Obama Speaks On Grace, Race In Pinckney Eulogy

At last, black foke got the speech that they've been waiting for.

In reality, it was always unrealistic for blacks to expect Barack Obama to survive two terms in office being the head Nigga in Charge, given the level of opposition that faced him from day one.  He's done his best to add a little Al Green and a significant ebonic drawl to his eloquent speaking, but his policies have left most left leaning blacks wondering if any politician is much different in the long run.

In reality, Obama has done so many good things for America that it is hard to accept them in the face of the things he didn't do that you were hoping for, whoever you might be. So he might not complete immigration during his 2 terms, and he hasn't championed the cause of racial equality, yet most rational thinking people realize that any good leader is probably pissing off everyone on an equal level.  So far, Obama has done this too well for his own good or for his own public opinion polls.

President Obama's greatest strength is in line with a quote of Rev. Clementa Pinckney that the president himself used during his eulogy of Pinckney.  The quote went as follows: "Around the south, we have a good understanding of history.  Unfortunately we don't often have a good understanding of each other's history".

Barack Obama not only recognizes the power of history, it seems to be a guiding force in each of his decisions and his speeches.  Because of a keen sense of history, Obama's done a great job at limiting the big errors that would have impeded his ability to accomplish so many big things. At the same time, he's seen as way to cautious by those who felt he was purposed to create a new history while blazing new trails. You will never be able to deliver your song if you can't find a way to get and stay on stage. That's what I took from MSNBC host Al Sharpton, who was able to recall a story in which the great James Brown told him that,(paraphrased) no matter what you do in life, fight like crazy to get on that stage.  But once you're there, you gotta sing.

Today Obama sang.  Well technically, he sang again, but this time it was different.

He sang amazing grace, but he hoped to remind the world of the power of grace.  Knock on wood, because it was probably grace that allowed Sasha and Malia to avoid the front row of a funeral as someone else eulogized their father while residing as president.  Had Obama assumed a posture of black power and retribution for the years of mistreatment, he might have shortened his tenure in Washington and on earth.  Until today, Barack Obama stayed far away from the raw truth of race in America, fearing no one wanted to really deal with it in the first place, so why make his wife a widower?

Today, he said it the way blacks have been trying to say it for so long that we started to sound like that proverbial wolf crying little boy.  It took one too many recorded killings of black people- including the recent loss of the Emmanuel 9- to free this president to point out the obvious.  Confederate flags don't cause deaths, but they might cause hiring managers to "give a call back to John instead of Jamal" as the president reminded us in his eulogy.

We've come a long way, but moments like these are divine blessings- grace if you will- to press further into the struggle of decency, or return to the status quo.  In this address, president Obama urged America to seize this opportunity to advance our conversations, but most importantly advance the cause of decency towards one to another.  Mother Emmanuel is a shining example of  what it means to give undeserved decency, or grace if you will, much like the kind that Mother Emmanuel extended to the same man that terrorized their church.

Through the death of these 9 people, the confederate flag will come down and president Obama was finally given the reason to be black without excuse.  No one could question the vulnerability that this act of terror caused, even to those who don't stay in church a little longer than normal.  If the black church is the spine of black people, it could very well be the spine of America given the role blacks have played in advancing the cause of freedom's flag. Today was another chance for black people to advance the cause of freedom in America
, and our president stood up.

Freedom has a flag already, and it isn't the one that sought to maintain slavery.  However courageous the effort of any soldier, some of them are enlisted in the wrong army and for the wrong cause.  The only guilt and shame any person should feel towards the error of their ancestors should come from the persistence in that error.  Confederate flags are the height of a persistent error masquerading as family pride, and any state that sponsors the confederate flag is trying to mask the insecurity of shame and guilt with immense pride, yet, at the expense of those who have been oppressed by this symbol, and at the expense of our actual flag which stands for freedom and unity and decency as a birthright for all.

Does The Flag Stand For Grace?

Today our president gave a passionate address about the importance of being unified and decent towards all American's after the Supreme Court invoked federal right's allowing same-sex couples to marry.  And then he flew to South Carolina to eulogize a young black community leader, slain as a political act of terror.  The grace to be free and honest about race and grace was given to Barack Hussein Obama today, and he did not waste the moments.