Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Obama and the Black Man's Burden

Derrick Z. Jackson of The Boston Globe addresses the dramatically overblown Obama-Wright-race issue in a generally perceptive column. From the conclusion:
Once again, America's white leaders play footsie with white intolerance while Obama was pressured to bring the nation the head of Jeremiah Wright. Once again, a black person holds the nation's bag of racial burdens. Whatever discussions Obama started across America with his speech, the fact that Huckabee and McCain offer more comfort to Obama than Clinton is evidence that at the top, the conversation is tongue-tied.
This situation will only hurt Obama among the camp of white voters looking for an excuse not to vote for Obama and for those who never would have voted for him in the first place. The former group might hurt him. The latter presumably will not.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I know there are so many opinions out there about the Obama-Wright relationship. However, for African Americans who were fortunate enough to grow up in the Black Church or a church were the congregration was predominately black, we all know that sermons along with the call and response experience in the church has always dealt with issues of politics, history, and most of the time controversial issues. I'm not shocked by Rev. Jeremiah Wright's words nor his way of addressing his congregation. However, I am concerned for others outside of the black church community who want to assert that the Obama-Wright partnership is one of hate.
tramaine.