Is Being Biracial an Advantage for Obama?

"We have to encourage people to at once remember the past but also be open to a different future, rather than live in a reactive stance to what's happened to them," said Walker, whose father is white and Jewish and whose mother is black.

"The trick is how to hold on and be in conversation about the wound and how to at once be open to a new language and a new configuration that we haven't seen yet," Walker said.

An Appeal to White Guilt?

Steele, however, identifies himself as a black man, not as biracial. He says Obama's physical appearance prevents him from truly experiencing what it would be like to live as a white man.

"How would it be possible to live as a white person?" said Steele. "Nobody would see him that way."

He contends Tuesday's speech was meant only to appeal to race-based guilt felt by many white constituents -- a guilt that may be partly responsible for Obama's surge toward the Democratic presidential nomination, according to Steele.

"[Whites] feel like Obama will give them the benefit of the doubt and not automatically presume they're racists," said Steele. "White guilt is one of the most powerful forces of American life and explains the phenomenon of Obama. He's talented — but not that talented."

Before Tuesday Obama had mostly refused to address the issue of race in the campaign; the widespread broadcasting of Wright's inflammatory comments likely forced his hand.

"If Obama makes them feel like a part of him embraces Wright's comments, then he's going to lose," said Harvard's Gates.

Regardless of how the message was received, most observers agreed that Obama appeared ready to tell his story. But of course, in the midst of an epic nomination battle, the message was only part of the story.

"He was saying 'I'm not like this, and I don't hate you and I can be your president,'" said Gates.