It’s not possible for an intelligent person [particularly if that person is black] to reach maturity in the United States without knowing that the country is absolutely marinated in racism, and always has been. Barack Obama is a brilliant man with a brilliant mind, who has dedicated his life to public service, so how could it possibly have eluded him that his country is anything but racist? In fact, his unique dual-ethnicity better qualifies him than most to know racism, from both points of view. His own family is a metaphor for the racial divide of his country.
Given that, and based on everybody’s knowledge of him thus far, how many of you can honestly say that he’s the kind of man who would condone the views expressed in his pastor’s sermons? To hold him responsible for Wright’s divisive and incendiary views, when he has already disowned and condemned them, is itself the height of dishonesty. His exposure to those views does not make them his, just as his exposure to his grandmother’s racism does not define him as a racist. Let each person be judged by their own words and actions.
Obama’s campaign has been about unity, not division, and recognizing that people from both races are racist, and even understanding why they might be that way, even befriending those who are, or being related to others who are, doesn’t make him a racist by association or as if by contagion. Even listening passively doesn’t make him like them. It doesn’t even make him culpable for their ignorance, and this is why his own public pronouncements and actions should be all that really count. He said in his speech,
I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.
Has he been true to this pledge so far? Does he honestly believe what he says? Has his campaign demonstrated another or contrary view? All the evidence is out there. Either one believes he’s a force for unity and coalition or one does not. He knows all the points of view, so why would he run [and appeal to such a motley electorate] as a closet racist? Surely the guy’s brighter than that. From what I’ve seen of him he’s a damn sight brighter than any number of Jeremiah Wrights. What’s more he knows that the distortion which is racism will not get himself or anybody else elected. And yet he also knows that the electorate is full of racists of various hues and degrees. How is it possible to appeal to such racists across the board? Without the example of his campaign I don’t think I could’ve answered that, but Obama's success so far is proof that a multicultural swathe of racists can unite for a common cause.
Obama doesn’t degrade or denigrate whites or blacks. He doesn’t use derogatory language or slur them either. Nor does he excuse or justify racism. He doesn’t gloss over it or hide away from it. He faces it in all its ugliness, from both sides, and resolves to rise above it. He recognizes that racial issues are complex and legitimate but he doesn’t just shy away from addressing them. To know history is not to be condemned by it, and to know the legacy of one’s history is not to be enslaved to it. Obama understands the presence of the past in the present, but he has chosen to do something about both. How is this anything else but laudatory? A man who faces reality as he does is a rare treasure, and I think the US is very fortunate to have such an enlightened candidate. He isn’t afraid of anger either, and he’s not reduced to it, and that’s the quality of his character.
You guys are right to ask the kind of questions you ask, and your level of dialogue is supremely unlike anything else I’ve ever witnessed: There’s none of your kind of profound polemics in Irish political life, and I envy you. But from an outsider’s point of view, it has always seemed to me that racism has been your elephant in the room. It leads to divisions and resentments and open wounds more quickly than any of the other schisms. It’s always there in the American experience, and thinking a generation of Civil Rights marches has cured it is naïve in the extreme. I suppose being reminded of what is ugly is always unpalatable but there it is anyway, staring you all in the face.
