Sen. Barack Obama responded to his comments about his grandmother during a speech in Philadelphia by referring to her as a "typical white woman".
In his "A More Perfect Union" speech on race relations in Philadelphia on Mar. 18, Obama said that he was loyal to Rev. Jeremiah Wright's character despite disparaging comments he made in recent speeches.
"I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother," said Obama. "[She is] 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."
In an interview with Philadelphia's WIP 690 AM on Thursday, Obama attempted to clarify. "The point I was making was not that grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t," said Obama. "But she is a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know, you know, there’s a reaction that’s been bred in our experiences that don’t go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that’s just the nature of race in our society."
"We have to break through it," said Obama. "And what makes me optimistic is you see each generation feeling a little less like that, and that’s powerful stuff."
Ben LaBolt, an Obama spokesman, offered the following clarification: “Barack Obama said specifically that he didn’t believe his grandmother harbored any racial animosity but that her fears were understandable and typical of those often shared by her generation.”
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