The Editorial piece in the New York Times today began, ”There are moments – increasingly rare in risk-abhorrent modern campaigns – when politicians are called upon to bare their fundamental beliefs. In the best of these moments, the speaker does
not just salve the current political wound, but also illuminates larger, troubling issues that the nation is wrestling with.”

Obama’s speech on race delivered at Constitutional Hall in Philadelphia Tuesday was such a moment. He named what we have felt, have whispered, and have silently allowed to be the paradigms of our lives. He named the frustration I have felt as students compete for limited spots and he named the anger my black sisters have felt when white moms have assumed their son has received admission because of a quota instead of ability.

The burning pundit question is “whether Obama’s speech reached the voters he needed to reach.” I want to believe that whom he reached was secondary. That what was primary was the fact that he had an unsought, unwanted opportunity to make visible what is often invisible and he took it.

And in taking that moment, that opportunity, I believe Obama showed us a little bit more about what hope and change looks like. It looks like taking a risk, standing on conviction, and engaging a hard issue honestly and forthrightly.

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