[Note: This diary was written in the immediate aftermath of Obama's Philadelphia speech on race, "A More Perfect Union."]
In the fall of 2000, as a second-year student at the University of Chicago Law School, I was one of about twenty students in a seminar called "Current Issues in Racism and the Law," taught by Professor (and then-state senator) Barack Obama.
It was my favorite class, and Obama my favorite professor, in my three years in Chicago. Obviously it's been exciting tracking the ol' prof since then (I can proudly say that I attended the now-famous "I'm against dumb wars" speech in person in 2002, and I was not one of the many Democrats "caught by surprise" by the power of the 2004 convention keynote address). The Speech today, though, has sent me back to my notes from my class in 2000.
Of course I was aware--more from the 2002 experience than the seminar, really--that Obama has an enormous talent for inspiring people; that's hardly news. But what was so exciting to me this morning was that the Obama of today's speech was the one who taught that seminar at the end of 2000.
Both the class and "A More Perfect Union" started at the beginning--with the "original sin" of slavery. Our class wound through the Constitution, the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1783 and 1850, the arguments of Frederick Douglass, and on to Dred Scott v. Sandford and beyond. In the latter weeks of the quarter we concentrated much more on more contemporary issues--racial profiling, hate-crimes laws, slavery reparations, interracial adoption, electoral racism (and the mythical "Bradley Effect"), and so forth.
What was clear throughout the course was Professor Obama's constant impatience with simple and easy answers. I vividly remember his telling the class, in the first seminar session, that he'd be "disappointed" if "you finish this class and don't feel a little uncomfortable about affirmative action." (How many liberal professors say that in Session 1?) Week after week, on every argument made by the author of one of our readings or by one of us students, Professor Obama was constantly pushing us to take explicit note of the background context, to recognize the difficulties presented by complex details, and to understand as thoroughly as possible--as thoroughly, evidently, as he did--the differences in perspective and emphasis in the materials we addressed.
To a large extent, of course, that approach is just competent college/postgraduate education; a professor who settles for simple, easy answers from students generally isn't doing his or her job. But Obama brought something extra to the classroom, just as he has to the campaign: I don't think I'm any better at putting my finger on it than anyone else is, but two ingredients of the formula are his obvious intellectual heft and his passion and energy to effect change in our discourse (then in the classroom, now in America more broadly) regarding the issues we face. Then as now, Obama was constantly agitating for a smarter, more elevated conversation about the matters that divide us. Call me a fan, but I think he's succeeding.
It should perhaps go without saying that the name "Jeremiah Wright" never crossed anyone's lips in our seminar. (Given how much time Obama spent working in, and commuting back from, Springfield that fall, I have my doubts that he made it to church very frequently anyway.) Nor, so far as I can tell from my notes, did our teacher talk about his own background, other than to mention that he'd grown up in Hawaii. In short, the personal angle of today's speech wasn't something that came up in class.
But the approach was: the determined attempt to understand where we as Americans have come from and to be serious about asking hard questions regarding where we go from here. That was the Professor Barack Obama of "Current Issues in Racism and the Law," and it was the Senator Barack Obama of "A More Perfect Union." I--like so many others, it appears--am stunned that there is a candidate for the presidency who is capable of delivering (and gutsy enough to deliver) an address of this level of heft, seriousness, and hope.
I feel extraordinarily lucky to have had Barack Obama as a teacher, and I'll feel even better to have him as a President.
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UPDATE: Wow--thanks for the recs, folks. "My first time on the rec list!" is a cliche, but now I get to trot it out. Thank you for the kind comments.