Think About This

On his trip to Ghana last weekend, President Obama delivered a well-received speech. He also gave an interview to CNN, in which he discussed slavery and its legacy, as the network is reporting today:

On his trip in Ghana, Obama said the nation and the world should never forget the scourge of slavery because it's still relevant in today's world.

"I think that the experience of slavery is like the experience of the Holocaust. I think it's one of those things you don't forget about. I think it is important that the way we think about it and the way it's taught is not one in which there's simply a victim and a victimizer, and that's the end of the story," he said.

"I think the way it has to be thought about, the reason it's relevant is because whether it's what's happening in Darfur or what's happening in the Congo or what's happening in too many places around the world--you know, the capacity for cruelty still exists."

"So trying to use these kinds of extraordinary moments to widen the lens and make sure that we're all reflecting on how we are treating each other, I think, is something I want my kids to think about and I want every child to think about."

This whole comment underscores one of the things that bothers us most about Obama. He says that slavery is "relevant" to today's humanitarian crises in places like Darfur and Congo. For the sake of argument, let's accept that this is true. What are we supposed to do?

Well, we're supposed to "never forget" slavery, to "think about it," to improve "the way it's taught," to "widen the lens," to "make sure we're all reflecting." Oh, and he wants "every child to think about" it.

By Obama's lights, then, it would seem that understanding slavery is important because it yields an endless supply of endless abstractions with which to respond ineffectually to contemporary humanitarian crises. While every child is thinking about this stuff, is the president of the United States doing anything?