Slavery: “...that particular birth defect...”

I'm continually amazed at the number of people who really hate Obama who say stuff like this:

...[W]hile it's important for whites to understand the racial experience of minorities, it's equally important for minorities to understand the impact that their violent outbursts have on white society, case in point, the L.A. Riots.

Yes. Well.

Let's stipulate that there's a history of "violent outbursts" on both sides, if you catch my drift. Do really you need me to list them out?

Both actions are real, have deadly consequences and need to be addressed in order for all groups to move forward.

Come on, people. Be honest. Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you read Obama's speech. What do you think he was saying in it? And really, now: who's better suited to lead the nation on this than he is?

I was intrigued by Condi Rice's comments on this recently. It didn't get a lot of play except as a context for Lou Dobbs referring to her as a "cotton picker:"

"Black Americans were a founding population," she said. "Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That's not a very pretty reality of our founding."

As a result, Miss Rice told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, "descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that."

"That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today," she said.

Here's the thing: if you're young or old, if you're married or not, if you have any kids or not, try to imagine this:

One of your children is born with a serious birth defect. How could you sleep at night knowing that your baby wasn't right, that your baby was in pain? Wouldn't you do everything you could to fix her and help her get better?

Now I realize that some white people generally believe we talk about this way too much and some blacks generally believe we don't talk about it enough. But come on: we're dealing with a birth defect. I'd rather err on the side of being too attentive to the problem than the opposite.

Wouldn't you?

Whatever you believe, Condi gets it right: this country was born with a crucial flaw and we "continue to see some of the effects of that." That defect must be corrected. No way to gloss over it. Not if we want to move forward as a nation into the future. And I believe that Obama is uniquely suited to provide that leadership -- by example, if nothing else.