On March 18, 2008, Barak Obama delivered one of the great speeches on race, or any topic, in our nation's history. It's not unlikely that this speech will be remembered for years, perhaps even decades or longer as one of the defining political sermons of my generation. It is arguably so merited as to join the annals of great American oratory in the Library of Congress. (Take that, Mitt Romney's tour de force on Mormonism!)
Far be it for me to assail a man of Obama's background and credentials for taking the name of African Americans in vain. Yet the elegance, zeal, and, no doubt, sincerity, of his speech notwithstanding, what gives Obama the racial capital to mitigate Black Liberation Theology or pontificate on slavery's acrimonious legacy? Especially when he has far more credibility as a race-less candidate or, indeed, a Hawaiian one.
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