Beyond the color line

In the annals of American history, a watershed moment should come from "A More Perfect Union," Sen. Barack Obama's powerful speech linking 221 years of race relations.

The moment was inevitable. Obama's presidential candidacy has taken him closer to the White House than any African-American candidate before him. But controversy over incendiary remarks by his former pastor led Obama to the politically risky moment feared by every candidate — having to discuss race.To his credit, Obama used the opportunity to frame the conversation Americans need to have about race. The Illinois senator condemned the racially divisive tone of the sermons by his former spiritual adviser, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Admirably, Obama didn't toss out the man along with a smattering of rhetoric.

"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," Obama said during his speech Tuesday in Philadelphia.

Correctly, Obama sought to move beyond Wright's words to what they say about racial tensions lurking underneath America's biggest fault line. Obama's oratorical journey began with the still-prophetic words, "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union," and ended with an appeal to Americans to move beyond race by having the courage to get through it.

It is a call we should answer.

Two realities about race exist in this nation. The first is that many racial disparities impacting African Americans today can be directly traced to the legacy of slavery and segregation. The second, as Obama has said many times on the campaign trail, is that America is the only country on Earth in which his story is even possible. Twin messages of unity and hope.

Far from Obama's candidacy being hobbled by the controversy, the moment showed his courage and statesmanship, qualities that make him fit to lead the country.