Obama Urges End To "Racial Stalemate"
Walmart Stores Inc. associates from the United Kingdom cheer before the Walmart shareholders' meeting in Fayetteville, Ark., Friday, June 1, 2012. (AP Photo/April L. Brown) / April L Brown
Barack Obama unsparingly criticized his longtime pastor's words while strongly defending the man himself Tuesday in a politically risky speech that appealed to the country to overcome racism and the black anger and white resentment it spawns.
Forming a more perfect union "requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams," said the Illinois senator running to be the first black president.
"This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected," he said. (Read the full transcript of Obama's remarks.)
In his most pointed speech of the campaign, Obama confronted the nation's legacy of racial division head on, tackling black grievance, white resentment and the uproar over his former pastor's incendiary statements. Drawing on his half-black, half-white roots as no other presidential hopeful could, Obama urged Americans to break "a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years.'"
Obama said sermons delivered by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, "rightly offend white and black alike." Those sermons from years ago suggested the United States brought the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on itself and say blacks continue to be mistreated by whites.
While Obama rejected what Wright said, he also embraced the man who inspired his Christian faith, officiated at his wedding, baptized his two daughters and has been his spiritual guide for nearly 20 years.
But the man Obama once called his spiritual mentor is one who has been accused of putting up roadblocks to the path to understanding, CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts reports.
With frequent references to the Bible, Obama sought to condemn the sin, and not the sinner.
"Obama combined his condemnation of Rev. Wright's comments with an explanation of the anger that has fueled racial divisions in this country for years," said CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs, "but a speech long on history was shorter on solutions. It will take some time for this speech to settle in to the nation's political consciousness but it's unlikely to stop a potentially divisive conversation that has already begun."
"The anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races," he said in a speech at the National Constitution Center, not far from where the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
The speech was the most racially tinged during his campaign to become the first black president, covering divisions from slavery to the O.J. Simpson trial to the recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina, along with his own background. Obama rarely talks so openly about his race in such a prominent way, but he recognized it has been a major issue in the campaign that has taken a "particularly divisive turn" in the last few weeks as video of his longtime pastor spread on the Internet and on television.
"This was a step toward steering this conversation toward a more constructive direction and away from the divisive language and terms that we heard from Rev. Wright," Ververs said. "That's a tall order but he put his best foot forward, delivering a speech that you'll hear from few presidential front-runners."
Obama's advisers say the candidate decided on Saturday to make the speech and spent much of Sunday and Monday writing it, finishing shortly before he took the stage. They said Philadelphia was chosen not because it has the highest concentration of blacks in Pennsylvania, the next state to vote on April 22, but because of its historical significance.
Meanwhile, a CBS News poll taken before the speech finds that while sixty-five percent of registered voters who have heard at least something about Wright say their view of the Democratic presidential candidate is unchanged, 30 percent said it has made them feel more negative about Obama.
"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," Obama said, speaking in front of eight American flags. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."
Obama said he knew Wright to occasionally be a fierce critic of U.S. policy and that the pastor sometimes made controversially remarks in church that he disagreed with, but he said he never heard Wright talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms. The comments that have become a source of debate recently "were not only wrong but divisive" and have raised questions among voters, he said.
"I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television sets and YouTube, if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way," he said. "But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man."
Wright said shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks: "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
In a 2003 sermon, he said blacks should condemn the United States.
In a roundtable discussion moderated by CBS News anchor Katie Couric, Debra Dickerson, a columnist for Mother Jones, said she thinks Wright speaks for many blacks in America -- even at his angriest.
"I think Obama was brilliant in this speech and in so many ways," Dickerson said. "But he talked about the fact that that kind of anger when it's allowed to get out of control is obviously self-destructive and it's also ... an insult to America."
Obama said he came to Wright's church because he was inspired by Wright's message of hope and his inspiration to rebuild the black community.
Obama said Wright's comments have sparked a discussion that reflect complexities of race in the United States that its people have never really resolved.
"We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country," Obama said. "But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow."
