Tonight on "Hardball," Chris Matthews asked Obama how it feels to be the son of a white mother, and Obama said, "We’re a melting pot." He went on to talk about all the mixed race individuals in his family, including his half-Indonesian sister. Some people in his family look like Margaret Thatcher, others like Bernie Mac. This background gives him a "broader perspective." Everyone really is the same. But our politics are worst when they are drawn "along tribal and ethnic lines."
Thirty years ago leading sociologists declared the melting pot model over. Human tribes were essential elements of our society; identity politics came in. A rabbi in Florida said to me last year, "Difference is good. We’ve gone from the melting pot to the
mosaic." It went too far. Mosaics are confining.
This is as much as anything why I’m for Obama. His wife seems to me to contradict the lesson at times–she’s so black–but I feel he’s on to a universal understanding of human rights and gifts. The effect on parochialisms is merely shattering.
