This is the speech we’ve been waiting for
By ANTHEA BUTLER

President Obama’s surprise remarks Friday about Trayvon Martin, race in America and the Zimmerman trial will be remembered far longer than his “race” speech in March 2008 in Philadelphia.

That speech, entitled “A More Perfect Union,” was then-candidate Obama’s way of giving a broader perspective to the uproar surrounding his former pastor, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and his infamous “God Damn America” sermon. That address was designed to tamp down anger, and bring his constituencies together, and — most important of all — keep his lead in the Democratic primary. This speech was different: far more personal, far more raw, and ultimately, far more resonant.

Until today, the president had said remarkably little about race – his commentary on the matter had mainly come in the form of off-the-cuff comments or the “Beer Summit” with Harvard University’s Henry Louis Gates. But the latter was a political bust, and since then, the president has been extremely risk-averse in addressing the issue — so much so that he has arguably mentioned race the least of any Democratic president in memory.

Why weigh in now, then? Obama’s remarks, in which he again invoked the phrase “a more perfect union,” are an obvious recognition of the anger, hurt, and dismay felt by many in the African-American community and beyond about the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. Even a few days late, the president’s comments are as a much-appreciated coda to the 2008 race speech, especially since he acknowledged that we are not in a “post-racial” society – an observation that will certainly infuriate those who wished that many people would just stop talking about race, because to talk about race is racist. That circular thinking is exactly why the president’s comments matter.

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Full article here: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/opinion-anthea-butler-barack-obama-speech-94501.html