As a post-baby boomer, it is interesting to me to see how much of today’s conversation about racial relations is still rooted in the 1960s experience and rhetoric of the civil rights struggle, and the disenchantment that followed. Many in the black and Jewish communities look to this period either with hope as a sign of what it is possible to achieve, or with disenchantment as proof of the other group’s faithlessness. The fact that so much of our dialogue--and so many of our organizations--are still rooted in this 40-year-old narrative makes it extremely hard to move forward: there’s just too much past to reconcile.
Obama cannot, as he was finally forced to acknowledge, transcend race. But as a child of the 1970s and 1980s, Obama can at least begin to reframe our conversations about race by bringing them out of that closed framework and into today. Personally, I thought his speech was very powerful and important, not least of all because he finally named some of the realities on the ground today rather than rehearsing old grievances. Yes, we need to recognize history, but we also need to move past it so we can clearly see and address the deep fissures and challenges our country is facing around race right now, rather than replaying the battles and resentments of yesterday.
Obama more or less acknowledged this need when he asserted that Rev. Wright’s comments belong to the experience of a past generation. The conversation needs to shift now to a younger generation who can speak out of their own experience (for some fascinating insight into how this tension is playing itself out in the African-American community, you can listen to this debate between NAACP Chair Julian Bond and activist Kevin Powell). As Americans, we need to frankly face and address issues of disparity, fear, and resentment as they exist today if we can ever hope to move forward.
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Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
At one time I would have voted for the demorcates ,simply because my family coming to America in 1911 did ,escaping fasism and the likes. But over the years I have changed. My Grandparents and parents would roll over in there graves. I can not vote for a known thief nor a racist. Simply because it has been in the family to vote for a democrate. And hope for the best in voting the old partyline. I have looked into the back ground of both of these two and really was quite suprised that everything I found out(last summer)about this Obama and his church has come out. With more to come. THis church is against Israel and the jewish people. And has hit to core of the hate He would bring the White house. The party has become more and more socalist. Which both of these two are pushing for higher tax and larger goverment. And remember Hitler also called for change.
While it wold be nice if Obama had seized the day and provided an advance in race relations, he used the speech to promote Class Warfare inviting poor whites to join in the Victimization Philosophy that has plagued so much of the Black Community.
De Tocqueville remarked on men's passion to be Equal in Slavery rather than work for the fruits of Liberty. The Victimization Philosophy of Class Warfare places blame outside the individual and forever blames The Other. The essence of bigotry is to blame others for one's troubles. Southern bigots in the 1950 did not burn crosses because they had fait in their own abilities to improve and advance. They projected their deficiencies onto others, especially Blacks and Jews. Stimulating Class Warfare capitalizes on this same Blame Others mentality and in another form of bigotry.
Obama's race speech was a large step backwards due to his missing the opportunity to take a large step forward. Obama is not a healer nor is he a Bringer-Together. His Class Warfare Approach in divisive and he is stimulating the worse in American culture.
Dear Rabbi Waxman: I have always enyoyed the Virtual Talmud. I had no idea it was on the verge of extinction. It may have vbeen partly my fault for not everhqving posted a comment in praise of much that I have read here. Is there any way I can yell loud enough to reverse this process? You are too young to die!
I never really finished my previous blog. I just want to add my expfression of approval for your praise of Obama's Philadelphia speech. I had heard rumors of his attachment to a few unsavory characters like Farrakhan (sp?) and was ready to give up on him, but his explanation of the hisorical and cultural background of the aptly named Jeremiah (!) Wright was very clear to me and I accepted it eillingly.
Obama started out looking like Jimmy Carter and he seems to be morphing into Richard Nixon.
If people listened to what Obama actually says (and stopped being blinded by the color of his skin), they would realize that Obama is showing himself to be an unsavory character. Not only did his race speech turn into a call for Class Warfare, but it was Obama who first interjected race into the campaign.
When the White independent voters in New Hampshire did not vote for Obama in the high numbers the polls had predicted, it was the Obama Camp that charged that White voters were racist. In alleging racism, they alluded to when Mayor Tom Bradley ran for governor in California and the polls had incorrectly predicted his land slide victory. More likely than not, both New Hampshire and California reflected the phenomenon that when a land slide victory is predicted, a lot of voters stay home. Then, the Obama Camp began pushing the ludicrous notion that Hillary was racist because she said that the nation needs both civil rights leaders like MLK and political power like LBJ. (No, I am not a Hillary fan.)
Today, the media reports that Obama has accused McCain of wanting to stay in Iraq for 100 years. This is pure demagoguery. McCain was making the valid point that after a successful conclusion of military operations, it is often necessary to have a military presence for decades. He referred to both Japan and Korea. Obama was distorting McCain’s position just the way most demagogues divert the public away from honest discussions of real issues.
Like Richard Nixon and more recently Donald Rumsfled, Obama engages in lies. He lied about being in church when the Rev. Wright made his inflammatory comments. When that lie was about to be exposed, he changed his story but denied about supporting Rev Wright’s position. We know, however, that Obama could not have sat in his pew going “tsk tsk tsk.” Obama had joined that specific church in order to gain “creds,” and he wasn’t going to jeopardize his nascent political career by opposing Rev. Wright’s agenda. As people are learning, the Rev. Wright’s theology is not all that unusual in the Black Community. Had Obama criticized the Rev. Wright, Obama would have been out of place and he would have earned no “creds.” The idea that Obama did not know what Jeremiah Wright was preaching and that Obama was not in sync with that brand of theology is not credible.
Just as it took months for The Mark Furhman Tapes to emerge, it will take some time for the tapes of Obama “me-too-ing” Rev. Wright to be disclosed, but we know what somewhere, someone has to have those tapes. Who knows, maybe we will have another mid-night break-in.
Obama is not a matter of White or Black – he is as much White as he is Black. Race has nothing to do with his qualifications. He fails MLK’s Test of Character and as such he isn' the Jewish candidate as far as I am concerned.