Rev. Jeremiah Wright Isn’t the Problem
The hysteria over Obama’s former pastor’s attacks on America shows we’re still in thrall to knee-jerk patriotism.
Maybe we really are doomed to elect John McCain, remain in Iraq forever and nuke Iran. Nations that forget history may not be doomed to repeat it, but those that never even recognize reality in the first place definitely are. Last week’s ridiculous uproar over Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons proves yet again that America has still not come to terms with the most rudimentary facts about race, 9/11 — or itself.The great shock so many people claim to be feeling over Wright’s sermons is preposterous. Anyone who is surprised and horrified that some black people feel anger at white people, and America, is living in a racial never-never land. Wright has called the U.S. “the United States of White America,” talks about the “oppression” of black people and says, “White America got their wake-up call after 9/11.” Gosh, who could have dreamed that angry racial grievances and left-wing political views are sometimes expressed in black churches?
It’s not surprising that the right is using Wright to paint Barack Obama as a closet Farrakhan, trying to let the air out of his trans-racial balloon by insinuating that he’s a dogmatic race man. But beyond the fake shock and the all-too-familiar racial politics, what the whole episode reveals is how narrow the range of acceptable discourse remains in this country. This is especially true of anything having to do with patriotism or 9/11 — which have become virtually interchangeable. Wright’s unforgivable sin was that he violated our rigid code of national etiquette. Instead of the requisite “God bless America,” he said “God damn America.” He said 9/11 was a case of chickens coming home to roost. Now we must all furrow our brows and agree that such dreadful words are anathema and that no presidential candidate can ever have been within earshot of them.
This is absurd. We’re worrying about someone in Row 245 who refuses to stand up for “The Star Spangled Banner,” while the people who are singing loudest and waving the biggest flags are the ones who got us into the mess we’re in today.
Wright isn’t the problem. Stupid patriotism is the problem.
We are now five years into a war that may outrank Vietnam as the most pointless and disastrous one in our history. George W. Bush and his neoconservative brain trust conceived that war, but they were only able to push it through because the American people, their political leaders and the mainstream media signed off on it. And they did so because they were in the grip of the fearful, vengeful, patriotic frenzy that swept the nation after 9/11. Without 9/11 and America’s fateful reaction to it, there would be no Iraq war. Every day that the war drags on is yet another indictment of that self-righteous, unthinking “patriotism.”
Bill Clinton’s line that McCain and Hillary are “two people who love their country” may or may not have been intended to subtly denigrate Obama’s patriotism. But whatever it meant, it didn’t have anything to do with the actual problems facing the country. Loving America more than your opponent does is not a qualification for higher office.
In fact, the same all-American flag-wavers who called loudest for war against Iraq are now denouncing Wright as a hate-monger and a traitor, and attacking Michelle Obama for saying that only recently has she had reason to feel proud of her country. They insist that anyone who is not permanently proud of the United States, whose patriotism isn’t plastered on his or her face like the frozen smile of a beauty queen waving from a Fourth of July float, is beyond the pale. Never mind that the glorious results of their debased version of patriotism — 4,000 American troops dead, a wrecked Iraq, and a greatly strengthened terrorist enemy — are plain for all to see.
You wouldn’t expect the Republican Party, Fox News, Bill Kristol or the readers of FreeRepublic to issue any mea culpas — they don’t acknowledge that they’ve done anything wrong. But the mainstream media’s pious tut-tutting over the Wright affair shows that it, too, has learned nothing from its disgraceful post 9/11 performance. The worst excesses of media groveling — the flag pins, the instructions not to run anti-U.S. stories — may be history, but the timorous mind-set remains the same.
Its reaction to Wright shows that the American establishment still cowers before the patriotic idol. It cited the “God damn America” sermon again and again, like the Spanish Inquisition ritually intoning the words of some heretic before drawing and quartering him. It didn’t matter that Wright uttered his curse in the context of demanding that America live up to its ideals — all that mattered were those three talismanic words. Anyone this angry, our media gatekeepers solemnly informed us, must be rejected. The only question was whether Obama was irrevocably tainted by his association with the evildoer. Wright’s “chickens coming home to roost” line about 9/11 produced the same unthinking, reflexive reaction. How dare this apostate suggest that America might not be blameless, that its actions could have had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks?
This isn’t a brief for Wright. I’m not a fan of Sharpton-style black demagoguery, with its knee-jerk grievance and identity politics. I don’t know Wright’s political philosophy or racial views well enough to place him on the vast spectrum of black leaders. Based on the few clips I’ve seen and the excerpts I’ve read, Wright certainly has his shortcomings. His preaching can be over-the-top, crude and ludicrous. His assertion that the U.S. government spread AIDS in the black population is a caricature of paranoid black demagoguery. In his “chickens coming home to roost” sermon, when he thundered that America’s sins were being revisited upon us, he failed to make the essential distinction between saying U.S. actions were partly responsible for the attacks and saying that we deserved the attacks. At times his aggressive, almost gloating tone and delivery made it seem like that’s exactly what he was saying.
But if Wright’s “chickens” sermon was unpleasant, the fact is that it was also largely right. He had the bad taste, and the courage, to say exactly what America did not want to hear at that moment. He said that although those who were murdered by terrorists were innocent, America itself was far from innocent. He placed 9/11 in a historical context, instead of pretending that it emerged out of nowhere. Critically, he said that lashing out in vengeful anger, however tempting, was not a wise or just response. To make this point, he used the Bible against itself, citing the terrible Verse 9 of Psalm 137, in which David, speaking in imagination to his Babylonian captors, gives voice to his people’s desire for vengeance: “Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.” This path, Wright pointed out, had biblical sanction. But it was not the right one.
Yes, Wright was angry, shrill and one-sided. But America would have been better off if his uncomfortable sermon had echoed through every church in the country after 9/11, instead of the patriotic, ahistorical pablum that did.
What’s strange, and depressing, is that all this has happened before — and we’ve learned nothing. In the days after 9/11, the nation whipped itself up into an ecstasy of moral sanctimony. Among the few who dared to resist the groupthink was Susan Sontag, who in a brief New Yorker piece wrote, “The disconnect between last Tuesday’s monstrous dose of reality and the self-righteous drivel and outright deceptions being peddled by public figures and TV commentators is startling, depressing. The voices licensed to follow the event seem to have joined together in a campaign to infantilize the public. Where is the acknowledgement that this was not a ‘cowardly’ attack on ‘civilization’ or ‘liberty’ or ‘humanity’ or ‘the free world’ but an attack on the world’s self-proclaimed super-power, undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions?”
Sontag was saying the same things Wright did. Like him, she was instantly pilloried. She was called a traitor, an enemy of the state, an appeaser, a supporter of Osama bin Laden. But she was right.
Today, after five years of a catastrophic war driven by patriotic vengeance, it’s still not acceptable to disturb the myth of eternal American innocence. As David Bromwich wrote in a recent piece in the New York Review of Books, “the uniformity of the presentation by the mass media after 2001, to the effect that the United States now faced threats arising from a fanaticism with religious roots unconnected to anything America had done or could do, betrayed a stupefying abdication of judgment.” Stupefying indeed: Patriotism has proved to be a stronger opiate of the people than religion.
The taboo against any critical national self-examination has always existed here. But 9/11 sealed it in blood and made it virtually untouchable. Only a few academics, Middle East specialists and outspoken journalists have dared to suggest that U.S. foreign policies played a role in the 9/11 attacks. The Democrats, terrified of being called unpatriotic and “weak on national security,” won’t go there. Which is a big reason that the desperately needed national discussion over how to deal with the Arab/Muslim world after Bush leaves office still hasn’t started.
Turkey has a notorious law, Article 301, that makes “insulting Turkishness” a crime. We’re a lot closer to this than we like to think. In fact, we can expect John McCain’s entire campaign to basically be an American version of Article 301.
Our currently mandated version of patriotism is banal and genteel, as if we are afraid to dig beneath the surface of America and find out what’s really there. But there is another tradition of patriotism — a prophetic one. It is dark, angry, disturbing, even terrifying. And it cannot be dismissed, for its exponents include figures who exist at the very heart of the way Americans define themselves and their nation. Wright was vilified for saying “God damn America.” But it turns out that the words are inscribed in our national charter.
In “The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice,” the culture critic Greil Marcus looks at the dark visions articulated and made manifest by John Winthrop, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. Like Wright, these three figures did more than demand that America live up to its ideals. Whether in their rhetoric or by the example of their lives, they held a prophetic sword over it.
In 1630, Winthrop delivered a sermon to his fellow members of the Massachusetts Bay Company. The line that has gone down in history, oft cited by Ronald Reagan, is “wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill.” But Reagan, eager to present America as perfect, omitted the passage that followed. Winthrop warned that if the community of Puritans dealt falsely with their God, they would be cursed “till wee be consumed out of the good land whether wee are goeing.” Marcus describes this terrible image as “the replacement of God by a demon who, as citizens went about their work or leisure, would suddenly devour them.”
