dear mr meyers,
did you listen to the speech? your third paragraph that begins, "he should have..." leads me to think you missed some of it. in regard to the rest of this essay, I'm forced to wonder about the world you live in. your perception of the racial situation in america seems a combination of wishful thinking, delusion and denial. racial differences do still exist, and there are social and political and economic injustices in our country, for obama to have denied that would have been dishonest and naive - as well as simply out of touch with reality. your credit as a former national director of the naacp speaks well for your authority, but your words don't show the insight I would expect from somebody having had the experience of serving in that position.
you criticize obama for looking backward, a criticism that again makes me wonder how closely you paid attention to his speech. yes he did present the american racial divide in a historical context, to not do so would have been irresponsible - far too often our national leaders fail to look at history, resulting in the repetition of mistakes that can lead to unnecessary war or economic downturns - but although he alluded to the past he clearly stated, and I'll quote here for your benefit;
"The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen - is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper."
I don't know how much more forward thinking you want than that - and if you do, there's plenty more where that came from - that is just an excerpt I quickly grabbed from the text of the speech easily available online. you have fallen into the unfortunate trap of essayists who sometimes choose their facts to fit their thesis and ignore anything that doesn't. the danger inherent in articles like yours is that they can mislead people who haven't the time, interest, or motivation to refer directly to the original source. by misrepresenting and misinterpreting obama's words you serve as a propagandist for those who would like to see him fail, rather than a servant for truth. were your criticism accurate and fairly presented I would applaud your efforts, but having read this article i simply wonder about your personal motivation and agenda.
2 comments:
Hi, thanks for your comment on my blog over at http://www.zorn.name/Wilson/politicaleconomy/blog/ on this same subject, they're well appreciated, and I agree. And your entry above is quite well stated.
Regarding Meyers' "confusion" (let's say) regarding Obama's lack of providing a path forward, it also struck me this AM as to how wrong Meyers was, as I was writing about Obama's call for people to seek out allies rather than simply claim victimization or seek blame. Again, I suppose Meyers' notion of a solution is a top-down government program, and while I understand and agree this can be effective, it certainly can't be the whole enchilada. Much of our progress on race, gender, and similar issues has come through leaders' statements and examples, not strictly through regulatory approaches.
PS - and not to leave it unstated/incorrect, as you said earlier, Obama does also point to government solutions as well.
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