Isn’t it interesting that just as Obama’s pastor Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. celebrated 36 of ministry at Trinity United Church of Christ, and retiring as senior pastor from that pulpit that the new firestorm concerning his pastor is being trotted out again in front of the media as though this is something new. I mean, this church, and this pastor and this candidate dealt with this exact same issue exactly a year ago, and he weathered it. Nothing new is being purported in the media other than the sheer ignorance of Americans.
I just saw a clip on CNN Headline news with Glenn Beck and he also now a reporter who is on my –hit list (you fill in the first letter yourself). But again can I blame him? The clip of Rev. Wright shows Wright preaching clearly in favor of Obama, but also speaking about an alternate reality that I’m convinced is so far away from that of white America that when people like Wright hold a mirror in contrast to their realities, we get a media firestorm. The clip is one where Wright says from the pulpit that “Hillary Clinton aint never been called a nigger” and to the effect that Obama signals something that is competely against the status quo of white, male, patriarchy (and the UNN would add to that list heterosexual).
So, when a black man speaks cold hard facts its considered hate speech?
I must have missed something somewhere. It appears that black people are only allowed to speak of love, peace and long suffering only in the context of Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech. Well, I can say from personal experience that this particular uppity Negro has seen and expereinced more than enough suffering and dammit, I support Rev. Jeremiah Wright without any equivocations.
But, I’m still at a loss; when is it appropriate to speak about the issues that Jeremiah Wright talks about in his sermons? I mean, just because we label it hate speech, which it is not, does not mean that he’s not speaking truth. I mean, the political pundits are using overarching terms to describe Wright’s sermons such as “hate speech” which I think is very interesting because none of them are denouncing the verarcity of what he said. And even in this context, isn’t it interesting, old conventional wisdom asked was Obama black enough, now the concern is that he’s too black.
Go figure.
But, I encourage those to please read Soul Jonz blog because this is where Obama’s pastor gets his theology from. Oh yes, this is not some crackpot, whack job, bootleg preacher, this is an educated man. One need only do a Google search to obtain a biography of Jeremiah Wright. I mean, the attacks against this man and his family are purely based on ignorance of facts and experience. I mean, in all fairness, Hillary Clinton will never have to experience being called a nigger. That is a reality that Barack Obama has faced as a black man living in this country. Well, just like Glenn Beck’s obvious response to the network having to bleep out “the n-word” it would take tomes of books and information to help him understand why Jeremiah Wright is allowed to say that word and he’s not. A black person reading this blog would understand what Jeremiah Wright means when he says that “Hillary Clinton aint never been called a nigger,” but a white person would need a plethora of information explained to them to help them understand that “nigger” isn’t just a pejorative word, equated with any other defaming adjective or noun.
So, again, why is this considered “hate speech” when Trinity United Church of Christ is a member of a predominantly white denomination and one of the denomination conference presidents, a lil’ old white lady, is a member of Trinity? Furthermore, if this is “hate speech” why also does Trinity have the full unbridled support of the United Church of Christ?
I guess in our American ignorance, we’ve allowed the media to redefine some things for us. It appears that hate is one of those things that has been redefined. Hate appears to be whatever goes against the white, male, heterosexual status quo, but I guess this is hate speech because the white, male and heterosexual status quo would have to first recognise that there is a hierarchy in this country and that they are unopposed at the top of this caste system in this country.
Secondly, while they are at it, the media needs to stop acting like this is the Mormon faith and confined only to one state. Oh no! This Black Liberation Theology is a nationwide thing and has been in practice before the legal end of slavery in 1865 and has since been articulated by James Cone in 1969. This is not a fly-by-night operation that Jeremiah Wright is preaching: this is an institution. And woe unto the white people who think that if they get rid of Barack Obama that they have silenced the Jeremiah Wright’s of this country; there are others, they may even be in your local city or town. Let it be known that the following clearly support Jeremiah Wright, as evidenced of their invitation and acceptance to participate in his retirement celebration:
1) Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, pastor of Friendship West Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas
2) Rev. Marcus D. Cosby, pastor of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, Houston, Texas
3) Rev. Rudolph McKissick, pastor of Bethel Institutional Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Florida
4) Rev. Dr. Lance Watson, pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
5) Dr. Cornell West, Princeton University
6) Dr. Obrey Hendricks, author of The Politics of Jesus
7) Rev. Frank Thomas, pastor of Mississippi Boulevard Church, Memphis, Tennessee
….and trust me the list continues.
