Why Obama's Speech Failed

Obama's speech failed in my opinion for one reason: it didn't go far enough to give whites who had doubts raised because of Wright, that comfortable feeling again. If you haven't read the transcript yet, here it is.

The fact is, the clips demonstrated that Wright is an angry Black man. When Obama stated:
Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions -- the good and the bad -- of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
That feeds into the fears of some white people that Blacks are angry and racist because of American history.

Obama's speech was nuanced when he had to be direct. Don't get me wrong, it was good, BUT, it wasn't what had to be done. Let me state it, again, in another way. It didn't go far enough to give whites a good feeling.

The following comments from Obama's speech is accurate and on point.

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety -- the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger.

Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear.

The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

But that is too nuanced when, I think, right now, emotion and fear of the bad Black man, rules the day.

It just didn't work. I wish I could listen to talk radio to determine if what I'm writing is accurate or inaccurate, but I can't. But a big part of his appeal is that he was not seen as another Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, Sr., and Wright blew that image out of the water.