Charles Murray & the Obama Speech: A Rorschach test

image from kreativekell

The reactions to Obama's speech earlier today are sorta like a Rorschach inkblot test for folks in the civic discourse that flows through America.

Before you consume someone else's POV - do yourself and our country a favor - watch the whole thing.  It's 37 minutes - no body can be too busy to just digest some one else's pre-chewed ideas of this pivotal speech.

I must say I was..um..stunned to read this from Charles Murray at the National Review blog (called The Corner):

Has any other major American politician ever made a speech on race that comes even close to this one? As far as I'm concerned, it is just plain flat out brilliant—rhetorically, but also in capturing a lot of nuance about race in America. It is so far above the standard we're used to from our pols.

The name Charles Murray may not ring a bell - his book The Bell Curve may be something that is more in your memory.  Funded by the conservative American Enterprise Institute,  the book claimed that IQ tests revealed black people to be genetically less intelligent than whites, thus explaining their low place in society.   When published a little more than 10 years ago, Eric Alterman termed it "a kind of Rorschach test for pundits," with most major media outlets reviewing the book without questioning the accuracy of its contents.  Presented as the sober work of social scientists, there was only one problem:  none of Murray's insight was accurate.

If you want a sense of just how complex American politics can be, just how convuulted  the broader conversation about race can be - Murray's reaction to this speech is about as much a Rorschach test as you are gonna find.