Obama Speech Opens Discourse on Race and Politics

JIM LEHRER:

And finally tonight, Barack Obama's speech on race and politics. Judy Woodruff has our coverage.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Barack Obama delivered his much-anticipated speech on race and politics at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center, in fact, citing the Founding Fathers' work right at the start.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), Illinois: "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Obama's campaign had said the purpose of the speech was twofold: to address directly the inflammatory comment made by his former pastor Jeremiah Wright; and to discuss the broader issue of race itself.

Reverend Wright, until his retirement last month, headed Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and had been Obama's spiritual adviser for nearly 20 years.

But in recent days, some of Wright's past remarks have received heavy media and Internet attention, like these from a 2003 sermon, in which he characterized the United States government as racist.

REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT, Former Head of Trinity United Church of Christ: The government gives them the drugs, build bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law, and then wants us to sing, "God Bless America"? No, no, no. Not "God Bless America." "God Damn America."

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Obama disavowed Wright's comment again today.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA:

The remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice.

Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country, a view that sees white racism as endemic and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

But as Obama continued, he likened the struggles of African-Americans of Wright's generation to difficulties faced by white immigrants, arguing the anger of both groups has been misunderstood.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA:

For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away, nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years.

That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends, but it does find voice in the barbershop or the beauty shop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians to gin up votes along racial lines or to make up for a politician's own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews.

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 of American life occurs on Sunday morning.

That anger is not always productive. Indeed, all too often, it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity within the African-American community in our own condition; it prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change.

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.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience.

As far as they're concerned, no one handed them anything. They've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pensions dumped after a lifetime of labor.

They are anxious about their futures, and they feel their dreams slipping away. And in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero-sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense.

So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town, when they hear an African-American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed, when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company, but they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Obama acknowledged that his candidacy alone could not repair the country's deep racial divisions, but expressed hope that the divide eventually could be bridged.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA:

This is where we are right now. It is a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. And contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle or with a single candidate, particularly…

… particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. 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. We have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Hillary Clinton was also in Philadelphia today. Although she said she did not hear Obama's speech, she said she was glad he gave it, agreeing that race and gender long have been complicated issues in the country's history.