PHILADELPHIA -- Sen. Barack Obama described his candidacy in the larger context of race in America in a speech today that mixed inspirational language with political damage control.

In the wake of the controversy over incendiary words from his longtime minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Mr. Obama sounded notes of compassion and confrontation on the racial attitudes of all Americans.

Speaking in Philadelphia's Constitution Center, Mr. Obama invoked the memory of the Founding Fathers: "The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through -- a part of our union that we have yet to perfect," he said.

"As William Faulkner once wrote, 'The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past,' " Mr. Obama said at another point as he offered a history of America's struggle with race, from the Founding Fathers' failure to resolve the problem of slavery, through Jim Crow and more recent efforts by politicians to capitalize on the racial attitudes of black and white Americans.

Mr. Obama reiterated his condemnation of the intolerant remarks of his longtime pastor, but he embraced him as well, with a portrait of a complex individual responsible for a wide array of good works.

"The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth -- by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS," Mr. Obama said.

He said that the Rev. Wright, who baptized his two daughters, is like family.

"He contains within him the contradictions -- the good and the bad -- of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother -- 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."

Mr. Obama spoke of the sometimes unstated anger of black Americans at a legacy of discrimination but added that a failure to speak openly on racial issues casts a shadow on white America as well.

"In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience -- as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

"Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism."

Mr. Obama said the fears and resentments on all sides had helped stall progress on common issues from health care to the economy. He said that until they are perceived as common problems, solutions would continue to be elusive.

While his speech was an often sober look at the nation's racial landscape, it was filled with hopeful notes as well. Noting his legacy as the son of a Kenyan father and white American mother, he said, "I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible," Mr. Obama said.

He said that the mistake of those who despair of racial progress, like Rev. Wright, is that they don't recognize that "this union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected."