Posted on 03/18/2008 9:33:35 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
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."
Hillary is the uniter. She is the owner of most beautiful ovaries. Her sexy dresses that she wears is what America needs.
Go Hillary and Go Rush!
Sorry Obama! your defense of your looney tune minister is outrageous!
Amen: I guess he thinks we are so deranged we’ll join his ship of fools.
I agree. As if he has never referred to white people as crackers as he did in his first book. But, IMHO, his wife is the one to watch out for. That is a dangerous, angry woman! The other thing I noticed is that he decries how blacks have suffered because of slavery, yet, he and his wife SOMEHOW made it to the best schools, law firms and Board rooms in this horrible, racist country.
spoiled rotten angry brats...that’s what that congregation represents.
It was a lecture by Rodney King, nothing more.
White people can’t talk about this because they will be ruined.
Screw understanding it roots ... this the same "their anger is understandable" pile of crap rationale the PC nazis were selling when they tried to justify the 911 attackers.
Wright is a bigoted, close-minded, hate filled man ... and Obama sat under his teaching for more than a decade without speaking out.
The “Rev” Wright told his congregation to sing “G*D Damn America” instead of “God Bless America” and Obama is still holding that garbage close to him, having Wright baptise his children and marrying him. Obama is toast.
Its official — Obama’s defense is not good enough. As long as he remains in this church which preaches black theology he’s as guilty and racist as his Pastor.
White people can’t talk about this because they will be ruined.
White liberals maybe...I feel fine talking about a socialist I don’t want in the white house. Never mind his flamethrower minister. He’s just playing his “sympathy cards”.
Recommend Psychotherapy.
Barack is benefitting from slavery. If it weren’t for slavery, the black population of the U.S. would be about as big as the Eskimo population, and he’d have lost to Hillary a long time ago.
The reality Obama has to manage, a reality no one is really addressing, is that he cannot distance himself too much from Rev. Wright, because what the opinions his pastor expressed is fair representation of what much of the black community believes in this country.
He has chosen to employ classic Clintonian triangulation politics. Whites on one side, blacks on the other...with Obama standing in between as the compromise solution for both sides.
ap article title change
Obama says pastor wrong and divisive
That is a dangerous, angry woman!
I told hubby the other day that she reminds me of Leona Helmsley. She has a mean, nasty look on her face all the time.
This is why most whites don't want a president like Obama (Black, full of hate, and looking for someone to blame). They are sick and dang tired of hearing about it. I am posting a link that another Freeper shared this morning. This should be Obama's message. I'm afraid if he embraced it, he would crush everyone in the general election, but this isn't who he really is:
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2272
throw your Grandmother under the bus
.
Which Grandmother? Considering high black on black crime rates, it could be either.
The dominant media will of course hail Hussein`s speech
as one of the best ever and joe sixpack will eat it up.
________________________________________________________
“Joe Six Pack” has a computer and e-mail — “Joe Six Pack” will see sermon after sermon by that guy on “You Tube.” “Joe Six Pack” has more information at his fingertips than a Harvard Professor in the college library had at his twenty years ago.
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