In his Second Inaugural Address, delivered near the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln issued an equally terrifying warning — one also largely erased from the national memory. “Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away,” Lincoln said. But then he added, “Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.’” Of this horrific vision, Marcus comments that it is “a call for a reenactment, on a national scale, of an Old Testament sacrifice.”
Finally, there is Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, delivered in 1963 in Washington. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” King thundered. Time has smoothed and sentimentalized King’s soaring rhetoric; the sheer force of his language has allowed us to convince ourselves that his words came true. But as Marcus points out, they have still not come true — a fact that makes his great speech both inspiring and unbearably painful.
I am not comparing Jeremiah Wright to these towering figures. My point is that his angry claims that his nation has betrayed its promises of racial equality and a just foreign policy are part of a long and honorable prophetic tradition. It was not critics like Wright who got us into the bloody mess we’re in today. That honor belongs to the flag-wavers, the patriots — “the real Americans.”
–Gary Kamiya
Copyright © 2008 Salon Media Group, Inc.
“The whole episode reveals is how narrow the range of acceptable discourse remains in this country.”
Now whenever people ask me “if you’re so smart, how come you’re not rich?” Now whenever people ask why an award-winning journalist such as myself is still living with his mom at damn near 40, I’ll cite Rev. Wright.
If a reverend is denounced as “over-the-top, crude and ludicrous … angry, shrill and one-sided,” then, as Jack Nicholson said in the first Batman movie, “Wait’ll they get a load of me …”
http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2005/03/31/letters/letters.txt
http://www.saablofton.org/
Until America can say, “I am wrong” we will be unable to solve our problems.
As a white almost elderly woman, I say Go Jermiah…tell it like it is.
Patriotic correctness , a symptom of patriotic insanity where one applauds or supports or starts criminal wars has been embedded in America’s culture by reactionary , rightwing politicians and their willing corporate media whores. Only a great, courageous countercurrent of dissent against these monsters will stop the cancer.
And what about Hillary’s little “speech” yesterday regarding the Rev. “he would not be my pastor”, etc? I lost all respect for her at that moment. When are we (the American people) gonna learn? It’s so depressing to think maybe John McCain will be our next president and absolutely nothing will change. And all because “we can’t handle the truth”.
The over the top nationalism is something that has happened before in nations; usually it’s a result of losing a war, or some natural catastrophy. In the case of the usa today, you’ve not lost any major war; Vietnam and Iraq are small wars, neither had or has the ability to occupy and enslave the people of the usa. There hasn’t been any major natural catastrophy that I’m aware of, even climate change hasn’t affected us in any significant way (yet). So why now is it unacceptable for people to question the motives of the national government? During earlier years there was always groups of yanks as well as media sources that were over the top in denouncing their leadership. Clinton, Bush I, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy and every one of the others were at times called all manner of names by the media and citizenry. Why has bush the lesser and the ‘post 9/11′ america become a deity which must not be denegrated in any manner or form?
I’m a white man. I’m a history teacher. I like Rev. Wright.
Why? Because he is honest.
Enough said.
Well said. This Empire is sliding away and good riddance to it. Blacks in this country have every right to be angry and Rev. Wright is saying it like it is. When we face up to that perhaps we can turn this country into something good on top of the ashes of the bad.
Hillary Clinton’s secret little Foundation church is much more toxic than Rev. Wright. The secretive right basturds in Hillary’s church and politicians like her are the real threat to America.
Make no mistake, Bill Clinton knew exactly what he was doing when he said “Two candidates who love America”. He’s a snake in the grass. And now he’s a very rich snake in the grass. I can’t wait to see how they got $60 million richer in seven years.
odoco, do you dare teach the real history of this country? I remember in high school (1959) I got my hands on a book that was spilling the beans on the shortcomings of our founding fathers and asked my history teacher if I could write my book report on it. She said “No, we can’t tarnish the reputations of our heroes. People need to believe they didn’t have faults”. I walked away thinking that’s a crock.
Our country is full of elephants in the living room, too crowded for the truth to be seen.
kathyodat
I think this whole incident is a case of “devide & conquer”. This is how the dominant elite rule the ignorant masses.
Given that Obama’s candidatecy stand to challenge the natural order of things in America, i.e. (concentrated power in the hands of a few ruling elites families, White domination, patriachy,caring for the poor/working class etc.), the people who own this country do not want this change. This isn’t a conspiracy theory. This is a fact.
Rev Wright is getting all this attention because Obama has become a ligitimate presidential candidate. Rev Wright has been preaching for 30 yrs, nobody cared what he was saying at the time. I thought Obama was a muslim and not black anough. What happened?
I believe that this whole “hubhah” is just a way to mobilize the jingoisic flag-waving poor whites men & women against the blacks, hispanics, asians, & natives, in the name of nationalism and superpariotism. When there is so much animosity among the masses, the masses would be unable to unite and stand up to the real “unpatiotic foes”, the large elite corporations who could care less about America, other than exploiting it for profit.
Again this isnt a conspiracy theory it is a fact.
I urge all of you to check out the Sociologist W.E.B. DuBois book “Black Reconstruction in the South” as a starting point. Then check out Geraldo Ferraro’s recent book “His Panic” they’re two very relevant books to the subject.
Great piece. Abraham Lincoln believed the Civil War was God’s vengence for slavery. So Wright’s assertion that 9/11 is retribution for our more recent sins here and abroad should not be seen as a new or shocking idea, especially to rightwing, old-testament-wielding Christians. Quit denying, America!
The best definition of patriotism is “swearing to protect and uphold the U.S. Constitution”. How many neocons subscribe to this ideal?
What I’m hearing Hillary say is that had she been a member of Rev. Wright’s church, his sermons would have offended her so much that she would have had to leave. “He would not have been MY pastor”, she says.
Yet as President, her husband was getting BJ’s in the Oval Office and that didn’t offend her enough to leave the marriage or the White House.
And now Chelsea is shocked and offended when asked about the impact of her father’s sexual escapades on her mother’s candidacy.
Sorry Hills. Sorry Chelsea. I don’t buy it. If you’re going to accuse Obama of being guilty by association, then you better be prepared to deal with all of the skeletons in your own closets. God knows there are many.
Hyper patriotism, like most emotionally based ideologies, can’t handle the truth. As a mixture of religious fanaticism and political oppression, it is one toxic brew. And Diderot understood what to do about it, “Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last preist.”
Heed the message, don’t hurt the messenger!
We are in a time of great challenges and we need to heed those prophets. I applaud members of various religious communities who have been defending The Rev. Wright. I hope to see more, and therefore they can truly take the name of good shepherds.
I was deeply saddened by the lives lost on 9/11 and my heart broke for all those families that were torn apart by this brutal crime. My greatest concern afterwards was not another terrrorist attack, however, but our government’s cynical exploitation of this tragedy. Having grown up in post-war Germany, I know the potential horrors of deluded patriotism only too well.
When I refused to stick a flag on my office door in the weeks following 9/11, I was told I was not a “real” American by some of my co-workers. But the nationalistic pride and macho posturing filled me with great trepidation because of the violence and destruction that would surely follow. Unfortunately, I was proven right.
We squandered the opportunity of 9/11 to ask ourselves the hard questions and made other people pay for our refusal to let go of our narcissistic delusions. Our denial was so deep-rooted that it was almost too easy to turn our nation’s grief into an orgy of revenge — and a veritable wet dream for opportunists and war profiteers — that has created 9/11s many times over for other innocent people.
Kudos to anyone who brings honesty to the debate even if it is painful. There cannot be any healing without truth!
“Stupid patriotism is the problem.”
Is there any other kind? I’ve thought patriotism in general was pretty stupid as long as I can remember. Why should I get a hard-on over a particular location just because I was accidentally born there?
The real problem is willful ignorance, which seems to be the greatest product of American schooling. How else can we explain the ability of an entire nation to gulp down helping after helping of blatant lies and transparent double-standards?
Tipspal: Why would you dislike Senator Clinton’s decision regarding a pastor? Lots of people change churches and religions based on the impressions one gets during religious services. I have changed Catholic parishes on more than one occassion because of comments regarding women, a feeling of not belonging (as I am single and a professional women) or comments made by the bishop of the diocese. If you find a minister’s comments to be offensive and offending to your sensibilities and catagorically wrong to what you know, believe and have in food faith acted upon, then what is the issue? Other than that, Wright is a black preacher with a very big, loud, nasty chip on his shoulder? Not all that Christian to my way of thinking.
Remember the Union dead!
It’s easy for pseudonymous posters to insult the memory of hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers who died to give black Americans the freedom they enjoy today.
