Obama's Race Speech

Earlier today, Senator Barack Obama gave a major speech on race. The media has covered this speech extensively and I wanted to make a few points. A transcript of the prepared remarks is available here. (For background, if you are aware of the background of this controversy, see a list of Rev. Wright's remarks).

Personally, I felt that the speech was rather good. There were some points where I felt it could have been rhetorically stronger and more emotionally inspiring. However, I was impressed that Senator Obama came straight out and tried to address the racial issues in a straight forward manner. Moreover, I think that Obama might be able to capitalize on this issue--i.e., he might be able to convince the country that he can bring the country to a new level in the racial issues that his campaign has brought to the forefront.

Below, I have pointed out some interesting and recurring themes from Obama's speech.

One other point: I heard Jack Caffrety mention on the 4pm EST hour of The Situation Room on CNN that Obama wrote the speech himself.

Pro-American

• " This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people."
• "Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time."
• "for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible."
• Obama denounced the speech "that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America;"
• "America, this country that I love"
• "But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union."
• "This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag"

Personal Story

• "my own American story"
• "I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents"
  

Strong Religious Language

• "The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery"
• " my Christian faith"
• " God’s work here on Earth"
• "at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones."
• "But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union."
• "In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well."

Close With a Story

• "There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there."