NYPD's Ferocious Appetite for Black and Brown Men

[originally posted September 6, 2011 via Put On BLAST! ®]

Good morning,

This email blast was scheduled days ago, simply to remind my POB! subscribers about the upcoming court date for the Monumental 5 [www.monumental5.bucktownusa.com]. But the New York Police Department (NYPD) is at it again and I need to fold in the latest news from Brooklyn.

Yesterday (September 5, 2011) at the annual Caribbean Day Parade, NYPD showed again just how much it lusts for Black and Brown men. NYPD has a ferocious appetite  for arresting, detaining, and often times brutalizing men of color. They have made it clear that your class status, your education level, whether or not you're employed, what kind of people you socialize with, where you're from...none of that will protect you from their unprovoked attacks. In fact, as in the case of these two Black men: Jumanne Williams and Kristen John Foy , you can even be an elected official (Williams) and a public servant like Foy (who is the Director of Community Relations for NYC Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio) and you will still be targeted as a threat by NYPD. Only White men, it appears, escape the loathing of NYPD.

NYC Councilmember Williams and Mr. Foy were arrested yesterday at the parade as they tried to exit. They showed their city credentials to NYPD officers who were trying to block their path, credentials that are issued as proof of the position and stature they hold in the city they serve. None of that mattered. At least one of them was thrown to the ground and both were arrested and detained. The New York Times article includes video.

SIDE NOTE: Most media reports that I saw or read indicated that the men were "briefly detained." Perhaps that's the language given by NYPD, a poor attempt to clean up this ugly situation. It's not working. It's tantamount to saying the men were arrested a little.

So it's timely - as I remind POB! subscribers of the Monumental 5 court date [scroll down for details] - that I also reference the Williams/Foy incident as another case of police misconduct against Black men. It will serve as a teachable moment for some, for those who believe that NYPD only arrests people who "must have been doing something wrong." That is not the truth.

I'm told that Williams is holding a press conference this morning to make a statement about the arrests. Bill DeBlasio (who has shown consistent, pro-active support of the community work that activist, writer Kevin Powell and I have done over the years) is calling for an investigation. All of that, and more, is needed in order for people of color to enjoy the peaceful, safe environment that we deserve, and that we pay for with our tax dollars. There is no way for New York to be safe if only White people are the only group of people that NYPD respects. The police department must be held accountable for their misconduct, for the brutal and deadly force, and for the assumption they have that Black and Brown men are inherently dangerous.

To the beholden: I'm not lost on the fact that White people get arrested in NY and that some Black and Brown men are indeed dangerous, so save those counter-arguments. I'm addressing the fact that our communities are disproportionally under siege in New York City and it has everything to do with race. Consider these facts that community organizer Lumumba Bandele shared during our work for the Monumental 5:

"According to the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union]: In 2010 alone, NYPD officers made over half a million stops, 85 percent of which targeted people of color. The reason given by NYPD for what are called "stop-and-frisk" activities were guns. In all of these cases, however, less than 0.2 percent of "stop-and-frisk" resulted in guns being found. According to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund: Blacks and Latinos represent over 90% of all citywide trespass arrests on NYCHA [New York City Housing Authority] property although we make up only 54% of the New York City population."

Read the full statement HERE

During a recent community gathering for the Monumental 5, I addressed a common question you may have asked yourself: "Why do the police terrorize our communities?" The sober answer is "Because they can." But it doesn't have to be this way. Organizations such as the People's Justice Coalition and their Cop Watch program give us concrete examples of what we can do, legally, to let NYPD know that they will not always get away with misconduct and brutal behavior. I strongly encourage you to watch the video below from that event (see part 2 featuring Linda Tigani of Cop Watch, below). It gives insights into how we can create a "culture of observation" against the NYPD. Learn more about that coalition and the organizations that are a part of it at www.PeoplesJustice.org

 

The only thing we know for sure in this life is that we will one day die. In the meantime, I hope we live in peace. We have a right to and must fight for the peaceful living we deserve.

Get in where you fit in!

