Thank you for this deeply personal insight.  I enjoyed reading it - please continue to post some more diaries.

Ferraro's comment stands on it's own, not related to Rev Wrights comments. That said, to me it seemed Ferraro was resentful that Obama has gotten so much support.  "because he's black" seemed offensive to me and demeaning to Barack.  (and I'm a white guy)

I don't think either Ferraro or Wright are racists, but I think they are both affected by the racial struggles our country continues to suffer from.

One of Barack's points in this speech is exactly that.  

I have often wondered what the feelings of black women are in this election; their reasons for supporting Hillary or Obama, the emotional pull toward either or both candidates. I, too, am hopeful that people of all colors and creeds are coming together. I've seen it and experienced the melting pot. Yes, there can be tension, but there is also much understanding and friendship. It is getting better. This country is ready for a woman or a black president. The question will be is it ready for this woman or this black man to be president. Thank you for writing this and sharing your experience. Rec'ed.

Thinking things through and writing well are too rare these days. This is one hell of a good diary.

I very much appreciate your openness, both about your experiences as a black professional woman and as a Hillary Clinton supporter.  

I also very much appreciate your saying:

"It is an inherently fallacious argument to say that race and gender should not be a part of the election discourse when both candidates embody race and gender.

Would that the subject of gender draw the attention, in a positive way, that Sen. Obama was able to bring to the subject of race today.  

Do you have any thoughts on this ...again from your personal experience.  

that I identify so emotionally with the words of a diarist, but I did with yours.  As a gay man, I feel this same contradiction:

I happen to think that America is the best place on earth, but there are times when I do believe that it is with "liberty and justice for some."

I do confess to a bit of identity politics playing a role in my support for Hillary.  I see a bit of my struggle as a gay man in Hillary's struggle to be accepted as an exceptional politician and leader in her own right.  That said, what I most value in her is her experience, her pragmatic approach to politics, and her willingness to fight for what she believes in.

Lady Eagle...I really wish we could keep this discussion going someplace.  Unfortunately, thoughtfulness seems to disappear. Why not post
this on the new blog that has been set up
as a home for Hillary supporters who needed shelter from the storm on the larger blogs. This blog is an adjunct of Hillary's Voices...a group on Yahoo.

The group is here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HillarysVo ice/

The blog is here:

http://hillarysvoice.reclusiveleftist.co m/

psychodrew...you've added to the conversation in a way that would have never occurred to me.  

I was asked what I thought of Sen. Obama's speech. I think it was a very good speech that was done from the heart, but I do think I still question why he remained at that church for the length of time he did. His pastor was always controversial. The part I disagree was when he tried to equate the Gerry Ferraro issue with his own. That, in my opinion was totally disingenuous. Both are two totally different issues. One can argue that Ms. Ferraro could have said it better, but he had a twenty year relationship with this pastor. Apples and orange.

I don't think he equated them. In a literal sense, he did not; he equated their dismissal.

As far as twenty years - we're talking about a pastor with a 20 year history for community service and compassionate Christianity, who brought Obama to God. For all we know it could have been years before he first heard this controversy from Rev. Wright. By the time you're ingrained in a community like that... well, let's just say I think it would be fair to not condemn him for not severing ties and heading out. For two reasons: #1, an occasional wildly off-color moment doesn't subvert a long history of good; and #2, Obama feels like he knows where he's coming from. Heck, even Huckabee was sort of defending Wright, saying: Hey, if I'd been through that, Atticus Finch Walk a mile in my shoes, maybe I'd have a chip on my shoulder. It would probably be bigger.

I think Obama saw someone he considered to be a great but flawed man, and was willing to overlook the bad for the good. His speech said as much.

Ultimately, people can call into question Obama's "judgement", but it's only bad judgement if you agree with the premise that a politician should do everything for political reasons. That they have to be more than human, and be above it all. I'll accept Obama's humanity.

Not to say Hillary is a bad choice, and no one has any business giving you grief over it.

