But Bill Keller, writing in the Times this morning, makes a comparison which I can't believe I had missed:
Randall Kennedy, another Harvard law professor who has studied Obama and criticized him for a lack of audacity, says frustration should be tempered by realism. “My view of Obama is as a Jackie Robinson figure,” Kennedy told me. “Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier and encounters all sorts of denigration, people spitting on him, and because he was a pioneer he had to be above it all.”
Keller goes on to write this, which is also true:
“There’s sort of a persistent misperception that talking about race is
black folk’s burden,” said Benjamin Jealous, president of the
N.A.A.C.P., when I asked him about Obama’s obligation. “Ultimately, only
men can end sexism, and only white people can end racism.”
Wouldn’t you like to hear John Boehner or Mitch McConnell or Chris Christie or Rick Perry own up as candidly as the president has to the corrosive vestiges of racism in our society?
That would be something, wouldn't it? Do you think any Republican would have the courage to do that? I don't.
No comments:
Post a Comment