They are at the heart of the fabric of America, and when I hear Jeremiah Wright scream “God damn America!”…
Let’s just say I wouldn’t sit quietly in my pew like Barack Obama.
Here’s a news flash for all of you ignorant pseudonyms: It wasn’t Malcolm X who freed the slaves.
It was hundreds of thousands of European immigrants who died most of them miserably from infections in primitive hospitals.
Remember them the next time you hear some hate-freak scream “God damn America!”
If you’re running Obama against McCain, the wedge to drive between McCain and evangelicals is all about the BEER.
Yes, I know most at CD believe that a beer now and then is not sinful. (And they would be right. It isn’t.)
But Cindy McCain running a large beer distributorship and John McCain and his family profiting from it for a long time is a different thing. Their little inherited family enterprise has sold tens of millions of beers through the years, to alcoholics, to drunk drivers, and to domestic abusers. They have also CREATED alcoholics, drunk drivers and domestic abusers. (A statistician could tell you why it’s impossible that they didn’t both sell to and create these things—over tens of millions of beers.
Beer hawkers as President and First Lady? C’mon. Any church person who votes for them ought to be made to be ashamed of themselves. Get busy, progressives. See that the word is out and never stops circulating.
Reverend Wright is a Christian with strong views on racial issues. If we can toletate him trashed while excusing McCain’s source of money, we are the dumbest people in the world.
To Beforekids;
Yes, I teach real history to kids - in schools, out of schools, in our church, on the street, and anyplace else I can strike up a conversation.
I give teachers resource packets, resource lists, lend them films, books, primary source material, music, and anything else I can think of to help educate people - not just the kids. We also run ads in local papers citing websites, books, etc.
I used to sing to the choir - that was my insecurity. Now, I sing to everybody because I realize that being private with my beliefs did no good.
“If you find a minister’s comments to be offensive and offending to your sensibilities and catagorically wrong to what you know, believe and have in food faith acted upon, then what is the issue? Other than that, Wright is a black preacher with a very big, loud, nasty chip on his shoulder? Not all that Christian to my way of thinking.”
What Wright said was factually correct, for the most part. Does America have the highest incarceration rate in the freaking world? YES. Does the US have an extremely unjust and racially biased legal system? Yes, countless studies have proven this. Does the US lock hundreds of thousands of people up for non-violent crimes (many times for drugs no worse than the legal drugs here, like alcohol and cigarettes)? Yes, and it’s Wright’s community effected by those policies the most (much more than the self-righteous white, suburbanites with their made for TV fake outrage). Did 9/11 not happen in large part because of the US’ actions in the ME (this isn’t to say it deserved it, which it doesn’t, it just explains why in large part in happened and why the US was targeted)? Yes. If Clinton was offended by this she’s offended by the fact that someone is bringing up uncomfortable truths about this country, horrible policies that Clinton herself backs in large part, then the problem isn’t the messenger but the self deluded person who can’t be honest with themselves.
It’s funny too. Everyone has the right to be so up in arms about what Wright said but Wright has no right what so ever to be angry about the issues he was talking about, which are infinitively more important than this PR created fake outrage. This stupid garbage is what got Bush elected, it’s what got us into the war, it’s what allowed the economy and the healthcare system to get to this point and it’s what allows American to ignore REAL ISSUES while paying attention to superficial distractions like this. If you fall for it you deserve McCain as your president, and if you do fall for this that is exactly what you will get.
Rev.Jeremiah Wright for President!!!
Having remained sanguine about, silent during, indeed often supportive of so much injustice over the years in this country and around the world–the theft of native land and genocide of indigenous persons, and the enslavement of Africans being only two of the best examples, and the American promoted violence around the world (killings of innocent peoples around the world and plundering of their natural resources), majority of “whites” do not want to be reminded of their directly or indirectly supported violence, oppression and exploitation. These very people are fuming at the words of Pastor Jeremiah Wright for merely reminding Americans of those evils about which they have remained so quiet, so dismissive, so unconcerned. It is not the crime that bothers them, but the remembrance of it, the unwillingness to let it go–these last words being the first ones uttered by most whites it seems whenever anyone, least of all an “angry black man” like Jeremiah Wright, remind them the particulars of several centuries of white supremacy.
But their collective indignation, no matter how loudly they announce it, cannot drown out the truth that Jeremiah Wright fundamentally told the truth.
Wright was right regarding the September 11, 2001, attacks representing “America’s chickens coming home to roost.” Al-Qaeda was founded and funded by CIA, and its terrorists were armed and trained by CIA. The U.S. has indeed engaged in more than enough violence against innocent people around the world to make it just a tad bit hypocritical for Americans to then evince shock and outrage about an attack on their own soil, as if the latter were unprecedented. Americans killed far more people, far more innocent civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki than were killed on 9/11 and “never batted an eye.” There is a lack of remorse or even self-doubt about the act: sixty-plus years later most Americans still believe those attacks were justified, that they were needed to end the war and “save American lives.” This suggests that American lives are inherently worth more than the lives of Japanese civilians (or Vietnamese, Iraqi, Congolese or Afghan civilians). President Truman’s own war diaries indicate clearly that Japan had already signaled its desire to end the war, and that Americans knew they were going to surrender, even without the dropping of atomic weapons. The conclusion to which these truths then attest is simple, both in its basic veracity and it monstrousness: namely, that in those places Americans committed premeditated and deliberate mass murder, with no justification whatsoever (and the genocidal acts of Americans are still continuing in Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo…). No body count is too high when Americans are the ones doing the killing. Jeremiah Wright becomes a pariah, because Americans prefer the logic of George Bush the First, who once said that as President he would “never apologize for the United States of America. I don’t care what the facts are.”
The other “contentious” statement is “God Damn America”. Through this Wright was suggesting that blacks owe little moral allegiance to a nation that has treated so many of them for so long as animals, as persons undeserving of dignity and respect, and continue to perpetuate socio-economic and political apartheid against the minorities. African Americans continue to experience discrimination in education, legal, law-enforcement systems. Race-based inequity is perhaps most apparent in the criminal justice system, where the color of the defendant’s skin and the victim’s skin play a significant role in determining who receives the death penalty in the U.S.
Whites are easily shocked by what they hear from Pastor Wright, because what they hear challenges their understanding of who they are as a nation “a city-on a-hill” . But black people have never, for the most part, believed in the imagery of the “city-on a-hill,” for they have never had the option of looking at their nation and ignoring the mountain-sized warts still dotting its face when it comes to race. Black people do not, in the main, get misty eyed at the sight of the flag the way white people do. Because for them the nation for whom that flag waves is still not fully committed to their own equality. The stars and stripes of the flag, for them, represent systemic oppression, inequality, and exploitation. How can they sing “God Bless America”? For them singing “God Bless America” is nothing but writing their own death sentence.
Rather than knowing about and confronting the ugliness of the American past and present, whites take steps to excise the less flattering aspects of the American history so that they need not be bothered with them. They try to erase their violent history, just as city officials in Tulsa, Oklahoma, site of an orgy of violence against the black community in 1921, literally went into the town library and removed all reference to the mass killings in the Greenwood district from the papers with a razor blade. Also they shout down those who remind them their true violent history.
Reverend Wright is, indeed, not the problem. His speech was not diplomatic,
but it was also not wrong.
America needs to get over its defensiveness and admit that not everything it has ever done is admirable and God-inspired(each one of us would have to
admit this individually).
The wrongs America has committed are egregious, but they will not be righted
by denying that any wrong was ever done…and doesn’t America want to right its wrongs? I think this is what could make America different from the other
experiments in democracy.
Let’s listen to the voices with legitimate grievances and try to make things right. This should not be threatening to America unless it has been
usurped by those who have vested interest in the mistakes of the past(and present).
“My country right or wrong” is the road to hell paved with bad intentions.
I wonder how many people have heard of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, the Gentleman’s Agreement of 1908, among the litany of other discriminatory acts that have cast a long, dark shadow on this country? Unfortunately there are too many people in this country who are closed-minded and refuse to face the truth. Get over it! Good for Rev. Wright! Tell the truth!
Truth is one tough pill to swallow, it takes a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down. Truth has raw and ragged edges and it takes guts to ‘tell it like it is.’
Everytime anyone gets even close to the truth the big sweeper comes along and ’spins’ it away. If truth settled like a mushroom cloud over Washington it would vaporize all of the lies that have been spoonfed to us over the past years. Until then we just have to wait for some insider to have pangs of conscience on their deathbed to spill the beans and wipe the slate clean. They will have earned their spoonful of sugar.
Pastor Wright for President!
