“Yes, ‘words on a parchment’ are never enough, nor are speeches made in a presidential campaign. That is true of all the candidates, for people in political office have not been known to initiate important change – like stopping a war, or helping people in need – unless there was a powerful grass roots movement of citizens to demand such change. Therefore, if we are to take this nation out of this immoral and ugly war, bring the troops home, begin to use our national wealth to assure people of jobs, housing, health care, we cannot depend on any candidate’s words, but only, as in the past, on our actions. We the people will have to demand change in every way we can, by protest and civil disobedience if necessary, but never depending on ‘words on a parchment’.”
Howard Zinn, author, “A People’s History of the United States”
“I am the son of a black man from Philadelphia, born of the Depression, and a white woman from South Dakota born into privilege. I was raised by a father who served his country in WWII and was wounded and decorated. And a mother who forsook all she had simply in her choice to marry a black man. They went on to become active in the struggle for civil and women’s rights – slaves and slave-owners – an inheritance I pass on to my precious daughters. And in turn, humbly also pass on to them the transcript of this, Senator Obama’s defining moment.”
Clark Johnson, actor/director, “The Wire”
“I write on race – and little else. It’s a dreary topic. Although there has been enormous black progress since the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s, the national conversation on race seems largely frozen in those formative years. ‘Blame Whitey First’ has remained the implicit slogan of the civil rights community and much of the black leadership class, crippling efforts to think creatively about solving today’s race-related problems. So many of the challenges that African Americans face today have more complicated causes than mere racism – yet so often, black politicians and activists pretend otherwise. Thus, I was particularly struck by Sen. Obama’s statement that Rev. Jeremiah Wright has ‘a profoundly distorted view.’ I am not an Obama voter (wrong party) and disagree with much in his message. But in celebrating this great country and rejecting the notion of paralyzing black victimization, he has broken with black orthodoxy – the first important black politician to do so. Where Obama goes, will the liberal mainstream follow? How good that would be.”
Abigail Thernstrom, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the co-author of “America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible.”
“Senator Obama’s treatise on race relations and the so-called differences between the ‘black’ and ‘white’ experience and how the ‘untrained ear’ cannot judge the rants of pastoral bigots and racial rhetoric was flawed. He merely repeated stereotypes of the so-called typical angry older blacks and prejudiced older whites who he said were brought up in a segregated era, neither of whom, he said, he would not ‘disown.’ But Mr. Obama forgot that many blacks and whites during that era – they who joined forces against segregative thinking and practices – were themselves disowned by relatives and friends, just by their having challenged conventional thinking about race. The truth is that my mentors, and the giants of the civil rights movement of all colors, struggled bravely and hopefully for the racial progress that we have achieved in our present-day America. They knew then, as we know now, that while ours is not a perfect democracy this nation bestows on its people the blessings of liberty and individuality, rights that are envied by most of the world where equality of persons is not even imaginable. It is incumbent on the leader of the free world and our elected officials of this generation to speak out against all stripes of bigotry – regardless of the color of the preacher of hate.”
Michael Meyers, executive director, NY Civil Rights Coalition
“Obama explicitly denied that he was excusing Wright’s views, even as he did it in exceptionally high-toned sophistry. The reason Obama had to give a 37-minute speech is that he was incapable of saying four unadorned words, ‘I made a mistake.’ In the end, Obama made the case for the respectability of a man who is a hater – and did it, amazingly enough, in a speech devoted to ending divisiveness.”
Rich Lowry, editor, National Review
“Some critics of the speech feel that – by introducing a seeming moral equivalence between her casual cringing comments and Rev. Wright’s more noxious statements – Obama is being unfair to the white grandmother who helped raise him.
“Yet, this passage comes after he has discussed how anger, bitterness and bias have helped contribute to the black community’s inability to see opportunities to improve itself – and Rev. Wright’s inability to see progress.
“By bringing his grandmother into the discussion, he is recognizing an undeniable fact: Not even the most loving person in the world is immune to the messages sent by society.
“And not even truly ill-chosen language can sunder the tight bonds of family – whether blood or ‘adopted.’ ”
Robert George, New York Post editorial writer
“The primary rhetorical virtue of the speech can be found in two words, endemic and Faulkner. Endemic is the kind of word political consultants don’t let politicians use because 72% of Americans don’t understand it. This lowest-common-denominator thinking, based on dizzy polling, has long degraded American discourse. When Obama said Mr. Wright wrongly encouraged ‘a view that sees white racism as endemic,’ everyone understood. Because they’re not, actually, stupid. As for Faulkner – well, this was an American politician quoting William Faulkner: ‘The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.’ This is a thought, an interesting one, which means most current politicians would never share it. The speech assumed the audience was intelligent. This was a compliment, and I suspect was received as a gift. It also assumed many in the audience were educated. I was grateful for this, as the educated are not much addressed in American politics.”
Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal columnist
“I’m 61. I can remember how horrified I was when that incident with Emmett Till occurred – I was only 8 years old at the time. I couldn’t understand what anybody could do, especially a 14-year-old boy, to be murdered like that. They said he had been disrespectful to a white woman and the husband [and others] murdered him. Then the state of Misssissippi acquits [them] of murder. Soon after, they said, ‘Yeah, we murdered Emmett Till.’ From that point on, no white people in the South wanted to talk about Emmett, because, they confessed, ‘He was black. He means nothing to us.’ I couldn’t get it, that the nation lets stuff like this go on. My parents just said, ‘That’s how certain people deal with us, because we are black.’ ”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, author of “On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance.”
“Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Jr. was born the same year as Emmett Till, who at age 14 was kidnapped, beaten to disfigurment and murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman. His white attackers were aquitted. Wright was in his teens when an angry white mob blocked nine black teenagers from entering Little Rock Central High, in defiance of federal law. He was an adult by the time the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made discrimination against black people in public facilities or employment illegal. The few sermons cherry picked out of the more than a thousand he has given suggest that he is apparently occassionally angry about such things. He should be.
“I would be.
“You would be.
“Wright grew up in a country where African Americans were often treated as less than human, and yet loved his country so much he served it in the the Marines.
“Obama bravely reminded America of our ugly, not-so-distant past; and the deep pain that the passage of decades does not erase. He did what politicians almost never do: He told America the truth, despite knowing that many didn’t want to hear it.”
Kirsten Powers, political analyst, Fox News
“We’re still having the same conflicts about race that we had when I came to this country nearly 35 years ago. This national conversation should have taken place a thousand times, but it didn’t. Barack Obama‘s powerful speech sheds light on the conditions that nurture deepening racial separation, misunderstandings, and tensions. I, like many Americans, am ready for a leader like Senator Obama to lead us away from this quagmire.”
Iman, Founder & CEO IMAN Cosmetics
“But even in the past, America was not evil. We did not ‘drop atomic bombs . . . and not even bat an eye,’ as Wright claims. We dropped them to end a war that was thrust upon us by a surprise attack and to save lives on both sides. We did not cause the AIDS epidemic. Rather, we led the world in investing tens of billions in finding a cure and tens more in spreading that cure throughout the planet. The evil America that Wright addresses ended in 1865, when 400,000 young men, largely white, from the north gave their lives to end slavery and make the south hue to basic standards of humanity. But the ultimate enslavement of black people in America comes not from AIDS or drugs but from an image of themselves as victims that lowers their expectations and confines their capacities. If he wins, it will be the singular accomplishment of Obama that he will shatter that self-image and free both races from its restraints.”
Dick Morris, political columnist
“Many have pointed to the paragraph beginning ‘For we have a choice in this country,’ and so do I. Those words resonated for me immediately, and I understood why: they echo the words of Robert Kennedy in April 1968 as he struggled to calm the mainly African-American crowd in Indianapolis with his memorable impromptu announcement that Martin Luther King had just been assassinated. In the midst of all that shock and sadness, Kennedy gave his audience the power to make a choice – to respond with hatred and more violence, or to take this terrible opportunity ‘to make an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times.’ Kennedy’s audience made the right decision. Indianapolis was one of the few large American cities that did not break out in riots in the emotional days after King’s murder.
“At this point in his speech Obama treats his audience like responsible grown-ups. This is not an easy challenge and he knows it. Many will refuse it. I admire his audacity in taking that risk.”
Marie Danziger, director, Communications Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government
“To dissect a fragment out for special focus would be to miss the entire point of the address. In defending himself so expansively against a potentially damaging situation he has shown the American people the kind of person he is. I found the speech courageous in its candor, inclusive, and more thoughtful than anything I’ve heard from a politician in a very long time. Taken in its entirety it has already touched millions of Americans. His words invite us to know ourselves better, to learn from our own history, and to open our minds to the validity of the experiences of others. In short, we’re being asked to use our brains as well as our hearts. This is bound to be a challenge to a society which has been conditioned by our news media, our advertising, and our political discourse to respond emotionally to very calculated triggers. I hope we can rise to the challenge.”
Martin Puryear, artist