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The audacity of unity

Mohammad Amjad Hossain
SMEAR campaign and mudslinging in US politics are nothing new. Senator Barack Obama, presidential hopeful of the Democratic Party, has been confronted with such campaign involving his religious and spiritual guru, Reverend Jeremiah A Wright., Reverend Wright, a former pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, is reported to have made inflammatory remarks about the United States because of the segregation of its black community.
Until March 18, Senator Obama was able to avoid framing his candidacy in racial terms, hoping he could transcend such issues through his campaign for national reconciliation, unity and change that would cut across demographic, racial and political lines.
A couple of days ago, a video appeared where Reverend Wright was shown making inflammatory remarks against the US. That has caused uproar in the media about Senator Obama's relationship with Reverend Wright.
This is what he said in the church, where Senator Obama was present: The government gives them (blacks) drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law, and then wants us to sing God Bless .America.' No, No, No God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like God and she is supreme."
Senator Obama had no other option but to clarify his stand vis-
i-vis his religious leader. This is the first time on the campaign trail that Obama has availed of the opportunity to speak on racial problems; in Philadelphia's historical constitutional centre on March 18, where he is facing primary elections on April 22. Flanked by flags of the United States, Senator Obama made an attempt to defuse tension in white voters in particular while delivering his masterly speech on the racial problem the country has been confronted with.
In his speech. Senator Obama sought to portray the subject of race as a distraction to his presidential candidacy, but also said that race was an issue that he believed this nation could not afford to ignore.
Senator Obama publicly denounced the remarks made by Reverend Wright, and said that they could widen the racial divide and denigrate the goodness of the nation. While distancing himself from the fiery sermons of the pastor, Senator Obama pointedly refused to distance himself from the pastor when he said: *As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community."
In his extraordinary speech. Senator Obama explained the reasons for the anger and frustration among the black community, which had been reflected in the sermons of Jeremiah Wright. When Obama said that Rev. Wright "helped introduce me to my Christian faith," he was trenchantly telling the voters that he was not a Muslim, as some might have portrayed him.
The issue of race was brought up by members of Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign team, particularly by Senator Clinton's campaign financial chairperson, Geraldine Ferraro, who was vice-presidential candidate in the '80's? Ferraro is reported to have said: "Mr. Obama would not be in such a high political position if he were white."
During the course of his 40-minute speech, Senator Obama used history, saying that the founding documents were stained by the nation's original sin of slavery. He also spoke about his bi-racial upbringing by his black father from Kenya and white mother from Kansas. Drawing on his own bi-racial heritage, Obama said he understood both the anger expressed by Rev Wright and the prejudice he sometimes witnessed in his otherwise loving white grandmother.
Both praise and criticism of Senator Obama's speech came from various radio and television talk shows, commentaries, as well as newspapers. Senator Obama, who has been advocating the unity of the country, has suffered because of his association with Reverend Wright.
However, he has been successfully courting white voters, as can be seen from the results in Vermont. Iowa, Idaho, Wisconsin, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, and Kansas. There is no doubt that there is a racial division in the Democratic Party, which has been reflected in the voting pattern in the on going primary elections. While Senator Obama won 80 per cent of African-American votes, Senator Clinton won 53 per cent