A Thinking Man's Speech - Peggy Noonan WSJ

[rndmprsn]

by peggy noonan and in the WSJ of all places...i have spoken to many of my more "conservative" friends and they almost all expressed a profound sense of connection and respect to this speech and by proxy mr obama...this is what bi-partisanship is...not pandering to the right, but bringing the right over to US!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120604775960652829.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

A Thinking Man's Speech

I thought Barack Obama's speech was strong, thoughtful and important. Rather beautifully, it was a speech to think to, not clap to. It was clear that's what he wanted, and this is rare.

It seemed to me as honest a speech as one in his position could give within the limits imposed by politics. As such it was a contribution. We'll see if it was a success. The blowhard guild, proud member since 2000, praised it, and, in the biggest compliment, cable news shows came out of the speech not with jokes or jaded insiderism, but with thought. They started talking, pundits left and right, black and white, about what they'd experienced of race in America. It was kind of wonderful. I thought, Go, America, go, go...



...Most significantly, Mr. Obama asserted that race in America has become a generational story. The original sin of slavery is a fact, but the progress we have lived through the past 50 years means each generation experiences race differently. Older blacks, like Mr. Wright, remember Jim Crow and were left misshapen by it. Some rose anyway, some did not; of the latter, a "legacy of defeat" went on to misshape another generation. The result: destructive anger that is at times "exploited by politicians" and that can keep African-Americans "from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition." But "a similar anger exists within segments of the white community." He speaks of working- and middle-class whites whose "experience is the immigrant experience," who started with nothing. "As far as they're concerned, no one handed them anything, they've built it from scratch." "So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town," when they hear of someone receiving preferences they never received, and "when they're told their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced," they feel anger too.

This is all, simply, true. And we are not used to political figures being frank, in this way, in public. For this Mr. Obama deserves deep credit. It is also true the particular whites Obama chose to paint -- ethnic, middle class -- are precisely the voters he needs to draw in Pennsylvania. It was strategically clever. But as one who witnessed busing in Boston first hand, and whose memories of those days can still bring tears, I was glad for his admission that busing was experienced as an injustice by the white working class. Next step: admitting it was an injustice, period.

[bicentennial_baby]

1. Oy....Nooner!

[blm]

2. I think some conservatives truly fear being on the wrong side of history at this point.

Their entire conservative movement will be viewed as steeped in racism for generations if they nurture the racial divisions in this election.

The reactionaries WILL fan the flames, but some of the issue conservatives will stay away from the flames, and some will bring water.

[NYCGirl]

3. Right wing source! A no-no that counts for EVERYONE! NT

[beachmom]

5. Peggy Noonan and Andrew Sullivan have consistently liked Obama.

I think their stuff is fine on DU.

[NYCGirl]

8. I realize that, and I read Sully every day. But if we make a "no RW" rule here,

and I think we should, it counts for everyone.

[QC]

9. Yes, fascists who like Obama are acceptable here.

Fascists who don't like him are not. :crazy:

[anigbrowl]

16. I've never thought Noonan was a fascist.

Perhaps I'm a fascist for reading the WSJ? Or having a subscription to the Economist? or Foreign Affairs?

[crispini]

6. I'm not sure I agree with this whole "right wing sources are so BAAAAAD" thing

that's going around on DU right now. I agree that RW sources should be taken with a grain of salt, and everyone should know who they are. Furthermore, I think there are certain RW sources (Drudge, Newsmax) that are totally shite and go around making shit up and calling it "news." However, it is interesting to see what RW sources are saying -- they are part of the national dialog -- and as long as everyone KNOWS the source, why not? For example, this OP is clearly a "editorial" -- not "news" and so should be considered as such.

[grannylib]

4. Wow, I find that surprising coming from her...but I have to agree

with her! I appreciated the honesty and the courage he displayed in confronting it head-on. And yes, he's imperfect, as we all are, so maybe some things were not worded as well as some may have liked, I think the guts to face and deal with this stuff is indicative of how he would handle other tough issues in this country - honestly and with courage, and a willingness to listen to other points of view. Qualities the Unelected Imbecile certainly lacks.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. The biggest conservative lie is that immigrant-based whites don't

experience white privilege. It's bullshit. They very clearly do.

You might say "My grandparents were Irish immigrants and nobody handed them anything." Every worthwhile statistic (from sentencing disparities to school funding to employment) will show you that that belief is - quite frankly - false.

To say this is not to say that immigrant whites didn't face their own challenges, and didn't work hard. Obviously, they did. But they WERE helped along by white privilege, and their kids still are.

Look at what Noonan highlights from Obama's speech:

Blacks are themselves complicit in their own condition.
Immigrant and working class whites are resentful (because they never benefited from white privilege)

That's the way a right winger would read the speech. She cherry picks the statements that already comport with her racist worldview. The first is extremely complex. Most white folks don't know the history of self-critique in the black community, so they constantly appear surprised when African Americans take on some blame for the situation, and they cathect on that like crazy, since it appears to absolve pervasive systematic racism in favor of personal responsibility, where the two actually operate in extremely complex dialectical ways.

