For Obama, Race is Joined
This is from a post by Faye at Anderson@Large.
For more than a year, the media narrative was that Barack Obama transcends race. But the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.’s incendiary comments caused a house of race cards to collapse around Obama. In its wake, the media coverage of “hope” and “inspiration” has shifted to “race-based resistance” to Obama.
The wall-to-wall coverage of Wright’s racially charged statements forced Obama to finally address race. While I am neutral in the Democratic nomination battle, I was uncomfortable with a campaign strategy that, in the words of Prof. Marc Lamont Hill, “gestures to white voters and winks at blacks.”
Obama told America what African Americans already know: race matters. Sure, progress has been made but there are racial disparities in access to traditional home mortgages, health care and quality education. The black unemployment rate is twice that of whites and one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars.
READ FULL POST AT ANDERSON@LARGE