April R. Silver

Social Entrepreneur, Activist, Writer/Editor

Founder and President, AKILA WORKSONGS, Inc. (est. 1993)

Home of Put On BLAST! ®

www.AKILAWORKSONGS.com

Rev. Al Sharpton and April R. Silver Endorse Rhymefest for Alderman

"We are asking them to get involved and give back.  Che is doing that. I am here today because I support Che "Rhymefest" Smith. If he was a negative force, I would not be here today.” 

~ Rev. Al Sharpton

"Hip hop culture at its best teaches us love of self, love of family, and love of community. It teaches us to be pro-active and to ignite positive change. Che "Rhymefest" Smith's run for Chicago's 20th Ward Alderman is a great symbol of hip hop as a tool for change.

His candidacy also represents the kind of dedication we all should have to our communities. What I respect most about Smith is that when he got 'sick and tired of being sick and tired' of the injustices in his community he decided to do something about it. He didn't get stuck complaining, or being apathetic, and or being indifferent. He decided to stand up and give of himself. I applaud him for that and I encourage people to support his important campaign in any way that they can."

~ April R. Silver
Editor of the anthology Be a Father to Your Child: Real Talk from Black Men on Family, Love, and Fatherhood (featuring Che "Rhymefest" Smith)

The run-off election is Tuesday, April 5, 2011.

Please vote. For more information, please visit www.FriendsOfRhymefest.com

A Fundraiser for RAS BARAKA

Let's Go HU!



The "HU for RAS BARAKA" Committee
(Matt Middleton, April R. Silver, Kamal Harris,
Christa Miller, and The Legendary Chris Washington)
invites you to the

BIGGEST FUNDRAISER TO DATE!
SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 2010
6:30pm - 9:30pm

SEVENTEEN BELOW
Restaurant and Lounge
2163 Frederick Douglass Blvd.
Harlem, NY 10026
(between 116th & 117th Streets)

Ras Baraka is Running for Office in Newark, NJ (South Ward Councilman). So if you remember The '89 Protest, The Rooftop, The Cultural Initiative/Hip Hop Conference, HUSA, The (old) Punchout, The Yard, and many other memories, then you need to be at SEVENTEEN BELOW to support Ras. And You Need To Bring CASH!! *

Join us for Great Music • Hors d'oeuvres • Drink Specials • Good People, and a Great Cause!

Suggested Donation: $50
To buy your "HU for RAS BARAKA" $50 event ticket, CLICK HERE
or pay at the door. If you can *not* attend, please donate online at www.rasbaraka.com. For more information, call 718.756.8501 or email pr@akilaworksongs.com

www.rasbaraka2010.com • www.seventeenb.com

Election Day is Tuesday, May 11, 2010!

* Non-Howardites welcome :-)

President Obama on HBCU's

"Help Haiti" Fundraiser (The Video)

Across the globe, the international community is standing up to support Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquakes and aftershocks that nearly devastated the island nation. Neighboring and related Caribbean and African countries, as well as other governments throughout the world, are taking extraordinary measures to dem...onstrate its genuine concern. For example, Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade is offering free land to the people of Haiti.

And on an individual level, both adults and children all over the world are donating money, supplies, and skills to help alleviate this phenomenal crisis.

About two weeks after the earthquake shook Haiti at its core (January 12, 2010), a handful of ordinary people motivated by pure compassion, pooled their resources for this support movement. Nearly 100 people organized, hosted, and promoted the “Help Haiti” fundraiser in New York City on January 21. With less than 48 hours advance notice, the event promotion went viral and over $10,000 was raised at the event.

The “Help Haiti” fundraiser was an extension of the “Help Haiti” resource document created by Kevin Powell and April R. Silver. This video (conceived, produced, and directed by Byron Hurt of God Bless the Child Productions) gives a glimpse of why this work is needed. It also reveals “under the radar” perspectives not regularly seen in mass media in the conversation about Haiti.

For more information, please visit www.HelpHaitiOnline.org

For the love of Aiyti,
April R. Silver
Co-Founder, HelpHaitiOnline.org
Founder and President, AKILA WORKSONGS, Inc.
www.akilaworksongs.com

Dr. King Predicts a Black President (1964 Interview)

"Children on Medicad More Likely to Get Antipyschotic Drugs"

Today on the WBAI weekly segment that I do (with regular commentator STACEY PATTON and host ESTER ARMAH), we discussed a New York Times article that recently posted. Find it here.

