Barack Obama, today: “I can no more disown [Reverend Wright] than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.”
Barack Obama, at the Democratic debate on January 22:
OBAMA: I have to say that, you know, I would have to, you know, investigate more of Bill’s dancing abilities… (LAUGHTER) You know, and some of this other stuff before I accurately judge whether he was in fact a brother.
UPDATE: More than a few readers recall this 1993 comment from Jesse Jackson: “There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see someone white and feel relieved.”