This blog is not a call to arms against white people of this country, but rather I’m putting white America on notice that what Jeremiah Wright is speaking is not relegated to just the South Side of Chicago, or just barbershop and beauty shop banter. What Jeremiah Wright and others speak is the reality of this Second America, an America that I now see is so far removed from the reality of white America that when our realities combine we get what white America calls “hate speech.” I, however, along with millions of other African Americans see things differently–vastly different.
However, just because white America sides with Dr. King doesn’t mean that the rest must fall in-line so easily, because there’s always the option of Malcolm X, who of course called for the same change as Dr. King, but his was by “any means necessary.”
Keep it radical and keep it uppity, JLL
Joshua Lawrence Lazard 
Go to hell all of you black racist people!
Why would it be wrong to discuss issues a pastor, any pastor brings up in his sermons? Certainly, if McCain, or Huckabee had been a member of some Aryan Nations church, it would have been headline news around the free world. Why? Because hate influences a man, and a person who is conditioned for years that people group X today is responsible for all past present and future evil will form policy based on these beliefs.
You may not be issuing a call to arms against white people, but Dr. Wright and his close confidant Lois Farrakhan fervently believe white equals evil.
Dr. Wright has called for God to damn America. He says that white christian values (in contrast to Black Christian values) are slavery and segregation. This is a clear and simple grouping of all of “white” Christianity under a Confederate-Nazi-klan banner.
Yes there are other options to the dream of a nation where people are not judged by the color of their skin. Yes, one can advocate the violent overthrow of the whole “bourgeois white capitalist” system. But those who live by the sword will die by the sword, and the dream will be lost.
i think this is where the dialogue breaks down. I can honestly say from personal experience, and my own interactions with Jeremiah Wright that he does not hate white people, and he does not encourage his congregation to hate white people. If that were the case I would not have attended his church. It appears to me that people equate black empowerment and pro-Africanism with white hate and that is NOT the case AT ALL.
However, I’m not about to apologize and denounce what Jeremiah Wright said just because it makes a lot of people uncomfortable–I’m not running for president. But, again, my argument in the article above was that what Jeremiah Wright was speaking is a definite reality for a large part of the African American populace in this country, and for the rest of the United States to dismiss him as a random ranting pastor will be a serious mistake.
The only reason why what Wright said is considered “hate speech” is because there is an unwritten agreement in polite society that complaints like these are never to be spoken in the public sector because they challenge the belief of many whites that they should not have to listen to such harangues as they:
A) Did not own slaves
B) That stuff happened a long time ago
C) Doesn’t the Civil Rights Movement and Affirmative Action fix everything
There’s a host of flaws in that logic, but it remains true. White people don’t like being told that they have benefited from the oppression of others. That they still benefit from the latent racism that still exists in our courts, our legislature and our businesses. But the exasperation from whites is a cry of “when will you people stop complaining? When will we be even already?” It doesn’t matter that hardly any white people have been negatively impacted by an attempt at fairness and parity in our society. It doesn’t matter. They want it to be over with so they don’t have to deal with reality or the guilt or sensor their own racist thoughts.
Wright isn’t saying anything different from what countless educators, philosophers, ministers and activists have said before. America has been hostile to blacks and that hostility still exists today. But because this talk is unpleasant and involves challenging people’s world view it is put in the same box as speech that calls whites superior, Aryans the master race and that non-whites are a scourge of mud people.
Out of laziness and wanting black people to “get over it” Wright and other blacks are put in the hate box even though they don’t say blacks are superior, they don’t incite violence and they don’t advocate the elimination of the white race. They don’t charge that whites are inferior and should be subservient to blacks.
But Wright is saying unpleasant truths. It is true our country is still racist. It is true that the black experience is very different from the white experience. It is true that white people irregardless of whether they owned slaves and worked for Bull Conner hosing Negroes down in the streets have benefited from a “whites only” achievement ladder that was often inaccessible to blacks.
But these truths sting and challenge the sensibilities, so to make some whites feel better, who need verification that black people are just as racist, or more racist than whites, they need a straw man. Wright is the straw man. They will beat him to death over his truths, but they won’t deny that what he’s saying is true. No one is challenge the fact that the former First Lady has never been called a nigger. They know that his words aren’t ludicrous. But you really shouldn’t say that out loud because it really turns off the people who think all the bad stuff happened years ago and they didn’t own any slaves, so why should I have to listen to this? Why are you pointing your fingers at me?
