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JOHNSON: A speech worth reading - and then reading again

By Bill Johnson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published March 19, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.
Updated March 19, 2008 at 9:45 a.m.

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Maybe I have told this story before, the one of me as a young boy watching in horror and anger as my father once again ripped apart in his thick, strong hands another of my homework assignments.

I will admit now, more than 40 years after the fact, that he had every right and a duty to do just that. Most of my homework first drafts were horrible. I just wanted to go outside and play ball with the rest of my buddies.

My dad was having none of it. He would usually do it spectacularly, his loud, booming voice calling me inside - embarrassing me in front of my friends.

This would occur between his day job of sweeping up and otherwise cleaning 24th Street School and sorting the mail on the nightshift at the Postal Annex. Rarely was he in a good mood. I will admit this, too: I hated my father in these moments.

Often, the evening hour would pass 9 o'clock before I finally finished my homework to his satisfaction.

One day, I remember, I'd finally had it.

I asked why. Why me? After all, he had 10 other children scurrying about the house. Rarely did he bother them this way. Why was he "picking" on me?

"No child of mine," he finally said in his rich baritone, "is going to scrub a white man's toilet," an obvious reference to his day job. And my siblings were all smarter than me.

"You cannot just be as good as the white man sitting next to you to make it in this world," he would continue. "You have to be TWICE as good."

He would repeat this line to me until the day he died.

Why tell you this little story? It is because of Barack Obama's speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday. I have yet to see video, but I've read it three times.

And with each reading, it has reminded me of my father, of that time and how it has informed who I have become.

Whether you like him or not, whether you will vote for him or against him, I believe this speech will one day become required reading in my grandchildren's classroom.

It was a treatise on where the American people are on race, written and spoken by a mainstream American politician in a way I had never heard before, a speech I fully believed not one of them would in a million years have the personal or political guts to deliver.

"Even for those blacks who did make it," the Illinois senator said deep into his speech, "questions of race and racism continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways."

It is the one line that just sticks with me.

It has challenged me, forced me to look inward to assess the roots of the views I give here, those I share with my wife and friends and often force onto my children.

"For the men and women of Rev. (Jeremiah) Wright's generation," the senator said of his controversial pastor, "the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and bitterness of those years."

That lone passage reminded me of my father and mother, and their generation, of their intercessions that I could not just be me, but only a super-version of myself, lest the "white man" intercede and resign me to a lifetime of scrubbing his toilets.

For them, it was all that their life experiences had taught them.

I am not at all certain we would be chatting here today had they not expressed such caution and demands to me, all related to their "humiliation and doubt and fear." It is, too, quite certainly a large part of the baggage I have carried into this job.

Our history, as we were told on Tuesday, is often our reality, so much of it as skewed as the Illinois senator's white grandmother confessing her fear of black men who passed by on her street.

Powerful stuff.

Yet what are we to do with it?

I have never once, I can tell you, repeated my father's mantra to my own children.

Maybe it is because I always found being twice as good at anything to be such an oppressive burden, that although his admonishments largely worked for me, the world my father inhabited was nowhere close to the one my kids will live in as adults.

In darker moments, it is true, I still hear my father's warnings, the "racial stalemate" the senator spoke of on Tuesday. Maybe it does still exist, which will mean I have failed my children.

I much prefer, however, to think in the way Barack Obama outlined it, that I have reared them to embrace "the burdens of our past, without becoming victims" of it.

It is why I have cast my lot on a belief that my children can today "insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life" at the same time their generation binds "their particular grievances . . . to the larger aspirations of all Americans."

I have a hunch that my father, God rest him, would call me foolish and naive for thinking and doing such a thing.

Daddy, wherever you are, I don't think I or my kids right now have much of a choice in the matter.

johnsonw@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2763

Comments

  • March 19, 2008

    9:11 a.m.

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    maukaman writes:

    What the speech proves is that Obama should be a speech writer. He still is totally unqualified to be President. I would challenge anyone to name three important legislative items he has sponsored. Just another politician in an empty suit.

  • March 19, 2008

    10:03 a.m.