Once upon a time I looked forward to this primary season. I enjoyed the thought of having to choose between two excellent candidates, but Clinton’s continued and increased scorched earth demagoguery
is tragic. This morning, more than a week after Obama’s speech, the Chicago Sun-Times blared in a two line headline that almost filled the page, WRIGHT/WRONG, quoting Hillary’s clinton.
Here decision to keep the hate fires burning represents the worst in American politics. I once thought I could enthusiastically vote for and support either candidate in the election, but if she wins, I will once again have to hold my nose, and remember what happened when we did that with Humphrey. She is throwing this election to the Republican party.
That is truly unpatriotic.
i disagree with idea of ‘innocent victims of 9/11.’ we’re all guilty of the violence inflicted on the ME by the military we send there with our tax dollars and the like.
Jacob Freeze,
You obviously didn’t get the whole point of the article.
Clinton thinks Obama should leave his church because of what he said and that she would leave it if it happened in her church.
Well lets see.
Should all Catholic’s leave the church because the leaders allow priests to attack small children? I’m talking about the Pope who moved the Boston Cardinal to Rome to protect him from the information that he moved priests from one church to another to protect them.
Clinton BS is much larger than a political campaign. Also Clinton for the past week has answered the questions about Rev. Wright that they should ask Obama.
But after her Commander in Chief BS when down the drain on her silly story about dodging bullets and her solving the Irish probem she needed something to say…..anything… and she was asked the question and had to answer it (quote) at the Pittsburgh Tribune the most right wing newspaper in American. Scaife Mr. Right Wing owns it and why the hell was she giving them an interview?
Grant, great post!
Grant March: I have no problem with Wright saying the things he does, but he has to be willing to take the criticism that come with that type of rhetoric. Not everyone in this country had relatives in the states at the time of slavery. Some of us did have family in WWII and Korea and a different time and space was known and understood them - I refuse to second guess war tactics that are over 60 years old as I was not there; the armchair warriors always bring up all of America’s faults to justify their acceptace of hate speech and discord. This country is full of human beings (at last count 300+ million FLAWED human beings) and our history is full of mistakes, lots of mistakes. I’ll bet, even the black community has lots of mistakes to its credit. NO ONE is without blame or fault in our country and history, but the constant drumbeat of discord helps no one progress to a better time and space. Get over your righteous indignation; I can “space out” almost anyone who thinks I am responsible for the ills of the past. I only take responsibility for my own conduct and seek to try and not harm another. I make it my duty to support people I think might bring progress to our community. Calling me names and blaming white people for the entire ills of the human race is just plain wrong, short-sighted and well, STUPID. AND for your information, since white people have held the balance of power in the country since its inception, all the advances made politically to address the grievances of black people have been enacted by white people. Don’t tell me that the legislation to advance civil liberties wasn’t a big change in thinking and heart. Is there more to do, Yes there is, but being hateful and offensive is not the way to get what you want. Just remember, what is good for the goose is good for the gander; if a white man or woman said those things that Wright uttered, all hell would have been let loose on them. Sensibilities are changing.
If I had a pastor like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, I would be in Church every Sunday.
2 THINGS. 1st, we the sheep are still being led astray by subject matter that has nothing to do with the things that will improve our lives. Instead of discussing the economy, healthcare, retirement, education etc…we are moved to passionately respond to this BULL….The Democratic Party is a joke at this point. John McCain has acquired an abundance of ammunition against his opponent, whomever it will wind up being, with the mud they sling at each other on a daily basis. Complete idiots these 2.
Secondly, Rev. Wright only echoes what is thought in the Black community and repeated in thousands of churches every Sunday. But, just as they do with the Middle East, people in this country dismiss and attack views and feelings that they do not understand, instead of having a dialog and finding why a particular segment of the universe of man, feels the wat they do.
Senator Clinton recently declared that Rev. Wright “would not have been [her] pastor,” characterizing his clearly critical and passionate comments on America as “hate speech.” Clinton asserts that while one can’t choose one’s family, one can choose which church to attend and that walking out is always an option.
One wonders whether Clinton would also have walked out when Frederick Douglass asked, “what to the American slave is your Fourth of July?” and concluded that “for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.”
Would Clinton have also walked away at that Fourth of July speech in 1854 when the great abolitionist minister from Massachusetts, William Lloyd Garrison, set fire to a copy of the U.S. Constitution, calling it “a covenant with death and an agreement with hell?”
Had she been on the scene, Senator Clinton would no doubt have denounced both Douglass’s and Garrison’s provocative rhetoric as “hate speech” too.
But that was the past. America clearly has no need for ministers who speak in the prophetic voice anymore.
Eric Johnson-DeBaufre
Rev. Wright was painfully accurate when he blamed 9/11 on our unflinching support of Israel no matter how wretchedly Israel behaves. It is a fact that the MSM won’t touch with a ten foot pole.
Black people are incarcerated at much higher rates than white people. Drugs that are prevalent in the black community (the CIA admitted to turning it’s back while it’s allies in other countries, attacking innocent people and displacing democratic governments investors here found objectionable, brought drugs into the black community to finance the CIA’s preferred policies) like crack are given much longer sentences than drugs like cocaine. Black people pay much higher rates of interest for loans, pay much more for insurance, have much worse schools (since their financial support is largely financed by local taxes) , there are about the same number roughly of black men in college than in jail, black people make much less than white people, have much higher rates of un-employment, etc. The ghettos that black people live in were created largely by the government, and this occurred well into the 20th century. They are capital-less wastelands that were created by things like the Federal Aid Highway Act that created the suburbs and shipped capital out of the cities that black people were in, they were created by the Urban Renewal Act that forced a disproportionate number of black people to move out of public housing (most of which was only partially replaced) while not creating enough good paying jobs to offset the difference, the New Deal programs that excluded domestic and farm workers (the professions that a good number of black people employed in), amongst other things.
The effects of this were covered in David Hilfiker’s book “How Ghettos Happen”. Black people were much more likely in 1910 to have white neighbors than in 1950. Society, thanks to these governmental programs, was much more segregated and the economic differences on the whole more acute. White people have tried to enact policies to help the situation a bit, and they have, but there is still huge differences in wealth and other factors between black people and white people and nothing will in the end change that fact unless there is a radical change to the economic & judicial system. I understand that some people are put off by his strong language but if those people can’t have empathy for WHY there is anger and can’t be honest about these facts then should get out of the conversation. The fact is that the reforms have not gone nearly far enough & many of the programs that DID help have either been eliminated or seen their funding severely cut. I personally think that the issue of race has increasingly been intertwined with economic matters, and I disagree with you that the situation is improving on that level. AWARENESS might have improved, but action hasn’t and I think the awareness of these issues is still very colored by white people’s lack of historical perspective, as well as their lack of humility when talking about these issues. The economic system here is creating larger differences in wealth, decreased access to healthcare and a quality education, less good paying jobs (for all, more so for black folks), etc. This is effected everyone but there are huge differences in wealth between the races, whatever is hurting white people is hurting black people all the more. So, again, the anger is in my mind justified. I understand that it might be smarter for Wright to word what he says differently, at the same time it’s important to focus on the issues he’s addressing, not paying attention to how he says it. The corporate press, made up mainly of rich suburban white guys (at the very least economic elites) are in no position what so ever to lecture the black community on how angry they should be about this situation and you’ll notice that they haven’t said a singe word about the issues themselves.
By the way, I don’t think Wright is blaming white people for all of the ills of the human race. Tell me though, when Reagan was committing his atrocities in Central America was it mainly against white or non-white people? Was the horrific European & American (King Leopold was of Belgium was responsible for an estimated 10 million deaths alone in the Congo) colonialization of Africa, Latin America or Asia against white or non-white people? When institutions like the IMF and World Bank lock the poor countries into debt, steal their resources and get in the way of their independent development in the “third world” or the “developing world” is it against predominantly white or non-white people? I realize there are exceptions, like China in Sudan, but we should again be honest with ourselves about what our country and countries like ours are doing in the world. If you listen to the rhetoric of the capitalist powers (like the people around Tony Blair who have been calling for a wave of “neocolonialism”), it doesn’t sound much different than the taming of the “savages” in earlier centuries.
Rev.Wright makes me want to go to church.
When Gary Kamiya was collecting quotes from Lincoln and Winthrop and MLK, apparently he couldn’t find them screaming…
“God damn America!”
The hypocritical Mr. Kamiya does everything he can to camouflage the hate-freak Jeremiah Wright and his disciple Barack Obama with citations of great Americans and religious leaders, but still claims…
“I am not comparing Jeremiah Wright to these towering figures.”
That’s exactly what you were doing, Mr. Kamiya… You’re just too much of a hypocrite to admit it.
The hate-freak Jeremiah Wright and his disciple Barack Obama are poison for Democrats, however much the hate-America fringe of the internet may try to excuse Wright’s racist hate-speech.