The article "Poor Children Likelier to Get Antipsychotics" immediately reminded me of what happened in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1932. 400 Black sharecroppers, who were diagnosed with syphilis, were left untreated, purposefully. The US Health Service, a government agency, was sponsoring an experiment. The point was to see how this disease affected Black people versus White people. It called for ignoring the disease amongst these Black patients. The horrendous example was uncovered 4o years later in 1972. A law student brought it to light and shared it with the Associated Press. James Jones wrote a book about the experiment, entitled "Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment."

Just a few years ago, Harriet Washington wrote a book that expanded the conversation on how racism shows up to torment Black people in the areas of health. That book, "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present" is not one that I've read yet, but the reviews are outstanding.

What's peculiar, we discussed today, is that the article did not race, only class. Who do you think the writer was discussing when he opened up the article with:

"New federally financed drug research reveals a stark disparity: children covered by Medicaid are given powerful antipsychotic medicines at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance. And the Medicaid children are more likely to receive the drugs for less severe conditions than their middle-class counterparts, the data shows."

Who?

It's Still Imperialism, Mr. President

I've been away from the news for a few days. Feels unnatural. I'm catching up now. I'm learning of Pres. Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. I wish President Obama was a different kind of president. I really do.

I am angry that I'm being reminded of why I didn't want Obama to run for office in the first place, in my pre-Iowa days. I didn't want him to be the kind of person who actually desired to preside over this mess....not this. By default, such a desire meant that Barack Obama was one of them.

I am who Obama often talks about. He would call me a cynic. I disagree. I am simply analytical and my lens is different. For example, one of the first thoughts that comes to mind when I contemplate the Office of the Presidency for these United States (and the foreign policy that comes from that lineage) is that that office is drenched in blood. Entire countries all over the world have been economically under-developed in the name "spreading democracy." A few flips through Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" will substantiate that. Yet in after-dinner addresses to American audiences, presidents often attempt to persuade people that wars are fought in order to spread democracy, secure the safety of our children, and to make the world a better place for generations to come. Presidents talk about global friendships, mutual interests, and opening markets so that the world can prosper together. Last night, President Obama talked about all this and more. And the more he talked, the more he affirmed his commitment to imperialism.

Obama's imperialism is way smooth, though. A student of history, a master of language, with charm to boot, our president propped up the opposing arguments and attempted to cut off the peace-makers' charge at the gate. He said, quite emphatically "We have no interest in occupying your [the Afghans'] country...And we will seek a partnership with Afghanistan grounded in mutual respect...[and we will] forge a lasting friendship in which America is your partner, and never your patron."

Very excellent speech writing, though not believable. The United States prides itself on being the center of the world and everybody's "Big Poppa." That's not going to reverse itself simply.

And the President refuses to believe, he said, that we can not get re-united around Afghanistan. It is where Osama Bin Laden planned the attacks against us in 2001. Now is the time for us to remember that, he charged. But in listening to the troop surge speech, I am reminded of how non-essential Osama Bin Laden actually seems in this entire equation. Despite his statements, even my elementary study of history says that the war in Afghanistan is more about nation-building and 21st century chest thumping than anything else.

In eleven months, President Obama can not revolutionize the Office of the Presidency. I'm not convinced - no matter how powerful my emotions are around having the first Black president, a superwoman as the First Lady, their adorable children, and the pitch-Black dog named Bo - that the 44th president is, all of a sudden, not beholden to the insatiable imperialist forces that uniquely define American foreign policy.

What we have gained in the historic election of President Obama is a never-been-seen-before change in the guard, not a dismantling of the foundation. And I say this with great sensitivity to the fact that the gig is still new. I got it and I respect that greatly. Doesn't mean he couldn't opt out of Afghanistan, though. I believe our president when he said he didn't come to this decision lightly. I just think that Afghanistan is the impossible victory all over again.

