Here's a comment that sums up much of my reaction to Obama's speech on race:

"...There is an intense and powerful force lying waiting in America....it is the longing for true leadership that addresses the basic goodness of the American spirit, pays tribute to the better part of ourselves as partners in a great adventure, and calls upon us to join together and give of ourselves for the common good.

The candidate who strikes that chord...who recognizes and encourages and calls upon Americans to use their strengths to solve problems instead of stoking their fears to divide us, can lead us in a new direction and away from the disaster we are now facing -- militarily, economically, ecologically, spiritually and ethically.

That candidate spoke today...from the heart....and to the heart".

Wow....just WOW!!!!"


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/18/201946/503/491/479543
Watching Obama with Strangers
by socratic
Tue Mar 18, 2008

-snip-

But also, as I listened to a talk show host read portions of the speech as I was driving yesterday, the part that I had to struggle not to cry over was Obama's comments about how the experiences of Black people growing up in the 1950s and 1960s shaped them to perhaps expect racism from others, and that Reverend Wright failed to realize that Americans can change.

That struck a chord with me, since I'm of that generation of Black folks and as I admit that I have been surprised and pleased at the level of White support for Barack Obama in "White states", and particularly among White people who thirty and under. That support, and my experiences on Mudcat-among other things-cause me to have faith that maybe things can and will change. Maybe there are enough people in the United States who have come to realize that race isn't all that important-or at least-shouldn't be all that important.

Thanks to Barack Obama I now have more hope that there will come a time when people in the United States and elsewhere will consider race as just a valueless descriptor. I don't think I'll be alive when that time comes, but thanks to the words and actions and role modeling of Barack Obama, we are moving closer to that time.