Stephen Yeargin

I took some time this afternoon to read and watch Sen. Barack Obama’s policy speech on race in America. With the events of the past few weeks it comes as no surprise that his campaign wanted to take a closer look at this issue, and based on the contents of the address, it was a topic that he was more than willing to take head on.

I have little to add that reporters and pundits have not already fragmented into neat little 10 second sound bites for the nightly news. I see stories with headlines saying that “Obama distances himself from controversial pastor” or “Was it too little, too late?” Sometimes I cannot help but wonder if the copy editor had already written the headline long before the story was turned in, or if the reporter was already locked in on the particulars of his address in the context of the 24 hour news cycle.

This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For those that listen or read the speech in its entirety, they see something that is all but lost in the modern political campaign: direct and honest answers to very tough questions. This was not your typical soaring rhetoric or creative duck-and-dodge-the-issue maneuver. You could take just about any other politician and give him or her the same topic and you would get a very watered down “let’s come together” message with little substance and even less of a personal connection to the person delivering it.

Hat Tip: WordJunky.