Jacob, shut the hell up. Seriously, you’re acting like a child, which means you’re in all likelihood a right winger pretending to be an offended left winger. If you were a “liberal” or whatever the word is these days you’d have a conversation about the issues.
By the way, MLK was an ideological socialist (though he did speak out about communism) who had just as poignant things to say about the capitalist system and its effect on the poor (his father for instance was a capitalist. He and MLK had fierce arguments about the injustice of the capitalist system. MLK cited Norman Thomas, the former Socialist Party presidential candidate, as one of his biggest influences) and the Vietnam war, disparaging it’s effects on darker skinned people at the time. If he were around today you’d be doing the same shtick here. You aren’t even good at it by the way. Work on the act and come back when you can articulate thoughts like a big person.
Quick question though, have anything to say about McCain’s pastor’s comments towards Catholics? How about his cozying up to pastors who blamed 9/11 on gay people and liberals? Are you equally outraged? If so, how did you show it? Did you go to sites like this proclaiming how offended and hurt you were about their comments? If you are basing who you are supporting in the coming election on nonsense like this you’ll have to vote for a third party. You might notice that McCain actually stuck up for Obama regarding Wrights words (largely factually true). Have any idea why genius?
Probably not, your brain (Limbaugh and the like) weren’t telling you to flip out then, so you didn’t respond like a mindless robot. You had yet to receive your marching orders.
Quote: “Maybe we really are doomed to elect John McCain, remain in Iraq forever and nuke Iran. Nations that forget history may not be doomed to repeat it, but those that never even recognize reality in the first place definitely are.”
I ONLY read about one or two sentences more, for now; however between the above and the title of the article, it seems that I’ll be agreeing with likely most, if not all, of this piece.
Rev. Wright spoke fine; immediately reminding me of things I have read from words of Rev. MLK Jr, all reality-based. Rev. Wright’s expression struck and will surely always strike me as that of a man of authentic, righteous passion, and compassion, fully. There was not an iota of anything bad in what he said.
With that said, I can understand that he “shock-and-awed”, rocked many “Americans” though; because they are awfully weak and malicious. But that is their fault; definitely neither his, nor of any other innocent people.
Damn. How people can be that way is “beyond me” to understand. Recognising that they are this … despicable, awful is easy, but why the heck people could choose to be and stay such awful characters is beyond my ability to fully understand. It’s easy to say that they’re soul-less, but that’s just an expression, figurative; or they have time to salvage their souls before they’re fully lost, anyway.
It’s like they do not SEE the evil they represent; as if literally being Hell’s representatives, or very, awfully nearly this, and while duped about it, somewhat anyway.
‘God damn the U.S.!’, Rev. Wright has been quoted saying. Hmmm, sounds strikingly familiar. Oh yeah, I remember now; I said it many times with the launch of the war on Iraq. His words are fully welcome to me.
Religion and Nationalism (patriotism) are the two most dangerous forces in existence in the world today. They addle the brains of those addicted to them, reduce people to thinking only in black and white, only seeing good and evil.
Americans are one of the most heavily indoctrinated peoples in the world. They are led to believe that they are the greatest, their country is the greatest, their political and economic system is the greatest, etc. What bullshit! America is a disaster!
You must break free of the indoctrination, my American brothers and sister, see yourselves as the rest of the world sees you. And you must do it soon before the madmen who are leading you take us all to the brink of extinction.
www.dangerouscreation.com
Some of King’s quotes, Jacob, get ready to be offended:
From his speech, “Where Do We Go From Here?”
“What I’m saying to you this morning is communism forgets that life is individual. (Yes) Capitalism forgets that life is social. (Yes, Go ahead) And the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism, but in a higher synthesis. (Speak) [applause] It is found in a higher synthesis (Come on) that combines the truths of both. (Yes) Now, when I say questioning the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. (All right) These are the triple evils that are interrelated.”
“…In other words, “Your whole structure (Yes) must be changed.” [applause] A nation that will keep people in slavery for 244 years will “thingify” them and make them things. (Speak) And therefore, they will exploit them and poor people generally economically. (Yes) And a nation that will exploit economically will have to have foreign investments and everything else, and it will have to use its military might to protect them. All of these problems are tied together. (Yes) [applause]”
From his speech, “Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence”
“But they ask — and rightly so — what about Vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government.”
How different is this to what Wright said, outside of the less important wording?
It would be laughable, if not so sad, that so many people
get their skivies in a wad over Rev. Wright’s words. It
doesn’t surprise me however. The truth hurts! If this
country is so great, so perfect, then why so we rank so
far down the list in so many things? We rank 21st and
25th in Math and Science. Way down the list in infant
deaths. Several countries have longer life expectancy
than the US. Sure, we have a great health-care system if
you can afford it or are a member of Congress. Just what
is so great about the US that people get this glazed
“I’m proud to be an American and live in the greatest
country in the world” look in their eyes.
As I understand it, Rev. Wright was quoting someone
else when he made the “chickens coming home to roost”
statement. However that never gets mentioned in the
news. Didn’t Ron Paul say the same thing during one of
the debates this year. I believe he said our foreign
policy was the thing that was really ticking people
off. He went on to present examples of some of our
policies.
I’m 68 years of age and grew up in a small town
in Texas. In the 1950’s I can remember White and
Colored bath rooms, water fountains, and a young
black man talking to a white girl would have gotten
him beaten or worse. Black people didn’t walk down
the front street, they went in the back of stores.
Is there still some anger among black people; well I
would certainly think so. If I had been treated like
that I would still be somewhat pissed off. Everything
that Wright said in his sermon was the truth..so let’s
own it and live with it. We screw around with every
country in the world, telling them how they should do
things. We are the ONLY country that ever Nuked
another country. We either use force or try to starve
other countries into seeing things our way. We are like
the school-yard bully that takes the little guy’s
lunch money. I served 12 years in the Army and I have
seen first hand how some Americans treat other people
during overseas assignments. I can only imagine how
some of our soldiers are treating the Iriqi civilians.
Hillary Clinton was a member of the conservative Bible study and prayer group known as “The “Fellowship”, also known as The Family. The Family’s most visible activity is National Prayer Breakfast, held every February in Washington. As Sharlet reported in Harper’s in 2003: During the 1960s the Family forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most anti-Communist (and dictatorial) elements within Africa’s postcolonial leadership. The Brazilian dictator General Costa de Silva, with Family support, was overseeing regular fellowship groups for Latin American leaders, while, in Indonesia, General Suharto (whose tally of several hundred thousand “Communists” killed marks him as one of the century’s most murderous dictators) was presiding over a group of fifty Indonesian legislators. During the Reagan Administration the Family helped build friendships between the U.S. government and men such as Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, convicted by a Florida jury of the torture of thousands, and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, himself an evangelical minister, who was linked to both the CIA and death squads before his own demise.
Blacks are not the only ones in this country with a right to be angry. Anyone with eyes to see and a brain to think with should have a pretty good mad-on.
I began my working career in the hi-tech field in 1971, April Fools Day to be exact. Now at age 57, I am just another poor white man trying to make ends meet because the career that I loved, that I was so good at, has been outsourced. The years that should have been my prime earning years have been stolen away from my wife and me. We’ve had to spend our retirement just to live. I doubt that we are the only ones in this handbasket.
Reverend Wright is absolutely right. I find nothing offensive in what he says. The elite in America do not give a $hit about the majority of us. Wait until their time comes. I can hear the whining already.
The GWOT is for Nothing
Color code the empire red
full spectrum stupidity is just ahead
How do you declare war on terror
if your the biggest bearer?
For the GWOT to succeed
empires will need to bleed
perhaps retire or expire
MAD may be a spritely bolster
if your a corporate huckster
and don’t threat for a bit of flat line
to tighten up your bottom line
the global war for terror is our deed
enslaved by the weapons of our greed
yes it is WMD indeed
Chorus:
For their money is for nothing
and our chains are for free
and We will do their bidding
the same tally as their being
HEIDI ROSE & DEEPA & GRANT: Excellent postings today!
Excellent article except for the omission of 9-11 being a false flag operation intended to lead to the neo-con wars/occupation of critical energy resources and full-spectrum domination.
“… and the Truth keeps marching on.”
Keep marching, Reverend Wright. Keep marching.
A white sister for Justice & Equality for ALL people.
Siouxrose, I agree! Excellent posts by Grant, Eric J-D, decrepptix, curlybird….
Good article.
Obama’s cowardice in deserting Rev. Wright shows you what kind of a sleezebag Obama is.
Listen to what Rev. Wright actually said as opposed to the Fox News spin.
Here’s the Rev. Jeremiah Wright sermon right after September 11 when he talks about Malcolm X saying “America’s chickens are coming home to roast.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ
Here’s the full context of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s “God Damn America” comment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw
Obama is a disgrace.
