Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Vibe.com@DNC :: Day 1: Looking Forward
Michelle Obama did some of the work of repairing the party's fissures last night. Her speech was a corrective against Democratic infighting and a strike against further Republican charges of elitism.
Hillary Clinton's race-baiting advisor Mark Penn established the Obama-as-scary-foreigner scenario early in the primaries. So tonight's speeches—beginning with a speech by Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, running through Ted Kennedy's surprise appearance and Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill's introduction of Michelle's brother, Craig Robinson—repeated theme words like "American story" and "American dream".
There are probably still Hillary voters or undecided women who finished watching her speech—and Sasha Obama's scene-stealing mic moments during the crowd-pleasing family teleconference—with hardened hearts.
But the Obamas do not want to let this nomination victory be about bitterness and looking backward. Michelle shouted out Hillary and the anniversary of women's suffrage. She evoked MLK and the March of Washington. Both were, in this context, American stories, American victories.
What was most notable was Michelle's tone. There was no trace of stridency, a punditocracy caricature. Instead, she was by turns, soothing, soaring, and full of gratitude.
And when Michelle drove it home, with what my son's teacher calls "little moments"—the meaning of a parent's goodnight kiss, the portrait of Barack Obama driving their new baby home with supreme caution—she left many in the hall in tears, including, let's not front, many grown men. Forget all those TV shots of weeping women.
The girls came unscripted—Malia wiping her tears away with a big hand, Sasha holding the mic like a grudge. They became unwitting icons: they may be to the hip-hop generation the equivalent of what Caroline and John Kennedy were to the boomers.
This afternoon, the future was alive at the Congressional Black Caucus' Young Leaders forum. The panel had its star appeal. Kerry Washington and Will.I.Am both gave generational conversion stories that would be echoed in the closing lines of Michelle's speech—stories in which they "decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming."
Washington, as moderator, also introduced a number of new young leaders: 29-year old Georgia assemblywoman Alisha Thomas Morgan; 29-year old Tallahassee city commissioner Andrew Gillum; hip-hop activist and pastor Reverend Tony Lee; and businessman and motivational speaker Ephren Taylor.
But the 24-year old Bakari Sellers, elected 2 years ago to the South Carolina House of Representatives, closed it down with a speech that seemed to capture the spirit of the moment—a sense, especially among young African American Democrats, that now is the time, that Barack Obama has finally legitimized the value and potency of youth.
He recalled his father's story of the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre, the deadly university shooting at South Carolina State that predated Kent State. "The South Carolina motto is 'Dum Spiro Spero', 'While I breathe, I hope'," he said, linking it to an Obama quote. "In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."
Sellers drew Obama-esque images, linking the laid-off postindustrial worker in San Francisco to the rural teacher in Marlboro, South Carolina, to the accountant in New Orleans who has turned carpenter because no one else will rebuild.
"There are those who will say that we are too young, too inexperienced, and too idealistic. They'll tell us that it's too hard. They'll tell us that you can't make people care. They'll tell us that one day when we're older we may understand," he said. "But we know better and America knows better."
Just check Sasha Obama. When her dad asked her what she thought of her mother's speech, she answered, "I think she did good". She didn't stutter. Her little voice seemed rich with pride, but also a little bit of insouciance, even a little bit of sass, as if to say just give me a little bit and then you can ask me what mommy thinks of my speech.
Perhaps this election might simply be about making it good to be young again.
posted by Zentronix @ 12:49 AM
|
Previous posts
Vibe.com@DNC :: Day 0: De Colores
Vibe.com@DNC :: Obama Chooses
Hip Hop VP: A Q+A With Rosa Clemente
Scenes From An Uprising? Part 1
Obama Comes Home
Bakari Kitwana On Luda & Obama
Luda Could Use Some Education
National Hip-Hop Political Convention Opens
Throwback Friday :: Conspiracies & The X-Files Aft...
Obama's Award Tour
select * from pages where handle = "BlogLinks"
#content#
Archives
June 2002
July 2002
August 2002
September 2002
October 2002
November 2002
December 2002
January 2003
February 2003
March 2003
April 2003
May 2003
June 2003
July 2003
August 2003
September 2003
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
|
|
|
0 Comments:
Post a Comment