The 1995 Chicago Reader article Doug linked @6:29AM is a little gold mine. RTWT.

“Slow down now. You’re going too fast now,” says Obama. “I want to break this down. We talk ‘they, they, they’ but don’t take the time to break it down. We don’t analyze. Our thinking is sloppy. And to the degree it is, we’re not going to be able to have the impact we could have. We can’t afford to go out there blind, hollering and acting the fool, and get to the table and don’t know who it is we’re talking to…

He uses empathy to analyse the opposition. Don’t confuse it with sympathy.

The quote Doug focussed on would seem to indicate there is no ‘there’ there. Obama rejects both assimilation and black nationalism. But, …proposes a third alternative … his proposal calls for organizing ordinary citizens into bottom-up democracies create their own strategies, programs, and campaigns and forge alliances with other disaffected Americans.

Not sure how this would work, but it points to an empathetic person who visualizes a union of disparate polities.