The New Way Forward - The President's Address (re: Afghanistan)

"To Black Women" (An Excerpt)

"To Black Women"
An excerpt from "Invisible Women? A Black Woman’s Response to Don Imus Most Recent Sexist-Racist Remarks" By April R. Silver (April 9, 2007). Revised June 2009


When she reached adulthood, an enslaved African from long ago - Isabella Baumfree - changed her name. We know her now as Sojourner Truth. When Harriet Tubman fully grasped an understanding of the world in which she lived, she began to map out her own survival and that of her family larger community.

Both women, and others like them, were keenly aware of their unique skills, talents, and missions in life. They granted themselves permission to think, organize, speak, and lead. The weight of racism and sexism was ever present for them, but it did not immobile them. When they weren’t invited to help solve or speak about the problems of the day, they crashed the party. They did not wait for any common man or any leader to encourage them to stand up for their right to be free and live well. Tubman, for example, was one of the first social entrepreneurs in our ancestral line. She owned 27 acres of land in upstate New York. She acquired it and other properties so that she could establish safe havens for her family and her community. Truth and Tubman are sacred models of woman leadership, a legacy of power that is our ancestral inheritance.

Though from over a hundred years ago, the examples are relevant today. But we need not dig so far in time to be encouraged and ignited. Fast forward to the 20th and 21st centuries. We have modern models of leadership that range from Camille Yarbrough and Sonia Sanchez to Fannie Lou Hamer and Shirley Chisholm, to countless others. And there are millions of unrecognized Black women who have made a hard decision to combat hate, whenever it emerges.

Ignorance can be combated in various ways. If you are a writer, write on our behalf. Let some of your stories be about helping us heal from this often loveless world. If you are a performer, then dance with us, sing about us…more. If you are an organizer, then embed fairness amongst men and women in everything that you do. And if you are without a means to support yourself at any given time, or without a loving partner to ease the burdens of the day, keep pushing anyway. Never mind about finding fault, “find another way,” as my mother says. In every single aspect of our lives, we must be self-permitted to tell the truth about our lives and stories that shape them. Somebody, quite naturally, is going to be offended in the process. Invariably, someone is going to tell us how wrong we are for focusing on our lives and our stories. But we get to tell the truth regardless of who is offended or is made uncomfortable.

And I strongly believe that we should partner with Black men and anyone else who stands in support of our truth-telling. The battle for the respect of Black women, however, is ours to lead.

"The Myth of the Happy Slave" and 6 Other Comments on The Senate's Apology for Slavery

Earlier this morning, the weekly media panel on WBAI's "Wake Up Call" (which featured regulars Stacy Patton and April R. Silver and this week, guests Chole and Hilary Crossley) was asked to dissect and comment on an article about The Senate's apology for slavery. The Washington Post article can be found on this site (scroll down to see the "Senate Apologies for Slavery" entry for June 23). This was a good find by Esther Armah, host and moderator of the media panel. The article triggered a lot for me. My initial thoughts:

1. The article used the word "slave." Que my regular song and dance routine: "Stop calling Black people "slaves!" Enslaved Africans is more precise. To call someone a "slave" directs attention away from and subtly absolves oppressors and thieves.

2. A 21st century government apology for the enslavement of Africans during the 16th and 17th century is a wonderful, polite, and richly grand example of what it means to be ignorant of (a) the traumatizing, generational affects of this once legal institution, and (b) how to heal those wounds.

3. When this so called "peculiar institution" was legal in this country, there emerged a perspective that enslaved Africans were actually happy with the overall treatment they received from those that enslaved them. These "slaves," it was promoted, were grateful for the food, the shelter, the health care, the time off at sundown, and the fact that Ol' Master was, for the most part, a fair and principled, God-fearing man. Why, he only issued beatings to niggas that tried to escape from the plantation. But to those niggas that minded their business, did what they were told, and didn't cause no trouble...well then, slavery time was good living!


4. It's the happy niggas that will accept an apology without restitution. Who does that? There are laws of nature that don't support this lack of reciprocity.

5. What are the determining factors - political and philosophical - that guide a government's stance when said government decides to offer one race or class of "harmed" people an apology, while offering another race or class an apology and economic reparations?

