On Critical Race Theory - I stand with President Obama

In 2008, as a candidate for the office of President, Senator Barack Obama became embroiled in a controversy. The pastor at the church he and his family attended, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, offered a sermon with strong, negative views about the United States of America. The sermon expressed points that align directly with what is called "Critical Race Theory" today.

Opponents of then Senator Obama, both his political opponents and opponents in the media, suggested that because Senator Obama and his family attended that Church for a long while the Senator must share the views expressed by Reverend Wright.

Obama gave a speech in response. In that speech he started out expressing hope for America. That hope was based on his "unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story." He then recounted that story - "son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas" raised by white grandparents and given the opportunity to attend the best schools. Obama concluded this background by saying "and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible."

Obama then turned to the remarks of Reverent Wright and, consistent with the background above, he said:

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm...expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America...

During the speech, Obama spoke about problems that have existed and still exist in America. But he circled back to Reverend Wright's criticisms and said:

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old - is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know - what we have seen - is that America can change.

I was reminded of this speech by an article written by Andrew Sullivan, "What Happened To You?," where Andrew Sullivan responds to those on Twitter who essentially ask him "Why have you become a white supremacist, transphobic, misogynistic eugenicist?" Mr. Sullivan's response is that he hasn't changed and turned the question back on those who criticize and ask "What happened to you?"

Mr. Sullivan, who describes himself as an ObamaCon quoted that last passage of Obama's speech cited above and said "This is what I still believe. Do you?"

I agree completely with both Mr. Sullivan and with then Senator Obama.

I found Mr. Sullivan's article because his comments were referenced in a story in Town Hall. In that story, they presented statistics offered by Mr. Sullivan and another writer, Kevin Drum that demonstrate, as Mr. Drum says: "It is not conservatives who have turned American politics into a culture battle. It is liberals."

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The text of President Obama's speech is at: http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2008/03/18/obamas-speech-1/

https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/what-happened-to-you-e5f

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2021/07/12/liberal-writer-to-progressives-what-happened-to-you-n2592345

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