I wish Obama would not distance himself from Jeremiah Wright. I wish he would use his public platform during his speech on Tuesday to raise the important issue of racism in this country. I wish he would point out that our government is not dominated by old white men because they are smarter than the rest of us. I wish he would make the same point about CEOs, college professors, doctors, engineers and media members (to name a few).
Asking Americans to critically reflect on race relations is a scary proposition. It means asking us to reject the "American Dream" ideology that we are force-fed from birth. It means recognizing that there are, in fact, very different Americas. A white person does not have the same life experiences as a black person. A woman does not have the same life experiences as a man. A black woman does not have the same life experiences as a white woman. And an immigrant Mexican woman has a whole other set of life experiences than they do. I wish Barack Obama would address these truly hard issues and explain that we actually do need "black" churches because all the other churches are "white" whether the label is there or not. I wish he would explain why Wright blames rich whites for our country’s problems and articulate that racist patriarchy is a REAL problem in our country and the core of the systemic marginalization of women and racial (and other) minorities from positions of power.
If he makes these points, however, it would certainly cost him. I’m not sure America is ready to recognize the pervasive racism that continues to exist within our borders. And my guess is he will skirt those issues, temper them and sanitize the whole issue. But I sure wish he would acknowledge the hard facts of racism in this country.
The same way as a vocal and political feminist, I wish Hillary Clinton would address sexism and embrace the term feminism.
With all the vitriol leveled on this site between Obama and Clinton supporters, I think this is one area we can all agree on. Whether Obama or Clinton wins the nomination, we as Democrats have the opportunity to break an incredible boundary that has been tightly guarded by rich white men since the birth of this country.
I know Obama supporters are probably upset that the mainstream media is using the Wright sermons to demonize Obama. But I think having Wright’s sermons in the public discourse is an amazing opportunity to force people to think about some real problems in this country.
I am a Hillary Clinton supporter, but I know damn well that I will vote for Obama if he wins the primary. I hope that Obama supporters can say the same for Clinton. We live in a racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist and classist society. These candidates may not currently be able to overtly address the inequities present in this country, but their presence in the Oval Office would be one step toward true change and a time when candidates may put "eradicating racism" or "eradicating sexism" as a key point in their campaign platforms.