Obama lectures us on race, gender and equality. Obama's speech text

"A More Perfect Union" Remarks of Senator Barack Obama Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

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.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States.

In his smooth speech, Obama did nothing more than state that instead of being a color-blind society, we should take race into account into every aspect and nook and corner of our society.

This is not progressive but hugely regressive. It is not uniting but hugely dividing.

His statement that “segregated schools are divided schools” is nothing more than an affirmation of returning to mandated “fairness” as adjudged by some bureaucratic and politicized entity - and, yes, a return to school busing as bizarre and ghastly as that will sound to all families and communities that have experienced it.

Never forget that on the 28 of June, 2007, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote, limited the use of race for school integration plans. Those five justices included Alito and Roberts.

In his recent speech, Obama mentions that “to the untrained ear”, a congregation such as his may indeed seem foreign, offensive or
confusing to people unfamiliar with the “process”. I think it shows his typical liberalism by suggesting that it’s something we may not be fully capable of understanding. To suggest that regular folks don’t quite get it.

Well, we get it. I understand. It’s not lost on us! What’s happening in Detroit with Kwame Kilpatrick, etc...We get it...His tirade at the close of his possibly final State of the City address...Al Sharpton, almost any day of the week, it’s all part of what the American people should want to see less of. Never did I hear Barack Obama suggest that the African-American community in America could try a little harder and maybe work on their game a little more seriously.

My bad....back in my international daze, it was Wash Post....did not realize they were now out.

The Herald was founded on October 4, 1887, as the European edition of the New York Herald by the parent paper's owner, James Gordon Bennett, Jr. The company is based in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris. In 1928, the Herald became the first newspaper distributed by airplane, flying copies to London from Paris in time for breakfast. Publication of the IHT was interrupted between 1940–1944, during the occupation of Paris by Nazi Germany.

In 1959, John Hay Whitney, a businessman and US Ambassador to the UK, bought the New York Herald Tribune and its European edition. In 1966, the New York paper closed, but the Whitney family kept the Paris paper going through partnerships. In December 1966, The Washington Post became a joint owner. The New York Times became a joint owner of the Herald in May 1967; the newspaper became known as the International Herald Tribune.

In 1974 the IHT began transmitting facsimile pages of the paper between nations and opened a printing site near London. In 1977, the paper opened a second site in Zürich. The IHT began to send electronic images of newspaper pages from Paris to Hong Kong via satellite in 1980, making the paper simultaneously available on opposite sides of the planet. This was the first such intercontinental transmission of an English-language daily newspaper and followed the pioneering efforts of the Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily newspaper.

In 1991, The Washington Post and The New York Times became sole and equal shareholders of the newspaper. As of 2007, the IHT is completely owned by The New York Times Company, after that firm purchased the 50% stake owned by the Washington Post Company on December 30, 2002. The takeover ended a 35-year partnership between the two domestic competitors. The Post was forced to sell when the Times threatened to pull out and start a competing paper. As a result, the Post entered into an agreement to publish selected articles in The Wall Street Journal's European edition.

"It’s Obama keeps going back for more and more of this hatred. It’s Obama’s total lack of judgment that is the problem."

Before all of this broke and I listened to some of Wright's vitriol, I could almost admire the adroitness with which Obama played the race card every single day, at every single speech and got away with it. I thought he could have taught P.T. Barnum a trick or two on conning the public.

Looking at his use of the race card through the lens of his mentor's teachings, though, casts everything he has ever said into a far more sinister light. IMO, a lot of other people are looking at him in that same light. It's like looking back at some of the seemingly high-minded statements of Scott Ritter's (the child molesting UN inspector) though the lens of his sexual predations.

Oh I see I read about his "racist" grandmother "confessing" she feared black men on the street, so now it's ok to be a racist black because his white grandmother said something? This business about his grandmother "confessing" fearing black men on the street is a very old and divisive trick. You have blacks committing crime disproportionately, you have inner cities teeming with crime, there is a serious debate whether his old grandmother is "racist" or just responding to the news.

I see this as turning the tables in an effort to make all whites feel racist and guilty. Maybe Obama happens to be surrounded by racists. I want to know, did his grandmother also support the Soviet Union, or Libya? Cuba? Did she rail against the atomic bombings of Japan? Does Obama or Rev Wright have any idea how Imperial Japan would have treated blacks?

I like your excellent observation. If the Reverend’s fiery rhetoric is so much a subtle metaphor and a legacy view of race relations that it takes this many words to “put it in context” and carefully position what he “really means” - how are his young children going to understand the (dare I say it) ‘nuances’??

I think at a minimum, Obama has done the opposite of what he says about unity within his own family. He says the error of Reverend Wright’s rhetoric is that he assumed race injustices are static, and that the same conditions that existed in his time (50’s and 60’s) defined today’s condition. In reality, he allows race relations had actually improved.

But what betrays his true feelings - he’s essentially having his children steeped in this hate. He’s stunting their growth and perspective. When he says his hope is in the future generations, he is (by his own actions as a father) saying directly: I want YOUR CHILDREN to change. I will continue to educate my kids from the perspective of the 50’s and 60’s...meanwhile, you keep extending special programs that grant advantages to minorities.

What gets me is that if someone were truly audacious in this race discussion, you’d be espousing Bill Cosby’s take in this debate. He is all about responsibility. He doesn’t blame the economy and schools (external forces no one can change single handedly - aka ‘the man’). Reinforcing that government needs to PROVIDE healthcare and PROVIDE better education, etc is where the wheels come off. He’s still sidestepping the message that someone with real audacity would champion: TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.

Urban schools are inferior? Vote for school choice and/or register your kids in other schools. That’s what Obama’s mother had the ‘audacity’ to do.

Healthcare is less than what you wanted? Focus on getting a better job and prioritize YOUR finances so you can get the coverage you want. I assume that’s how Obama has managed to keep healthy and keep his glittering smile.

Economy has got you down? Why not get a better education and pursue a career in a field that pays more and is more recession proof? That’s what both Barack and Michelle did.

I just don’t understand why their implied message is “be like me” - yet they lack the objectivity to accurately identify what decisions in their life resulted in more success! Instead, they cite all these programs as the prescription for the future generation to “make it” when though they have been tried in this country and others, they have NEVER SUCCEEDED. These programs weren’t needed to allow Obama to achieve, what was the secret to his success? Ambition fueled by seething hate? Lord, I hope not.

Even Michael Jackson says to make a change you have to start with the man in the mirror.

So, Obama - here is the challenge from White America. Do you have the AUDACITY to tell the objective truth about what works and what is broken for future generations? And be honest about what has worked for you? I think its your mother’s or parent’s sacrifices that have positioned you for success. Why aren’t you talking more about that? “Black men, if you get a woman pregnant, you need to take responsibility! Champion education! Learn about how to structure your finances in a responsible way! Learn how to be more competitive in the workplace to achieve better careers!”

Seems to me he’s saying white people have to change. White people need to pay more to create programs. White people have to look the other way when a preacher says God Damn you!

Obama. Be audacious. Tell the truth!

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