Back Barack

I have no doubt: Sen. Barack Obama needs to be the next president of the United States. He embodies a crucial reversal of the divisive, polarizing politics that most politicians have employed in the last few decades.\nThe current evidence of Obama’s ability to address the needs of all Americans surfaced when he delivered a major speech on race and politics in America. The speech came after a recent spate of race-related controversies that, in Obama’s words, “reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through — a part of our union that we have yet to perfect.”\nObama primarily responded to recent short excerpts from a “fiery sermon” by his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright that contained racially-charged and supposedly anti-American sentiments. But Obama refused to let this controversy set back his campaign. Instead, he beautifully turned it around into a profound moment on the inescapable and deeply-rooted impact of race in our lives.\nObama acknowledged the anger, frustrations and fears that people of color feel about the effects of more than two centuries of laws, policies and practices that established a racial hierarchy we haven’t overcome. Quoting William Faulkner, Obama said, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We have yet to fix problems of segregated, inferior education. Current generations face the effects of legalized discrimination over property ownership, loans, jobs and union memberships, which prevented black families from amassing wealth. And Obama acknowledged the often overlooked psychological costs of “shame and frustration” that come from not being able to provide for one’s family because of circumstances beyond one’s control.\nBut Obama also helps us see that America’s social and racial problems are not merely black issues. He acknowledges that many “working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race.” They are “anxious about their futures” as jobs ship overseas and unemployment rises. He recognizes the feeling of resentment that, in a globally competitive market, someone else’s dreams seem to come at the expense of white Americans.\nObama knows we cannot simply wish away or condemn the anger and resentment from every racial perspective because those feelings “have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation.” Instead we must confront directly and discuss openly all the fears, anxieties and resentments that all Americans experience, problems where the complexity of race is unavoidably interwoven.\nObama’s hopeful, unifying message must not be dismissed or ignored. More than any other candidate, I’m convinced he has the perspective, knowledge and ability to pull Americans out of their “respective corners” in order to “come together and solve challenges” that affect every person in this country. A victory for Obama would decisively reject the divisive politics of political pundits and talk show hosts, culture war politicians and others who want to slice-and-dice the country into warring factions.\nNo candidate will solve every problem, but Obama will undoubtedly move us toward a “more perfect union.”