Now More Than Ever

Obama. Now more than ever. After the senator's speech on race in the wake of the controversy caused by his pastor, it is more clear than ever before that, if we do not give this man his due, we will avoid this long-overdue reckoning for another generation.


Obama's not winning because he's black; he's the first man who may win in spite of being black, however, and that is inextricably linked to the kind of black man that he is. Put bluntly, Obama's not angry. If he were, he wouldn't have made it out of Iowa.


But neither is Obama too frightened or canned or calculating to reject the reality and the import of the angry black men that surround him, whom he refuses to denounce or patronize. Obama is dealing with his reverend in a way that says far more about his character than any prior test in this campaign.


He rejects Reverend Wright's comments, but he does not betray the man. He rejects the anger, but he fully embraces his responsibility and his unique ability to speak honestly about the sources of that anger to the country as a whole. He alone can understand this anger, reject this anger, but still speak credibly about the sources of this anger.


Only Obama, whose grandmother would have crossed the street had she seen his father approaching, has the ability to speak to all groups about shared insecurities and common responsibilities.


Only Obama can tell black men that they must be better fathers while simultaneously telling whites that blacks and immigrants are not to blame for their insecurity. As this country slides further into oligarchy, and as the most powerful middle class in history is steadily eroded, these insidious trends will rely increasingly on the poor forming a circular firing squad amongst themselves. Only Obama has the courage to call this what it is.

Because Obama is not a hostage to the ultimately self-defeating worldview of Reverd Wright and his ilk, he is able to forge a way forward that does not center on anger and self-pity. Because Obama knows how much America has changed in the last fifty years, he knows it can continue to do so.

Because Obama is a product of opportunity rather than oppression, he is spared that insidious belief that the United States is an irredeemably racist country. He does not pretend, however, that inequality ended with Brown v. the Board of Education or the Civil Rights Act.

When one quits smoking, their body is not instantly purified of the toxins; that takes years. But the leap has been made, and Obama understands this in a way that his calcified elders are constitutionally incapable of acknowledging.

Even if one does not agree with or relate to Obama's paradigms, and I know many good and honest people who do not, we should all take pause to reflect on the tone of the speech. This was a speech by and for adults. I have never heard a speech by a major American politician so free of platitudes and circular self-delusion. There was no "they hate us for our freedom" drivel to be found here.

Obama spoke to us all without sandbagging any one of us, without trivializing any of our fears or hopes or insecurities or differences or commonalities. At the very least, this man is the best politician in 50 years. I think he's more than the very least.

Due to an utterly unique combination of self-endowment and self-actualization, Obama has managed to thread the needle. I pray that we follow him through the eye.