Editor’s Note: Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. Barack Obama this week delivered his first major speech of the campaign on race, drawing on his dual heritage as “son of a black man from
Obama challenged Americans to break “a racial stalemate” that has bred “division, conflict and cynicism.” He pointedly included Asians and Latinos in describing the new coalition of diversity that is becoming
AsianWeek columnist Phil Nash collected numerous comments from Asian/Pacific Islander leaders and they are posted here.
Gautam Dutta, Executive Director, AAA-Fund:
“America is blessed with diversity — but how can we ensure that it unites us, not divides us? While we will not make a pre-primary endorsement, we commend Senator Obama for candidly discussing one of the most important issues facing our country today.”
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Wayne State Law School Dean Frank Wu:
“There is an expectation in our modern era of politics as entertainment that leaders will be optimistic about all subjects in all contexts, everywhere and constantly. This expectation is especially clear with issues of race. We cannot express disappointment, much less anger, even if we are describing history accurately. This prohibition applies with even greater strength to people of color who wish to appeal to white voters. Senator Obama thus faces a tremendous challenge. The historic nature of his candidacy is obvious to all, as is his racial identity. Yet his efforts to speak to the issue are surrounded by suspicion, and he is expected to follow a script that celebrates progress. He has shown his brilliance in meeting these demands while also noting the problems that remain and the work to be done.
I am not declared as a supporter of any candidate, and in my role as a Law School Dean cannot be involved in partisan politics.”
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UCLA Law Professor Jerry Kang:
“Obama’s speech is extraordinary because it is, to my mind, the most honest and complex analysis of race made by a candidate running for political office in my lifetime. He did what he needed to do–meet head on the hardest criticisms, with substance, context, history, humility, poetry, and analytical clarity.
I can’t help but recall the case of Ozawa decided by the Supreme Court in 1922. At the time, federal law only permitted White or persons of African descent to naturalize into U.S. citizens. In his brief, Ozawa pleaded to the Court that ‘[i]n name, I am not an American, but at heart I am a true American.’ He stated the ‘facts’ to make his case. He had no contact with Japanese churches, schools, or organizations; his children were sent only to American church and American school; he speaks English at home ‘so that my children cannot speak the Japanese language.’ In short, to enter into the community of citizens, Ozawa publicly disowned his culture and his past. Of course, tin the end, this plea was not enough, and the Supreme Court held that no matter how fair Ozawa’s skin and how assimilated his character, he was simply not White and could not naturalize.
I am heartened that although Obama rejected and denounced his pastor’s fire and brimstone anger, Obama refused to disown him for, as he explained, it would be like disowning the Black community or his White grandmother, in all their complexity and imperfection. This was not the most politically expedient thing to say. But it was the most honest thing to say. And as an academic who studies race, who sees so little honesty in the public discourse of race, I will always be deeply grateful.”
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University of North Carolina School of Law Professor Andrew Chin
“Sen. Obama challenged the media to step off the treadmill of the 24-hour news cycle, where the election has been covered as a horse race rather than a public policy debate. Too many national journalists lack the training and inclination to speak and write substantively on policy issues, to investigate the claims made by political actors, and to understand the historical context of the day’s events. Obama’s speech resonated so strongly because Americans have been starving for a substantive discussion on the racial divisions and grievances that have continued to afflict our beloved country in the decades since the civil rights movement. If the media is to play any role in that conversation, news editors are going to have to stop reading email smears and watching YouTube clips, and start reporting on the fractured state of our union and the policies that are being proposed to heal it. I hope Obama’s eloquence will be enough to inspire a few to break deeply ingrained habits.”
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Selma D’Souza, Chicago attorney:
“I am supporting Obama, and I am a delegate. I thought it was an excellent speech. One of the reasons I support him is because he is the best candidate to bridge the racial divide in this country. He can do it without the strong divisive rhetoric that has been used in the past. He used the opportunity today to talk about the racial divide and realities Blacks and Whites face, and also other minorities. He put it in terms so both sides can see each other’s point of view. Because of his family background, he has a unique perspective that can see both sides of the debate.”
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Ruthann Kurose, Seattle-based civil rights activist:
“I thought Obama’s speech on race was a courageous and authentic speech that, if not today, will one day be historic. He dealt with race in an honest and direct manner speaking of the resentments, frustrations and fears that issues of race too often reveals. I respect his refusal to disown the Reverend as an individual yet emphatically denounce Rev. Wright’s words. I hope people will accept Obama’s generational insights with an open mind. I fear Barack’s honesty to talk publicly about the complexities of race may be too risky for the American electorate. I hope I am wrong.and that reason prevails over that fear and that we will find in us the higher ground that Obama challenges us to work for.”
