The Speech — Dual Consciousness on the Presidential Stage

At its core, Tuesday's speech amounted to a groundbreaking big-stage exposition of dual consciousness that I regard as the most sophisticated and important piece of mainstream political oratory and speech-writing of my adult life.

No, it did not entirely satisfy me as an anti-racist. The speech contained several elements that I found somewhat troubling or perhaps less than honest. But this was not an anti-racist speech. This was a campaign speech by a popular national politician who stands a mere two electoral steps away from the US presidency, whose candidacy has come under threat of fatal derailment by white fear of "black rage". Context matters, and just as one must grasp the socio-cultural context of Jeremiah Wright's words in order to understand and appreciate them, so one must grasp the context in which Barack Obama took the podium on Tuesday morning in order to appreciate what he was trying to do and say.

Obama was not trying to dissect, deconstruct, or even confrontationally criticize the white racism which has so animated and shaped this nation's history and which continues to cast heavy shadows across much of our society's daily life. He did invoke the "original sin of slavery" and the struggles of the abolitionist and civil rights movements; he did frame racism in institutional rather than interpersonal terms; but this was not the center of his message. Rather, it seems to me that he was trying to advance racial dialogue, one modest yet pivotal step, by using his own life story as a window into dual consciousness. By outlining and juxtaposing features and pitfalls of both the black experience and the white lens, Obama appeared to be trying to nudge these perceptual prisms just a little bit closer to one another, toward a mutual recognition encapsulated at the end of the speech by an anecdote about a young white woman and an elderly black man connecting as human beings at a meeting on the campaign trail.

Now, you won't be surprised to hear that I still see an asymmetrical equation. On the one hand, we have marginalized black perspectives with legitimate grievances grounded in documented history and measurable injustice; on the other hand, dominant megaphone-wielding white perspectives steeped in denial and dismissal of the empirical impact of racism on present-day inequality. Perhaps Obama's cautiously-delineated positioning between these centers of gravity is itself a meta-symbol of where the needle currently falls on the dial of socio-political power. In any case, he described in non-judgmental terms the bitterness, resentment, and conflict emanating from these respective viewpoints as inescapable features of today's political landscape. Right or wrong, these are real forces at play. It was as though Obama sought to suddenly turn on the lights in a crowded darkened room and force us all to see each other eye to eye for one blinking moment. That's a feat that no policy paper, legislation, or executive order can accomplish.

It was a speech that he probably knew all along he'd have to deliver at some point. After all, it would be impossible for US society to elect an African American president without first directly addressing unresolved issues of race and making some sort of breakthrough on this front. Obama seized the moment with a steady hand and a gutsy sense of timing, not only to defend his candidacy, but to use this unprecedented platform to elevate mainstream racial discourse. He spoke over the heads of the pundits and shills and other self-humiliating peddlers of pap. He spoke directly to citizens who remain capable of conducting thoughtful, responsible discussion on complex, delicate, deeply-felt matters. He spoke as though his audience were grown-up and intelligent. And he spoke with an unaffected, unpretentious solemnity suggesting that the substance of this speech was and is larger than any one candidacy or election. What began as a challenge to Obama's campaign became a challenge to America. He seemed to be essentially saying: I have built my career and my candidacy as a unifying public figure with one foot on each side of the racial divide; yet at the end of the day I am a black man in America, with unshakable ties to the black community; and if our society is not ready to deal with that, then let's end this charade and admit that we have not come nearly as far as many proclaim; however, if we are ready to take another step on the long march toward freedom, then let's move forward together.

So let's see how far we've come. It doesn't matter if fake-news bobble-heads don't get it. It doesn't matter what pollsters say. What matters is that Obama stepped up in the midst of crisis and gave us a moment which will shine in history as a political milestone; a moment in which it somehow seemed possible, if only for a flashing instant, that centuries of heartbreak and blood and cruelty and division might someday be healed by the quest for social justice and subsumed by our common humanity. Whatever happens in this topsy-turvy silly-season election, it was a moment that just might have made it all worthwhile.

[ Cross-posted at APA for Progress and The Unapologetic Mexican ]

Comments

[nezua]

you nailed it bro. and put it beautifully.

i dont even know what to add. except it only made me proud to watch. of the choices he had, he chose bravely. and you can tell by how some people are freaking. amazing. just bugging out. how dare he mention shit we already know...or, rather, stuff that doesn't exist...or i mean to say offensive racist stuff! he's boggling their minds. after all the cowboy shit people just dont really know what to do with someone trying to hew it out as he goes and sincerely. you know. as much as one is allowed to be, when black and RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT. jaja!

time for some celia.

[NerfButch(nee Dead Inside)]

I don't want it to end. I want more.

Challenges are difficult for me these days. I face so many of them in my personal life. But this particular challenge is one that I have been wrestling with my whole life and will continue to as long as I can continue the struggle. It is in so many ways what modified and sometimes even caused the most difficult personal challenges I face daily. My inability to form and build relationships with people of color and the way I subtly sabotage them (both the relationships and the people).

I never want this to end.

