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29 Apr 2008 01:03 pm

Now Sharpton Attacks Obama

This is getting interesting:

Barack Obama made a call for nonviolence in the aftermath of the Sean Bell verdict - infuriating the Rev. Al Sharpton, who accused the presidential candidate of trying to "grandstand in front of white people," sources told The Post.

I think that is part of Jeremiah Wright's view of Obama as well: he will never forgive him for winning so many white votes, and breaking the pattern and ideology of victimhood and marginalization that forged Wright's identity. This dynamic is very powerful in minority circles. In the gay world, for example, the younger generation faced enormous hostility at first in their desire for civil marriage. We were regarded as sell-outs, heterosexists, patriarchal fascists. I will never forget having a bookstore picketed by gay activists  on a book tour for "Virtually Normal." As integration deepens, the generation whose identity was created by separation can feel left behind, betrayed, and lash out ... at other members of the minority.

Obama is a nice, and empathetic guy. He may have moved beyond the old racial politics, but he understands the pain that brought African-Americans there. He is not inclined to condemn those people or cut them off (within the gay world, I've always been far less politic). But there comes a point at which the old school's attacks on him merit a response that can remind many what Obama's candidacy still represents. I hope open-minded conservatives can see this: between the cynicism of Clinton and the polarization of Sharpton, Obama's vision is a great one for his party and his country. He mustn't be sacrificed to the wolves of the past.

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