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    verse writes:

    "'The anger is real,'” intones Barak, who then whispers, “and I am a fake, and you all know it.”
    With a smirk he mutters, “And by the way, I am not above throwing my white grandma under the bus as I portray her to the entire world as just as racist as, if not more than, my buddy and daddy figure, Pastor Jeremiah The Hater. Watch this.”

    Cue the church members’ response to Jeremiah’s “Chickens coming home to roost” speech. Or all the other Hitler-esque Jeremiah rants. In which Barak and Michelle, were, oh wow, sick those days!… at home! Before they miraculously got well the numerous Mondays after!

    Hey by the way, Barak, speaking of family, where was/is your real daddy? Conveniently protected by angry black America’s refusal to acknowledge that it allows most American black men to overtly neglect their own children, perhaps?

    Speaking of relatives, it’s pretty easy to toss an anonymous old white lady aside when all those black votes are at stake. Ah, she’s probably dead anyway. However, I suggest you didn’t need to do that, Barak. Those fervent, angry blacks and guilt-ridden whites would have voted for you anyway. Just read the desperate and breathless Bill Johnson’s columns about Barak. No worries.

    By the way, Bill, let me get this straight: You’re still so afraid of your dad, you are compelled to vote for a candidate simply because he’s black enough? You simply have to not only force-feed Obama’s speech to your own kids forever, but you’ve just gotta, for the sake of all human decency, to insist that Whitey’s racist kids be forced not only to read it throughout their entire education, but to embrace it to black America’s satisfaction?

    This is going to take some work, Bill. Maybe you should retire from column-writing.

    It’s people like you, Bill, who have wasted countless hours trying to make the American school system the PC indoctrination factory it is today, largely because most American blacks refuse to, and don’t have to get over the whole slavery issue, conveniently dragging it out thousands of different ways until they are stopped short at the End of Days. To them, there isn’t enough money, Affirmative Action, or whatever in the world, not that they are above trying any method to get it, to erase their supposed bitterness and resentment and, of course, their perpetual need to be the ultimate, miserable Victim. After all, when things get tough, it’s so convenient to blame white America’s past sins for every sin every race commits today. Piece of cake, and so easy to teach the kids.

    So of course, Barak is your guy. He’s promised to make all that go away/get better/get resolved/make you the kings of the universe and bring the white race to its knees. If you so need to believe in fairy tales, now's the time to clap your hands.

  • March 19, 2008

    12:18 p.m.

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    Civility writes:

    Bill, not only is it worth reading again, it's worth listening to it again. The venom on this blog shows that we still have a long way to go and reinforces the points that Obama made in his speech.

  • March 19, 2008

    1:56 p.m.

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    primafacie writes:

    Yes, Barack Obama had some thought-provoking things to say on race relations. And more than a few platitudes. Fine.

    However, the issue isn't his views on race relations. It's a separatist, bigoted and hateful preacher who Obama says has had a profound influence on his life. It's his 20-year association with a church that advertises a "Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community" and a "black theology" (other races not welcome, apparently), in a congregation that cheers enthusiastically at the pastor's declaration of "God damn America."

    The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is free to spew his bilge, and his congregants can cheer if they like. They aren't running for president.

    Obama is. Although Obama admitted Tuesday that he was lying weeks ago when he claimed never to have heard Wright utter such bile, Obama skirted the fundamental questions that have risen from this. What does his association with a church that stands for hatred and racial separation say about Obama's values? If he disagrees with it, what is he getting out of the relationship? And if it's merely a political advantage, doesn't that tell us something?

  • March 19, 2008

    2:15 p.m.

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    Konyok writes:

