Wright is right

Well, when the NAACP decides, rightly, to give Wright a pulpit to defend the prophetic tradition of many African American churches, we can now see what happens. MSNBC has launched what can only be called a hate-fest against Wright, with other media eagerly piling on; and Obama is under pressure from the white establishment within the Democratic Party to denounce Wright.

Jeremiah Wright, and the police slaughter of Sean Bell, have pulled the scab off the still-putrifying wound of white supremacy once again... and Obama is finding that rhetoric about "racial reconciliation" cannot fume itself into reality. The Clinton campaign has devolved into little more than an ill-concealed Jim Crow performance.

I am ashamed of my country. We are a beacon of selfishness, ambition, and hypocrisy to the world. And white supremacy remains one of our core principles of social organization.

Over the last several days, I watched Rev. Jeremiah Wright in discussions of faith, theology, history, and culture on television. The three-plus hours I devoted to PBS and CNN amounted to some of the most sophisticated and thoughtful programming on American culture and racial issues that any news station has offered in recent years. And, for those who really listened to Rev. Wright, he moved from being a political liability in the current presidential campaign to demonstrating why he is one of the nation's most compelling spokespersons of the African-American community and of progressive Christianity.

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Comments

[PuritanDescendant]

I'll go against the conventional wisdom and say that a week or two of seeing the actual man Wright in the news, speaking, etc. can do nothing but good for Obama. People want Wright to go away and be forgotten. He won't be. NC GOP has shown us that. So many have such a distorted view of Wright that seeing more of him can only improve his image (as long as he says nothing risque). People start out thinking he's some pulpit-screaming maniac. Then they hear him talking with Moyers, the Press Club, etc., and they hear rational thoughts from a calm man.

People already know Wright is Obama's minister. They aren't going to forget just because he's out of the news. Wright will pass out of the spotlight again (come on, our national attention span is zero), but one would think that whereas before people were just plain scared of him, not they might see that he barks sometimes but he's not rabid and he sure doesn't bite.

A smart agressive campaign by Obama will make Wright moot (too bad it won't make him mute too), as no on cares about a minister when the country is smelling like a pile of elephant dung.

[Pocho]

I consider Wright one of the great americans of our time. But I thought the same of Paul Robeson, a man of my time also. And, we all know what they did to him ... don't we?

[eznelson]

Wright said: "I served six years in the military. Does that make me patriotic? How many years did (Vice President Dick) Cheney serve?"

BINGO

What more does Rev. Wright need to say? On April 7, 1775 the famous American Patriot, Samuel Johnson, said that the cries of patriotism are the last refuges of the scoundrel.

[BadChristian]

I am ashamed of my country. We are a beacon of selfishness, ambition, and hypocrisy to the world. And white supremacy remains one of our core principles of social organization.

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It's funny how this seems to be (again) a split right along the urban/rural divide. But the Corporate media will never talk about it. Instead they talk about "real America," "red and blue America" Black and white America... Every now and then they'll talk about "metrosexuals"... But mostly it's just using negative Luntzian code to describe urban residents, who live in "ghettos" or are nappy-headed hoes, speaking "gutter languages"... While the wrapping the rural America, or red America in the flag (not the stars and bars which many seem to identify with far more) and Happy codes.

I think it is absolutely clear that Corporate America knows that suburbia is the swing/consumer vote, and they are using all their ad skills to sell suburbia the myth the happy trails, while vilifying urban America.

We'll continue to see more of it, and the Corporate media will continue to pretend that nothing has anything to do with a rural/urban split, which has existed forever... They say all politics is local, then they spin everything urban as elite, or ghetto, and no one EVER talks about it.

[runswithscissors]

Agree on every point. Two aspects I've noticed about suburban neighborhoods: the overwhelming (yet completely irrational) sense of fear that seems to control the lives of its residents, and a belligerent self-righteousness used as a weapon against outsiders (mainly urbanites). These are of course generalizations that don't always apply, but I personally feel like its a pretty accurate assessment. It's also a pretty accurate description of our foreign policy. Could it be that politicians are playing on the fears of the HUGE suburban populace in order to get what they want overseas? Or is it that suburbanites are victims of the corporate elite, who in turn use that position of dominance to influence the suburban vote? I think it is a combination of the two, and basically plays out in a "grass is always greener" type manner.

[BadChristian]

I think everything about this country has become a science of manipulation through fear. Particularly useful is xenophobia.
The Corporate elite of America use the television like a "T- Warrior" (wasn't that what Oreily called himself) for social engineering. It's the old "Merchants of cool," and they want to be the ones who dictate the culture of America. That is to say, what used to be urban culture is to be replaced with con-speak, "Culture of poverty." The television just spews garbage to make Americans into consumers, and they fear the urban masses uniting against this failing corporatocracy.
Better to have us as cheap "People farms."

Rush Limbaugh's not the only one who wants the Democratic strongholds (that'd be urban centers) to go into riots. Anything to keep us from uniting. If we riot, there'd be plenty of good reason to put us on lock down and use us to scare people even more... Imagine how guns and security services would sell in the inner-ring suburbs.