Melissa Harris-Lacewell

Marc,

It was a pleasure hanging out on television with you yesterday. Although you were in Philly and I was here in New Orleans, I can’t think of anyone I would have rather discussed Barack’s speech with than you.

My favorite part was the dramatic change in your attitude between our morning and afternoon appearances. In the morning you were your normal Obama-bashing, but brilliant self. You had nothing but criticism and doubt about his willingness and ability to speak about race.  By the afternoon you were giving the brother a standing ovation for his far-reaching address.  Just like the month of March, you came in like a lion and went out like a lamb.

Obama’s speech was so complex that I have had a hard time processing it all in the past 24 hours.  I think what mattered most to me is that Barack made the implicit and radical argument that black people are human. Of course, we already know that we are fully human: good, bad, hopeful, angry, brilliant, stupid, capable, pitiful, loving, hateful, all of it. But we rarely see a member of our government so beautifully articulate our humanity. It moved me.

I don’t know if the speech will help Barack regain his momentum. Watching the news and reading the web still have not given me a clear sense of how white America received his words. No matter what happens in the election, Obama’s speech was a great act of patriotism.

So, Marc, I must ask: having now sipped a little of the Barack O-Kool-Aid and tasting how sweet it is, can Obama count on your support in the PA primaries next month?

Melissa

Marc Lamont Hill

Melissa,

As much as I hate to admit it, you are right. At least partially.

I openly confess that, after Tuesday’s speech, I was momentarily swept up in Obama-rama. As I said to you publicly, I assumed that Obama would follow traditional political crisis-relief strategy by repudiating Jeremiah Wright, accepting no direct responsibility (but expressing regret that others were offended), and insisting that we move on to more important matters.

At the start of the speech, Obama seemed to be following that script by making unsettling remarks about “stalwart allies like Israel,” “the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam,” and the need for patriarchal family structures. But once he got his perfunctory centrist kowtowing out of the way, Obama delivered one of the most complex, sophisticated, and powerful speeches in recent political history.

Instead of merely assuaging white racial anxieties, Obama’s words forced the entire nation to come to terms with its demons. Although he unequivocally denounced Jeremiah Wright’s remarks, Obama refused to reduce him (or his own white grandmother) to a racist caricature. Also, through his evenhanded analysis of both structural inequality and individual responsibility, Obama raised the stakes for racial discourse in American politics.

So yes, I was definitely cheering for Obama on Tuesday. To be honest, I secretly root for him every time he wins a state or scores a political victory over Clinton or McCain. Still, despite my sentimental attachment to the brother, I have not drunk the Kool-Aid.

To drink the Kool-Aid is to believe that Obama gave that speech out of moral exigency rather than political desperation. After all, Obama had painted himself into a corner by running a “race neutral” campaign that implicitly promised not to make whites uncomfortable about things like white skin privilege or systemic racism. Once Wright’s comments became public, Obama was forced to defend his own position. Although his response was far more principled and sincere than I could have imagined, I doubt that he would have made it if it weren’t his best political option. More significantly, I do not believe that he would compromise his own personal ambition in order to realize the grand racial vision that he articulated on Tuesday. So, while I give him mad props for his courageous address, I’m still not a supporter.

That said, I still haven’t decided how I’m going to vote in next month’s Pennsylvania primary. My gut tells me to sit the election out and vote for Nader in November. But as we’ve learned from this controversy, anything can happen in a month.

Marc