Remembering Obama's Race Speech

The National Constitution Center has announced plans to open an online exhibit honoring Barack Obama's "race speech," according to Politico. It is, per the headline, a speech "to be remembered."

The speech came, of course, on the heels of the controversy surrounding Obama's long-time preacher and spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright, the man who inspired the phrase "audacity of hope." Videos emerged of Wright calling upon God to damn America, the nation whose government he said had brought 9/11 upon itself and concocted AIDS to commit genocide against black men.

Faced with the issue of people actually examining something that Obama had actually done rather than what he said in his speeches, he did what he usually does when he wants to make a problem go away: he made another speech.

Before the real version of events surrounding the speech is lost down the memory hole, there are a few things that I'd like to be remembered about it.

I'd like us to remember that during the speech, Obama threw his poor grandmother under the bus, lumping her occasional ethnic stereotyping in with Wright's deranged rantings that 9/11 was nothing but "America's chickens coming home to roost."

I'd like us to remember that Obama's vicious innuendos in the speech that targeted Geraldine Ferraro as some sort of bigot went largely unreported.

I'd like us to remember that Obama brought his children to his church on a regular basis to listen to Wright's sermons.

I'd like us to remember that, in the speech, Obama ludicrously propped up the delusion that speaking of Wright was "an act of division," as if discussing Obama's character was some sort of preposterous, unjust act.

I'd like us to remember that while Obama claimed that he "could not disown" Reverend Wright any more than he could disown the black community, he actually had a fairly easy time disowning him as soon as he made another incendiary speech at the National Press Club: the one in which he accused Obama of being just another politician, "doing what politicians do." Accusing the government of concocting AIDS to kill black men is one thing, but contending that Barack Obama is a mere politician is quite another.

I'd like us to remember that the "national conversation on race" called for by Obama ended up consisting primarily of white liberals in the media telling America that Obama's election would be a redemptive moment and that merely suggesting that Obama may have actually benefited in the election from his race was an unspeakable act of racism. And, of course, let us not forget the slanderous lies flung at John McCain as media pundits accused him of fostering racial hatred at his campaign rallies.

So indeed, let us remember. Let us remember how the public was hoodwinked. Let us remember the smears secreted within Obama's speech. Let us remember the resulting conversation about race that never really happened. And most importantly, let us remember that no speech, no matter how eloquent, can ever erase a person's actions.