Obama seeks to clarify his views on race

His speech Tuesday distanced him from his pastor's views.

from the March 19, 2008 edition

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As some analysts see it, the speech was no less momentous than the one Mitt Romney gave in December in Texas to defuse questions about his Mormon faith.

"He is taking the central issue that is troublesome to some voters and trying to turn it to his advantage," says Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist and author of "Faith in the Halls of Power." "That's the challenge he faces."

Obama proceeded with the speech over the objection of some associates, according to news reports. Some worried that it would only draw more attention to race, an issue already much in the news after the polarized results of last week's Mississippi primary and controversial remarks by a former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, a prominent supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Wright has portrayed the United States as corrupt and racist, and his language sometimes veers into the incendiary. "White America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01," Wright wrote in a church-affiliated magazine in 2005, blaming American foreign policy for the attacks. In a December sermon cited by CNN, Wright said, "Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people."

His views are hardly new, and Obama said last year that he does not see eye to eye with his pastor on every issue. But ABC and FOX News began airing segments of old sermons last week, and Obama responded with a series of denunciations since Friday that culminated with his 35-minute speech Tuesday, which he titled "A More Perfect Union."

At the same time, the black megachurch Wright led for 36 years and the headquarters of the denomination, the United Church of Christ, which is largely white, accused the media of distortion. Both issued statements praising Wright as a distinguished preacher who was being sacrificed on the altar of politics.

"It's time for all of us to say 'No' to these attacks," UCC General Minister and President John Thomas said in a statement, "and to declare that we will not allow anyone to undermine or destroy the ministries of any of our congregations in order to serve their narrow political or ideological ends."

Countering the criticism of Wright has put Obama in a delicate spot, analysts say. He has to reassure whites, perhaps the most important swing vote in the nomination fight, without turning off black voters and clergy who may be more familiar with Wright's brand of rhetoric, a tradition in liberal black churches where "social gospel" is as important as scripture. Wright's language draws on black liberation theology, an outgrowth of the civil rights era which views the Bible as a parable for the struggle for black freedom.

"Jeremiah Wright is no surprise to the bulk of black voters," says Christina Rivers, an expert on black political thought at DePaul University, a Catholic institution in Chicago. "He didn't make up that rhetoric. He's just good at it."

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