Obama’s speech on race is being called visionary and equal to that of MLK’s “I Had A Dream. It’s also being called trite, a cop-out, and a cover-up of his relationship with Rev Wright and the racist and anti-American remarks he has made.
I lean towards trite, but he does get points in the positive column.
I heard some of Obama’s speech, and read the rest. He gets points for bringing up race in America, a topic that sorely needs to be debated between those who believe that minorities are underprivileged by the white majority and those who believe that idea is old, false and overdone.
He gets no points in blaming outside forces of the past for the state of today’s black culture. Yes, he placated the centre and right wing of the Democratic Party by mentioning personal responsibility, by mentioning the basics of white fears of racial social programs where whites are disadvantaged, but he also blamed black anger on deeds done by whites two generations ago. He told whites to acknowledge an anger that was created in the generation of their grandfathers, not their fathers or theirs. And to gain the black community’s forgiveness, according to Obama, whites must commit wealth distribution: welfare, investing government money in black communities. This is illogical and, for lack of a better term, unfair. To force the sins of my grandfather onto me is just as unfair as my grandfather’s generation preventing blacks from getting equal civil rights. The past’s sins cannot be balanced by future sins.
Also, Obama exposes his socialist views in trying to describe white anger:
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.[1]
He blames capitalism, free markets and corporations for the anger of whites. He is partially right, whites are angry at corporations, but it’s the white leftists that are. Anyone who has a basic idea of how the economy works will realize that the sub-prime mortgage collapse and the chain reaction into the global credit crisis stems in part from the Federal Reserve’s “easy money” policy. This allowed people to borrow and borrow and borrow with nearly no consequences. Now with the housing market falling and the lenders and banks following credit is no longer plentiful, and people who used to live on the credit are now impaling themselves on it.
The federal government is not the solution. Its not your mother, your father, your parent. Its there to make the trains run, not to pat your head.