Dear JLL,
Thank you for posting your critique of Glenn Beck’s mischaracterization of the Rev. Dr. Wright’s sermon as “hate speech.” I listened to the clip on Beck’s show last night, and when it was over, I was left with the unanswered question, “Where was the hate speech?” Everything the Rev. Dr. Wright said was true — it was a straightforward and credible characterization of the black experience in America. I cannot speak of these things firsthand, because I am not a black man, but I do not find anything the Rev. Dr. Wright said hard to believe.
What’s worse is that Beck then brought on an African-American commentator to support his mischaracterization of the sermon as “hate speech.” This lends an air of legitimacy to this mischaracterization by compounding a white man’s lie with a black man’s lie.
Glenn Beck is on my watchlist, too. I don’t understand why CNN allows Beck’s propaganda and misinformation on “The most trusted name in news.” Beck is not trustworthy, and the news where he is concerned is mostly bad.
Thank you again for your insightful rebuttal of Beck. Keep on speaking the truth!
In the spirit of brotherhood,
Dr. Frederick W. Chapman
Pennsylvania, USA
Why is it okay to thrust your hips out in the pulpit and say “they were riding it dirty” in reference to Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky? How is that in any way appropriate? Disgusting I say. How does he lift his congregation and promote a positive move forward for his followers? He doesn’t. He, not white America, wants to hold them down because if they go out, succeed, make a good life, then they won’t need him or his retoric anymore.
Everything Old is New Again!
I am shocked! I am shocked that I am shocked! I have been stewing over this for some months now, and Iit has come to the point where we must take a stand now! We are moving into dangerous territory and we have to do what we know is right now!
When the Black Church speaking on the Black condition and experience in this country was considered Un-American and “hate speech”? Answer? Always! The whole Civil Rights and Human Rights and Change Movement, has been called Un-American, and Pre-America, it was treason against the Queen, and before that it went against the Emperor, and before that, it was blaspheme and Jesus was put to death for it! It is not unique, it is to be expected.
Do not forget my brothers and sisters, that Rev. King did deliver “I Have a Dream” and though many like to take the “feel good parts”, and say that is what he was all about. But do not forget that is NOT the beginning of the speech! I encourage you to go and look up the speech, here are some excerpt sentences:
…….So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
Pretty Radical stuff huh?
Do not forget that Dr. King himself became an enemy of this nation when he broke ranks with President Johnson, and came against the Vietnam War. He was labeled a communist sympathizer and a philanderer. He was killed while organizing the poor peoples movement, to end poverty and for workers labor rights. We did not abandon Dr. King and we must not abandon our Pastors nor our Senator when they come against him. These are the same things we face now. Rev. Wright, and every other Black preacher worth their title speak truth to power from the pulpit. They are called to make aware the human condition. They articulate our collective Black Experience. It is not hate speech, as it always turns us to God, who sustains us, and always carries a message of hope in that we trust in our God, and he makes a way for us, so that we stand, still in spite of it all, regardless of our condition or experience. It is the same message as “We shall overcome”
Do not worry for Rev. Wright, nor for Senator Obama, their will is God’s will, and what he has ordained will be. We have to concentrate on what our call is, and I believe it is to Stand NOW! We are at the edge of a movement, and we will never again allow anyone to define for us our condition, our experience our leaders or leadership. Rush, Sean, Glenn, Ann, none of them decide for us, what our experience is.
Rev. Wright, will continue to do God’s work, as God has called him to, and God will keep him.
What part will you play in this is to be determined. Perhaps you can start by writing your congressman, senator, mayor, and warn them that anyone who comes against this man will not receive your vote ever again. Then, write- email – call and blog at CNN, ABC Radio, and any other Syndicate or Affiliate who airs Sean Hannity, or Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck and demand they be pulled from the air for out and out right lying and racism. One person doing it, means nothing, but together, we can make a movement. It is time to say enough, we will not allow you to attack our Clergy or negate our experience or our history! Truth to Power!
“I encourage those to please read Soul Jonz blog because this is where Obama’s pastor gets his theology from”
The link doesn’t work, could you repost please. Thanks.
totaltansformation, i checked the link, thanks.
I think it was termed hate speech because he said the word Nigger and because of other speeches he has made at the pulpit.
I don’t know too much about him but he is pretty straight forward from the clip I saw them use on TV (you should find it on YouTube and post it so people have a reference).