This question is raised when I contemplate the following: In 1988, President Ronald Regan issued a formal apology to Japanese Americans who were held in concentration camps during World War II. That same year, congress passed legislation that awarded formal payments of $20,000 to each of the survivors of those camps (estimated at 60,000 people). That year, the Canadian government also issued formal apologies to Japanese Canadian survivors. They were each paid a sum of $21,000 Canadian dollars. The Japanese Reparations Movement lasted from 1945 (the year the last government ordered interment camp was closed) to 1988...forty-three years (one lifetime). Fast forward to 2009. There are no reparations for the indigenous people of this country nor the children of ex-slaves - both representing races and classes of "harmed" people.

6. In this morning's discussion on WBAI, Stacey Patton inserted an excellent point that people often forget: Reparations is bigger than mere financial repayment. There must be some accountability, for example, for the land that was stolen from African Americans during the times surrounding slavery, including the Jim Crow era. Her point reminded me of this excellent film by MARCO WILLIAMS, Banished: American Ethnic Cleansing. This documentary makes the case for reparations in a way that only a film can.


7. I believe in reparations and the fighter in me won't let injustices and crimes go unchecked. Still I ask: What would a repaired relationship look like between the descendants of those who benefited from slavery and those that who did not? What if the United States government issued, to every African American, for example, a hefty check, a sizable piece of land, free tuition, free rent or waived mortgage's for a year, free health care for the family for a year, a decent paying job and/or or job training...all wrapped up in a pretty bow with an apology from President Obama, and what if the government did that today...what would I do?

Be critical.

The fact is, there not an altruistic fiber in the fabric that makes up the American government. Not one. It is an institution that may best be characterized as a sheep in wolf's clothing. If it were a "he" he'd be a clean-cut Goliath holding olive branches with honey dripping from his lips. If "he" packaged all these things in one gift, I'd not let down my slingshot.

As with a physically and psychologically abusive husband who attempts to bait his abused wife with shiny trinkets, the relationship can not be repaired with things. Maybe it would take a few centuries for me to be convinced that the monster has morphed into someone I can trust.

"Senate Backs Apology for Slavery"

[The following news article was one of the topics of discussion for the weekly media panel on WBAI Radio's "Wake Up Call," conceived and hosted by ESTHER ARMAH and featuring regulars STACEY PATTON and APRIL R. SILVER. Click the post title above to get the link to the article.]


"Senate Backs Apology for Slavery. Resolution Specifies That It Cannot Be Used in Reparations Cases"
By Krissah Thompson, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, June 19, 2009

The Senate unanimously passed a resolution yesterday apologizing for slavery, making way for a joint congressional resolution and the latest attempt by the federal government to take responsibility for 2 1/2 centuries of slavery.

"You wonder why we didn't do it 100 years ago," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), lead sponsor of the resolution, said after the unanimous-consent vote. "It is important to have a collective response to a collective injustice."

The Senate's apology follows a similar apology passed last year by the House. One key difference is that the Senate version explicitly deals with the long-simmering issue of whether slavery descendants are entitled to reparations, saying that the resolution cannot be used in support of claims for restitution. The House is expected to revisit the issue next week to conform its resolution to the Senate version.

Harkin, who called the Senate's vote an "important and significant milestone," said he wanted the resolution passed yesterday to closely coincide with Juneteenth, a holiday first celebrated by former slaves to mark their emancipation.

This recent willingness to deal with the nation's difficult racial history has come about in part because of President Obama's election, said Rep. Stephen I. Cohen (D-Tenn.), who began pushing for an apology more than a decade ago when he was a state senator and pronounced himself "pleased" with the Senate vote.

Still, Cohen said, "there are going to be African Americans who think that [the apology] is not reparations, and it's not action, and there are going to be Caucasians who say, 'Get over it.' . . . I look at it as something that makes people think."

Even among proponents of a congressional apology, reaction to yesterday's vote was mixed. Carol M. Swain, a professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University who had pushed for the Bush administration to issue an apology, called the Democratic-controlled Senate's resolution "meaningless" since the party and federal government are led by a black president and black voters are closely aligned with the Democratic party.

"The Republican Party needed to do it," Swain said. "It would have shed that racist scab on the party."

Republicans, however, were supportive of the resolution. "It doesn't fix everything, but it does go a long way toward acknowledgment and moving us on to the next steps to building a more perfect union, doing the things that Martin Luther King would talk about, like building a colorblind society," said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.).

