In Philly, Obama speaks out about race in America and the pastor problem

Today, here in Philly, Barack Obama gave a stirring speech about racism in America and why he cannot disown his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, even in light of Wright's recently revealed inflammatory comments.

Obama made sense. He repeated his unequivocal condemnation of Wright's offensive sermons. And then he went on to demonstrate his emotional maturity by explaining:

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

A human being is much more than his or her occasional slips of the tongue. We all make them. And a church community is more than just one or two poorly constructed sermons.

As Obama said today:

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

And he went on to observe that Rev. Wright's comments have brought front-and-center the issue of race in this country. He said:

... race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

He continued:

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Indeed.

>> Read or watch Obama's speech.

The excerpts above are just a tiny sampling of the excellent points he made today. It's well worth checking out the whole speech.

This should go down in history of one of the truly great speeches in modern American politics.