Posted on 03/17/2008 11:41:36 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The eruption of outrage, shock and fear that is flowing over Barack Obama’s campaign like hot lava because his pastor has preached some strident sermons tells us one thing for certain: Many white people don’t know black people at all.
If they did, they would know that Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago is hardly the only black minister who uses the pulpit to rant against racial duplicity and injustice. The black church has always been the place for letting our hair down and speaking our peace -- a safe haven from the criminations outside. It’s how and why the black church became the nursery for the freedom and civil rights movements. Not every minister seasons his or her sermons with political commentary, and not every one who does is as fiercely spoken as Rev. Wright, but there is nothing unusual about the black clergy as social agitator. Guess the shockees didn’t know that.
It seems they were also clueless that, when race, racism and discrimination do invade the pulpit, it is not always in the context of forgiveness and humility. Much of black America is resentful, angry and distrustful -- rightly so, some of us would say. Did the uninitiated honestly believe that slavery, lynching, Jim Crow, white resistance and flight, economic and educational duality, hyper-incarceration and yawning disparities in wealth, health and longevity have had no lasting effects; that all of that is really no big deal -- something we can kick off as easily as our Sunday shoes?
Surprise.
This could be a teaching moment for the society at large, which would do well to pay closer attention to 35 million of its members and to give heed to their accounts of their own experiences. Unfortunately, and typically, the alarmists are threatening to make it a Waterloo for Obama.
The candidate has denounced Rev. Wright’s statements about America’s treachery, honest as they were.
Obama has even removed his Wright from his ministerial council. That had to be painful for Obama, who has otherwise spoken devotedly of the preacher who “brought me to Jesus,” performed his marriage ceremony and baptized his daughters.
Those pounds of flesh are not enough for the alarmists, however. They and frothing pundit after frothing pundit want the candidate to rebuke Wright categorically -- mind, body and soul.
Obama is in the unenviable position of having to court a large and diverse audience -- the American electorate generally and Democratic voters particularly -- that includes a good number of people who have no knowledge of, curiosity about, nor sympathy for the black experience, while, at the same time, remaining true to what he knows about Rev. Wright specifically and the black church generally.
It’s a delicate balance, and Obama has tried to strike it, explaining to journalists that the anger and disdain expressed by Rev. Wright reflect common themes in “the black memory,” albeit not sentiments he shares.
In a fair world, Obama would be able to elaborate about the black perspective and thereby give some context to Wright’s comments and the facts of black expression.
But, then, in a fair world, there would be no racial divide to bridge. Of course, Obama’s detractors would never consider that.
WOW! You do exist. I thought you were a bogeyman (bogeyperson? person-of-boginess? Bogey-of-non-specific-gender?) that the old-timers scared the noobs with.
Jesus was about peace, love and forgiveness. He NEVER gave a sermon like the ones Wright routinely gives. And using the lords name in vain, isn’t that something to be frowned on Rev?
And BTW, unlike some groups, white Americans aren’t so comfortable with racism that they tolerate it in their churches.
Leave it to the conservatives to have to defend a democrat president. Truth is that after the first one the Japanese were given and opportunity to surrender and refused. Hence, Nagasaki.
Would you please name one "lunatic right-wing Christian minister [that spews] anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-Arab, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, anti-science anti-human bile from [his or her] cable network and talk show"?
Great analysis.
Well, Mr. Leftwing Historical Ignoramus - the Japanese refused to surrender after the first one.
Just goes to prove, you HAVE to be ignorant to be a leftist/dhimmirat."
I'm in the middle of reading "Flags of Our Fathers", which is an account of what happened on Iwo Jima and the fate of the 6 flag raisers on Mt. Suribachi. Almost every one of the 22,000 Japanese defenders of Iwo were killed and our own casualties were enormous. And this was just a tiny island hundreds of miles away from mainland Japan, but was considered Japanese homeland.
Now imagine how hard they would have fought if we had tried an invasion of the main island of Japan???? How many Japanese would have been killed??? Many, many times more than what were lost at Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
So many Purple Hearts were made in anticipation of a Japanese invasion, that since it didn't happen, they are still awarding Purple Hearts today, that were made during WWII. My grandfather could have been awarded one or even killed, but thankfully we dropped 2 atomic bombs and ended the war before he had to ship out. I thank Harry S. Truman for my life.
I for one, will never feel sorry for dropping 2 A-bombs on Japan. They deserved far worse, but luckily their vanquishers, were morally superior to them.
1. I know black people; thus, this came as no surprise.
2. “Much of black America is resentful, angry and distrustful — rightly so, some of us would say. Did the uninitiated honestly believe that slavery, lynching, Jim Crow”
Most of those most angry did not personally experience any of this.
3. “white resistance and flight”? Anyone read Michelle Obama’s thesis?
4. “economic and educational duality, hyper-incarceration and yawning disparities in wealth, health and longevity”
Who’s to blame for that? It’s always external causes, never internal. White America has been looking in the mirror for decades now and changing accordingly. It’s time other groups do the same. I don’t see the same disparaties among Asian Americans. Nor Indian Americans. Maybe, just maybe, this is a little more complex than Whitey’s fault.
Just goes to show how ignorant you MUST be in order to be a dhimmirat.
Their solution would have been to try to see what they could have given the Japanese in order to postpone more hostilities.
Whether Deborah wants to acknowledge it or not, the issue WRT the presidential campaign is whether BHO really is a uniter as he claims, or a divider, as this whole Wright thing is showing him to be.
I’m an ugly old white guy, and I don’t feel united by Obama’s handling of the thing at all. I feel very divided, especially when I read articles like Mathis’.
Deborah has nary a clue that she is hurting, not helping, Obama in his WH quest with columns like this one.
Oh, I think it's a teaching moment all right...we may have come to the tipping point on White Guilt. Many may decide to stop blaming themselves for not being able to make peace with someone who wants war.
In a fair world, Obama would be able to elaborate about the black perspective and thereby give some context to Wright’s comments and the facts of black expression.
But, then, in a fair world, there would be no racial divide to bridge. Of course, Obama’s detractors would never consider that.
We just want to know what he thinks...why would I have any interest in voting for someone who felt justified in lying to me?
Same goes for Hillary...she's no less radical, she just benefits from friends and supporters who are more discreet...and an opponent not so ruthless as her.
She's a racist.
She writes for a website that appeals to folks primarily because of the colour of their skin.
The website is also racist.
Anyone who associates with this kind of thinking for 20 years DOES NOT belong anywhere near the White House.
This article is shallow minded...
Most whites know this about the extreme in African America. But, they do not dare say anything about it because they’d label themselves a bigot. So, they stay silent, and at times, pander, patronize, and ogle the black man so they appear diversity minded.
Put ‘em all on a lie detector and ask some direct questions. If you did this before the Wright fiasco, the results would be very close to the same as doing it now.
But, who knows... Maybe a couple hundred more television commercials and TV programming with white women with black men will curve these racist roots in both races... /s
As if black people are plain, easy to read, general issue, and all pretty much like all the other blacks across the whole USA.
There's no such thing as 'one size fits all' when it comes to people. Not in golfers, mailmen, CEOs, cowboys, Olympic athletes, waitresses, Catholics, or shrimp boat captains.
I can't even speak for my next door neighbor, so where does this chick get off?
bttt
Well hi, MM! Is it Internet hour at the hospital?
So I guess the author won’t be offended then if white America rejects her candidate because he’s a racist who just happens to hide his racism.
He’s just a racist with a tan....
Hmmm...
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