It was not a defense at all. If Obama wanted to "defend" Ferarro, he could have spoke up a week ago.

Very thoughtful diary. I especially agree with your insight:

At this time, it is much more acceptable to be prejudice and dismissive of women than it is to be dismissive of race. Some people tend to think that when women or anyone who support them point to misogynistic behavior, that it is whining or making excuses for some character flaw.

Highly recommended!

I think it's important to acknowledge actual prejudice and it's vestiges without becoming consumed with anger.

As a woman in a male dominated part ofthe legal profession I have met my fair share of prejudice, dismissiveness and demeaning comments over the years. I try to give most people the benefit of the doubt and don't choose to dwell on the negative.

These days, more and more of my friends families are becomng multi-racial and multi-cultural, through marriage, adoption etc. I know my own 10 yr. old twin sons have their long term best friend who is bi-racial and newer friends from Africa, Vietnam, Russia, China, etc. They and their peers seem like a truly colorblind generation. They are truly sensitive to people and not because of some guilt they feel but due to their natural inclinations. Time is a great healer. I'm sure there will always be people full of hate toward others because of whatever differences they can find but I don't think that will much longer be the norm or widely accepted in any way.

All that said, I guess my reaction to the speech was less positive. I vewed it as a calculated political move and damge control. I saw him equating his grandmother, Ferraro, Clinton supporters gaffes etc wiht the hate speech of his Rev. I don't buy it.

My lasting question involves how he going to heal America, take us to some ideal color blind place when he could not change the heart or mind of someone as close to him as the Rev. was. If Obama is such a post racial healer why is his own Reverand/spiritual advisor so full of racial hatred? If he couldn't "fix" him how is he going to fix the rest of us?

sermons - not because I don't know that racism (and sexism!) exist in this world, but I thought things were better.

I remember a time in my life when AAs weren't even allowed to drive a bus in Detroit - where I was born and raised.

Throughout my lifetime I have lived my life without prejudice toward anyone - and I have been richer for it - with AA acquaintances and business associates whom I have been proud to call friends and colleagues - and have been proud to see them succeed right along side of me and my family.

Rev. Wright's hatred was like a slap in my face.  I will recover (I know that I am not the "white" of whom he speaks), but I know it has hurt things in general and we will now have to work to recover the ground we had previously gained, before we move forward once again.

the pain does linger.   White women undergo pain every day as well.   At work it's being talked-over, it's being snickered at when she makes a perfectly good point but someone felt uncomfortable.   It's watching CNN cover Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan as though they were criminals (does anyone know that Keifer Sutherland spent weeks in jail for DUI?).  

And keep this in mind, women have nowhere to go to escape it.  They live among "the enemy" you might say.   Blacks can insulate themselves somewhat by forming their own communities, schools, universities, medical centers, and lives.   Black people in the south lead incredibly vibrant middle class lives in a partially separate universe.   This is not to say everything is great for blacks.  It is not.  But these issues are not limited to the black community.  Hispanics suffer as well.  As do poor whites who are stereotyped for their speech patterns.  

It's terribly sad that this campaign has turned into a "blacks" versus "women" thing.  

Thank you for the nice perspective and thank you for speaking up! It seems that people cannot talk about Obama without being labeled as racist.  I wonder what all of you think about this article on WSJ by Shelby Steele?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12057953 5818243439.html?mod=opinion_main_comment aries

But bargainers have an Achilles heel. They succeed as conduits of white innocence only as long as they are largely invisible as complex human beings. They hope to become icons that can be identified with rather than seen, and their individual complexity gets in the way of this. So bargainers are always laboring to stay invisible. (We don't know the real politics or convictions of Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan or Oprah Winfrey, bargainers all.) Mr. Obama has said of himself, "I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views . . ." And so, human visibility is Mr. Obama's Achilles heel. If we see the real man, his contradictions and bents of character, he will be ruined as an icon, as a "blank screen."

