Obama on Hip-Hop and Race

Old interview but still relevant to the public. My homie Enrique sent it my way. Also, after the jump is his speech from earlier this week on race. I still believe Obama can win but this moment gave us a real look on a person who can be honest about race, politics, and our potential without being unrealistic or avoiding the topic. Straight Bangin’ gave us a dope write up on it.

***Update: John Stewart’s reaction/dialogue to Obama’s Speech after the jump

Straight Bangin’ writes:

I don’t think I ever wrote about this due to principle, but my most worked up and distraught day in recent memory came last June when Paris Hilton was released early from prison for no apparent or legitimate reason. It consumed me, rendering me incapable of working. I was so animated–and I can vividly recollect this–that I had to walk away from my desk and pace for fifteen minutes while on the phone with my parents and then my sister. I think I next proceeded to gchat with about twenty friends, writing with a righteous indignation that I summon only in my most emotional moments. I was almost delirious, seething with frustration. It was one of the few times I have ever completely agreed with Al Sharpton.

Obviously, this all reads like a wild overreaction. All that because of Paris Hilton? But that was part of what made me so angry, and that was why I never wrote about this episode to begin with. Why even waste my time on someone who is absolutely loathsome and worthless, literally among the handful of the world’s most disgusting humans (alongside George Bush, Dick Cheney, and a few others). I was offended that I even knew who she was, let alone that she was receiving preferential treatment for, from what I could tell, merely being rich, blond, and white.

The racial implication of the episode was sickening and upsetting. We can even set aside that as a drunk-driving recidivist, Hilton posed a serious threat to everyone’s safety. The mere fact that someone like Generlow Wilson wasted away in jail while Hilton was crying and whining and buying her way to freedom overwhelmed me. Of course, they were not imprisoned for analogous crimes, but their respective stories illustrated the racial divide that persists in this country, and the prison system was a sadly ideal theater in which that drama could play out, because if nothing else, this is a country that loves disproportionately locking up black people.

My personal Hilton hysteria remains a powerful object lesson in just how deeply race resonates for me. To appropriate a trite expression, that day was one during which I felt shaken in an elemental way. Something about that patent violation of decency and justice, that sickening illustration of a seemingly intractable racial problem–it summoned an almost feral despair. Dispensing with the condescending and dishonest apologies for sustained institutional racism, I defy anyone to objectively assess America and conclude that it is not afflicted by damning racial inequity. Further, I’d issue a similar challenge for anyone to look at the foundation for the United States of today–the federal policies that grew out of World War II–and explain how racism has not permanently scarred our society. I don’t think a person can while remaining honest. And as a result, I don’t understand how people can accept it.

Barack Obama gets this. And far from overly emotional or compelled to take up a cathartic crusade as an outlet for my zeal, I watched his speech yesterday–the one you can view above if you have not yet seen it–and felt an odd sense of vindicated calm.

Don’t get me wrong, I thought Barack was inspirational. I thought he was smart and thoughtful and confident and charming. But to hear someone so eloquently and smartly and rightly string together his personal identity, his politics, his faith, and the historical narrative of race that dominates our social economy was reassuring. To hear someone acknowledge that the FHA was a tool of oppression; that a crisis of masculinity coupled with few resources can result in dysfunction; that we too easily rely on caricature to find simplistic balms for complicated wounds was to hear the steam released from my valves. Suddenly, if fleetingly, the pressure was reduced, the system eased, and an emotional equilibrium was reached. There aren’t many moments that offer such a soothing articulation of truth. Obama’s speech conducted an awesome power that was fortifying but not combustible.

And I felt thankful. For once, political discourse was not manipulative and empty. The loud candor of racial dialogue was not muted by caution. Instead, Obama opted to be blunt but kind when addressing his critics and, more importantly, leading a conversation about issues that really matter. Anyone who wastes his or her time worrying about gay people getting married or trying to mandate that students never hear the word “sex” in school should feel ashamed that they ever presume to hold up such vapid causes as the things that matter. Even petty and intellectually dishonest attempts to belittle a captivating moment seem laughable when measured against a comprehensive and thorough consideration of our society. If people tell you that Obama skirted the issues, engaged in circumlocution, or “called out his own grandmother,” you should pity them. They missed a special moment.

I don’t know if Barack’s speech will make a lasting impact on this campaign or this country. But I do know that for at least one day, the United States was treated to the sort of honest scrutiny and hard conversation that it needs. For at least one day, we spoke about race in all its nuance, rather than ignoring it or minimizing it through convenient simplicity. And that felt wonderful.