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Shubha Ghosh, Ph.D., J.D., Professor of Law, Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law
“I am one of those who thinks Barack can do no wrong. I thought the speech was sincere, balanced, and forward looking. The only think that is disappointing is that the speech was necessary given the kind of racialized scrutiny Barack has received.”
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Caroline Fan, AAA-Fund Blog webmaster:
“It was a masterful speech that details the complexities of how each of us navigates race, as well as the dilemma and rewards of being an American of mixed heritage. It was a profoundly American speech reflecting our nation’s history, shortcomings, and hope.
At the end of the day, rather than turning neighbor against neighbor, we must keep the focus on what we can do to rebuild our nation and encourage economic growth. “
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Paul Igasaki, Washington-based civil rights attorney:
“I’m an Obama supporter. But my reaction, while supportive of his speech, comes more from my feelings as a person of color and a Japanese American.
I know many Japanese Americans that carry great racial anger due to the tremendous wrong that our government and the racial majority inflicted on our community during World War II. Some of the great civil rights heroes of our community included the No No Boys, or some like them including my father in law, who stood up and refused when the government forced them to choose to serve in the army while imprisoned in relocation camps. Many of them express their anger racially and in terms that go beyond what I agree with or am comfortable with, but I do not judge them because I did not have to live through what they did. I disagree with some of their feelings, but it does not diminish the lessons that they have taught me, indeed should teach us all, about standing up and fighting for justice. There are many others in our community, men and women, that say very strong things that come from a place of being a minority in what has been a white man’s country. Yet many of them also say powerful and inspirational things about justice and brotherhood. That is what Senator Obama has described about his own former pastor. If we say he must deny this part of the minority experience to become President, then only minorities that are willing to reject completely any part of their community that does not pass ideological muster can be considered for higher office.
We cannot escape race in this country. But if we try to accept the differeneces that have divided us and listen harder even when we disagree, we will become closer to a constructive democracy. Barack Obama is unusually balanced in his racial perceptions because of his mixed race background and because he has lived in multicultural Hawaii, racially divided Chicago and in Asia itself. We can benefit from the lesson on race relations Barack delivered today.”
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John Hayakawa Torok, UC-Berkeley Ethnic Studies PhD candidate:
“A powerful and moving speech, and quite charismatic. Obama’s a strong candidate, a youthful candidate, a thoughtful candidate. He sounds all the right notes about Americans of all hues and conditions coming together to strive for a more perfect union.
His Christian social gospel values, as illustrated by his description of his pastor’s ministry among the poor and disenfranchised, articulates well with the missionary impulse expressed often in U.S. history. He scales up those values to the national level with his stated policy aspirations on jobs, education, and health care.
In the speech he is good on history and on psychological decolonization issues in a racist society for many of the multiple ‘colonizers’ and ‘colonized.’ However his worldview, like the dominant U.S. worldview, lacks a needed recognition of that might be called America’s ‘other’ original sin - settler colonialism. Christian missionaries too often regarded the eradication of indigenous difference as part of their civilizing mission.
The Bush administration Iraq doctrine was perhaps ‘democracy (like civilization in the past) comes from the barrel of a gun.’ Research on how the ‘founders’ of the ‘republic’ might have related to this proposition would be an interesting read.
One can only hope that if elected Obama’s actions will match up to his rhetoric about ‘special interest’ rule in Washington, D.C. As a relative newbie in D.C., he is probably less beholden than others with more years of public service.
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Professor Greg Robinson, University of Quebec and Asian American history expert:
“Obama’s was a glorious success, among the best we have had in our mainsteam political life. It was at once frank and compassionate in discussing some of the troubles Americans have with dealing with race. At the same time, I regret the curiously perfunctory way that Obama brought in Asians and Latinos, as if their particular experience of racial bias did not resonate with and flavor the existence of African Americans. In particular, it would have been smarter to address the reckless ways that the media have played up Latino-Black divides in the primary voting. I fear that this may show a continuing tin ear regarding the concerns of other racialized groups.”
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Marybelle Ang, Los Angeles-based attorney:
“This speech, for its honesty and courage and eloquence, is a pivotal moment for the Presidential race and one that future generations will look back upon with admiration. It is the kind of speech that blows you away by the sheer weight and force of truths expressed.”