Obama said anger over those injustices often find voice in black churches on Sunday mornings. "The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning," he said.
Obama argued that the anger often distracts from solving real problems and bringing change. But he said it also exists in some segments of the white community that feels blacks are often given an unfair advantage through affirmative action.
"If we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American," Obama said, drawing a rare burst of applause in a somber address.
An Associated Press-Yahoo News poll conducted in January found 15 percent of whites said they have at least a somewhat unfavorable impression of blacks, while 26 percent expressed a favorable impression. Among blacks, 7 percent had an unfavorable impression of whites, while 49 percent have a favorable impression.
"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," Obama said.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Forming a more perfect union "requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams," said the Illinois senator running to be the first black president.
"This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected," he said. (Read the full transcript of Obama's remarks.)
In his most pointed speech of the campaign, Obama confronted the nation's legacy of racial division head on, tackling black grievance, white resentment and the uproar over his former pastor's incendiary statements. Drawing on his half-black, half-white roots as no other presidential hopeful could, Obama urged Americans to break "a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years.'"
Obama said sermons delivered by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, "rightly offend white and black alike." Those sermons from years ago suggested the United States brought the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on itself and say blacks continue to be mistreated by whites.
While Obama rejected what Wright said, he also embraced the man who inspired his Christian faith, officiated at his wedding, baptized his two daughters and has been his spiritual guide for nearly 20 years.
But the man Obama once called his spiritual mentor is one who has been accused of putting up roadblocks to the path to understanding, CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts reports.
With frequent references to the Bible, Obama sought to condemn the sin, and not the sinner.
"Obama combined his condemnation of Rev. Wright's comments with an explanation of the anger that has fueled racial divisions in this country for years," said CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs, "but a speech long on history was shorter on solutions. It will take some time for this speech to settle in to the nation's political consciousness but it's unlikely to stop a potentially divisive conversation that has already begun."
Full Transcript Of Obama's Remarks
CBS Poll: Pastor's Remarks Hurt Obama
Congregation Defends Obama's Ex-PastorVideo: Obama On Anger Between Races
"The anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races," he said in a speech at the National Constitution Center, not far from where the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
The speech was the most racially tinged during his campaign to become the first black president, covering divisions from slavery to the O.J. Simpson trial to the recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina, along with his own background. Obama rarely talks so openly about his race in such a prominent way, but he recognized it has been a major issue in the campaign that has taken a "particularly divisive turn" in the last few weeks as video of his longtime pastor spread on the Internet and on television.
"This was a step toward steering this conversation toward a more constructive direction and away from the divisive language and terms that we heard from Rev. Wright," Ververs said. "That's a tall order but he put his best foot forward, delivering a speech that you'll hear from few presidential front-runners."
Obama's advisers say the candidate decided on Saturday to make the speech and spent much of Sunday and Monday writing it, finishing shortly before he took the stage. They said Philadelphia was chosen not because it has the highest concentration of blacks in Pennsylvania, the next state to vote on April 22, but because of its historical significance.
Meanwhile, a CBS News poll taken before the speech finds that while sixty-five percent of registered voters who have heard at least something about Wright say their view of the Democratic presidential candidate is unchanged, 30 percent said it has made them feel more negative about Obama.
"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," Obama said, speaking in front of eight American flags. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."
Obama said he knew Wright to occasionally be a fierce critic of U.S. policy and that the pastor sometimes made controversially remarks in church that he disagreed with, but he said he never heard Wright talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms. The comments that have become a source of debate recently "were not only wrong but divisive" and have raised questions among voters, he said.
"I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television sets and YouTube, if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way," he said. "But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man."
Wright said shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks: "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
In a 2003 sermon, he said blacks should condemn the United States.
In a roundtable discussion moderated by CBS News anchor Katie Couric, Debra Dickerson, a columnist for Mother Jones, said she thinks Wright speaks for many blacks in America -- even at his angriest.
"I think Obama was brilliant in this speech and in so many ways," Dickerson said. "But he talked about the fact that that kind of anger when it's allowed to get out of control is obviously self-destructive and it's also ... an insult to America."
