didn't simply touch

Every time I think of a black person as "articulate", I feel a little twinge of racist guilt, remembering this NYTimes article from 2007 that points out its racist undertones.

“When people say it, what they are really saying is that someone is articulate ... for a black person,” Ms. Perez said.

Such a subtext is inherently offensive because it suggests that the recipient of the “compliment” is notably different from other black people

But as I watched these excerpts of Jeremiah Wright's interview with Bill Moyers, it was definitely the first word that came to mind. He is calm, collected, and rarely says "like" or "um". He is a fantastic speaker. I believe him, and I'm angered by the "media event" that made him the target of hatred.

At first, having mostly experienced the story by reading it, I thought it was good journalism. ABC had researched public records to find a really interesting angle on politics that Obama had willingly exposed himself to. It showed the public audience what a potentially big influence on his personal and political opinions had to say about important (and unimportant) issues.

I think that's because I watched the clips once, on YouTube, after reading articles about it, instead of leaving my TV tuned to the newscasts that evening. My opinion changed when I talked to people who had seen the same excerpted passages in a repetitive loop. That's when I started to understand the sentiment that Rev. Wright expressed so clearly in his interview.

Which did, in fact, inspire Obama's race speech, a speech that has been described as:
eloquent
resonating
historic
brave
honest
gutsy
unconventional
crucial
great
blunt
wonderful
truthful

"Barack Obama didn't simply touch the touchiest subject in America, he grabbed it and turned it over and examined it from several different angles and made it personal," Jonathan Alter wrote for Newsweek.

I think that's about right. I think Obama can take just about any situation and turn it into a beautiful and eloquent speech (eloquent is the new, more-acceptable way of describing a black speaker as 'articulate') to gain support.

It leaves only the question from one blog commentator, SenatorBoomdog, "When is Hillary going to give a speech explaining why her elderly lesbian army hates America?"

For some entertaining (and sometimes insightful) liveblogging on this speech, go here.