One president to bind them all
Make no mistake about it: Race still matters. But it matters less than it did. That鈥檚 a good thing to acknowledge as Americans honor the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and mark one year in office of the first black (or biracial, if you鈥檇 rather) president.
Dr. King lived through the Depression. Its hardships affected him deeply. If he were around today he might be mostly talking about the great recession that鈥檚 hit Americans of all ethnic and racial backgrounds. Perhaps he would question whether the unbridled excesses of capitalism that led to Wall Street鈥檚 collapse were the best means for building a sound economy for everyone.
Despite tough times that find African-Americans out of work at a much higher rate (16 percent) than Americans in general (10 percent), blacks have become much more optimistic about the future during the past year, according to a new poll.
Remarkably, 39 percent of African-Americans say the 鈥渟ituation of black people in this country鈥� is better than it was five years earlier. That鈥檚 up from just 20 percent who said that in a similar 2007 poll.
That may be largely because of the 鈥�Obama effect鈥� 鈥� the idea that a black can become president, according to Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, which conducted the poll. What鈥檚 more, a majority of blacks (53 percent) now expect that life for them will be better in the future. In 2007, only 44 percent saw a brighter future.
Some in the black community have grumbled that Mr. Obama has paid less attention to the special needs of his ethnic group than he should. But African-Americans in general remain overwhelmingly supportive of the president. In the recent flap over insensitive comments by Senate majority leader Harry Reid, no uproar came from prominent African-Americans 鈥� except GOP chairman Michael Steele, who called for Senator Reid to step down.
There鈥檚 no blueprint for being a minority-race president. Last summer, Obama hastily jumped to the defense of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates in his dispute with white Cambridge, Mass., police officer James Crowley, who had arrested Mr. Gates on the mistaken assumption that he was breaking into a house 鈥� actually Gates鈥檚 own residence.
Yet Obama quickly reassumed his impartial role as president of all Americans by inviting Gates and Crowley to the White House and by urging that the unfortunate incident become a 鈥渢eachable moment鈥� on race relations.
Abraham Lincoln famously said that the dead at Gettysburg honored the ground far more than could any words from him. Similarly, the very presence of the Obama family in the White House speaks more strongly about the state of race relations in America in 2010 than anything a speech writer or editorialist could put into words.
Easily the most memorable remarks on race this president has made came in March 2008, while he was still a candidate. There Obama tried to merge the ideal of America鈥檚 "more perfect union" with the reality of its multicultural heritage. Americans 鈥渕ay have different stories, but we hold common hopes,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e all want to move in the same direction 鈥� towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.鈥�
For African-Americans, he continued, this meant 鈥渂inding our particular grievances 鈥� for better healthcare and better schools and better jobs 鈥� to the larger aspirations of all Americans 鈥� the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who鈥檚 been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family.鈥�
He concluded: 鈥淲hat we know 鈥� what we have seen 鈥� is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation....
鈥淚n the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world鈥檚 great religions demand 鈥� that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother鈥檚 keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister鈥檚 keeper.鈥�
Those are words Martin Luther King Jr. surely would have endorsed.
