New Obama Mashup and Response to Doug

The song is "The Tide is Turning" by Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd), using clips from Obama's speech "A More Perfect Union" which Doug and I are discussing, see below:

Doug writes:
"When I use the term "white nationalism" I mean the ideological configuration that often directly links elements such as Christianity, militarism and a patriotism that really isn't patriotism because it hold that American is always already on the right track."

I'm not sure I agree with your definition. This is the kind of crap that governments all over the world have used time after time to justify horrible things, be it Christianity, Hindusim, Islam, etc. Think Chile, India/Pakistan wars, El Salvador - just change out "America". That said, a better term would be American Nationalism, as it's not just White Americans that buy into this crap. For me, this is very disturbing. However, I do believe that American patriotism is a weird concept, for in order to defend the freedom to speak out against the government, you have to defend that same government. Think about the African-Americans who fought in WWII, having to return the instutionalized racism after the war.

Nevertheless in the context of Obama's speech, I agree and disgree with some of your critiques of his speech.

1. I do believe that some of the reason for the speech was to allay some of the furor in some of the reaction in Non-Afrcan-Americans. I say this because it was not just Whites that found Rev. Wright's comments offensive. The coverage in Spanish speaking media was similar, albeit more subdude. I for one was not offended. I'm there where Asians, Jews, etc., who found the comments offensive. It was something he had to do, and I think he made an excellent effort.

2. I don't agree with your analysis of this quote:
"But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country . . ."
- I think you did not take this quote into perpective with the rest of the speech. I think he was trying to convey that people of Rev. Wright's generation still have the mindset in the world they were raised, the suspicion of the Other was incolcated. I think the Obama's view is that there have been many strides in race relations, however, those of that generation still carry in them the ingrained suspcion that cannot be shaken. It is this pardigm in which they still see America. (It's the baby-boomer thing.) That is the root of the "profoundly distorted view of this country" that he was referring to. I don't agree that he was adopting the nationalism you speak of at all, but rather a different view of race relations and the greater America. That while problems persit, American, as a whole, is a profoundly different place than it was, and to portray America as Rev. Wright did is a profoundly distorted view, because it a view of an America that, while it did exist, is not the current America. However, there is still more to go in race relations.