    Bill’s column today is a thoughtful and moving revelation for the white reader. Discussing racism and its aftermath in this country is more than painful – there is always the risk of awakening the monster. Whistling past the graveyard is no less dangerous, as those ghosts have lost none of their power to terrify and enrage.
    Today’s column opens a door to the quieter, more pervasive reminders of that legacy. The very mundane nature of this story makes it more accessible to those of us that have not experienced it than sometimes perfunctory accounts of strange fruit or the middle passage.
    That senator Obama is inspiring this kind of effort is a good thing. Let us try to balance our honesty and our good will to find our common ground in a perilous world.
    However, Obama’s speech suffers from tortured equivalencies that are painstakingly and incongruously constructed. It was obviously very carefully written and deserves equally careful scrutiny.
    The senator convincingly makes the case that the personal experience of racism colors the consciousness of the generation of Rev. Wright and Bill’s father. The emotional echoes of our past cannot be erased by denial. His refusal to disown his virtual black family is an indication of a great heart.
    Obama then evinces empathy with the fears of a notional white post civil war immigration working class, but falters when he ascribes this anxiety to the pernicious manipulation of politicians and conservative commentators. Reverend Wright is a understandable product of his environment, while Grandma suffers from silly irrational stereotypes.
    The proffered solutions to this problem are purely economic and political.
    In opening Pandora’s box only far enough to grasp the talisman needed to ward off criticism of his proximity to Jeremiah Wright and then attempting to shut it quickly, he has only released the imps contained therein.
    His grandmother’s fear of black crime, an anecdote that the senator treats more sympathetically in his autobiography, is a fear shared by Jessie Jackson and a great percentage of this country’s population. Can anybody really believe that national health care or raising taxes will allay this fear?
    In preparing for this presidential campaign, Mr. Obama would have been much better served by balancing Rev. Wright with a little bit of Bill Cosby. This speech, only delivered after the damage done by the broadcast of excerpts of sermons from the dvds sold by Trinity Church of Christ, does not stand up to close examination.

  • March 19, 2008

    3:07 p.m.

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    JimM writes:

    I think I recall seeing somewhere that Obama has claimed that he was not aware of Jeremiah Wright's rants over a number of years. Obama did not explain how he was able to overlook them when he has been a member of Wright's church for 20 years.

    Jeremiah Wright was not just someone who simply endorsed Obama. Wright has been Obama's pastor/mentor for 20 years and baptized Obama's children. That tells me Obama must have agreed with most, or at least much, of what Wright said. If Obama did not agree with these rants of Wright, why did Obama not leave that church years ago?

    Obama correctly points out that the most segregated time in America is on Sunday mornings. If Obama is so interested in bridging the gap between races, why hasn't Obama made a point of belonging to a racially diverse church? They are around. I attend one myself here in Denver, and I do not consider myself to be any racial pioneer. My head pastor is black, as are three assistant pastors. They are terrific pastors and people, and I have NEVER heard come out of their mouths racially charged accusations like I have heard from Jeremiah Wright in some of Wright's sermons.

    In summary, Obama certainly appears to be a wonderful speech writer and speaker when he has several days to prepare, but I still don't feel like I know what this man stands for or what his true values are. His speech raised more questions than it provided answers.

  • March 19, 2008

    9:14 p.m.

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    mcc writes:

    I read the above comments and see the same voices who will cry out that they are not prejudice. They are the ones who stand back there with their white friends and tell the jokes about the africa americans, the polish joke, the racial slurs they will say to other whites.

    Jeremiah Wright spoke for what many blacks have felt and experienced. My wife and I were talking about the Rev. comments. We are both white and we understand his anger, his words that have insulted many people.

    I do not agree with his comments, but I can understand his anger.

    "Black Like Me" is a book many of them could stand to read. Yet until they walk in the shoes and experience of blacks how can they understand the anger. In our country the "White Mans Burden" is still alive and believed in. In this country it is still a white world first and foremost.

    Blacks can be musicians, athletes, and even succeed in business to some degree -- but please! you can not be president. Slowly they have climbed and not been welcomed all the way.

    Whites are so afraid of the invasion of the hispanics and can not see or understand the reason they come. They are illegal-- race! Literally! How dare they want to invade our country. Yet, they were here long before we were. We just took it from them. By force!

    I have to stop and wonder what they are so afraid of. Mainly they are not responsible for themselves. But nothing surprises me any longer. Racism is alive and well in this country and others.

    I've heard people say the black joke not knowing I have two black children. I worked in an office and left when they knew that we were adopting an african american child, and still the black jokes and slurs were spoken.

    I love my children for who they are. I love them for allowing me to understand what they would have faced had I not been with them. It has been ugly and painful at times. And it doesn't stop!

    I think it's wonderful that Barack is running for president. Maybe it's too painful for the above who can not stand the thought of a black president. They will say it's his qualifications, or the Rev. Wright's comments. They will find a hundred reasons. Or maybe, the truth is he just isn't white enough.