As with all congressional apologies -- but especially this one -- concerns about liability for restitution were part of the political calculations, in this case because of the long-running debate about whether the descendants of slaves should be compensated.

Charles Ogletree, the Harvard law professor who has championed restitution, was consulted on the Senate's resolution and supports it, but he said it is not a substitute for reparations. "That battle will be prolonged," he said.

Randall Robinson, author of "The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks," said he sees the Senate's apology as a "confession" that should lead to a next step of reparations. "Much is owed, and it is very quantifiable," he said. "It is owed as one would owe for any labor that one has not paid for, and until steps are taken in that direction we haven't accomplished anything."

Cohen said he and Harkin worked closely with the NAACP and other civil rights groups on language that would not endorse or preclude any future claims to reparations. "It will not harm reparations but won't give any standing to it," Cohen said.

Me and President Barack Obama? GTFOH!

The 44th President of the United States of America is supposed to be speaking at the National Father's Day Rally tomorrow...the same rally where I'm speaking (see June 18 post below). I heard that he couldn't wait to hear my remarks about "BE A FATHER TO YOUR CHILD," and its 24 amazing contributors!

No seriously, President Obama is supposed to speak on the segment after my segment. Just found out. Wow. Stay tuned.

If I had five minutes with the president, what would I say??

Watch "A More Perfect Union" by Barack Obama

Barack's Speech: A More Perfect Union

March 18, 2008 [previously published on Put On BLAST!]

For those who didn't get a chance to see Obama's speech today, "A More Perfect Union," I am forwarding to you the text...straight from the official website (click the title or the image below to get it directly).

I watched it in my office earlier and was blown away. A colleague and I could barely contain ourselves as we high-fived each other throughout the whole speech. It was one of the most intelligent speeches on race politics given in a LONG time. In my view, it demonstrated that Barack, contrary to popular chatter, is no lightweight when it comes to the complexities of race in this country.

Admittedly, when Obama announced last year, I was a bystander with some critiques. But for the record, I have never, evah, evah, evah liked the Clintons (Bill or Hillary) so a vote for Senator Clinton was never a consideration. But again, I wasn't particularly encouraged by Barack in this role as presidential candidate (though I've been a supporter for a while...pre-presidential campaign era). The institution that is the Office of the Presidency of the United State of America - and all that that seat is beholden to - is something I really didn't want Barack to want. That seat is governed by global corporate "interests" that diligently under-develop and cripple entire countries in ways that most of us just don't get. For him to aspire to that was off-putting.

Over the past several months, however, I have been cautiously swept away by the Barack phenomenon. I have donated to his campaign, have encouraged others to do the same, and I'm delighted at the possibility of being able to respectfully hold him accountable to his word. From the onset of this race, I started out the gate with "Eh...". From that to "WHOA..." Before today I was at "WOW! He can really do this. Go Barack!"

Today, I'm at.....DAY-YUM!!!!

Quite frankly, he surprised me. While I have long believed that Barack felt more strongly about race than he let on (and as I wrote back in 2004: his choice to marry a brown-skinned Black woman says ALOT about him...which I love), I didn't think he had the inclination to go as deep as he did today. I could not have predicted this depth. I was so very wrong! He did more to address and powerfully challenge the issue of race than the Clinton camp bargained for. In fact, Hilliary's "I'm Blacker than Barack" subtle strategy can now be laid to rest. It was shallow, manipulative, and quintessentially arrogant! And what was so masterful about "A More Perfect Union," was that it, at its core, was really NOT about this political campaign. It was more about a man who is absolutely refusing to expense his personal/spiritual and political groundings in exchange for the presidency. It was a bold, fully contextualized, secretly veiled intellectual beat down. I doubt we will ever see a more calm, graceful, reasoned, and loving ass-kicking in all our living days. I bet you the $5 in my pocket that Barack was listening to Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" before he went on stage today!

But enough of my commentary. Judge for yourself. The speech is below. Share your thoughts.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters....And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about...memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild."

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.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. 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.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American - and yes, conservative - notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen - is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today - a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

Learn more at www.barackobama.com.