We now know that many Americans have been moved and impressed by Barack Obama’s recent speech on race in America – although the electoral consequences remain unclear. But how do people in other nations view his high-risk verbal gambit? Patrik Etschmayer writes for Switzerland’s Nachrichten, ‘To even approach the subject was already extraordinarily courageous. But Obama went farther and did something politicians almost never do: He called his unfolding difficulties by name … it was an extraordinary speech for a politician anywhere in the world – and not only American voters should listen attentively. Because he spoke directly to what disgusts many people about politics in Europe: cynicism, filth and out-in-out dishonesty.’
By Patrik Etschmayer
Translated By Patrik Etschmayer
March 25, 2008
Switzerland – Nachrichten – Home Page (German)
It was a speech that could make history, and in fact it may already have. It’s a speech that sent shivers up the backs of listeners and has been downloaded by millions over the Internet.
It was a speech that stands head and shoulders above the speeches of other politicians. Not only because of its subject matter, but because of the honesty with which Barack Obama tackled the subjects of race and political cynicism in the United States.
The reason for Obama’s speech was something that really could have – indeed was likely to have – put the nail in the coffin of his campaign. The pastor of his congregational church in Chicago, the man that had wed Obama to his wife and had christened his daughters, a man with whom Obama was very close indeed, had delivered a sermon about war, poverty and racism that culminated with the impassioned plea of “God damned America.” In the aftermath, Obama distanced himself from Pastor Wright and his angry homily, but had refused to disown him, just as he couldn’t disown his White grandmother who had uttered racist stereotypes to him that made him cringe. Because his Pastor – just like his Grandmother – is an expression of America’s contradictions, wherein fate is an amalgam of horror and triumph, and where hardship and success are inextricably intertwined.
To even approach the subject was already extraordinarily courageous. But Obama went farther and did something politicians almost never do: He called his unfolding difficulties by name – in this case, the latent racism on all sides and the stereotypes that are so easily resorted to on these occasions.
He reminded his listeners of the all-to-easily forgotten fact that only fifty years ago, racial segregation and discrimination were the rule in the United States and that many African Americans are still burdened by the legacy of this oppression. He spoke about how the dialog between the races still continues to avoid this toxic legacy and how the anger continues to simmer, emerging only when a person is among their own kind.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the U.S. elections.
