General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsVideo Emerges of Obama in 1991 Rallying for Diversity at Harvard Law School
In the spring of 1991, Barack Obama, then the president of the Harvard Law Review, spoke at a rally in favor of Professor Derrick Bell and his push for greater diversity on the law school faculty, video footage that has been licensed by the website BuzzFeed from Boston television station WGBH:
The context of the video: Bell was the first black professor to sit on the law school faculty. As David Remnick wrote in his Obama biography The Bridge, Derrick Bell was, in Barack Obamas time, the most vivid symbol of racial politics at Harvard Law School In 1962, Bell helped James Meredith win admittance to the University of Mississippi
In the 1960s, Bell spent years trying to make the leap from a civil rights attorney to an academic, but he was never deemed good enough for tenure, until after Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated and law schools began taking action to change the composition of their all-white faculties. The dean of Harvard Law School promised Bell, Youll be the first, but not the last. But after two years on the faculty, he was still the only African-American, so Bell threatened to resign. As Remnick writes, For the next two decades he repeatedly threatened to resign in order to get Harvard to hire more African-American men and, eventually, women. My life, Bell said, is a living manifestation of taking no shit.
<snip>
Recalling Bell speaking to Harvard Law student, Obama with a now-familiar speaking style called Bell the Rosa Parks of legal education. Obama praised the excellence of his scholarship.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/video-emerges-of-obama-in-1991-rallying-for-diversity-at-harvard-law-school
I suggest reading this entire article so you are prepared for the racist RW clown show of nothingness.
BattyDem
(11,075 posts)How exactly is this supposed to bring down Obama?
Renew Deal
(81,897 posts)Maybe Obama did something extra crazy in the unedited version that Frontline didn't mention.
JHB
(37,166 posts)...while admitting he was born in Kenya, of course.
Jello Biafra
(439 posts)onenote
(42,829 posts)alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)Well played.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)So damning to Obama.
mucifer
(23,609 posts)Jello Biafra
(439 posts)cynatnite
(31,011 posts)From what I have read of it in the past, it wasn't well known, but has some criticisms. Supporters of it were called radicals by some.
I remember because it was briefly discussed in sociology.
This may be their intentions.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)Oh my goodness! Obama in favor of diversity! They've really got him now!
WTF? Are the Breitbardians even fucking serious with this?
Sanity Claws
(21,866 posts)Obama was a polished speaker as a young man. He had great pacing. His mannerisms seem to be the same too.
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)Impressive!