Baldwin and Obama

When I first listened to Baldwin’s speech I immediately thought of Obama’s “Race Speech” before he got elected for presidency. I tried to find the similarities between their speeches. Unfortunately, I found too many. It seems like their speeches complete each other, one from the past and the other from the future. Baldwin explains the normal process of a black person; “You are 30 by now and nothing you have done has helped you escape the trap. But what is worse is that nothing you have done, and as far as you can tell nothing you can do, will save your son or your daughter from having the same disaster and from coming to the same end.”

I felt like Obama’s speech just continued Baldwin’s approach, but just from the future perspective; “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past… That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table…occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. That anger is not always productive…it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful.”

After reading the two speeches I feel that the Black community did not move forward and are still stuck in the same social status as they were fifty years ago! It makes me sad seeing how much power the term “Race” has in our society. This week is the Holocaust Remembrance Week and we all have to remember that race is actually a made up term which has nothing to do with facts. The term race DOES NOT EXIST!

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5 Responses to Baldwin and Obama

  1. Vanessa says:

    Then why do we talk about whites and blacks, etc. as if there were different races? I don’t understand why people say race is a made up term but then group all blacks together as one race and compare them to whites-another race. This isn’t a personal attack on you, it’s just, why don’t people see how they contradict themselves? Either race is real and there is such a thing as racial discrimination or race is a “social construct” and fake and used to oppress a certain group of people based on their appearance (not race-if it’s not real). Hope I made sense somehow.

  2. @Vanessa
    I was thinking the exact thing. I would add that even if race is a social construct that still makes it a real thing. Saying race isn’t real is an easy band-aid/buzzword and is at odds with so many things in society.

  3. Yp143906 says:

    Vanessa,
    Your comment makes a lot of sense. Race of course is not real in the biological sense. There is no biological difference between humans around the world (just that white people can absorb vitamin D more efficiently). In our crazy world, we have to classify groups of people. The term race is used as a “social construct”, where we have different groups of people who share a common culture which is different from other another group’s culture. I wouldn’t have had a problem with this term and it would be real if it would apply to all groups. In our minds we already think of race as just having a different skin color – and that’s racist!
    I grew up in Israel in the Middle East, over 10,000 miles away from New York. My culture, political views and language are definitely very different from the “white” American from New York. So why am I considered to be “white” just like most Americans and not from a different race? At the same time a “black” American who grew up with you and has an identical life style is from a different race??
    In my opinion, this term is an offensive and discriminating term which isolates only the black community from the rest of society, and that’s why I claim that this term does not exist. Of course there’s is no difference between a white American and a black one! The only reason I use this term, unfortunately, is because it’s already part of the English language and it’s impossible to explain myself without using it. Hope I made myself clear and it makes sense.

  4. Vanessa says:

    I find it interesting that you say that race only isolates the black community. I also understand why you use it even if you don’t believe in the term. However, if you truly are against using that word, why not try to change what it represents to others? The term itself is not really harming anyone, but what people do because of it, is.

    Also, what you view as racist, isn’t really that. Just because we see people of different color than having a different race as us, does not makes us racist. In that case, everyone in the world would be racist since we each identify within a specific “race” which isolates the rest.

    I really wish that we would not judge others based on race and racial stereotypes, but unfortunately this will always happen. Although, in my opinion, it’s happening less.

    I find your last paragraph interesting. Why do you think it only isolates the black community? What if it separates all communities (all races)? Would it still be a term that doesn’t exist or would it not be racist anymore since everyone is isolating themselves from the other races?

  5. Vanessa says:

    @Ronald, agreed.

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