ABSTRACT
Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama’s speech on race at Constitution Center in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008 was in many ways historic. Former Kennedy speechwriter Ted Sorensen said, “I don’t know of any presidential campaign speech by anyone, including even John F. Kennedy, that had as much courage and principle and long-term importance on the most fundamental problem that has faced this country since its founding, and that’s the problem of race” (Paulson & Marks, 2008). Most rare for a politician, Senator Obama dared to talk openly and honestly about the history of racism in the
United States and how this legacy courses through the lives of people in all racial groups, shaping our institutions, experiences, consciousness and actions still today. He unsettled the typical narratives about race relations that circulate in mainstream media and popular culture, narratives that gloss over or oversimplify the realities of racism, invoking what Patricia Williams calls “premature community” (Williams, 1998), and, in so doing, block the awareness, knowledge and concerted action so necessary to fi nally progress on this matter.
