Amid all the righteous noise made about Rev. Jeremiah Wright, it was David Gergen, on Anderson Cooper's show, who made the most pertinent observation. The veteran GOP operative with bipartisan ties informed the audience that black America is having a different conversation than white America, so one cannot apply the CNN, Fox, or MSNBC framework to African-American concerns.
Gergen's insight came and went with little comment, since the Wright media spasm is largely a white creation. Who cares what those with no political power think? That it took a power broker like Gergen to make this obvious, important point further reveals how fixed our "national dialogue" remains. This of course allows all manner of patriotspeak to flow unimpeded, for there's nothing that the Liberal Media loves more than to prove its nationalist bonafides. After all, who do you think keeps the American flag lapel pin industry in the, er, black?
Jeremiah Wright's supposedly inflammatory statements about 9/11 and the ongoing specter of racism are uncontroversial to those following the real world. We live in horrific, corrupt times, and while I don't agree with everything Wright says, he's certainly not speaking fiction, primarily when it comes to American foreign policy. We are hated not so much for our freedoms, such as they are, but specifically for our mass murder, our torture, our occupations. There are other, cultural elements that are part of the overall mix, yet they are doubtless secondary to those seeking refuge from our cluster bombs and client armies. Wright's sermons about reaping what you sow is nothing new, especially in the Christian tradition. But to hear cable chatters and assorted reactionaries tell it, such time-honored concepts don't apply to the United States. The God who watches over us and guides our trigger-happy hand excuses any and all slaughter committed in His Holy Name. He wouldn't have endorsed that song about how He blesses us were the opposite the case.
I've been pretty hard on the Obama campaign, and still am; but if anything would soften my view, it's this bullshit furor over Jeremiah Wright. If you are white and don't listen to black talk radio, now would be a good time to start. Wright's opinions are not deemed crazy there, and you'll hear much stronger denunciations of imperialism and racism than you ever will on a white liberal's show. Sure, some dementia is present: this is America, after all. But contrast the opinions exchanged between African-Americans to those expressed on the corporate kabuki programs, or worse, white reactionary broadcasts. Which do you think is closer to what's actually going on?
Speaking of "extremist" black speech, here's a classic from December, 1964. Wonder how this man would be treated in the media world of today?
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Anyone old enough to remember the Civil Rights Movement , Martin Luther King et.al. and an I. Q. above their age knows this is true. Rev. Wright comes from another generation when extreme speech and extreme action were often the only things that got any attention. I am white, 61YOA and female, and I don't understand any person who does not understand that. Of course these days, with "No Child Left Behind ", and the poor emphasis in our schools on history or anything that doesn't "teach to the test", the present day short attention span and affinity for sound bites and bumper sticker wisdom, far too many people know nothing of substance concerning the treatment of minorities (and women) in the past or how far we have yet to go. As a white, I cannot claim to fully appreciate the experiences of minorities, but being a woman gives me some idea, that and LISTENING and WATCHING what has gone on around me, especially in the rare cases that I have had to hear personal stories from minority friends. Certain groups of whites have equal reason to voice anger and frustration, and cannot be overlooked. It is too often presumed that if one is white, everything is just hunky-dory! Who among you has not at least thought, if not said, things similar to what Rev. Wright has said? I'm not defending him, but I think I understand. There was a time when contemplated moving to Canada or Sweden because I was so angry at this country. Fortunately I got smart enough to realize that the better option was not to try to leave problems behind, but to stay here and try to contribute to solving them. That is our burden and duty as American citizens. It' not the free ride that so many assume it is.
The media is spinning this out of the control of the Obama campaign. They keep failing to mention that the congregation of Obama's church is predominantly white, calling the church Afro-centric.
They keep calling the Pastor crazy but probably we need to listen to some more sermons so we can know what the rest of the world thinks about the USA. We live in a much smaller world and the media is censoring the news. Or are we that naive or so pompous?
Why did Bin laden not bomb Iceland or Russia or Brazil or Cuba or hell even Canada? People were caught coming from Canada, trying to get across the border to wreak havoc in the USA. Why America and not Canada? What is America doing that so many other countries are not. Why do these people hate us?
Is it because we have done nothing but loved and helped them historically?
Think, people think. Don't just follow the media. They are running this and a lot of the other stories as the advertising dollars come in.
This is so stupid. The man loved his white mother without end.
We listen to the spinners and lap up what they say instead of thinking and reading for ourselves.
The most extreme and obscene speech I've seen reported recently was G.Bush in one of his more winsome moments calling the war in Afghanistan exciting and romantic. Oh, that and his looking for WMDs under the chairs and joking that he couldn't find any. Very Bob Hope and the MSM journalists laughed while 4000 of our soldiers and hundeds of thousands of their civialians were dying. The MSM though is in a high moral dudgeon over Pastor Wright. Watch out for these black congegations and their preachers who are anti-war and anti-poverty. Highly supicious and unpatriotic.
Oh, and Obama. Yeah, he's a black separatist who hates white people and America. Yeah, he was raised by his white anthropologist mother, has a father from Kenya he has barely ever seen, grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia. Yeah, he's probably a Black Panther and just hiding it. Used being first in his class at Harvard law as a cover for his
plan to get the presidency and then overthrow the government.
He might even put a stop to the war in Iraq and not start one in Iran. A dangerous man. Especially for the Clinton-McCain campaign. Thank goodness for MSM. They might be able to put a stop to Obama.
this is america, you can't say anything remotely negative about this country without being vilified. if there's one thing you can say about this country, as evidenced to an extreme by recent politics it's that there's definitely no great penchant for introspection. for all the new age bs that calls for self reflection, which people are so quick to dally with, it remains a fact that people don't like to examine their own faults. as for malcolm x, he'd be even more despised by today' s sad excuse for the press than he was in his time. you can barely mention malcolm x without being accused of harboring some kind of black supremacist ideology.
