Race, the Race, and the People

Have you heard Barack's "Call to Renewal Keynote" speech (one of his Senatorial podcasts)? How about the one on "Network Neutrality" from June 2006? These are old news, but they're also good news. They're part of the reason I got excited about the possibility of a President Obama.

When I first took my enthusiasm for Barack Obama online, I landed on his official Senate site. I began reading everything that I could find posted, and listened to every speech I could download.

I was enthralled with the well-reasoned thoughts of the man I'd gotten to know better through Dreams from My Father and the Audacity of Hope. I didn't spend much time listening to what other people were writing or saying about him. I wanted to get to know him first, and start running with him (so to speak), following his political career as a Senator in real time.

By the end of January, I desperately wanted Obama to declare, but the more he lived up to my expectations, the more that I was afraid he wouldn't live through the announcement. That was my main concern about his run. Racism, fear, and ignorance, as well as a culture of violence in the United States, had in the last half-century cut down the best leaders of another generation. It left me tempering my hope with trepidation.

Which brings me to today. In the last week, I've been reading more broadly and attentively what people are writing online about both candidate and campaign. In the course of this reading, I found the post written by Rock Hackshaw that I included in my last entry.

After reading it at Daily Gotham, I ultimately found the more comment-friendly instance linked above at a site called Room Eight. I contributed a couple of thoughts there, and Rock replied to my inquiry about the feelings of Brooklyn for Barack members about the NY campaign presence.

He invited me to get in touch (which I definitely will do in the next day), and also asked if I'd read his three-post series (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3) considering Barack as a candidate. Heeding the complaint of one commenter from my last post, I thought reading and responding briefly here would be a good way to spend a day away from my series of posts about concerns arising from last Wednesday and campaign operations.

Rock's posts are prolific, but the dominant themes concern the importance of race and identity in this political race, and how those issues and the way they're addressed (or manipulated, or ignored) translate into real-world consequences in the outcome of the election and the future of the country. I encourage you to read for yourself, because I'm losing quite a bit of detail there, but I think it's a fair overview.

One paragraph from the most recent post that I find particularly striking is the following:

There are many who would disagree with this, but with Al Gore a non-starter, there are only two things stopping Barack Obama from becoming the next president of the United States. One is called: racism. Yes; racism in all of its many varied and subtle forms. The other is a cousin (this time around): assassination. The latter could be either political or physical in nature. In fact it could be both political and physical; in that order.

I hope that my extended introduction to this post explains a little of why this attracted my notice, echoing concerns and thoughts that I'd shared. It's been many months since the campaign kick-off, and I've been spending my time focused on other aspects of the run. I've been trying to persuade friends to take the time to explore the substance behind the star, working to articulate why celebrity status could be an asset to a candidate of substance.

I've also tried to take my cue from Barack Obama. He has not made race and identity the fulcrum of this campaign, and so I've dutifully shifted my focus. Rock's posts make me rethink this decision.

Dreams from My Father, it's useful to remember, has an official title that includes the phrase "A Story of Race and Inheritance." As I emphasized in the January email that I've posted on this blog, the way that Barack has negotiated and resolved his own identity is a hugely important point on his resume. It says something about him as a person, but it is also a testament to his ability to understand this country and the people of the world.

His run is a great opportunity for us to talk about all of the divisions that keep us apart. Sometimes it's the pernicious myths of skin, another day it's religion, or region, or (Barack's favorite) funny-sounding names, foods, being foreign-born, or any other invention one person can find to keep another person at a distance.

To deny that racism, particularly in its most insidious, semi-conscious forms, is an issue in this election is foolish and dangerous. That's one reason why I think the national campaign effort shouldn't wait, especially where there's already support on the ground.

This campaign must bring out the votes that haven't felt connected to the political process, adding new numbers to the equation. Do not doubt that many generally decent people (of all backgrounds, because let's not forget that self-hatred is a powerful cultural force) will be possessed by many generations of demons when they reach for the lever to make their commitment to the future.

It's a hackneyed formulation, but if you're not made somewhat uncomfortable, you're not going to produce change. This country is going to have to go through some major convulsions if it's going to be ready for President Obama. Let's not pretend otherwise.

This campaign is sometimes called a quest without a cause. If the celebrity candidate fails, some would say, all is lost, because there is no greater rallying cry. Increasingly, I think that question is ours to decide.

We know the policy concerns that we share, and the ultimate goals that bring a large part of this country together behind some candidate of the left. What we shouldn't forget is that the way we conduct this campaign can itself produce change and have lasting effects.

That's what I appreciate about Rock's posts about Barack Hussein Obama (no shame in that name!). He's talking frankly about race, the race (2008), and the people. This is a chance for all of us to put some too seldom spoken thoughts on the table and deal with them. We can speak with different voices while working toward a common purpose.

It matters what we say and how we say it -- and that we say it at all. It matters how we get to the finish line.

Barack Obama's public life is a lesson in exhilarating challenge of combining idealism and pragmatism. It should teach us at least one thing: Just because we're willing to compromise, it doesn't mean we have to settle.