The other ridiculous part of this is the fact that right wingers never have to atone for the whacko preachers that support their candidates. Nobody is out there attacking Pat Robertson, “Dr” James Dobson etc; for their bizarre, bigoted, hateful sermons and I’m sure at least one right wing religious nutbar has said he (as they are largely male) supports McCain.
One can never cease to be amazed by the lack of comprehension of supposedly educated Americans… many believe Rev. Wright was way out of line, and many believe that Obama a closet Muslim terrorist, many are falling all over themselves to apologize for being white.
Neither Rev. Wright nor Obama has done or said anything out of line… it’s just not what the self-righteous white folks want to hear.
As for being apologetic for being white, my white great-grandparents risked life and limb being a part of the Underground Railroad in Michigan before the Civil War… something my family has always spoken of proudly.
One of the most memorable experiences I ever had was being a Northern salesman traveling in the South back in the mid-1970’s. I had checked into my motel in Greenville Mississippi and decided I wanted some Cola and chips to snack on while I watched TV in my room.
Just as I opened the door to the local grocery store, an elderly black lady approached from the side… I stopped and held the door for her, and she stopped cold… hesitating and looking directly into my eyes.
When she realized this was not some sort of dirty trick, and I wasn’t planning to slam her in the back with the door or something, she squared her shoulders and marched forward proudly, saying “Why thank you kind Sir!”
I realized then that what was second nature to me coming from the North was a dramatic event for her! That is the era Rev. Wright came from.
I will agree that racism is not just limited to any single race, and there are still pockets of racism in EVERY racial group… but we should look proudly at the fact that Obama could actually WIN elections in states like Iowa where the percentage of blacks is probably in the single digits.
Another example was James, on “Survivor” this past year… awarded $100,000 just because he was the most popular player in the game!
We’ve come a long way baby!(..AND WE STILL HAVE A WAY TO GO!)
all the advances made politically to address the grievances of black people have been enacted by white people.
In case your ignorant of the Civil Rights Chronicles , the single event that sped up those “advances” which would have gone much slower if the event had not been televised around the world was Bloody Sunday when freedom marchers tried to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge under the skull-cracking blows of Alabama State Troopers . I challenge you to find the photograph and pick out even one white person who in your words are enacting…advances .
Now that you’ve done that look at all the photographs in the book and tell us that whites kicking , spitting-on , firehosing , blugeoning marchers and black school-children are “enacting advances to address the grievances of black Americans” ( your words ).
When I read an untutored , completely-devoid-of-any- history-knowledge post like yours it makes me appreciate all the rest except JacobFreeze’s all the more .
People lie or are misinformed but photographs don’t.
It’s funny that a couple of people have said if Rev. Wright preached at their local church, they wouldn’t miss a service — I just told this to a Christian I met in a bookstore earlier today ..! Preachers wondering why their pews are so empty should take note ..!
Rev. Wright in ‘08! Do the WRIGHT thing! Write in Wright!
“It’s easy for pseudonymous posters to insult the memory of hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers who died to give black Americans the freedom they enjoy today.”
WRONG. John Brown freed the slaves, the abolitionist movement freed the slaves and the only union soliders blacks owe anything to is the 54th (see the movie Glory). And even if blacks did owe the union something, that does NOT let the union off the hook: The statistics speak for themselves …
http://www.sentencingproject.org/IssueAreaHome.aspx?IssueID=3
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/01/3550/
African Americans and non-White Hispanics are still about three times more likely than whites to be poor.
“NO ONE is without blame or fault in our country and history, but the constant drumbeat of discord helps no one progress to a better time and space. Get over your righteous indignation”
No, honey. Some are more to blame than others, OK? David and Goliath are NOT in the same weight class! There is such a thing as the powerful and the powerless, and while Africans, Latins, Asians and Native Americans ain’t perfect, NO one deserves what happened to them (give the video games a rest* and read Professor Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States).
In addition, the price of liberty is ETERNAL — as in “constant” — vigilance because when you forget (or never learned*) history, it repeats itself. Which is more important? An entire people remaining free and safe or your good mood?
“Is there more to do, Yes there is, but being hateful and offensive is not the way to get what you want.”
Whatever. As the great black author James Baldwin once said, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.”
On August 26, 2001, John Leland interviewed the award-winning musician and Civil Rights legend, Harry Belafonte …
Leland: You once described yourself as being in a constant state of rebellion, fueled by anger. How is your anger different at 74 than at 34?
Belafonte: The anger hasn’t changed. I’ve got to be a part of whatever the rebellion is that tries to change all this. The anger is a necessary fuel. Rebellion is healthy.
The REAL problem is that very few (maybe a couple of thousand) people have listened to Rev. Wright’s sermon in context!
I was blown away when I saw the full, unedited video of Rev. Wright’s sermon! He was quoting — with his “Faith Footnote” — from something that he saw a white man (Ambassador Pike) present on the Fox News channel. He (Rev. Wright) then goes on to repudiate that kind of destructive attitude and admonishes us to do some serious, “… self examination … ” for peace! Watch this …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4×279GNMwvY
A quote from ??? goes something like….
“If you refuse to recognize the good in those you despise, you will never see the evil within yourself”.
“If you refuse to recognize the good in those you despise, you will never see the evil within yourself”.
Now just what the fuck is that supposed to mean? It sounds like white folks can’t go five fucking minutes without that pat on the back! God, how spoiled, how fragile! Don’t you have enough already?
If y’all want to feel good about yourselves that damn bad, pick some better heroes and heroines! John Brown, Mary “Mother” Jones, Eugene Debs, Upton Sinclair, George Orwell, Dorothy Day, the SDS/Weather Underground, Jim Garrison, Karen Silkwood, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Oliver Stone, Jerry Brown (circa 1992), Bernie Sanders, Michael Moore, Erin Brockovich, Rachel Corrie, Dennis Kucinich …
… are we satiated yet? That’s gonna have to do for now, my lips are tired …
Saab, I rather thought it meant stepping back from self-righteousness and a bit more toward compassion, recognizing our common human frailties. ….I’m sorry.
Wonderful article and comments. I would recommend anyone who thinks that this media blitz was anything but a character assassination watch or listen to Reverend Wright’s speeches in their full context.
http://essence.typepad.com/news/2008/03/the-full-story.html
http://essence.typepad.com/news/2008/03/the-truth-behin.html
I would love to attend this man’s sermons. He is being pilloried for speaking uncomfortable truths. He’s not alone, but at least he’s already retired so they can’t mess up his career as they’ve done with other scapegoats in recent years. Ward Churchill comes immediately to mind. He got fired from his tenured professorship for the same brand of political incorrectness. http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/s11/churchill.html
Here’s a question for all those (like Jacob Freeze) who agree with Senator Clinton’s evaluation of Rev. Wright:
Was William Lloyd Garrison guilty of “hate speech” when he publicly burned copies of the U.S. Constitution, denouncing it as “a covenant with death and an agreement with hell?”
Was he guilty of the sin of being “anti-American” when he harangued America for its hypocrisy in proclaiming “all men” to be “created equal” in one of its most important founding documents while institutionalizing and entrenching the enslavement of one part of its population in another?
This was a consistent part of Garrison’s preaching from his Massachusetts pulpit. What makes his behavior and his preaching different from Wright’s jeremiads on America’s sins?
We Americans suffer from an appalling lack of self-reflection and a woeful ignorance of our own history. Prophetic denunciation and righteous indignation over America’s many injustices (at home and abroad) has always been a part of America’s history, and many of this country’s finest orators have been its sharpest and most unsparing critics.
White Americans (like myself) often show little discernment when it comes to such speech, all too readily regarding it as “hateful” and “un-American” because they cannot bear to hear such criticism.
This is what Senator Clinton has done. No doubt had she been alive in the 1850s, she’d have done the same in reaction to Garrison’s sermons or Douglass’s speeches. No doubt too she’d have scratched her head in puzzlement over King’s claim that the “white moderate” rather than the “Ku Klux Klanner” presented the greater “stumbling block in [African Americans’] stride toward freedom.”
- Eric Johnson-DeBaufre
I just want to thank you folks who left the links to the actual sermon…it really was excellent. You know, I had started to think the America was finally growing up in that it was getting ready to elect its first black president. I think I can relate to what Michelle Obama was saying and for which she was pilloried. My hopes for America are starting fade back to where they were before Obama became a household name. Too bad, I thought we really had a chance there for a moment.
Jeremiah Wright isn’t ‘this’ problem, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t ‘that’ problem. Gary Kamiya makes good points, but seems to go in for effect too much. And, While others may indeed react hysterically to Wright, Wright himself is hysterical. And it’s spooky to me how folks just can’t tear themselves away from wanting to idolize other folks. Is Wright now a hero? Can’t we leave it at ‘He is not all wrong and and let’s look at that’? He’s not David against the United States giant, exactly. And it’s not, in my view, an apt comparison for any purpose.
