Barack Calls For Unity, Progress

Presidential candidate Barack Obama just completed his speech on race in America. We’re still digesting his remarks, we were particularly struck by this comment:

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

Obama also made sure to criticize Reverend Jeremiah Wright, calling his statements a “mistake,” particularly because they present our nation as “static:” “As if no progress has been made; as if this country… is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.” It doesn’t have to be, said Obama, for we can change America’s course, for such progress remains an integral part of the American experience: “…America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.”

Read all of Obama’s speech here.