
Obama said anger over those injustices often find
voice in black churches on Sunday mornings. "The fact
that so many people are surprised to hear that anger
in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us
of the old truism that the most segregated hour in
American life occurs on Sunday morning," he said.
Obama argued that the anger often distracts from
solving real problems and bringing change. But he said
it also exists in some segments of the white community
that feels blacks are often given an unfair advantage
through affirmative action.
"If we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our
respective corners, we will never be able to come
together and solve challenges like health care, or
education, or the need to find good jobs for every
American," Obama said, drawing a rare burst of
applause in a somber address.
Obama said one of the tasks of his campaign to be the
first black president is "to continue the long march
of those who came before us, a march for a more just,
more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous
America."
___
On the Net:
http://www.barackobama.com <http://www.barackobama.com>
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