The Colvin Report: Obama's Charge Against Race

Obama's speech today got me thinking about things. He refused to disown the man who had been his preacher for 20 years and on his campaign committee until a few days ago. Its understandable, but I think it might be a bit hypocritical.

Obama claims to transcend race and stand for change. He wants frank communication about race issues in a hope to bring things to an end. I commend him for that and in all honesty, I believe it would take a strong black leader like Obama to truly transform thought patterns of Blacks and Whites alike. Al Sharpton and the likes work to divide, but Obama seems to really want to change things. An observant eye looking to the reactions of the crowd in Wright's church shows how deep the problem truly is, at least in some parts of society. Obama is right, people are bitter on both sides for many reasons and it doesn't help anyone to hide it.

However, I am still discomforted by his relationship with Rev. Wright.

And the reason why I think this all seems a bit hypocritical of Obama, and thus worthy of criticism, is that he was the first politician to come out and call for Don Imus to be fired for his infamous nappy headed hoes comment.

Direct from Obama: “There’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude."

“He didn’t just cross the line,” Obama said. “He fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America.”

And I agree, what Imus said was stupid. He is controversial and I do not listen to him or blame Obama for calling for him to be fired.

My problem is that In the case of Wright, Obama denies ever personally hearing his pastor give sermons that damned the U.S., blamed the U.S. government for creating HIV to kill the black race, etc., etc.

But yet in his speech today, he said he knew Wright had made controversial remarks. He says he would have left the church if he heard the things "repeated," but what does that mean? Isn't knowing he said it enough? Even with the outcry, his speech today did little to acknowledge the remarks and he went out of his way to make it clear that he was not disowning or condemning the man, just a few words.

That just isn't enough. I want a real explanation. When Oprah left the church because it was too controversial, Obama should have followed suit. Either Obama went to this large church to build his political career or he shares the church's views... which is it?