Mixed Race Studies

This is the speech we’ve been waiting for

Politico
2013-07-19

Anthea Butler, Associate Professor of Religion
University of Pennsylvania

President Obama’s surprise remarks Friday about Trayvon Martin, race in America and the Zimmerman trial will be remembered far longer than his “race” speech in March 2008 in Philadelphia.

That speech, entitled “A More Perfect Union,” was then-candidate Obama’s way of giving a broader perspective to the uproar surrounding his former pastor, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and his infamous “God Damn America” sermon. That address was designed to tamp down anger, and bring his constituencies together, and — most important of all — keep his lead in the Democratic primary. This speech was different: far more personal, far more raw, and ultimately, far more resonant.

Until today, the president had said remarkably little about race – his commentary on the matter had mainly come in the form of off-the-cuff comments or the “Beer Summit” with Harvard University’s Henry Louis Gates. But the latter was a political bust, and since then, the president has been extremely risk-averse in addressing the issue — so much so that he has arguably mentioned race the least of any Democratic president in memory.

…The president also placed the conversation about the trial into its larger context: the specific historical and structural present-day circumstances that underly persistent racial disparities in the United States. Explaining to Americans that the “African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away” was very, very powerful. It placed him squarely within the community, but also acknowledged a history that the entire nation must confront.

But perhaps the most moving parts of the president’s unscripted comments were those that came from a deeper place: within himself. To admit that he, too – a man who is now the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world — had been racially profiled in department stores was to link himself directly to a slain black teenager. “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” he said. And the president’s tone and manner suggested that, in the week since the Zimmerman verdict, he had felt the pain resonating throughout America.

Obama has often seemed ambivalent about his racial background. Connecting his experience of profiling to the experiences of millions of black men all over this country was an important moment. It linked the president firmly to the African-American experience. For many African-Americans, it said: He is one of us. And for a community that has had to watch the countless racially charged indignities Obama has been made to endure while in office, it was a gratifying moment…

Read the entire opinion piece here.