Racism and Structural Solutions
Against The Current vol. 135
McCarthy, Michael A.
http://www.solidarity-us.org//node/1609
Date Written: 2008-07-01
Publisher: Against The Current
Year Published: 2008
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX13418
When Barack Obama raised the specter of race in a March 18 speech that went far beyond what one would expect from the Democratic Party, some of us on the left were hopeful. Since the 1970s, race-speech in presidential campaigns has been increasingly buried in coded language like, “welfare moms,” “inner-city,” “street crime,” “states’ rights” and so on. We all welcomed a shift away from such discourse. By dealing a bit more squarely with the issue, the speech had the potential to ignite a national debate that could grapple with the “racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years,” as Obama put it.
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