I love this country too much to see it divided and distracted at this moment in history. I believe in our ability to perfect this union because it’s the only reason I’m standing here today. And I know the promise of America because I have lived it. It is the light of opportunity that led my father across an ocean. It is the founding ideals that the flag draped over my grandfather’s coffin stands for - it is life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s the simple truth I learned all those years ago when I worked in the shadows of a shuttered steel mill on the South Side of Chicago–that in this country, justice can be won against the greatest of odds; hope can find its way back to the darkest of corners; and when we are told that we cannot bring about the change that we seek, we answer with one voice–yes we can.
In other words, my name may be Muslim, my father may have been African and I may have lived in Indonesia and Hawaii as a kid. But I’m still one of you–with relatives who made the same sacrifices for America as your ancestors.
If you’re wondering whether this message was intentional, consider the campaign-arranged TV backdrop: a half-dozen middle-aged white women–Hillary Clinton’s core constituency–holding little American flags:
