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Tuesday: Barack Obama gives a speech in Philadelphia on race, politics and national unity. (AP Photo)

Barack Obama roundly condemned the remarks of his controversial pastor on Tuesday but also took several steps to explain why the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.’s incendiary rhetoric is still valid.

Going to great lengths and several times repeating his reason for his continued association to Wright and his membership at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Obama said the pastor introduced him to his Christian faith and continues to perform God’s work on Earth.

“As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. … 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,” Obama told an audience at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Hoping to thread a tough needle, Obama is seeking to return his campaign to the place it was until about a week ago, before his image was tarnished by the details of his relationship to Wright, who has been Obama’s spiritual adviser for 20 years.

Obama has tried to mold himself as a transcendent American political figure not viewed uniquely as an African-American running for the presidency but rather a candidate who is African-American and uniting the country behind him.

In a speech billed as one on race, politics and unifying America, Obama described his interracial background — a white American mother and black African father — as well as his wife’s ancestral history of slavery. He credited the United States for allowing the freedom that enabled him to enjoy such a mix.

“I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents. And for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible. … It is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts — that out of many, we are truly one,” he said.

Defining the freedoms that this nation’s inhabitants enjoy, Obama said he did not excuse some of the anti-American statements made by the pastor, though he acknowledged that he knew Wright to be a fierce and vocal critic of U.S. policy.

“Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely — just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed,” he said.

He also defended some of Wright’s remarks in a historical context, saying to ignore them might be politically expedient but it would be the same as ignoring this nation’s history of prejudice and racial struggle.

“We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue … but 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.

“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,” he said. “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.”

Obama described Wright as a product of the segregation and disparities “passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.”

He said segregated schools and “legalized discrimination” of 50 years ago in housing, education and the workforce have perpetuated “the wealth and income gap between black and white.” The Illinois senator also blamed lack of basic services for the urban blight and denigration of the black family.

“For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politicians own failings.

“And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning,” he said.

Obama said that anger may be counterproductive, but it is real.

“To simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races,” he said, adding that the anger is one that also transcends race and exists among middle and low-income white workers who “don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race.”

Blaming politicians and conservative talk show hosts for a racially infused cycle of hate, Obama said fear has been bred in whites who have seen affirmative action programs take jobs and educational opportunities away. Obama said those fears have been “routinely exploited” but rather than focusing on the “real culprits,” a “racial stalemate” has resulted, in part from Washington corruption.

“Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism,” he said. “Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze — a corporate culture rife with inside-dealing, questionable accounting practices and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many.”

He said that if he heard Wright only in the context of the “endless loop on the television and YouTube,” then he too may have reacted in the same way.

“But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man,” he said, adding that Americans of all stripes would benefit by following the conservative philosophy of self-help found in Wright’s sermons. However, he lamented that Wright’s language shows the preacher is stuck in the same pattern that has trapped many Americans.

“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. … But what we know — what we have seen — is that America can change.”

Obama urged Americans to follow the Scripture and “do unto others as we would have them do unto us.” He pleaded with his audience to ignore comments like Wright’s that continue to see division and conflict as inescapable.

“We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. … We can do that. But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change. That is one option.

“Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, ‘Not this time,’ ” he said.

“This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generatio — the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 10:57 am and is filed under Barack Obama, Top Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.