The Good Reverend Jeremiah Wright and "Them Jews"
There were two things wrong with the good Reverend Jeremiah Wrights's grouse that "them Jews are keeping me from Obama." Oops, I mean the Zionists, not Jews. That was Wright's nimble effort to take some heat off him for the silly crack. One was that he said it. The other is that he meant it. Wright's "them Jews" quip was vintage Wright. That's his penchant to shoot from the lip, damn the audience and consequences, and knowing full well that it will get the tongues furiously wagging. The correction was a trifle which meant nothing.
It still confirmed what Wright loathers firmly belief and that's that he's a loose cannon, closet racist, and anti-Semite. The timing of his crack coming on the heels of the shoot up of the Holocaust Memorial Museum by neo-Nazi looney, James Wennaker von Brunn, couldn't have been worse. Wright is no von Brunn. He has not turned his life into a crusade against the mythical Jewish domination, and has never advocated violence against anyone. He's a down-home, plain spoken, Afrocentric preacher, who had enough charisma to attract throngs, and keep them coming back week after week to his one time Southside Chicago church. One of whom was a soon to be president.
That's a big reason Wright made the silly, intemperate knock. Wright still thinks that he's due a seat at Obama's table. Never mind that the universal consensus is that one of the smartest things that Obama did was to dump Wright, and dump him fast after he became a political embarrassment. But it's the seat at the table part that makes the Wright dig revealing. It's not just Wright's ego, although there's plenty of that at work in the notion that Obama won't see or have anything to do with him because of some plot by mythical Jewish gatekeepers to keep him away. It wouldn't have mattered if not one member of Team Obama's inner circle was Jewish. Wright would still be banned in Boston at the White House.
The Wright dig does hurt in another way though. There's still the widely prevalent belief among much of the public that more than a few blacks are closet anti-Semites, and even in the more bizarre circles, a rumor to that effect is occasionally heard about President Obama. That was heard after his pointed admonition to the Israeli government to crack down on the building of the settlements on the West Bank. The settlement expansion has been widely and repeatedly criticized by diplomats, political leaders, two former American presidents Clinton and Bush as well as a wide section of Israeli public opinion.
Wright, though, went one step further and poured oil on the flame by branding the Gaza battles, "ethnic cleansing." But it's still the suspicion that many blacks are anti-Semitic that rankles and resonates the most. Two decades later, Jesse Jackson still takes hits for his "Hymietown" crack, and Al Sharpton takes a hit on occasion for some alleged anti-Semitic act. Former Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, is still virtually interchangeable with anti-Semite.
Anti-Semitism is alive and well in America, and it didn't take the the murder at the Holocaust Memorial Museum by a deranged, delusional nut to prove that. The legion of neo Nazi websites, videos, and books, pamhplets, that rail against Jewish or Zionist conspiracies under every bedpost, even the bedposts in the Obama White House are ample proof of that. But African-American leaders, officials and organizations have always vigorously condemned and fought against anti-Semitism. The heroic sacrifice of Stephen Tyrone Johns, the African American security guard, who gave his life to save others at the Holocaust Memorial Museum was tragic and symbolic of the long history of blacks and Jews fighting against racial bigotry and anti-Semitism. The good Reverend Wright's pithy, loose tongued crack won't change that.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, "The Hutchinson Report" can be heard weekly in Los Angeles Fridays on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and live streamed nationally on ktym.com
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there is a difference between being anti-semite and critical of aipac. sorry. aipac has a right to lobby and the citizens of the country they are trying to lobby have the right to be critical.
i dont believe "the jews" ie aipac and its sympathizers are keeping wright from obama, but it isnt hard to believe they would try if they could....
this has nothing to do with church of any kind.
i everybody is an antisemite, then nobody is.
I agree completely there is a difference between being critical of AIPAC and being anti-semitic. However, IMO Wright's remark crossed the line. Its ridiculous to think the AIPAC lobby is somehow prohibiting Wright from speaking to Obama. I'm guessing that Wright was really referring to Rahm Emanuel but if Emanuel was a baptist would Wright have said "the baptists are keeping me from him"? This was just a dumb insensitive comment, especially coming so close after the holocaust shooting.
if rahm was a pro-lifer and wright was a pro-choice advocate.... he would say "those wingnuts or prolifers... i agree that the choice of words were unfortunate, but everybody knew what he meant and everybody pretty much knew why.
The minute he identifies them by their ethnicity or religious affiliations, he becomes a bigot. If the word Jew was not used no one would give a rats behind.
Anti-Semitism is very alive and well in the U.S.
Jewish people and their places of worship are a constant target.
Yet, Jews are not systematically favored by Federal Programs. Unlike so many other groups.
Maybe 'jews' aren't systematically favored, but Israel sure is.
Exactly.
Ah, you're referring to money going to the mideast? Particularly Israel.
Muslims get the best of it by many times.
You may want to check out the amount of foreign aid given to Egypt, Palestinians and others in the mideast. Just in foreign aid it gets close to what the U.S. gives Israel, although Israel gets more.
In terms of military aid, you might want to check out the money spent in Kuwait in the early 90's; Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan in the last few years. How many American lives were put at risk in Kuwait?
You may also want to calculate the money spent on oil in the mideast, and Indonesia.
The U.S. supports Muslim countries with trade and policies that benefit Muslims and American oil companies that are astounding.
Should the U.S. people wish to reduce the strategic need and dependence upon Muslim oil, it just needs to use the resources we have - nuclear power, wind power - and then Muslim income drops significantly.
lol
I heard the Mark Thompson program, where Wright was making his explaination for his remarks. I had never heard him speak in a conversation before, and the discussion was interesting.. to say the least. But it was obvious to me that Wright has an ax to grind, and even though he said 'zionists' were to blame, to me.. a plain jane, he backpedeling like crazy. Just say what you mean rev.. just say what you mean.
Yes, he did mean it. I will never understand how he ended up being called a spiritual mentor by O.
He was "called" the spiritual mentor of Obama because Obama selected his contregation and spent many years as part of his congregation.
You can make whatever inference you will of that.
Obama called him a "mentor" in his book. We don't have to "infer" anything.
Well-said Earl. And even more important coming from you. Jews and African-Americans
should be natural allies, as they are in the Obama White House. Thanks.
Gary
I have only one quibble about this article. Why do you keep referring to him as the "good" Reverend Wright? That's so Wrong.
He was being sarcastic, obviously!
let's hope so!
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