As for Obama, I have no use for him, Wright or no Wright. Or Clinton. Or the idea that Republicrats will save us from… Republicrats.
With lots of corporate help, Repugs more than Dems, scour and dredge to find anything the least bit compromising and make a federal case of it. People eat that shit up.
Curlybird ,
NO, you’re not alone. I am, was I should say, a high-tech professional, a (UNIX) computer professional to be more precise, and was totally wiped out due to the same reason as yourself, around 10 years ago; and remain wiped out to this day, for where I relocated to in order to not have to find empty park benches to sleep on, etc., this area has no market for my experience.
There were millions of us hit by the major wave of imported replacement foreign “temps”, in addition to the jobs outsourced to people contracting from their own countries, on top of the offshoring of U.S. industry altogether.
But I far from needed that to know that words like these of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the past ones by Rev. MLK Jr, as well as the considerably older ones by Frederick Douglass were all sound, reality-based, and so on; and I sure do like Fred. Douglass’ extra “twist”, for they’re a wee bit stronger.
It seems that one point has been lost in this entire discussion — since when are sermons supposed to make us comfortable? If all my pastor did was feed me pablum to keep me comfortable in my belief that I was right, I’d change churches!
And as to what passes for patriotism these days, the Declaration of Independence requires us to criticize the government when it has lost its way.
Rev. Wright succeeds on both the above counts. Truth hurts. It’s not easy to hear that we’ve failed to live up to our ideals. Was Wright’s tone a bit over the top? To be sure, but listen to the ideas, and listen to the sermons in their entirety. Context is everything in many cases, this one also.
“And it’s spooky to me how folks just can’t tear themselves away from wanting to idolize other folks.”
I agree with this part of what you said. When we look back at the civil rights movement, it wasn’t the unknown people who risked their lives who get lionized many times, it’s the leaders of the civil rights movement, who wouldn’t have had the power they had if the unknowns didn’t act so bravely. It’s what capitalism does best, treat every movement like it centers around great individuals instead of a collective effort.
However, I myself don’t think Wright is a hero, I think he’s saying things that are LARGELY true and I myself am using this PR created hysteria to point out the fact that the issues he’s addressing are almost always pushed under the rug in this country, by the elites and the corporate press. The people in power, and the press that they own, don’t want the issues he addressed discussed, because solving the problems he’s addressing means radically changing how social relations, the economic system, our foreign policy and the rest operates, and this would take power away from those causing the problems, enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else in the process. Every time someone says something, for instance, about the US’ murderous foreign policy, and doesn’t say beforehand that the US is the best country ever and its foreign policy always out to do good, is attacked personally, with the issues they’re addressing put into the background. Wright is just the latest example of this.
I don’t mean to be caustic or rude, I think if people are on the same side ideologically they should not let any smaller differences get in the way. However, I think that a lot of white people act and think offensively and don’t seem to realize it. If white people, whether they’re liberal/leftist or not, think black people should be thankful for the rights they have, think they have no right to be angry and think that institutional racism is a thing of the past, they should be challenged. It’s no different than challenging someone who thinks we have a right to attack innocent countries and replace democratic governments with dictatorships who will follow our orders. If someone backs immoral policies, or if you personally think what they’re saying is factually or logically incorrect, you should say and do something about it, right?
I think Americans still think this a game they can win.
Rockerbabe1 - Hey! White people HAVE made those comments in many contexts. And, obviously no one was up in arms about it, or you would have heard about it.
Read some of Frank Schaeffer’s articles. They are wonderful in their analysis of Wright’s comments, and they also point out a wide variety of negative religious rhetoric that would be called “anti-American” if made by blacks. But when those comments were made by his father, religious right founder, Francis Schaeffer, he was courted by the likes of Jack Kemp and Ronald Regan.
Francis Schaeffer, Pat Buchanon, James Dobson, and other white evangelicals have used language that either hints at or blatantly declares that god has damned America for its tolerance of gays, abortion, lack of prayer in schools, liberal attitudes and beliefs, and other issues. For the rightwing faction, it’s fine to criticize America, even to invoke god’s wrath, if it’s for a religious, reactionary policy. But as soon as progressives call upon god to denounce America for violation of human rights or racial issues, suddenly it’s unpatriotic.
Beyond racism, this bias touches all liberal and progressive points of view. There’s no outcry when Ann Coulter calls all liberals “traitors.” How about Rush Limbaugh’s calling some soldiers “fake”? When Imus labeled female athletes “nappy headed hos,” the reaction was, from many quarters, that these are “just words.” In fact, I’ve heard many comments about offensive language being just words. That is until those words are aimed against the same people’s dearly held jingoism or religion or chauvinism of any kind. I believe there’s a name for this. It’s called a “double standard.”
It was good to watch what the “reverend” had to say and how it has been taken totally out of context. How can one disagree with what he has to say about America and race relations or America and its genocide and the wanton killing of innocents throughout the years.
The problem for me, though, is that he uses the bible as his starting point which then excludes many people like myself who are not religious at all and see religious belief as a bunch of nonsense.
It seems to me that one of the main issues here is that way too many people look to religious “leaders” for “truths”. Look in yourself, find what’s there, act upon it.
OYE
James Baldwin’s poignant warning contains the answer to racism on both sides: “The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.”
“Racism on both sides,” anney? Once again, David and Goliath are NOT in the same weight class any more than Urkel and Mike Tyson is. How many nuclear missiles does the black community have? How many GLOBAL armys and navys and air forces does the black community have at its disposal? There’s the powerful and the powerless, don’t get it twisted …
Yes, black racism exists — read my first novel, A.D., I talk all about it when I expose how the Nation of Islam has cut deals with the white supremacist movement for years. HOWEVER, comparing black supremacy with its much more powerful white counterpart is about like comparing the Riddler to Galactus. And when Galactus comes to eat your planet, only someone ignorant or suspect will WASTE time going after a petty crook basing crimes on riddles …
And despite those who’d claim otherwise, Rev. Wright is NOT a black supremacist — ignorant whites who’re afraid of ANY mention of THE TRUTH will call Wright one, but he ain’t. Wright’s comments are actually indicative of how most blacks feel (take it from someone who actually is black). If you “think” Wright saying “God damn America” is scary, check out my website (saablofton.org) sometime. I make Rev. Wright seem like Clarence Thomas …
The price of liberty is ETERNAL vigilance because when you forget history it repeats itself. Therefore, Wright did America a great service by bringing up that which blacks are CONstantly told to “let go”. The next time a Jewish Rabbi gets pissed off because some skinhead punks spraypainted a swastika on the front door of his synagogue, tell the Rabbi to “let it go” and see what happens …
Rather than have the courage to reflect Rev. Wright’s honesty and educate the American people for a chance, the D.L.C. is petrified that Obama’s connection to Wright will cost them the White House. Whatever happened to “it doesn’t matter if you win or lose but how you play the game”? Besides, not only is Obama a closet imperialist (ask him about Iran), there’s more to politics than elections, ya know …
“Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence.”
–Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
“Although publicly I continued to ignore the raging antiwar controversy … I knew, however, that after all the protests and the Moratorium [the nationwide protests of October 1969] American public opinion would be seriously divided by any military escalation of the war.”
–The Nixon Memoirs
“The ultimate solution is not with the people on top. The ultimate solution is for people in the streets to create an atmosphere for people on top to be accountable.”
–Professor Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States
We the people are long overdue for something I’ve been calling for for years: A Greenpeace version of FDR’s New Deal. Pay the poor to save the world; kill two birds with one stone. That means the ghetto, the trailer parks, and yes, even the barrio — the environment is in such a sorry state, EVERYone (including so-called “illegals”) who wants a job healing Mother Nature should have one (sorry, Greenpeace, but those with bills to pay can’t afford to volunteer) so the whole “they took our jobs” cry heard on South Park doesn’t apply. To afford such a thing, you’d need to tax the rich and cut the military budget, but can you imagine the reaction of those in mansions (paid for by nuclear missile sales) being told to move into a three bedroom/two bath in the suburbs so that such job creation can be afforded? “I ain’t losing my MTV Cribs/MC Hammer mansion so a buch of NIGGERS can build windmills, install solar power panels and grow industrial hemp!” Hence the REAL racism and the ONLY kind worth worrying about …
Not that the spoiled comfort level of white suburbia is a priority by any stretch, but if the goal is to put their fragile asses at ease, tell them this:
“If we lived in a society that said our first goal was employment at a livable wage for everyone, if the person living next door to you — if that person’s making $40,000 a year, what’s the chance they’re going to come in and steal your TV or harm you on the street? Absolutely none.”
