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.
You got your opinion.
The Japanese were very lucky that they were not facing a foe who was devoted to the Bushido way, otherwise their surrender would have been an invitation for us to perform death marches and to behead people with samurai swords.
Most of Jeremiah Wright’s political commentary is the standard litany of extremist hogwash spouted by the likes of Ward Churchill and Noam Chomsky and the rest of the Amerikkka-hating, white leftist intelligentsia. Those people are not black and they don’t say what they say because of their race. They say it because they’re communists. To my knowledge, most African-Americans are not communists and want to make a buck and get ahead just as much as their white fellow citizens. But because of their unique historical resentments black folks are more vulnerable to the hate-filled rhetoric of the Left and prey to pseudo-Christian hustlers like Wright. Nothing new there.
But Obama’s supposed to transcend all that. He’s supposed to know better, and teach better. That’s his one and only selling point to the larger population. Since that’s been shown to be a lie and a pose, he’s got nothing else to run on.
Yes indeed. I doubt most white Americans realize how racist many of their black "friends" are. This may be a good "teaching moment" for them.
I was working for civil rights justice in America long before it was cool. When King's movement was co-opted by the profit-and-power pimps of the Left it became an anti-White movement. It was viewed by the Marxists as one more means to divide and conquer traditional America and replace it with socialism. It always had racial conflict, not harmony, as its primary goal.
My next-door neighbors are intelligent, upstanding blacks. Both hold MA degrees, have great jobs and buy 3 brand new expensive cars every couple of years. They live in a much more expensive house than mine. But they're fed a daily dose of hate and resentment by the black separatist pimps. The black-oriented magazines they read carry the same message(I leafed through one that was put into my mailbox by mistake). Social interaction with them is impossible. We've tried on several occasions and each visit turns into an endless series of complaints about "Whitey."
The day I heard: "White people are devils and cause all the world's trouble" was the day I decided to smile, wave, and cease all further attempts at "integration." It's their move.
The Germans were good fighters, but they knew when they were beat. The Japanese, not so much.
Even after we dropped the second one on Nagasaki, the Japanese had a coup attempt when word got out that the emperor was going to surrender.
But, then, in a fair world, there would be no racial divide to bridge. Of course, Obama’s detractors would never consider that.
Huh? I guess in a fair world Obama is never to blame and always gets off the hook ...
FWIW, This situation is a little like the old problem politicians long had of saying one thing in the South and another in the North and getting caught in the contradictions.
If people argue that their candidate has to be two-faced or duplicitous, it's not a good sign.
How the hell did this Obama get this far? He’s rediculous!
According to the Black Value System taught by Obama's church, your neighbors would be guilty of "Middle-classishness," which is sort of like being Uncle Toms.
You are correct. But, we are middle-class.
Most of the houses in out neighborhood are $250-350K range {or used to be} and everyone that lives here, earned their "RIGHT" to be here because they bought the houses they live in.
I prefer an "uncle Tom" to a crazy uncle jerry.
If working hard, providing for and loving your wife and family, enjoying everyday life makes my neighbors "uncle Toms" in the view of crazy uncle jerry, I bet they don't mind being called "uncle Toms'.
To date I have not heard Rev. Wright say anything that I haven’t heard from many many times over a span of decades from white liberals.
I'm not who often goes around professing to know what Jesus would do, or say.
But I DO know Jesus would call it abomination to support, as Obama does, the butchery of pre-born babies --and death-by-neglect of babies who manage to be born alive despite being aborted.
And David Duke is just a poor misunderstood white boy. They just don’t understand. /sarc
Well, clearly we did not. But many of us have had our eyes opened by his sermons, and by your article, and some of us learn quickly. And, it should be pointed out, there are a hell of a lot more of us than there are of you. That is what the word "minority" means.
I believe that Mr Obama's candidacy, and the audience that it provided for Rev Wright's statements, will prove to have been a pivotal moment in the ongoing American dialog. And not in the way that Ms Mathis, or her fellow travelers, imagines or intends.
America was about to take a leap, and now it is very likely that it will not.
It will be a long, long time before the "Obama Moment" occurs again. I doubt that I will see it in my lifetime.
Obama spewed racial hatred in his books, but we were too dumb to notice:
From Dreams of My Father, “ I FOUND A SOLACE IN NURSING A PERVASISVE SENSE OF GRIEVANCE AND ANIMOSITY AGAINST MY MOTHER’S RACE”. Barack Hussein Obama
From ‘Dreams of my Father’, “The emotion between the races could never be pure, even love was tarnished by the desire to find in the other some element that was missing in ourselves. Whether we sought out our demons or salvation, the other race (WHITE) would always remain just that: menacing, alien, and apart.” Barack Hussein Obama
From Dreams Of My Father: “That hate hadn’t gone away,” he wrote, BLAMING “WHITE PEOPLE — some CRUEL, some IGNORANT, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives.” Barack Hussein Obama
From ‘Dreams Of My Father’, “There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs,” he wrote. “It remained necessary to prove which side you were on,to show your LOYALTY TO THE BLACK MASSES, TO STRIKE OUT and name names” Barack Hussein Obama
BINGO!! Me, too. The reaction absolutely did not go unnoticed. I remember seeing blacks pounding on the hoods of cars that had white drivers, rubbing it in. And black LAW STUDENTS at some major college cheering. What the hell, his victims were only honkys.
I know someone who did EXACTLY that, only the store was in New Orleans. Many stories.
I know that 150 years after the end of slavery too many blacks are still blaming whitey for keeping them down, rather than taking responsibility for themselves. I’m just sayin,,,,
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... It's how and why the black church became the nursery for the freedom and civil rights movements... 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? ...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.
Yeah. I see how polite and respectful the yout’s are no matter which side of the counter they are on. If you would get a please or thank you I think I would drop dead from surprise.
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