I like to listen to NPR on the way to and from work, mostly because life is full, time is short and I’m persuaded of the aerobic benefits attached to shouting at the radio. I can usually count on a good workout whenever Robert Reich or Daniel Schorr do one of their little guest spots.
Juan Williams, however, is an inevitable let down. The guy’s smooth, knowledgeable and if he has even a nugget of personal political preference he hides it in his broadcasts so carefully that Mel Fisher himself would have a hard time finding it. I don’t get to shout at all.
He’s not just a prominent journalist of course – the African-American is also an author of several well-respected and popular books on race in America. Which is a tough combination to pull off. So it was interesting today, on the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination in Memphis to read what Williams had to say about the Barrack Obama candidacy, and what it means to our Republic. For those of us too young or distracted, he first reminds us how King challenged not only the dominant white culture, but how he challenged blacks as well:
While speaking to black people, King never condescended to offer Rev. Wright-style diatribes or conspiracy theories. He did not paint black people as victims. To the contrary, he spoke about black people as American patriots who believed in the democratic ideals of the country, in nonviolence and the Judeo-Christian ethic, even as they overcame slavery, discrimination and disadvantage. King challenged white America to do the same, to live up to their ideals and create racial unity. He challenged white Christians, asking them how they could treat their fellow black Christians as anything but brothers in Christ.
When King spoke about the racist past, he gloried in black people beating the odds to win equal rights by arming “ourselves with dignity and self-respect.” He expressed regret that some black leaders reveled in grievance, malice and self-indulgent anger in place of a focus on strong families, education and love of God. Even in the days before Congress passed civil rights laws, King spoke to black Americans about the pride that comes from “assuming primary responsibility” for achieving “first class citizenship.”
Jump to the link to find what Williams thinks of Obama’s contribution to our national dialogue on race, as well as a fitting reminder of the magnitude of the loss our nation suffered 40 years ago today.
Not normally given to agreeing with Juan Williams, however, I’d say he isn’t cutting Obama any slack. I would disagree about Obama being the best of any contemporary leader as Obama’s resume is way too short, way too liberal, and way too close to socialist for my tastes.
I like the closing line on that one.
Mr. Williams isn’t a person with whom I’ll always agree with, and he does occasionally make moronic statements on Fox, but I must say, when he talks about something he knows about, he does it justice.
He just has to make sure not to make up stuff in front of Brit again, or the hound dog might hurt him.
Juan Williams is a class act. As GeoSTI says above, I don’t always agree with him, but I DO respect the man. Even though Williams hasn’t endorsed either Dem candidate (yet), it isn’t hard to see where his sympathies lie if you’re a regular viewer of Brit Hume’s “Special Report”…which I am.
As for Obama: Feh.
In 1964 two young black officers joined our squadron. There were few black officers in in the Navy at that time.
All new officers in a squadron get a thorough vetting in the first few months of their tenure. These gents received a reception that was less than hearty. The general opinion seemed to be, “Hmm, this is interesting. Let’s see how they do.” Some may have expected them to fall on their faces but, if so, they were fated to be disappointed. It turned out they did their jobs very well. It wasn’t long before they were no longer those new black officers, but just squadron members like everyone else. No one gave a thought to their race.
To me that was a tremendous example of MLK’s exhortation to judge a person by the content of his character not the color of his skin.
That was 44 years ago. Things have not necessarily gotten better. It is terribly discouraging to me that some in the black community still don’t want to join the culture. It’s too white to get an education?? It’s being an Uncle Tom if you work in majority white professions?? It’s not being black enough if you have a wife and kids and a stable home life?? It’s also very discouraging that so many in the black community don’t want to hear what Bill Cosby, Thomas Sowell, and Juan Williams have to say to them. And even more discouraging that, if a white person says the same words, he/she is instantly branded a racist.
How nice it would be if we could see Obama as an ambitious politician who is an excellent speaker with a fine education and not notice the color of his skin. But we’re just not that evolved yet. Arrrgh, change is hard. Maybe this kerfuffle and some of the fall out will move the ball further down the field.
All that said, in spite of my admiration for Senator Obama’s personal and political skills, his socialist policies are not something I can support.
Lex, your comment that Juan Williams hides his political preference is very appropriate behavior for him.As noted in his bio he is a journalist and the difference between a journalist and a pundit/commentator is that one reports, the other gives opinions.
Williams tells it like it is, which is why the left can’t stand him.
“Long before the left-leaning journalist wrote “Enough,” a book with a decidedly conservative slant, Williams was considered a turncoat, his support for policies like affirmative action notwithstanding. One would assume that a man who penned “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965,” the companion volume to the award-winning PBS series of the same name, would be immune from such charges. But his conservative-like views on taboo issues leave him wide open for insults.”
Wiliams has popped up with his political preference more than once as I’ve observed.
However, check out the autobiography of Clarence Thomas. Thomas describes actions Williams took during the hearings that were risky, hard and honorable.
Williams did the right thing at the right time. I’ll listen to the man though I might not always agree.
[...] One example of this is in a post I wrote at CFLF. Another is here. [...]