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Young Obama at Harvard: ‘Transform’ ‘Mean-Spirited’ America
Ironic Surrealism unearths a gem from 1990, when Barack Obama was a student at Harvard. In an interview with the Illinois Daily Herald, Obama laid down rhetoric that both he and his wife would strongly echo during their 2008 run for the presidency.
“There’s certainly racism here. There are certain burdens that are placed, more emotionally at this point than concretely,” Obama said.
“Professors may treat black students differently, sometimes by being, sort of, more dismissive, sometimes by being more, sort of, careful because they think, you know, they think that somehow we can’t cope in the classroom,” he said.
Obama sees the inner cities as the front lines of racism.
“It’s critical at this stage for people who want to see genuine change to focus locally. And it is crucial that we figure out how to rebuild the core of leadership and institutions in these communities,” he said.
For five years before law school, Obama took on that task in Chicago. As the director of a program that tried to bring South Side churches, unions and block associations together on projects, Obama was not trying to solve local problems, he said. Instead he sought to construct something more lasting — a forum for the community, “I’m interested in organizations, not movements, because movements dissipate and organizations don’t,” Obama said.
America suffered when the movements of the 1960s dissipated, he said. Those movements succeeded in raising doubts about harmful traditions of sexism and racism, but failed to offer a viable alternative.
“Hopefully, more and more people will begin to feel their story is somehow part of this larger story of how we’re going to reshape America in a way that is less mean-spirited and more generous,” Obama said.
“I mean, I really hope to be part of a transformation of this country.”And the future of black people and of America generally? “It depends on how good I do my job,” he said.
This is from May 1990. Obama had already ended his Chicago community organizer career to attend law school. Obama had just been elected president of the Harvard Law Review. But note his attitude toward his own professors at the very liberal university. He mind-reads them as racists without ever offering a shred of evidence that they were.
The “mean-spirited” line would work its way from Harvard to the national conversation when Michelle Obama told the New Yorker in 2008 that she believes America is a “downright mean” nation. And on the eve of his election, Barack Obama promised/threatened to carry out that “fundamental transformation” of America that first surfaces in the 1990 interview. His consistency in rhetoric and ideology over the years is remarkable.
Ironic Surrealism unearths a gem from 1990, when Barack Obama was a student at Harvard. In an interview with the Illinois Daily Herald, Obama laid down rhetoric that both he and his wife would strongly echo during their 2008 run for the presidency.
“There’s certainly racism here. There are certain burdens that are placed, more emotionally at this point than concretely,” Obama said.
“Professors may treat black students differently, sometimes by being, sort of, more dismissive, sometimes by being more, sort of, careful because they think, you know, they think that somehow we can’t cope in the classroom,” he said.
Obama sees the inner cities as the front lines of racism.
“It’s critical at this stage for people who want to see genuine change to focus locally. And it is crucial that we figure out how to rebuild the core of leadership and institutions in these communities,” he said.
For five years before law school, Obama took on that task in Chicago. As the director of a program that tried to bring South Side churches, unions and block associations together on projects, Obama was not trying to solve local problems, he said. Instead he sought to construct something more lasting — a forum for the community, “I’m interested in organizations, not movements, because movements dissipate and organizations don’t,” Obama said.
America suffered when the movements of the 1960s dissipated, he said. Those movements succeeded in raising doubts about harmful traditions of sexism and racism, but failed to offer a viable alternative.
“Hopefully, more and more people will begin to feel their story is somehow part of this larger story of how we’re going to reshape America in a way that is less mean-spirited and more generous,” Obama said.
“I mean, I really hope to be part of a transformation of this country.”And the future of black people and of America generally? “It depends on how good I do my job,” he said.
This is from May 1990. Obama had already ended his Chicago community organizer career to attend law school. Obama had just been elected president of the Harvard Law Review. But note his attitude toward his own professors at the very liberal university. He mind-reads them as racists without ever offering a shred of evidence that they were.
The “mean-spirited” line would work its way from Harvard to the national conversation when Michelle Obama told the New Yorker in 2008 that she believes America is a “downright mean” nation. And on the eve of his election, Barack Obama promised/threatened to carry out that “fundamental transformation” of America that first surfaces in the 1990 interview. His consistency in rhetoric and ideology over the years is remarkable.
