I just wanted to make one comment on the WaPo article and the wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King: that being able to envision your opponent's "better nature" allows him the opportunity to envision (and own) it for himself too. For people stuck in a bad crazy, that could be their first offer of help out, to have someone else see for them that they might be capable of good.

As for Lowery's sermon, it demonstrates one of the brilliant devices of the black preaching tradition-- expressing theology without demanding flat doctrinal belief. That subway story, for some folks, is just an example of bravery and morals. But a lot of Lowery's audience knows what else is dripping off of it symbolically-- someone falling into the depths, a savior going "down" into the danger and despair to rescue them. He doesn't say you must believe that "Christ was crazy" -- or that Christians who just want safety and security don't know Jesus-- but he's putting it right out there in front of the audience to accept or reject. And if you're not into the God stuff, cool-- it still gets its basic point across.

Allen Callahan's "The Talking Book" makes this point beautifully.

And yet, I have several black friends who cannot swim and are petrified to be around bodies of water. They could have learned as kids; most of them don't come from families that were too poor to arrange for swimming lessons. But their parents couldn't swim either, were afraid of water, and passed that fear on to their children. And now, some of them don't think it's important for their kids to learn.

I think everyone who's able should learn to swim, even if they're not very good. Because knowing how to swim rids you of that fear. And judging by your last sentence, you think losing the fear is important too.

It's about the hair for us. I can swim but I try to avoid pools like the plague. Too much work involving my hair.

Yes. And, we should also think about why we were so right. We should celebrate the people we know (and there are a lot of them) who don't fit the stereotypes and pundit narratives of this election campaign. Those of us who feel a part of a new generation of thinkers. It is important to acknowledge those voters from South Carolina and Iowa we were surprised by, but we must all remember the ones we weren't surprised by---US.

That's what YES WE CAN has meant to me...it's an embrace of sorts, and some of us have been here all along, wiating to be embraced. Make sense? Corny? Oh, well.

My wife is so white that even though she grew up in the ghetto, she can't dance -- and she can't swim either, and her mom was a life guard! (In rural Indiana.)

AND

sv.....don't emulate anyone, be YOUR kind of father. YOUR unique gifts are what your children will remember and cherish......you gotta trust me on this one.....

renegademom

Visit NYC (or any big city) and see us at the beaches and in the water. Visit any public pool, we are there. Although statistically, a large number of us cannot swim. Swimming was taught at my high school until they cut funding.

As someone mentioned up-thread, for some black women - it's a hair thing.

Personally, I can't stand chlorinated water. I see public pools as one big public toilet (childhood experiences). And beaches at the NJ Shore are so filthy they get closed down. Yuck.

i get your point which is set up and delivered with the lyrical style that you have mastered and that i find quite mesmerizing. however, when we talk about the great trust of king and obama for white folks i am missing something. i don't believe i remember king so much trusting whites as him believing he could use the gloved weapon of non-violence to literally beat the racism back to the caves. king engaged in warfare and he saw an ultimate victory over that racism. please don't make king and those who waged that war messianic believers. they were warriors; nothing short of that. their weapons of choice differed but they were weapons still. your position is analagous to saying that ghandi believed in the british. no, ghandi believed he could defeat the british. as to president elect obama, let's not forget so quickly that white votes for obama were in large part votes against bush and the awful conditions brought on by a totally inept and corrupt group of so called politicos. i have to believe that we would now be saluting president mccain if gm, ford and the banks were raking in the absurd profits that their buddies at the oil companies took home last quarter.

Here's a lil sum'in on Barack and the 9/11 Generation: http://newsone.blackplanet.com/nation/barack-obama-and-the-911-generation/