Obama speech confronts America’s racial divide

For many immigrants like me, who have never experienced the race problem outside the US, coming to the US and living in the US has provided one with an opportunity to see and to experience the best of the country as well as contribute the utmost of one’s imagination and efforts. If there’s anything that stands out about US society that one might call a veritable cancer, which an immigrant might not feel as deeply as other Americans (whether “black” or “white”) whose families have been here for centuries, it’s been the problem of race. Many had prayed at the onset of the primaries that the elections would provide a forum where one could finally see the willingness of the country to move beyond its racial divisions and to embrace a more positive and hopeful future for its children. But it’s not been so as the desperate from many quarters, whether from the pulpit, or the lectern, whether in inter-personal discussions, or in campaign forums, whether in the press or in online commentaries, have sought to cast the issue of race again and again at the peril of the common good and a shared and harmonious future… For may immigrants and foreigners watching the elections, the drama is that of a superpower whose citizens have all it takes to make a great nation, but who prefer to constantly fall short of the ideals of a non-racial society, who can’t overcome the enduring cancer of race to see the rich kaleidoscope that’s God’s creation, our creation… It’s a contradiction in terms.

Tears flow down the face of supporter Marty Nesbitt as Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., speaks about race during a news conference in Philadelphia, Tuesday, March 18, 2008. Associated Press photo by Alex Brandon