–Michael Moore
Now imagine if that “livable wage” was made repairing the environment and pioneering eco-friendly energies? If I gotta hurt some white folks feelings to achieve that, so be it. And yes, hurting their feelings is inevitable, because the first time one of them makes the mistake of saying, “but we need those nuclear missiles, we can’t afford a Green New Deal,” I will go off and I’ll make Rev. Wright seem tame by comparison in the process. Ask about me …
“Maybe we really are doomed to elect John McCain, remain in Iraq forever and nuke Iran”. This is the chronicle of a diaster foretold.
Rev. Wright reflects the emotions of his parishoners. Obama has every right to attend the church of his choice. Wright, the UCC and Obama all have good reason to be angry about our failure to achieve racial equality. But a lot of fair minded people believe Wright’s rhetoric to be over-the-top, incendiary and divisive; not racist, but devisive. The church Obama belongs to and the choice of his spiritual adviser are legitimate election issues, notwithstanding the genuine threat posed by the rightwing, the promise of an Obama administration, and the specter of another 5 years of war.
I am not AA, but I have attended AA churches in the past. I think what frightens many people who have NOT attended AA churches, but who viewed the Wright 3 minutes out of 30 yrs Utube…is the powerful emotion…combined with movement and vigor.
Rev, Wrights words were out there without much notice for a long time before the film was thrust upon us over & over. It wasn’t the words…that really got to people…it was the visual.
“O My God! Did a black fella speak truth to power? Burn the nigga!”
That is part of our heritage, like it or not, but deny it at your own risk.
“Hypocrisy is the greatest enemy of democracy…”
— Crazy Bird
I don’t believe god would damn America any more than god would bless America. That being said I believe the man (Reverend Wright) said “God damn America, for their chickens are coming home to roost.” You don’t have to be a genius to see he meant for the past to be damned and the present to be called for what it is. Empire and all of its spoils. It’s tougher for some when the truth slaps them in the face but America is tainted and it is ongoing.
I have no problem with Reverend Wright as he speaks the truth however rabid it may sound. I did hear that this sermon was given on Christmas day and the timing might have been better but I wasn’t there and the context is missing. He is the Reverend and he said what he thought needed to be said to his congregation. However there seems to be a litmus test for some who hold their selves a bit above the fray or so they would think. All hands are dirty for those who do not fight the dogma that is the US as a great and compassionate nation. For all of the good Bush has done in Africa he negates it with his Middle East debacle. There are no carbon credits for human lives. If you take one (or thousands) you can’t make up for it by saving another. It just doesn’t work that way.
“… a lot of fair minded people believe Wright’s rhetoric to be over-the-top, incendiary and divisive; not racist, but devisive. The church Obama belongs to and the choice of his spiritual adviser are legitimate election issues, notwithstanding the genuine threat posed by the rightwing, the promise of an Obama administration, and the specter of another 5 years of war.”
“Keepitsimple,” as in simpleminded? First, the promise of an Obama administration IS another 5 years of war! Have you even bothered to look past how cute and JFK-esque he is and look at the man’s platform?! Obama has already said invading Iran is on the table, as it were! He even went so far as to say he’d invade Pakistan ..!
First, anyone “fair minded” would acknowledge how dead on, bullseye accurate Rev. Wright was. Incendiary? Maybe, but necessary — seing as how we need to compete with those incendiary devices used in Iraq by Emperor Cheney’s evil forces (since the pen may not be mightier than the sword). Over-the-top? Well, I guess you’ve never been to a black church, huh? Rent The Blues Brothers sometime …
But divisive? Only insofar as a farmer dividing the wheat from the chaff. What’s that old expression? “When you lie with dogs, you wake up with fleas.” Don’t let the desperation to see a black president or a Democrat in the White House rule/blind you. Once again, the words of Professor Howard Zinn (A People’s History of the United States):
“The ultimate solution is not with the people on top. The ultimate solution is for people in the streets to create an atmosphere for people on top to be accountable.”
There are two options: One, always put the fragility of spoiled, white suburban sensibilities first and keep America in a vacuum sealed bubble isolating them from THE TRUTH …
Or two, tell THE TRUTH, and I for one thank God Rev. Wright had the courage to.
“We’ve got to repudiate, you know, the most strident and insulting anti-American voices out there sometimes on our party’s left … We can’t have our party identified by Michael Moore and Hollywood as our cultural values.”
–Al From, CEO, Democratic Leadership Council
It all started in September of 1946. Paul Robeson — actor, singer and all-around Renaissance man — tried to persuade President Harry Truman (a Democrat) to pursue anti-lynching legislation. Truman claimed the time wasn’t right for such legislation because it’d offend members of Congress from the Deep South!
Imagine scales on a balance: On the one hand, you have the tortured souls of blacks being lynched for glancing at a white woman … On the other hand, you have the fragile egos of a bunch of Dixiecrats who never missed a meal or had to light a candle because the power went out. Which demographic is more important?
Flash forward four decades. To counteract the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition, Al From founded the Democratic Leadership Council. The D.L.C.’s purpose is to make sure an entity as powerful as the Democratic Party never nominates a presidential candidate that’s actually left-wing. This isn’t surprising given that, according to Wikipedia, “the D.L.C. has received funding from the right-wing Bradley Foundation as well as from oil companies, military contractors and various Fortune 500 companies.”
In 1988, Jesse Jackson was passed over for Michael Dukakis, who climbed into a tank wearing an army helmet two-sizes-too-big in order to a) ensure those military contractors that their MC Hammer mansions would be safe from taxation, and b) satiate the bloodlust of suburbanites who watched Red Dawn once too often. Dukakis lost.
In 1992, Jerry Brown ran on a platform which would’ve benefited the poor/oppressed and even promised that Jackson would’ve been his choice for vice president. Instead, Bill Clinton was chosen — he won, but the poor/oppressed lost. From the “don’t ask, don’t tell” compromise to the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996 … From denying Haitian refugees asylum to the economic sanctions that killed a million women and children in Iraq, we the people were shown time and time again where the name “Slick Willie” came from.
In 2000 and 2004, the D.L.C. propped up Al Gore and John Kerry. Insofar as Gore goes, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now said it best, “Many continue to believe that the election was thrown to George W. Bush by Ralph Nader, who got about 97,000 votes in Florida. Ten times that number of Floridians are prevented from voting at all.” Except when the Congressional Black Caucus tried to protest what happened in Florida, not one senator backed them up and neither did Gore.
Insofar as Kerry goes, Reuters reported that, “Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry said on Monday [August 9th, 2004] he would have voted for the Congressional resolution authorizing force against Iraq even if he had known then no weapons of mass destruction would be found.” This means Kerry was so gung ho, he didn’t even need to be lied to by the Bush administration — does that sound like a man of the people to you?
Well, Gore and Kerry lost, and rather than learn its lesson, the D.L.C. figured, “Let’s have yet another Faustian/Machiavellian candidate, but this time, let them be female or a non-white — that way, we’ll con those who’d otherwise vote for Nader into ‘thinking’ the Democratic party has swung left, but we’ll still have someone willing to play the game.” Which brings us to the present.
As of this writing, it looks as though Barack Obama might wind up the nominee, but this is NOT a triumph of Black Power. On the contrary, this overrated pretty boy has …
1) voted for the 2006 version of the Patriot Act
2) voted for the Secure Fence Act, authorizing the construction of a 700 mile wall along the Mexican/American border
3) stated he won’t rule out invading Iran
4) stated that he’d enter Pakistan in order to attack al-Qaeda even without Pakistani approval
5) praised Ronald (SIX letters) Wilson (SIX letters) Reagan (SIX letters)!
“But Saab, Dennis Kucinich is too short and ugly for America’s tastes!” And since Obama’s cute and comes off like JFK, he should be tapped? That’s no different than hiring a receptionist solely because she looks like Dolly Parton. Besides, if advertising made a star out of a worthless hack like Britney Spears, imagine what it could do for Kucinich!
“But Saab, Obama has to play ‘Trojan Horse’ so that ignorant patriots will vote for him!” So deception is the answer? Even if Obama’s a closet radical, which he AIN’T, how do you suppose all those good ol’ boys are going to feel when they realize their asses have been duped? Honesty is the best policy; these rednecks must be educated, NOT placated.
I will NOT be blackmailed by the D.L.C. with threats of the apocalypse. Unlike all too many, I’m NOT so desperate for a Democrat to win the White House that I’ll accept any Tom, Dick or Harry. Maybe if a Republican wins this fall, the D.L.C. will finally learn to nominate an actual left-winger. If Satan was the Democratic nominee, would you vote for HIM? I’d rather vote for Nader or one of the third party eco-commies than sell my soul.
Heeey Saab,
I like that Satan bit. Bush IS Satan and lots of people voted for him. Let’s face it guy. We’ve become a nation of pricks.