Probably the most repeated line of any Chris Rock show was his assessment of Tupac and Biggie ("Martin Luther King got assassinated. Malcolm X got assassinated. Them two niggaz got shot."). Why do white folks love this line? Because it is a black guy doing self-critique of black culture. But this is barber shop stuff. Stuff black folks say to each other, but generally not to white folks. Why not? Because white folks seize on it as if it explains everything, and act all surprised that responsibility is parceled out that way in black communities (being under the racist delusion that black folks never take responsibility). How many of YOU have repeated that line? There's a reason that Ice Cube's self-critique is called "Us." (How many white folks even know the tradition black folks have of referring to themselves as "Us?")

The second is just bullshit, a happy illusion held by whites - liberal and conservative - in our racist culture. They like to say "Ahem, there were 'Irish need not apply' signs for jobs," as if that erases the privilege they do receive daily.

[atufal1c]

10. Damn, that was dead on Al!

My sentiments EXACTLY.

I've had to explain this to several white friends that were shocked that all black people don't agree with Sharpton and Jackson ALL of the time.

As for Noonan, I despise her, but she is persuasive. I've been calling her the White Farrakhan for years. Her writing is like a Farrakhan speech--you sometimes find yourself nodding in agreement all the way through and then, at the end going, "Wait a minute! THAT WAS ALL BULLSHIT!

[starroute]

11. That's true, but may not be entirely to the point

You have to move people along a little at a time. You also have to start by speaking to them in terms they understand.

If you begin by acknowledging their perceptions of the world and telling them they're not bad people, they will be willing to accept you as someone they can trust. At that point, you show them there's another possible perspective. Once they accept that, you can gently start to indicate where their own perspective is mistaken.

One baby step at a time.

The problems occur when you allow the process to be interrupted halfway -- and I'll grant that we still have a long, long way to go. If you think getting someone like Noonan to admit they have benefited from white privilege is difficult, what about getting ordinary middle-class Americans to recognize that their own standard of living is made possible only by the exploitation and poverty of 2/3 of the rest of the world?

But the key is that people don't like to be told they're the bad guys. Tell them that and they'll slam the door on you. But tell them they're okay but could be better, could be more generous, could be living more in tune with their own ideals, and you will get a whole lot further.

Even the old grannies with their residual racism have come a long way. If you don't believe it, try spending a few hours with some 1930's popular culture -- movies, detective novels, even issues of Life or National Geographic -- and picking out the racial attitudes. You'll be cringing within minutes. That is what these people grew up with, and they've already done an enormous amount to overcome it.

One baby step at a time. As long as you keep it up, that's plenty to do the job.

[intheflow]

13. Self-delete.

Accidently posted twice. :blush:

[intheflow]

14. I liked the Daily Show take on this.

Jon Stewart was saying that Jews were also discriminated against, as were Irish and Italians. Larry Wilmore shot back something to the effect of "You mean the people who chose to come here." That really is the crux of the matter.

Now if you're talking about racism against Latinos or Asians, it's a different narrative about people who chose to come here. But in terms of black Americans/white Americans, the legacy of slavery plays a huge part in how racism is manifest in the present.

[anigbrowl]

18. Well put, and very true. I'm Irish, from Ireland, and...

while I know my own history very well and am conscious of the fact that Irish people have received many raw deals historically, I'm also quite conscious of the fact that I have a real easy time of it in the US because I'm white as a sheet. For example, It's common to run into people who assume that any Latino who still has an accent is an illegal immigrant, but who automatically assume I'm a citizen or have a green card, and are surprised if I even mention the amount of bureaucratic hoop-jumping involved in becoming a legal permanent resident.

Not only that, but I am constantly running into people who have some Irish or Scottish blood in them, warm up to me immediately because I'm Irish, and launch straight into xenophobic diatribes about how awful the English and the French are. There's usually a moment of mild embarrassment when I point out that I lived in the UK for a decade and I have 2 kids who live with my ex-wife there, so I'd appreciate if they didn't trash English people because my kids are English, as much as they are Irish and Japanese (my ex is from Japan).

There are difficulties and inconveniences with being an immigrant, though I have to say that the majority of those for me are psychological - dealing with occasional feelings of rootlessness or discomfort with social and business practices where I feel less able to compete than people who grew up in the more entrepreneurial culture of the US. But when you get down to it, it's way easier to be a white European guy than it is to be an American black guy in my opinion.

[Name removed]

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[LisaM]

15. Peggy Noonan thought Reagan had character

Obama seems to attract some Reagan lovers.

[JoFerret]

17. Noonan wooden spooning

.