We have come a long way, but we still got allot of work to do and I think that is all he was saying.
I do think though, that she may know suffering while not like a black person of her time would know, but she is a woman and she did have to work harder just to get something just below the guys.
to grownANDsexy:
Jeremiah Wright delivers sermons and not speeches. Secondly, of the sermons that he delivers in the pulpit on Sunday are usually about 20-30 minutes. It would be totally unfair for anyone to take a 2 minute clip out of a 30 minute sermon and justify it as such.
The reason I did not put the link on MY blog was because I did not want to encourage people seeing the way Jeremiah Wright was portrayed.
Ultimately, “nigger” is not a word that is used in that pulpit or throughout the history of Jeremiah Wright’s sermons. Furthermore, we already know that there is a double-standard in the use of the “n-word.” And in this particular case, there was not the calling of an individual a nigger, but rather the reference of the word toward someone else. It is in those particular cases where it was not meant to offend someone, but in order to make a point.
I think we now know Obama’s “change” agenda. I can’t believe Jeremiah Wright is a minister. No way I would take my family to any church that spews hatred. We can now understand Michelle’s comments as well. Obama is toast and thank goodness we now know who the real Obama is. Remember it was the black man (Obama’s father) that walked away from him and the white mother and white grandmother that raised him….funny I didn’t hear Wright mention that in his “so called” sermon. A lot of eyes and ears were opened this week…thank God it’s not too late and we now know what is in Obama’s heart.
k griffin,
where is the hatred that you see? Or rather, what is it that you find offensive?
I ask because apparently, I don’t find it offensive, so I’m very interested in what SPECIFICALLY are you offended by.
Does Dr. Wright believe all whites are rich, and oppressive of blacks? As a white person, If that is his belief than he nor you have a clue about the “white” experince in America. I don’t see the cold hard facts in putting a label on any race of people as witin all races there are vastly different experiences lved out by the members!!
Rev. Wright has more than one time in sermons that I’ve sat in and listened to in the pews or in the choir stand that “Everyone of your color isn’t of your kind and everyone not of your color is against you.”
Now, the following comment is not speaking in lieu of Rev. Wright:
When the average black person would hear those sentiments expressed in the midst of a sermon, they are understood in the context that he does not mean “ALL” at least I never took him to mean all. But rather it was a coded language in which many black people have the key to unlock and understand.
The overall point is that it NEEDS to be understood and recognised that there are deep racial divisions and a Rev. Jeremiah Wright clearly lets the majority in white America know that because of the African American experience we have totally different world view and that it is perfectly alright and understandable to look at the world in that way. Moreover, that there is nothing written that we must subject ourselves to looking at it the way many white people may view it.
As a member of Trinity United Church of Christ for twelve years, it is important that we, as a Christian congregation, not only speak truth to power, but that we also stand firmly in defense of our retiring senior pastor, Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. It is an offense to the reading, listening, and video, broadcast and cable TV watching public of this country to permit unchallenged attacks against the Trinity UCC Christian community. To allow the skewering of Trinity UCC and by extension the United Church of Christ denomination is unconscionable in order to unfavorably convince American voters that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential run somehow damages the republican democracy of this country by his church membership.
The statement below, ‘An Attack On Our Senior Pastor And The History Of The African American Church’ by the Minister of Communications at Trinity United Church should clear up media misconceptions, deliberate or unintentional. It is my hope that corrections are made to balance the coverage of Sen. Obama’s association with Trinity UCC.
Trinity Member
—————-
Trinity United Church Of Christ
400 West 95th Street· Chicago, Illinois 60628 • Telephone (773) 962-5650
Executive Office Fax 773-238-2547 • Church Office Fax 773-962-0164
Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Senior Pastor
Rev. Otis Moss III, Pastor
Contact: The Rev. Joan R. Harrell, M.S., M.Div.
Minister of Communications Phone: 773.9625650
“AN ATTACK ON OUR SENIOR PASTOR AND THE HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCH”
Chicago, IL (March 15, 2008) – Nearly three weeks before the 40th commemorative anniversary of the murder of the Reverend. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.’s character is being assassinated in the public sphere because he has preached a social gospel on behalf of oppressed women, children and men in America and around the globe.