If only because of this dialogue, this challenge, this movement toward freedom, that is enough for me. That would actually make me be proud to be a citizen of the u.s.a. and that's something I never thought would be possible.

I've thought so many times of how many different ways Senator Obama ("Obama" --> right-click, "Learn Spelling") is being and has been set up to fail. It's a common occurrence. And this is the biggest way to publicly set someone up to fail. All the pieces are in place. We all know that for any person left of John McCain is going to have the most difficult time doing anything positive in the position of President, that might somehow roll back the devastation that has been ongoing for so long.

I have to admit, to hear him talk about poor white people actually made me hopeful. Since I'm a poor white person and all. But I never thought for a minute he wouldn't turn his head toward me because of his race but because of his class. Honestly. Not that I don't fear that issues of race sometimes overcome the issues I face (disabled, poor, trans, queer) even though I have no evidence from the small but amazing group of people of color bloggers I regularly read. It really meant something to hear it, though, from Senator Obama. Someone who I dearly hope will become the President of the country I live in. He gives me hope. But hope is so easily dashed in the political world that controls my life. Will it be his fault?

Going back, I think of all the times when I have tried to explain that it doesn't matter if someone is trying to hurt me (or someone like me, or someone in an equivalent situation). Even their lack of trying to help is harm enough. And plenty of blame to go around. Will I end up blaming Barak Obama because things didn't get better?

Because I know they won't get better. They just won't get worse as badly and/or as quickly as they would if McCain were president. How do I prepare myself for that?

It was an amazing speech, though. As BlackAmazon pointed out, nothing that hasn't been said before, but still. There it was on the tele (except I only saw it on a blog) for everyone to watch. And maybe a lot of people watched it? I can only hope. More like this, please.

[Valeria Tentoni]

Hello, I am a journalist in Argentina. I intend to write an article about blogs for a nespaper in Buenos Aires. I am willing to ask you a question or two about blogs. If you are so kind, please write to me and i will send you the questions.
Regards, V.T.

[Vincent]

Well said Kai. Obama's speech transcends the election and the presidential campaign. As a country, we do not discuss race in "polite" circles without rancor or denial. Obama's campaign requires he not just speaks of race, but opens up and facilitates an ongoing discussion on race. His speech affected me deeply. Win or lose, I am thankful to watch and read Obama's speech on race.

The speech also serves an important purpose in the presidential election. Any ongoing dialouge must illustrate that, in the absent of races gaining a better understanding of perspectives and perceived grievances, we can't come together to resolve the major issues facing the country. Coming together requires a recognition of shared purpose, shared vision, and a modicum of respect for each other. I think that Obama can rally the nation around shared purpose and vision. Facilitating parties to respect each other in order to solve big problems remains his and OUR daunting challenge. I hope the man can pull it off. Clinton can't and McCain can't do what it takes...it ain't in'im. I hope we can pull it off as a people. It is in us. The question is can when we will deal with our differences and come together to solve some of the country's real problems? For this election, I am not sure.

peace,

v

ps. Isn't interesting that all the pundit-punks focus on "snipets" of Rev. Wright's sermons, but make no effort to objectively assess Trinity's impact through social activism and gospel in the community. Fascinating that after you strip the bombastic comments away, Rev. Wright preaches a conservative message focused on self-determination and self-reliance. You would think that the right wing "wingnuts" would get behind that...HA!

[Jon]

Hey Kai,

Great post, as usual.

I've just been reading comments on various blogs and newspaper sites. Had to stop, as it was way too depressing. I found Obama's speech truly remarkable, unlike anything I've ever heard a politician say. An elegant and sophisticated call to bring us together. A speech that trusted Americans to grapple with complexity (i.e. that people, the Constitution, the country have good and bad in them, but that we can use the good to eliminate the bad).

I hope that it is having that effect with a silent majority, but the comments I've been reading are just awful, usually reflecting a knee-jerk refusal to try to understand any of that complexity. For them, Obama now IS Rev. Wright in those clips, taken out of context and played ad nauseam. Ugh.

Peace,

Jon

[rrp]

I was away at a workshop, no internet, no phone, no tv for most of last week, so much of the yelling had moved on by the time I heard about this speech.

I listened to it yesterday.

I was an Edwards supporter and had decided that since he clearly was not going to be the nominee, I'd vote for either of the two that made it. So I was neutral on Obama and an unwilling supporter of Clinton, driven mainly by the misogynist vitriol dumped on her.

It was an amazing speech. It showed an understanding about race relations in the USA that you never hear. He talked to the people of this country as though we could be one, even through all our differences, without (overly) minimizing those differences.

The perfect social justice speech? No, it couldn't be. But I'm hoping it's a watershed moment.

[Kai]

Nez, NerfButch, Vincent, Jon, rrp, thanks for all your reflections on and contributions to a discussion that our society needs to have! Yeah, there are some folks who just won't listen and who insist on flaunting their ignorance on internet forums, but so it goes. We can't prevent those asshat-fests from happening, but we can insist on speaking truthfully about social justice, organizing, building bridges, creating beauty in the face of ugliness, making good things happen for our communities, regardless of what the haters say.

[Sudy]

:: throws confetti in the air ::

BRAVO