“The truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man.”
This is what Obama has said about Jeremiah Wright’s widely distributed statements. It’s true that if the media constantly reprinted the “anti-American” remarks of this other black preacher (as much as they do the “God Damn America” snippet from Wright) we might have a different memory of the man below:
Don’t let anybody make you think that God chose America as His divine messianic force to be — a sort of policeman of the whole world. … I can hear God saying to America: “You are too arrogant! If you don’t change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn’t even know my name.”
Scandalous? Perhaps. The speech above was from Martin Luther King, Jr.
The point is, out of hundreds of sermons that are available for sale to the public from Jeremiah Wright - the media has only found three passages to broadcast over and over again. Surely such a hate-mongering man would have more sermons to pull from?
THE SHORTEST SERMONS EVER
We get 30 second sound bites from 45 minute sermons. This fuels our fury for Wright’s lifetime of preaching. How many people outside of his congregation have heard any sermons in context?
- For example, the media loves the “Hillary ain’t never been called a n—– ” sound bite where Wright talks of being black in America, but in context, the next few lines have Wright telling the congregation to love everyone, including enemies.
Obama said this about Wright:
“This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted.”
WHY WRIGHT IS WRONG
Jeremiah Wright has the memory of the past stained on him - that much is true. And he is wrong as Obama also stated, to live (and preach) as though no progress has been made. However, it’s no secret that black people still experience racism. It’s not part of U.S law anymore, but the attitudes and outlooks they produced still exist in different ways.
People are outraged that Wright (wrongly) insinuates that the government sponsored diseases to kill blacks, but this is a man who came of age during the 40 year Tuskegee experiment on blacks.
In 1990, a survey found that 10 percent of African Americans believed that the U.S. government created AIDS as a plot to exterminate blacks, and another 20 percent could not rule out the possibility that this might be true. As preposterous and paranoid as this may sound, at one time the Tuskegee experiment must have seemed equally farfetched.
So, in 2008, are black people still living with W.E.B. DuBois’s “double consciousness” of being black and American? Probably.
WHY WRIGHT MIGHT BE RIGHT
Back to Wright’s remarks.
- Why is saying that America is controlled by rich white people racist? Is it not? Perhaps if we throw in Oprah, we might have a case against him? The truth is, it’s no more racist than saying the NBA is dominated by rich black athletes.
- Why is saying that America has been a part of inflicting pain on countless people here and abroad, racist or Anti-American? Is it not true? Does acknowledging the nation’s flaws make one anti-American? Does it somehow obliterate the positives?
Obama has repeatedly rejected and denounced the divisive statements Wright has made. However, Obama believes that Wright has said and done far more positive than negative over his 20 years of knowing him. Wright’s congregation of 3000+ members say the same thing. The public is steadfast in their belief that that cannot be true, based on what?
To his supporters, the message Wright wove through more than 4,000 sermons is now disseminated in a handful of grainy, two-minute video clips that tell only part of his story. Yes, they acknowledge, he was sometimes overcome at the pulpit by a righteous rage about racism and social injustice. But he was a radical who also inspired women to preach, gays to marry and predominantly white youth groups to visit his services.
THE VERDICT
Obama says that he may never have embraced Christianity had he not been entranced by Wright’s impassioned advocacy of social justice while working as a community organizer in the late 1980s. Perhaps the sliver of insight we have had about Wright is correct, and perhaps it is not. Based on the dearth of information, I’m inclined to think we have less than a full picture.
This is not to say that certain statements of Wright are not unmistakably offensive and divisive. Again, the point is - a few cherry picked excerpts cannot define a man’s lifetime of messages to his congregation no more than Bill & Hillary Clinton’s recent (and sometimes racially biased) divisive words can define their respective lifetimes of work.
…Or, can they?
[...] the media portrayal we have of Wright, is not the one that the Clinton’s knew of. Otherwise, why would they [...]
[...] few Democrats, unhappy with Obama’s connection to pastor Jeremiah Wright, have stated they will vote for McCain if Obama is the Democratic Nominee. Wright has been painted [...]
Bravo! It is time to contextualize the comments of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is telling - he is obviously a man with dignity and integrity because you have not heard him respond to the outrageous manner in which he is being unfairly prosecuted in the media. True, some of the comments were divisive but to claim this man is a “hate-mongering racist” is ABSURD!