What a difference a phrasing makes
Obama’s eloquence is his safety net in this campaign. His essay on race (full text) articulates the difficult point that economic frustrations manifest as racism thoughout our history through to today. The first quote is from that speech. The second, from a newly controversial statement made last Sunday.
Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. … They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
The same sentiment from his stump speech (via NYTimes) but stated in a high-handed and even belittling manner:
So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
The latter statement, rightly, is generating significant criticism from both Clinton and McCain.
