{"id":32466,"date":"2013-07-20T17:27:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T17:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=32466"},"modified":"2016-10-30T16:02:53","modified_gmt":"2016-10-30T16:02:53","slug":"this-is-the-speech-we%e2%80%99ve-been-waiting-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=32466","title":{"rendered":"This is the speech we\u2019ve been waiting for"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the speech we\u2019ve been waiting for<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Politico<\/a>
\n2013-07-19<\/p>\n

Anthea Butler<\/a><\/strong>, Associate Professor of Religion
\nUniversity of Pennsylvania<\/em><\/p>\n

President Obama\u2019s<\/a> surprise remarks Friday<\/a> about Trayvon Martin<\/a>, race in America and the Zimmerman trial<\/a> will be remembered far longer than his \u201crace\u201d speech in March 2008 in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

That speech, entitled \u201cA More Perfect Union<\/a>,\u201d was then-candidate Obama\u2019s way of giving a broader perspective to the uproar surrounding his former pastor, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and his infamous \u201cGod Damn America\u201d sermon<\/a>. That address was designed to tamp down anger, and bring his constituencies together, and \u2014 most important of all \u2014 keep his lead in the Democratic primary. This speech was different: far more personal, far more raw, and ultimately, far more resonant.<\/p>\n

Until today, the president had said remarkably little about race \u2013 his commentary on the matter had mainly come in the form of off-the-cuff comments or the \u201cBeer Summit\u201d with Harvard University\u2019s Henry Louis Gates<\/a>. But the latter was a political bust, and since then, the president has been extremely risk-averse in addressing the issue \u2014 so much so that he has arguably mentioned race the least<\/em> of any Democratic president in memory.<\/p>\n

…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 \u201cAfrican-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn\u2019t go away\u201d was very, very powerful. It placed him squarely within the community<\/strong>, but also acknowledged a history that the entire nation must confront.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the most moving parts of the president\u2019s unscripted comments were those that came from a deeper place: within himself.<\/strong> To admit that he, too \u2013 a man who is now the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world \u2014 had been racially profiled in department stores was to link himself directly to a slain black teenager. \u201cTrayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,\u201d he said. And the president\u2019s tone and manner suggested that, in the week since the Zimmerman verdict, he had felt the pain resonating throughout America.<\/p>\n

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.<\/strong> 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…<\/p>\n

Read the entire opinion piece here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the speech we\u2019ve been waiting for Politico 2013-07-19 Anthea Butler, Associate Professor of Religion University of Pennsylvania President Obama\u2019s surprise remarks Friday about Trayvon Martin, race in America and the Zimmerman trial will be remembered far longer than his \u201crace\u201d speech in March 2008 in Philadelphia. That speech, entitled \u201cA More Perfect Union,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,63,8,26,23674,20],"tags":[15254,14578,10143],"class_list":["post-32466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-social-justice","category-usa","tag-anthea-butler","tag-politico","tag-trayvon-martin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49663,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32466\/revisions\/49663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}