Comments on: Wright, Race and Contested Stories

By: Obama. What’s Complicated Here? « South Jerusalem: Gershom Gorenberg and Haim Watzman

Wed, 14 May 2008 04:00:21 +0000

[...] understand this, and work to recast the stories and the symbols. In his speech on race, Obama showed that he is capable of aiming for that. If he can apply that skill to the Mideast tangle, [...]

By: Disavow, Renounce, Didn’t Hear « South Jerusalem: Gershom Gorenberg and Haim Watzman

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:42:42 +0000

[...] Wright, Race and Contested Stories [...]

By: joma

joma — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:19:34 +0000

fear is the base of waitíng for Obama to be luminated, it is the fear of the unknown of the other, of the black, of the person with the funny name.

Obama needs to be luminated, need to be studied, for how long. this was the racial motive for the voters of New Hampshire who came in droves and stood in line in the snow, but still voted for Hillary. it was also the motive of the 3.am ad against him.

do we know him, translate itself in to, is he white?

By: Gretchen

Gretchen — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:06:07 +0000

I thought this blog post was very thoughtful and I enjoyed reading it. As a 33 year old women from the U.S. what I find most interesting is that for me, and many of my generation, when Obama talks about a reality “in which whites and blacks are working together” he is speaking OUR narrative. We hear the narratives of the Rev. Wrights, as well as the Baby Boomer women who see Hillary Clinton as just desserts for years of sexism, and we don’t identify with it.

It is the narrative of unity and understanding that speaks to post – Baby Boomers and that is one reason why we overwhelmingly support Barack Obama.

By: HM

HM — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:50:23 +0000

Thank you Anne E. I’ve been shocked that more people haven’t brought up Tuskegee. With a history like this, it’s no wonder that people think it might happen again.

This article was wonderful.

By: Anne E

Anne E — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:06:24 +0000

huntingdonpost- I think it’s a unreasonable to associate Obama with a sexist (and sick) satire that took place a year after he left Harvard Law School.

Gershom- Although the idea that the US government created the AIDS virus is obviously false, there are reasons why it might seem plausible to some in Wright’s congregation. There’s the Tuskegee experiment, in which hundreds of African-Americans with syphillis were left deliberately untreated to study the progress of the disease- until 1972.

And as a caucasian American, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard other whites complaining about the African-American birth rate or wanting plans to lower it (“if they want food stamps, they damn welll should be sterilized first”). Back in the 70s and early 80s, several married, middle class black friends of mine heard ugly comments in public when they were pregnant. That kind of stuff doesn’t happen much now, thank goodness, but it did in the quite recent past.

By: Chris Dornan

Chris Dornan — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:24:30 +0000

A lucid and enlightening article, and I agree with almost everything you say, except your point about Obama offering himself as a symbol of reconciliation. Perhaps for those of us used to parliamentary systems it is odd, but the US presidency is all about offering yourself up as a symbol. I do not understand those that say that Obama’s skill with words should count against him–politics is all about words and getting people lined up in the same direction to get sh*t done. The career civil servants get on with the real work. The way he has assembled his team, attacked the machine and dealt with all of the stuff thrown at him has been mighty impressive.

Part of his appeal is that he represents change–to that end he couldn’t have decades in office, otherwise he would be part of the system, right. I can only judge according to the options placed before me, and of the three options, the prospect of Obama not getting in is pretty scary. I am sure if I was an American I would feel the same way.

By: huntingdonpost

huntingdonpost — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:25:32 +0000

I think Obama has to tell another story, about his sexism. I got quite a jolt out of this blog:
http://1dumblonde.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/barack-obama-and-the-harvard-law-review-sexism-and-murder/.

I like your post. It’s very thoughtful and requires careful reading. My feeling is that we know very little about Sen. Obama and that is the problem. The conversation he wants to have needs to be done over time, and he wants to be president NOW.

His allusion to the white working class narrative, which you point out, is interesting, because he is himself of an immigrant background, not a traditional African-American background.