“Dr. Wright has preached 207,792 minutes on Sunday for the past 36 years at Trinity United Church of Christ. This does not include weekday worship services, revivals and preaching engagements across America and around the globe, to ecumenical and interfaith communities. It is an indictment on Dr. Wright’s ministerial legacy to present his global ministry within a 15 or 30-second sound bite,” said the Reverend Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ.
During the 36 year pastorate of Dr. Wright, Trinity United Church of Christ has grown from 87 to 8,000 members. It is the largest congregation in the United Church of Christ (UCC) denomination.
“It saddens me to see news stories reporting such a caricature of a congregation that has been such a blessing to the UCC’s Wider Church mission,” said the Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC General Minister and President, in a released statement. ” … It’s time for us to say ‘No’ to these attacks and declare that we will not allow anyone to undermine or destroy the ministries of any of our congregations in order to serve their own narrow political or ideological ends.”
Trinity United Church of Christ’s ministry is inclusive and global. The following ministries have been developed under Dr. Wright’s ministerial tutelage for social justice: assisted living facilities for senior citizens, day care for children, pastoral care and counseling, health care, ministries for persons living with HIV/AIDS, hospice training, prison ministry, scholarships for thousands of students to attend historically black colleges, youth ministries, tutorial and computer programs, a church library, domestic violence programs and scholarships and fellowships for women and men attending seminary.
Moss added, “The African American Church was born out of the crucible of slavery and the legacy of prophetic African American preachers since slavery has been and continues to heal broken marginalized victims of social and economic injustices. This is an attack on the legacy of the African American Church which led and continues to lead the fight for human rights in America and around the world.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached the Christian tenet, “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Before Dr. King was murdered on April 4, 1968, he preached, “The 11 o’clock hour is the most segregated hour in America.” Forty years later, the African American Church community continues to face bomb threats, death threats and their ministers’ characters are assassinated because they teach and preach prophetic social concerns for social justice. Sunday is still the most segregated hour in America.
—————————————————-
This is amazing….I watched a black guy on CNN explain how white people don’t undertand the tradition of Black Clergy.
Let me help all you brainless people-black, white, green or purple. There is a language-it is called English. In this language there are words. Words have meaning. You don’t have to be black to understand that what Wright said is vile, hateful, subversive speech, that panders to terrorists and those who would seek to destroy us.
He is in a word-an American hating scumbag. So was Obama’s mother and that is why he is so easily fooled by people who speak the way those who raised him spoke….
20 years and Obama apparently is so clueless that he just didn’t know about how Wright really felt-but Obama is the guy to defeat Global Jihadists…Sure….and to any black person that wants to ratoinalize what this scumbag said, or what Louis Farakhan another p.o.s says-you are an embarassment to humanity let alone the African American race…
It’s all weakminded b.s…It isn’t whitey’s fault…
So claiming that the US government ‘invented’ the HIV virus and that it imported drugs and somehow forcing all those dead ass ghetto homeys to get hooked on it is ‘cold hard facts’???… you need to take that diaperload of pickaninny diarrhea back to the ghetto,Jamal
(Psst. Please proof read. You are missing a word or two.)
Wright can say whatever he wants. It’s a free country. What he says speaks for itself. Personally, I’m apalled by his words and see him as being no different than the KKK when they refer to blacks or the Palestinians when they speak of the Jew. For Wright to spew his hate in front of kids is especially sickening.
As far as slavery? My ancestors had nothing to do with it. I note that Obama’s ancestors were Arabs. And it was the Arabs who were the slave traders. They killed millions of people in the slave trades. So if you have a problem with the history of slavery in the US take it up with Obama. His ancestors were in charge of supply.
Which brings up another point. Obama has no more connection (other than the above) to the precendents or decendents of slaves in America than I do. A white guy. Obama is an import to the US. He is unrelated to any American slave now long dead.
If this Wright fellow was white and out in a field beneath a burning cross dressed in white robes yelling the same kind of garbage I’d be the first guy in line wanting to punch him in the nose. Ignorance is ignorance and just because Wright is a minister and happens to be black I’m not going to give his hate speech a pass.
I’ve read everything on this page and I do not see anything that justifies the kind of hatred I’ve seen over and over from Wright. Like I said, it’s a free country and he can say what he wants but that works both ways and I don’t have to agree with him.
Wright is poisonous…..
Rev. Wright mentality seems to be that of the standard identity-politics driven, America-hating, victim-mentality liberal. Some of his views are particularly out there — AIDS, Zionism etc. I agree that some/most of the specific FACTS outlined above are accurate — blacks have historically been discriminated against in America, racism still exists etc. The question, however, is what to do in the face of such hardship.