America, time to take off those rose tinted glasses you've been wearing for the last fifty years. WAKE UP! What Rev Wright is saying, so boistfully as only he can do, is the truth. I am not sure what reality the media folks and quite frankly white people have been living in. Yes, I am sure I would have had a hard time digesting what Rev Wright was saying on an early Sunday morning (pre-coffee), but I can appreciate what he is saying. You are living under a rock if you think America didn't reap what it sowed. That doesn't make me or anyone else with this view unpatriotic. It makes us very acutely aware that cause and effect is what is at play here. I am actually glad these tapes have "appeared". Finally, someone not afraid to say what the real deal is. The real deal is our men and women are dying for a damned war; our American dream of home ownership is now the American nightmare; our financial future is quivering on a tight rope and we still have pervasive racism among us. For those of us who are oh so fortunate not to have to deal with these issues, well, God Bless You. For the rest of us who are in some way connected to any of the current struggles, we should be staying focused on the candidates issues and what they can do to help fix them...not all this mess that is swirling around them. It really shouldn't be reduced to a black/white thing, but rather a have and have not thing. Because let's face it, the corporations and the war mongers are laughing all the way to the bank and their tax attorney. Be Mad America! Be Mad at the state that we are in! Stop getting hung up on silly issues and lets stay focused on our future. We have the eyes of the world watching. Let's show them that we know how to recognize our faults and we know how to fix 'em.
I agree that Rev. Wright's comments have been blown way out of proportion by the cable networks, especially CNN and MSNBC. The Constitution says there should be no religious test for candidates but apparently the cable networks don't agree. By probing into Obama's private religious experiences, the cable networks are not violating the law but they are violating the spirit of the law.
Judging by the hysteria of the cable networks over the remaks of Obama's ex pastor, you'd get the impression that we're voting for a pastor, not a president.
CNN's Wofl Blitzer talks about "the swirling controversy" surrounding Obama's pastor. If there is a swirling controversy, it's because the cable networks are making into one. No one in my neighborhood gives a damn and I don't hear people even talking about it.
Malcolm X (the man appearing in your video) was savaged by the establishment media in his day for rejecting the non-violence of Martin Luther King and advocating meeting a blow with a blow, taking an eye for eye, a tooth for tooth. He wasn't so much for shouting "Fire" in a crowded theater as he was for setting the fire.
He was also assassinated a week after after having his home bombed. I take your point that the Rev. Wright's remarks aren't remotely comparable to the advocacy of Malcolm X and aren't remotely deserving of similar treatment.
Somehow, America survived Malcolm X. Wonder if the same might be said for Rev. Wright?
I've always said that America still needs to have this conversation with itself about why 9/11 happened and why so many people in the world hate America. It really isn't a hatred of freedom. For some extremists its a hatred of a sinful, different way of life from their point of view. But for most reasonable people in the world who hate America it is because of America's arrogance, violence, meddling and self-righteousness. And thus the answer to winning the 'war on terror' is not framing it as a war and sitting at home and ignoring that hatred. Stop meddling, stop trying to fix the world, just be a normal country and improve the world through multi-lateral international efforts. Then, maybe after a generation or two the hatred will die out. Thats the only way.
Reminds me of a story about a man who died on the operating table -- full tunnel of light treatment here -- and then was brought back to life:
Surgeon: You were dead for 15 minutes. What happened?
Patient: Well, I rose through a tunnel of light and saw the face of God.
Surgeon: Really. What was that like?
Patient: Well, first of all she's black and she is pissed off.
I thought it was strange that Reverend Wright would use the "chickens coming home to roost" phrase when it was precisely those words that got Malcolm X expelled from the Nation of Islam after he used them in reference to the assassination of President Kennedy.
The problem with race in America is that the issue of race is complex while the white majority is simple-minded: a lethal combination. How often do you hear someone ask, "Why is Obama called black when his mother was white? Why doesn't he say he's white?"? Bring up race at all and it's using the "race card." "Bill Clinton's 'Jesse Jackson' comments weren't meant to be negative." "Geraldine Ferraro didn't say anything wrong."
Actually, our thinking about race is pretty good-- when compared to how we deal with religion. Republicans turned on one of their own, Mitt Romney, because he is a Mormon and not a "real Christian." Nice guy Mike Huckabee was rated one of the top governors in the country, but as presidential candidate tried to emphasize the harsher, less humane aspects of his brand of Christianity in order to win over evangelicals. The maverick John McCain is now seeking the endorsements of the types of religious figures that eight years ago he called the "agents of intolerance." Obama was called a Muslim-- even Hillary Clinton, who attended prayer breakfasts with him in the Senate, didn't seem too sure he wasn't one-- and now he's Christian, but according to Sean Hannity, the *wrong* kind of Christian.
I know of a Christian who reads a book where "unclean" women are supposed to stay outside the gates of the city, and sacrificing the wrong kind of bird may or may not lead to being put to death, where one is taught to love one's enemies, thereby making the Pentagon obsolete. The book is, of course, the Bible, and the Christian is just about any politician in Washington. But of course they didn't have YouTube during the days of Isaiah and (the original) Jeremiah. They said some mean things about their country too! Could be a bad influence! Let's make sure all Bible-readers are vetted!
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Posted March 17, 2008 | 05:00 PM (EST)