Flashback: Obama on Race

We will never forget the 2008 elections--the election of the first President of African decent. It took two-hundred and twenty years and forty-four elections, but finally the American people have elected a president who: carries the product of a melting pot in the pigment of his skin, witnessed the economic struggles that very few of our precedent presidents have and most importantly--at least for the sake of this blog--he carries the consciousness of a minority in our, still, racially oppressive society.

We want to share our absolute favorite speech Barack Obama gave during his 2008 presidential campaign. "A More Perfect Union"--a speech that may be remembered by many as either Obama's speech on race or Obama's speech condemning Rev. Jeremiah Wright's racist comments. We remember this speech as the day a political leader, with a national platform to share his ideals, finally illustrated the complex issue of race in modern America. The over-arching theme for us was the "union" of all races. Americans achieving "a more perfect union"--a union that still needs to overcome the economic disparities between blacks and whites and a union that will achieve educational equality beyond Brown v. Board of Ed.

Obama says, "We can tackle race only as spectacle--as we did in the O.J. trial--or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina--or as fodder for the nightly news." He goes on to call on Americans to take control," But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And another one. And nothing will change." Americans were given a chance to address race and we are still idle...

How can a society that has now elected a president who believes racism continues to oppress people of color, still believe that racism is an issue of the past?

...for Ashley