Barack Obama: Givin' us plenty to talk about

I have never done this before: cared about a presidential election enough to write about and talk about my politics even though what I talk about, teach about and publish on is political and politicized in my university.

Since I specialize in African-American literary and cultural studies, these conversations and lectures are inherently politicized because they are centrally about race and grow out of the complicated and sometimes deeply-contested realities of being black in America, which is intricately connected to being white in America.

So at the invitation to offer commentary on this current political climate and how race figures into our current presidential discussions, I was both hesitant and curious about what I might say.

Beyond and including his provocative, relevant and timely speech last month, a kind of "State of the Union Address on the Status of American Race Relations," Sen. Obama is the catalyst for these current and exuberant discussions about race. Were these all white candidates, we would not be having these same textured and nuanced discussions we are now having. Questions about whether or not Obama is "black enough" because of his black-white biracial ancestry did not need to be talked about when Shirley Chisholm, Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, Sr. had their eyes on the prize of the U.S. presidency.

Even the personal, private and public responses to Obama's spiritual affiliation with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright have jump-started interesting and provocative discussions and public meditations on race as social construction, on race and faith, on race and history, on race and Christianity, and on politics and religion.

Obama has certainly given us plenty to talk about, much to think about, and a great deal to act upon in his global challenge to all Americans: "America can change. That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow."

Dealing with race and racial issues is certainly not new in contemporary America: the O.J. Simpson trial, Jena 6, the LA riots of 1992, the Jasper, Texas lynching. Still, talking honestly as we navigate the dangerous and murky terrain of political correctness in conversations about and thoughts on race feels new in this country. Even broadcast journalist and The View co-host Barbara Walters admits that Obama's March 18 address on Race at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia has somehow managed to create a space that allows for professions of personal vulnerability, a space more specifically where she feels that she has permission to speak about her thoughts on race in ways that she hadn't felt comfortable doing in the past.

Indeed, we entertain notions of race and are entertained by these notions when we witness the federal government's fiasco with Hurricane Katrina, we become increasingly uncomfortable with the replaying of Michael Richards's public meltdown attacks on black patrons during a comedy club routine, and Dog the Bounty Hunter's leaked phone message to his son about dating a black woman and the family's casual use of the "n-word."

So talking about race really isn't anything new. What's new is this moment in American history where we are being invited, even challenged, to come to the table to talk about race up close and personal, in the same way that W.E.B. DuBois beckoned us to ponder honestly on American race relations in The Souls of Black Folks (1903), his treatise after slavery ended and the nation was still divided along race lines: "The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color-line."

The presence of an Obama puts pressure on these ongoing discussions about race, discussions that are intensely personal and oftentimes painful. Witness Obama's public details about his white grandmother and the fact that he loved her despite her blatantly racist attitudes that clearly, on some level, included him in the mix.

We are talking about the painful histories that we share as Americans. We are talking about the issues that have divided this "one nation under God" - education, economics, patriotism, gender and religion - through the uncomfortable lens of race.

Here's another first for me: I have never contributed financially to a presidential campaign - until now. My small contribution to the Obama campaign signals what I hope will be new possibilities for this country. I'm having enlightening discussions with my teen daughter and my wife, both of whom are supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton. And my very perceptive teen daughter, Jasmine, reminds me that to support Clinton doesn't mean that she and her mother don't support Obama. Even this is a profoundly simple revelation for this exciting moment in our American history.

Beyond his agreed-upon eloquence, beyond assumptions about his being articulate, and beyond the photos of him costumed in Muslim attire, beyond even whether or not he wins the Democratic Party nomination, Sen. Barack Obama has given us plenty of important things to talk about! I know that these new discussions about race can move us forward, onward and into a new day.

Neal A. Lester is a professor and chair of the English Department at Arizona State University. He has lived in Ahwatukee Foothills for more than 10 years.