    If he was white, then even if he lied to us about why we got into Iraq it wouldn't matter. Or having the oil companies give you enough money to run for president so you can get squeak into office. Or maybe, you could have a vice president who's company's interest are seen to by winning an uncontested bid in Iraq. Or maybe you just don't have the intelligence to know the difference or care when you are lied to. No... just don't let the black man into office because then everything will go to hell in a hand basket. Or maybe it's just too big of a burden to bear for the White man.

  • March 20, 2008

    12:34 a.m.

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    arby writes:

    My 2 cents worth. First of all I think I understand where Bill is coming from and where his Father was coming from and I can't disagree that black people, Italian people, Irish people, Hispanic people, etc have been discriminated against. I do have a problem with the continuing emphasis on slavery. Get over it. And besides Obama's Father is from Kenya and his mother is white. He is not the descendant of slaves. So that's a strawman. All of the world had slaves until the industrial age made them obsolete. And they weren't all black people. My ancestors came to this country as indentured servants. Slaves. As I said and as Dr. Cosby has said. Get over it people, let's move on.

  • March 20, 2008

    9:03 a.m.

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    jaycadillac writes:

    What a wasted opportunity, not only for Obama but for a whole race of people. The first serious black candidate in history could have turned this into a "Cosby" moment and changed the entire destiny of America. He could have scolded the leftwing, racist demagogues like Sharpton, Jackson, and Wright. He could have scolded the irresponsible black fathers who abandon their families. He could have scolded the blacks who have become dependent on drugs and the welfare state. Instead, he put out a speech that is more of the same old rhetoric that's kept a whole race of people on the Liberal Plantation for generations now.
    Sad....

  • March 20, 2008

    4:49 p.m.

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    jdm8794 writes:

    I am 53 years old and grew up in Denver so maybe I wasn't exposed to all this hatred out there. since the time Obama announced he was running for president, I never looked at him as a black man. i really didn't see the color. I don't tell racist jokes and have been know to talk about some interesting things with co workers and friends that are black-i ask them about stuff...especially the young ones becasue i am interested in how they are feeling. a few years ago i sat with my daughter and we watched Guess Who is coming to dinner. That movie isn't that old in the grand sceam of things. i wanted her to see or get a feel of what what i remember when i was her age. I went many rounds with my father because of his bigotry (raised in the south).
    When i listend to this supposdly man of god, i wanted to throw up. how in God's name can we heal as a nation of many colors when there are people out there preaching such hatred in God's name. Yes, when the Rev was growing up, the world sucked...isn't it time for a shift in conscienceness.
    I am not an Obama supporter-i disagree vehimently with his policies and his lack of experience is frightening. But when you sit for that many years in a church, either your deaf or you believe in what is being preached. I believe that Obama believes as the preacher...and i belive he will not over come this.

  • March 21, 2008

    3:33 p.m.

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    Civility writes:

    A "Cosby" moment? Please. You have no idea about discrimination, until you walk in the shoes of a minority. Slavery ended a long time ago and even blatant discrimination doesn't happen as much, but there is still a lot of subtle discrimination still going on. You won't see it unless you're sensitive to it no matter where you live.

    When a few jobs or scholarships are given through affirmative action, there are all kinds of complaining about lowering of standards, not enough qualifications and so on. But use the white privilege to hire based on using relatives, friends or networks, regardless of qualifications, it’s okay.

    Even though I’m Hispanic, most people think that I’m Italian. I let them think that so that I won’t have to deal with any discrimination. I also don’t disclose my ethnicity when I apply for a job because I don’t want to hear that the only reason that I got the job is because I’m a minority, which is a copout that they use for their own shortcomings. It’s when they start to badmouth Hispanics and Blacks in front of me, that I speak up.

    I can understand the anger and frustration of Reverend Wright. But I also think that we need to move forward. I used to work with an outreach program that encouraged ALL students to go on to college. Two thirds were minorities. I found it amazing that because the students were encouraged, how well they performed in this positive atmosphere and how well they did in college and after college. And standards were not lowered, but exceeded!

    So let’s move on to some real issues on how we’re going to make America better with either Obama, Clinton or McCain!