opinion/viewpoint
BY DERRICK BELL
Free at Last?
Obama takes us one step
closer to future hope
A
t this point, every aspect of Barack
Obama’s election and inauguration
has been covered like a heavy rain on
a parched landscape. His taking offi ce as the fi rst
black president is deemed a racial breakthrough.
And it is a unique moment, one even most civil rights
advocates thought would not occur in their lifetimes.
But the question that history, even fairly recent history, re-
quires that we ask: Is Obama’s elevation to the White House more than just another
unique moment when the fervent hopes of blacks coincide with the needs of whites
and other nonwhites?
In our celebrations, we should not confuse progress with fortuity as we have
while celebrating so many earlier unique moments that appeared to signal
signifi cant racial advances. Obama is enormously talented, ran a great campaign
and successfully conveyed that he could be the change the country wants and
needs. An important component of his victory, though, is that the country is
domestically in the worse shape since the Great Depression and in international
terms, as bad as it has ever been. In addition, the nation’s leadership over the last
eight years has simply been dreadful. Obama came along at just the right time.
A similar situation existed when Brown v. Board was decided in 1954. Again,
civil rights lawyers had worked diligently for 20 years to overturn the “separate
but equal” doctrine of racial segregation, but they made little headway until the
early 1950s when it became clear to national policy makers that the nation had
to improve its international and domestic racial image against communism that
appeared a threat both at home and abroad. The court’s decision, urged by the
Justice Department, was intended to improve our image abroad where we were
competing with communist nations for the hearts and minds of peoples of color
emerging from long years of colonial domination. And it served as reassurance
to blacks at home still living under segregation that our subordination, while long
ignored, had not been forgotten.
But when the force of fortuity gave way to the realities of racial subordination
and exploitation, opposition to meaningful racial reform was resisted loudly in the
South and more quietly but no less effectively in other parts of the country. Surely,
much has been done, but it is hard to deny that Dr. King’s cry, “Free at last,”
remains a future hope, not a present reality.
The comparison of 1954 and the years that followed with the Obama election
are not exact, but the similarities are certainly there. It remains to be seen
whether the old resistances to change, whether racial or economic, can be diluted
by an Obama whose leadership of the nation must prove as effective as that of
the campaign. But it behooves those who want his administration to succeed to
contribute as much effort and support to President Obama as they did to get him
into what is clearly the most challenging positions any president has ever faced.
Derrick Bell was the dean of the UO Law School from 1980 to 1985 and is currently a visiting professor at New
York University Law School . He came here from Harvard Law School where he was the fi rst black tenured law
professor and a teacher to President Barack Obama. As a young lawyer, he worked in the civil rights division
of the Justice Department in the late 1950s and on the legal team at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational
Fund. He was assigned to Mississippi in the midst of the civil rights movement.
letters
TO THE EDITOR
WALKER’S BLIND SPOT
Vicki Walker plans to log state forests.
Walker (state senator, 7th District) spoke
about her plans for the 2009 legislative
session on Jan. 8 at a North Eugene High
public meeting. She has positioned herself
on committees in order to provide revenue to
education by logging Oregon’s state forests.
She said she wants to cut ‘em, plant ‘em and
cut ‘em again. When asked by a colleague
if she would leave nothing, she said she
wouldn’t cut the tree in his backyard. She
said the environmentalists wouldn’t like it
but she wants to use all of Oregon’s natural
resources.
Sad to see a bright, accomplished person
with such a blind spot — the education
senator with an educational defi cit. Is she
really a person who doesn’t understand that
forests are not natural resources (just for
human exploitation) but natural ecosystems
that make life on Earth possible? So if one
cares about children and their future, why
would one so carelessly desecrate their
environment?
Maybe she’s using the trees-don’t-vote-
or-contribute-to-her-campaign
strategy.
It’s the all-too-common political coward’s
strategy. It’s too dangerous to make the case
to tax the rich (like we used to do), because
the rich will use their money to defeat you.
Looks like it’s up to us tree-huggers, some of
whom did contribute to and vote for her, to
let her know she has a bad idea. Write to sen.
vickiwalker@state.or.us
Jan Nelson
Crow
PARK THE RVS
The recent news on the struggles of the
local RV manufacturing industry reminds
me of a suggestion at a forum on the future of
transportation at Harris Hall. A person asked
the panel if it would be possible to retro-fi t
the RV industry to make rail cars. This is the
type of innovation that could keep people
working. For every billion dollars spent on
the rail industry, an estimated 30,000 jobs
4 JANUARY 22, 2009
EUGENE WEEKLY
are created. We also have the former Hynix
plant, which could be turned into a solar
panel manufacturing plant.
The truth is, with the recession, peak oil,
climate crisis, pollution, population growth
and species extinctions, we have to change our
way of life. One large component to change
is transportation. We need comprehensive
mass transit systems rather than building
more roads for individuals’ vehicles. The
days of “homes on wheels” is screeching to a
halt and the sooner the industry understands
this the better. The consumer culture cannot
continue. The recession is not going to go
away soon. We will more than likely see
many businesses close that offer items of
extravagance. Mass transit, farming, energy
conservation, alternative energy, (universal)
health care and truly sustainable forestry are
the sectors that will endure.
Keep in mind what Gandhi said: “There
is enough for everyone’s need, not everyone’s
greed.”
Take a walk in an old-growth forest
rather than a shopping mall to help get your
priorities straight.
Pam Driscoll
Dexter
SO WHAT HAPPENED?
Approximately three years ago (2/2/06),
EW published an excellent news article
about a far-reaching and speculative UO/city
of Eugene real estate development scheme.
It was written by Alan Pittman, and the
title was, “UO Eyes Franklin: Consultant’s
Proposal Would Mean Big Buildings.” For
reasons that are very unclear, the Weekly has
provided no updates on the implementation
of the redevelopment proposal for Fairmount
called the Farkas Report. UO Athletic
Director Pat Kilkenny donated $1.5 million
to create the report. The “urban village”
envisioned by the report has a price tag
of more than a billion dollars, and it looks
quite risky. I am going to list some of the
most important and revealing excerpts from
Pittman’s article here:
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