How's the Kool-Aid?

by Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Princeton University

As much as I hate to admit it, you are right. At least partially.

I openly confess that, after Tuesday’s speech, I was momentarily swept up in Obama-rama. As I said to you publicly, I assumed that Obama would follow traditional political crisis-relief strategy by repudiating Jeremiah Wright, accepting no direct responsibility (but expressing regret that others were offended), and insisting that we move on to more important matters.

At the start of the speech, Obama seemed to be following that script by making unsettling remarks about “stalwart allies like Israel,” “the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam,” and the need for patriarchal family structures. But once he got his perfunctory centrist kowtowing out of the way, Obama delivered one of the most complex, sophisticated, and powerful speeches in recent political history.

Instead of merely assuaging white racial anxieties, Obama’s words forced the entire nation to come to terms with its demons. Although he unequivocally denounced Jeremiah Wright’s remarks, Obama refused to reduce him (or his own white grandmother) to a racist caricature. Also, through his evenhanded analysis of both structural inequality and individual responsibility, Obama raised the stakes for racial discourse in American politics.

So yes, I was definitely cheering for Obama on Tuesday. To be honest, I secretly root for him every time he wins a state or scores a political victory over Clinton or McCain. Still, despite my sentimental attachment to the brother, I have not drunk the Kool-Aid.
by Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell- Princeton University

To drink the Kool-Aid is to believe that Obama gave that speech out of moral exigency rather than political desperation. After all, Obama had painted himself into a corner by running a “race neutral” campaign that implicitly promised not to make whites uncomfortable about things like white skin privilege or systemic racism. Once Wright’s comments became public, Obama was forced to defend his own position. Although his response was far more principled and sincere than I could have imagined, I doubt that he would have made it if it weren’t his best political option. More significantly, I do not believe that he would compromise his own personal ambition in order to realize the grand racial vision that he articulated on Tuesday. So, while I give him mad props for his courageous address, I’m still not a supporter.

That said, I still haven’t decided how I’m going to vote in next month’s Pennsylvania primary. My gut tells me to sit the election out and vote for Nader in November. But as we’ve learned from this controversy, anything can happen in a month.