Thank God for Barack Obama. Until his "More Perfect Union" speech last
Tuesday, it seems it never occurred to anyone that America needed to talk
about race.
"Maybe this'll be the beginning of a conversation," Wall Street Journal
columnist Peggy Noonan proclaimed on "Meet the Press." The Chicago Tribune
reported that "many voters, black and white, say they were moved by Obama's
speech ... which they see as a long-awaited invitation to begin an honest,
calm national dialogue about race." Newspaper editorial boards agree. In the
words of the San Diego Union-Tribune: "Prodding Americans to confront their
racial differences is, by itself, an accomplishment of historical
proportions."
Because so many agree on this brilliant new strategy to heal our national
wounds, I can only assume that I'm the one missing something. But when one
luminary after another smacks his forehead like someone who forgot to have a
V8 in epiphanic awe over the genius of Obama's call for a national
conversation on race, all I can do is wonder: "What on Earth are you people
talking about?"
"Universities were moving to incorporate the issues Mr. Obama raised into
classroom discussions and course work," the New York Times reported within
48 hours of the speech.
Oh, thank goodness Obama fired the starter's pistol in the race to discuss
race. Here I'd been under the impression that every major university in the
country already had boatloads of courses dedicated to race in America. I'd
even read somewhere that professors had incorporated racial themes into
classes on everything from Shakespeare to the mating habits of snail
darters. I also had some vague memory that these universities recruited
black students and other racial minorities, on the grounds that interracial
conversations on campus are as important as talking about math, science and
literature. A ghost of an image in my mind's eye seemed to reveal
African-American studies centers, banners for Black History Month, and
copies of books like "Race Matters" and "The Future of the Race" lining
shelves at college bookstores.
Were all the corporate diversity consultants and racial sensitivity seminars
mere apparitions in a dream? Also disappearing down the memory hole,
apparently, were the debates that followed Hurricane Katrina, Trent Lott's
remarks about Strom Thurmond, the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for
Clarence Thomas, the publication of "The Bell Curve" and O.J. Simpson's
murder trial. Not to mention the ongoing national chatter about affirmative
action, racial disparities in prison sentences and racial profiling by law
enforcement.
And the thousands of hours of newscasts, television dramas and movies -
remember films such as 2004's Oscar-winning "Crash"? - dedicated to racial
issues? It's as if they never existed. Continued... |