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Barack Obama’s Race Speech: “A more perfect union,” 2008 Responding to GOP attacks on his association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, presidential candidate Barack Obama outlined a path for America to rise above its racially complex past to form “a more perfect union.” “For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. “…In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination — and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past — are real and must be addressed. “…In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand — that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.” |
