The Speech....A Much Needed Discussion to stop the Bleeding

I must say that I was moved by Senator Obama's speech yesterday. I have always stated that I am not a fan of Obama's boilerplate progressive politics but that his historic campaign transcends the political for someone like myself whose is coming from a more conservative stance. I have also stated in previous entries that at the very least, for the sake of political survival, Obama needed to move to the center to really bring it home to the average American voter. Unfortunately, he has been backed into the very racial corner that his campaign was so desperately trying to avoid. Being tied to a church that espouses the same 60s radicalism and victimization standard that we have heard countless times before, hopefully will not be the death knell to his otherwise masterful campaign-at least I hope that it isn't. This is not to say that Rev. Wright's words did not bear a glimmer of truth. His reference to the government creating AIDS can be scoffed at by media pundits (as it is conjecture for the sake of histrionics) but no one is discussing that in the minds of many Black folk who remember the infamous Tuskegee Experiment, such a notion is not without precedent. The refreshing thing about Senator Obama was that we thought that his ascendancy in the public sphere would usher in a new age of secular Black politics. This latest controversy proves that he is still mired in fire and brimstone. I pray that he can see himself clear of this political quicksand. We will continue to address this issue on Thursday's Afronerd Radio broadcast.