Thus, nothing could be more dangerous to Mr. Obama's political aspirations than the revelation that he, the son of a white woman, sat Sunday after Sunday -- for 20 years -- in an Afrocentric, black nationalist church in which his own mother, not to mention other whites, could never feel comfortable. His pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is a challenger who goes far past Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in his anti-American outrage ("God damn America").

How does one "transcend" race in this church? The fact is that Barack Obama has fellow-traveled with a hate-filled, anti-American black nationalism all his adult life, failing to stand and challenge an ideology that would have no place for his own mother. And what portent of presidential judgment is it to have exposed his two daughters for their entire lives to what is, at the very least, a subtext of anti-white vitriol?

What could he have been thinking? Of course he wasn't thinking. He was driven by insecurity, by a need to "be black" despite his biracial background. And so fellow-traveling with a little race hatred seemed a small price to pay for a more secure racial identity. And anyway, wasn't this hatred more rhetorical than real?

I wanted to write a diary asking the same question about transcending racial barrier, but couldn't find the time.  Sorry if I hijack your diary, but it seems that we have the similar questions about Mr. Obama.

even if we disagree on some points.

Canvassing for Senator Obama in Oakland taught me that there are many African American voters, in particular women who've been active in the party, who support Hillary Clinton. I see this day to day among friends of all backgrounds.

A monolithic view about which candidate someone supports based on their appearance is not respectful of the democratic process or of each other.

I think there's a double standard, however, in how the comments of Pastor Wright have been treated in the media, and I think we Democrats, because of our fractured primary, have not shown the unity we could have.

The right-wing's goal is to divide us. (Some day's it seems we do a pretty good job of doing that ourselves.) Whether it is membership in a church or an organization like La Raza, that kind of attack is going to be used repeatedly against our candidates.

Should candidates now go to churches thinking about how where they pray is going to be used against them? It appears so.

But the fact is, a preacher is less likely to say anything at all addressing race in America if their congregation's daily experiences don't involve the direct experience of racism and bigotry.

I don't see many Democrats pointing that out, but we should be.

Great diary, thanks.

Just to let you know there are other circles where being a Hillary supporter is suspect:

I am a 55 yr old white college-educated progressive woman  who has almost lost friends over this election--many of the people I know are for Obama. We've decided not to talk politics until after the Dem convention. My parents (in their late 80s) are for Hillary; my brothers are for Obama.

Isn't sad that in a year where we should be celebrating the best of who we are and the best of what we have, and all the talk of unity and experience from both sides, we are tearing each other apart, family by family and friend by friend?

It is extremely distressing that I have to make choices between my candidate and my friends. Some of them are people whom I have known for years. What is so funny is that this has expanded my associates base. I never wrote a dairy until after Iowa when extreme loneliness hit me within parts of my circle. I then moved from site to site. Most times I read comments for a while before I even attempted to post any comments. It wasn't long before I understood that there were places where neither my views or I were welcomed.

Finally, I found MyDD and I have felt like family. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to express myself in such an honest way.

I'm a white male with Asian partner.  Seeing through her eyes, I saw a lot of racism that she has to endure both due to her gender and race.  

Due to her culture, she was used to take it quietly and afraid to "make a scene".  But I encouraged her to make a stand.  I'll speak up if I'm there.  But when I'm not there, she need to learn to defend herself.  She's learning and doing better.

I even had to pull my sister aside on one occasion and speak to her.  My sister was just insensitive.  But the point is, we need to make a stand and talk about race and gender.  If we keep quite, people who made those remarks would think that it is acceptable.

Obama should have walked out or spoken to Wright.  To stay quite is to accept the hate speech.  

It really is upsetting  that I feel compelled to "hide" from my Obama friends.  

I think that your statement earlier about some women being unable to deal with another woman's success is so true.  Shortly before she was assasinated, I read an article about Benizar Bhutto who said that her worst critics were successful women.  I think of these comments when I think of those friends.  

I keep fighting off sending them articles because I know for sure I wouldn't appreciate articles that tried to persuade me to change my mind about supporting Hillary.

And we've got five long months perhaps to continue in this mode.