More on the Obama Race Speech
Richard John Neuhaus, of First Things, has written an excellent commentary, The Strange Ways of Black Folk, on the speech of Barack Obama in which he responded to the uproar over the preaching of his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. This piece was written 1 1/2 weeks ago, but I’ve been out of the loop and just saw it today.
Neuhaus raises some important points, among which is the following:
Conceding to him the best of intentions, Senator Obama has inadvertently launched an exercise in the demeaning of black America that is, in consequence, very ugly. Whites are invited to make their peace with the fact that these are the children of Stepin Fetchit and Amos and Andy who have replaced humor with the shuffle of political extremism but are still entertaining the country by doing their black thing. Cut them some slack. Lighten up.
It’s true that white folk have spent decades learning the protocols of respect, sensitivity, and fair-mindedness in dealing with race. But you expect black folk to reciprocate by “acting white”? You’re forgetting who was the victimizer and who the victim. Victims, like children, have a license to indulge in what John McWhorter calls that “crazy stuff.”
By reviving historic stereotypes, Senator Obama’s speech and the uses to which it is being put has dealt a severe blow to race relations in America. It is giving a big boost to what someone has rightly called the soft bigotry of low expectations.