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While race is a topic many politicians try to avoid, 

 has made that all but impossible. We've come to expect heartfelt memorial speeches after tragedies, but this week, something unusual happened: folks on both sides of the political aisle addressed the incidents in explicitly racial terms. Yes, they talked about prayer and unity and peace. But they also talked, in no uncertain terms, about racial injustice in America.



Three people in particular took the opportunity to dig into these issues: President Barack Obama, Republican Senator Tim Scott, and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

 at a memorial service for Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Michael Smith, and Lorne Ahrens, the police officers who were killed at last Thursday's protest in Dallas. He honored the sacrifice and courage of each officer, and insisted that despite violence and despair, "we are not as divided as we seem." But Obama also reflected on the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police, and called out how racism still afflicts the country:



Some folks were impressed that Obama took on the issue the way he did. Jason Johnson, the politics editor for The Root, told NPR's Renee Montagne that 

. "This was the memorial service for the five officers that were killed in Dallas. He didn't have to mention Alton Sterling. He didn't have to mention Philando Castile," Johnson said. While he doubted Obama's ability to diffuse the most extreme factions in the debate, he gave Obama credit for speaking of Castile and Sterling at the same time that he honored the officers who were killed. "The president's decision to connect those two events was incredibly courageous on his behalf, to say, look, these events are connected, and the lives of all of these people lost in this overall civil rights conflict are worth mentioning in this environment."
Jamil Smith of MTV News 

 with what he saw as Obama's attempt to please everyone was alienating a lot of people. "On the night before his Dallas eulogy, Obama 

 told a group of police association officials with whom he was meeting that the attack on the officers was a 'hate crime' and would've been prosecuted as such had the shooter survived," Smith wrote.


Smith acknowledges that Obama didn't reference the term "hate crime," directly in the Tuesday speech, but he still bristles at the idea.


Tim Scott is the sole African-American Republican member of the Senate, and someone who's been criticized in the past for 


In response to last week's violence, Scott prepared a three speech series that he delivered on the Senate floor. It was the second speech on Wednesday in the series that 

 for highlighting the "trust gap" between black communities and law enforcement. While Scott was adamant that Americans should be "thankful and supportive of all those officers do good," he also shared stories of the racial profiling that he, his friends and colleagues have faced at the hands of law enforcement — mentioning that he's been pulled over by police seven times in the course of a year while working as a public official.


Scott said he knows very few African-American men who haven't experienced this type of racial discrimination, "No matter their profession, no matter their income, no matter their disposition in life." He continued:

 that Scott has been talking about this for years. "Tim Scott spoke out against racial profiling. In 2002," Hunter wrote. "He was 36 then. He's now 50 and a United States Senator. And it's still happening."


Hunter added, "The importance of Scott's speech is not that he's saying anything others haven't. It's that he's a black Republican admired by many conservatives who's saying it. He's saying it to people who don't necessarily want to hear it."


Steve Benen, writing for MSNBC, echoed that sentiment. He 

 he is. "I think it's fair to say the relevance, impact, and reaction to remarks like these would be far different coming from a progressive African-American Democrat. Indeed, it's not hard to imagine what we'd hear, because so many of us have already internalized the dialog. Scott's remarks, if they were acknowledged at all, would be dismissed as 'divisive' paranoia that contributes to a 'war on police," Benen wrote.
And some Republican leaders were clearly listening. House Speaker Paul Ryan 

referenced Scott's speech in an interview

 with NPR's Steve Inskeep. Ryan said that he trusts the word of people of color who say they feel unsafe in encounters with police. "I do believe this is a problem because people are telling me it's a problem and I believe them," Ryan said. And 

, Marco Rubio called Scott's speech "moving and powerful."


Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks about race on Thursday.


Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, delivered a wide-ranging address at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., where Abraham Lincoln gave his "

" speech in 1858. In addition to covering economic inequality, gun control and other issues, she also 

. Clinton invoked Lincoln's memory throughout her remarks, 

 a country on the brink of war, with America's current political divisiveness. She also called for all Americans to listen to their fellow citizens, even when their stories are hard to hear.


 that "During previous speeches, Clinton tried to associate Republicans with the controversial Trump. But in Springfield, she attempted to navigate a finer point in making an appeal for unity regardless of political support." Garcia also wrote that Clinton "called for tough but necessary conversations to heal deep divisions across the nation following last week's fatal shootings."
But in an opinion piece for 

criticized Clinton's emphasis on conversation

 to address racism. "Narrow policy proposals may not have the emotional reach of a conversation, and in and of themselves they will not stop the next Philando Castile either," McWhorter wrote. "But they would do more for black America than any amount of formulaic dialogues, or exploring the subtle contours of whites' inner feelings about black people."
Stacey Patton, 

, was critical of Clinton's message more than her approach. "Clinton's call for everyone to 'do the work' to unite against hatred overlooks the fundamental fact that it's whites — and only whites — who must work to fix the racist structures in our society," Patton wrote. "While Clinton may not have intended it this way, what the message of unity winds up doing is blaming communities of color for failing to assimilate, rather than acknowledging that the very fabric of this nation is built upon a diabolical, calculated and constantly evolving system of racism."  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Social Issues

Leah Donnella

Author

Days of devastating events rooted in the tension between African-Americans and police prompt political leaders to speak frankly about bigotry and what they think should be done to stop it.

'Bias remains:' A week of strong words on race

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