The only surprise is that it worked as well as it has. Which says far more about the ignorance of white folks than it does about Obama or even about his erstwhile pastor. Do9n’t they know even at this late date that every clean-shaven black colleague working his ‘berry beside them in the conference room; every easy-going middle-aged brother shooting pick-up hoops at the health club; every i-got-it sister offering to crunch the numbers on that group project—they all have their inner Wrighteousness. They have all “damned” America and have certainly not been proud of it. Do white folks really think Malcolm was just a movie and that King sounds the same to us as he does to them? Do they think that just because some of us went to Harvard and Wall Street and the U.S. Senate that we forgot? Some of these same people would be shocked if they ever had a few quiet drinks with Clarence Thomas.
But even so, Sen. Obama, in his refreshingly reasonable style, did the best possible job of sharing this truth in his extraordinary speech last week. His ability to do so—without even getting mad—was the best evidence yet of his eloquence and of his unique status in American politics. Never mind that only a handful of public officials are “articulate” enough o pull that off. He is also the first member of the U.S. Senate who is historically capable of giving that speech.
Of course all the MSM talking-heads could sputter about was whether Obama changed the minds of enough white men in Pennsylvania to keep Clinton from gaining on him in the delegate race and prove something to somebody for the general election. That, I suppose, is the way this goes for those who still believe the whole process matters. Someday, though, people will look back at this past week not or how it affected the latest polls, but as the moment when a major U/S. politician finally spoke to us all about race as if we were all rational human beings.
Delphine Davis
