Obama Will Address Race and Racism Tonight

As the nation’s first Black President, Obama has ignored the importance of race and forgotten that racism even exists.  His silence on race has lent credence to the idea that we live in a post-racial society.  He has ignored his Black brothers and sisters and other racial minorities who have been instrumental in his campaigns for President; many of them poor and victimized by racial prejudice and discrimination.

Throughout Obama’s presidency and especially in recent months, this argument has been made by a number of prominent leaders and journalists, many of them African-American.  And yet, somehow I don’t see it.  Perhaps my social location as a white male makes me less tuned in to these issues.  Or perhaps my status as a white male allows me to look at this issue from a different perspective.

If you listen carefully and “read between the lines” when President Obama gives his State of the Union address tonight, he will constantly address the issue of race.  He will do it forcefully and with a sense of urgency.  When he talks about the economy, he will be discussing racial equity as well as growth.  When he talks about health care, he will be discussing improving the quality of health care for all races, particularly those who have been denied equal treatment in the past.  When he discusses the war in Afghanistan, he will be thinking of our soldiers in harm’s way and their families, including racial minorities who are more apt to find themselves in the armed forces for a variety of reasons.  When he talks about gun control, he will remember the children of all races who have been killed by guns, due to any number of reasons including environmental racism.  And when he talks about immigration, race and racism will be front and center.

President Obama has not forgotten race and racism.  Far from it.