Obama said he came to Wright's church because he was inspired by Wright's message of hope and his inspiration to rebuild the black community.
Obama said Wright's comments have sparked a discussion that reflect complexities of race in the United States that its people have never really resolved.
"We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country," Obama said. "But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow."
Obama said anger over those injustices often find voice in black churches on Sunday mornings. "The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning," he said.
Obama argued that the anger often distracts from solving real problems and bringing change. But he said it also exists in some segments of the white community that feels blacks are often given an unfair advantage through affirmative action.
"If we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American," Obama said, drawing a rare burst of applause in a somber address.
An Associated Press-Yahoo News poll conducted in January found 15 percent of whites said they have at least a somewhat unfavorable impression of blacks, while 26 percent expressed a favorable impression. Among blacks, 7 percent had an unfavorable impression of whites, while 49 percent have a favorable impression.
"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," Obama said.
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Barack is bravely addressing the race issue like no one ever has, in a mature and honest perspective. He does so in a way that recognizes, understands, and rejects racism of all sorts, and tries to reach toward the better angels in the nature of each of us. I applaud his efforts and have seen no other candidate do a better job of it. Barack''s words reveal that he is looking to reach out to all races and focus instead on the common issues that confront all of us. The war, the economy, health care, and other such disasters are the truly important matters that should be the focus of the election, and I''m sure that Barack and the rest of us are ready to move on and address them.
I have no doubt that this man has the judgment and correct approach to help unify and strengthen America, and set it on a better course.
The time is right for Barack Obama.
I can''t find anything so controversial in the pastor''s sermans.
He, himself is Afro-American, so there is no problem that he uses the word "Niger." He said America is founded on racist culture. I think he talked about slavery and masscre of Native Americans.
The most impressive to me, was he said "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," he said. "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and Black South Africans, and now we are indignant. Because the stuff we have done overseas has now brought right back into our own front yards. America''s chickens are coming home to roost."
This pastor is ex-marine. He knew what the war is like. He just criticized the U.S. foreign policy in his radical way, I think.
I don''t think he meant to insult America.
For Japanese like us, Americans criticizing Hiroshima and Nagasaki were kind of impressive. Obama was spritually influenced by this pastor. Well, that sounds nice to us. Very humble attitude of Americans. He knows how the oppressed feel. That is why he is becoming popular among the impoverished layer of society including whites.
But I want to tell this pastor he should condemn not only the U.S. for dropping atomic bombs but also Japan who slaughtered many innocent Chinese and attacked on Pearl Harbor in the name of "justice."
They have a pastor who called America KKKAmerica
They have a pastor who gave Louis Farrakan a lifetime achievement award, an anti-semite who called white people "the skunk of the earth"
They have a pastor who blames all the world''s problems on the USA and Israel (just like Muslim imam''s do in mosques around the globe)
They have a pastor who has blamed every single world war on America
They have a pastor who travelled overseas to meet with a TERRORIST leader
They have a pastor who is only fueling the issue of racism in this country, not trying to solve it
They have a pastor who''s sermon on the Sunday immediately after 9-11-01 said American''''s chickens have come to roost.
And then, when the smoke clears...they play the victim card.
Sick stuff indeed.
Enough to make me, and many Americans, hurl our guts out.
Obama has been exposed for the liar some of us already knew he has been all along. Some of us did our research on him long before the MSM finally decided to expose his racist pastor and his bigoted belief system.
Where did the mud come from?? and so on, and so on, and so on...etc, etc etc...
"Expelled the Movie" documentary by Ben Stein-soon to be released in theaters nationwide in April.
Exposes the forced teaching of Darwinian Evolution in our culture and how many accredited scientists/teachers/professors have actually been forced to resign and/or fired simply for refusing to teach Darwinian doctrine in the classroom.
Look for it folks!
Yep - got it.
Posted by hungry1968
-You''re right sir, Darwin offers you so much more of a purpose in life.
There''s nothing better than being told that you came from a puddle of mud millions of years ago.
LOL.
That is all.