Wright’s solution is to denounce America and promote segregationist-esque policies, political upheaval etc. My take is that histhetoric is divisive and counter-productive. It feeds into the mentality that society ought to repair these historical divisions with broad-brush, categorical and statist solutions, which ultimately create more divisions than they solve. Hes entitled to his fringe views.
However, his fringe views, to the extent that they are reflected in Obama, will hurt Obama’s chances at the whitehouse. Most American’s don’t subscribe to Wrights OPINIONS — they probably think hes nuts. The public has a right to know and judge Obama based on whether he associates with said nutcases.
Do the same rules apply to other nonblack pastors and religious leaders who endorse candidates–whose rhetoric from the pulpit disparages the ‘other’ candidate? Check out Rev John Hagee’s long, drawn out, deadpan delivery of shocking facts in support of and against those who do not support Israel. Fiery is the adjective most used with Rev Wright’s sermons (speaking). Does ‘fiery’ speech really equal ‘hate speech?’ Unpleasant, hard to digest truth, does not, in my opinion equal ‘hate speech.’
Rev Billy Graham (American’s Pastor) remains well respected though his speaking included controversial statements that at specific points in time did not appear to faze the body politic–and he advised sitting presidents.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s statements spoke truth to power and he was discredited by many of those in power—especially when organizing workers and against the Viet Nam war. He was murdered and of course became accepted as America’s most prized color blind ‘speech maker’ lauded by blacks, whites, and others alike—except for those politically elected officials who refused to accept that the national hero status did not belong to a man who did not look like them.
Would any of us, with a few ‘fiery’ video snippets in heavy media rotation reflect the best of ourselves when others (good, bad, indifferent) manipulate a deliberately dumbed-down public to think and support a broken-down republican democracy whose mantra appears to be ‘business as usual?’
“The Black Snob”
It doesn’t matter that hardly any white people have been negatively impacted by an attempt at fairness and parity in our society. It doesn’t matter.
Will any attempt at fairness only be fair when it puts the screws to and makes “white people” suffer? Would that suffice? To what extent should the sins of the fathers be vested into this generation? Or are we all “Aryan” hate mongers beyond regeneration?
———
jlazard10, if there was one book you would recommend regarding Black Liberation Theology, what would it be?
Even today black Muslims continue with their slavery. It’s alive and well in Mauritanian and the Sudan to this very day. Do some research on Islamic Slavery and while you’re at it White Slavery – millions of whites were enslaved in the harems of arabia.
Does anyone know if the reverend has spoken out and condemned this horrific practice? I doubt it as he values his head!
I believe most African Americans are missing the point the media is trying to state. Weapons of mass distraction are being planted by the media and each time we react to the nonsense they put out about Obama, we are doing exactly what the media wants, be distracted from what’s really going on. Obama is perfectly positioned to become the Democratic Party nominee and the media (Clinton lead) have tried all kinds of tricks to stop his momentum but none has worked. Religion is still the most segregated subject in America so that’s where they went, attacking Obama’s pastor. They are trying to cause a division in the Black community by highlighting the most controversial segments of Wright’s speeches. Do not fall for those tactics Americans, wake up and do your own research. Many of us have pastors that say things we don’t totally personally support but their overall leadership and knowledge is what we respect about them. I’m sure Martin L King Sr. & Jr. said something their followers didn’t total accept so why wouldn’t Rev. Wright? If you really want the real history of the black church, check out writings by Rev. Albert B. Cleage, founder of Pan African Orthodox Christian Church, the most radicial group of Black Christians in America.
http://www.blessingsoffaith.org
“This Black Liberation Theology is a nationwide thing and has been in practice before the legal end of slavery in 1865 and has since been articulated by James Cone in 1969.”
Go back a few more years, 1953, Reverend Albert B. Cleage. Author of The Black Messiah and Black Christian Nationalism, New Directions for the Black Church.
There needs to be an open forum for the discussion of american racial issues. Because where I come from racism is very rare and the only people spreading hate are the blacks (Im not denying the existance kkk, neo-nazis, and racists, But their view is not held by the majority). And the asumption that the only reason people dont like you is because of the color of your skin is wrong. Maybe they dont like you because your values are different. And as an American who lived 14 years out of the continenal US I do know prejudice in the form of Anti-americanism. Which is expressed regardless of your skin color.
To JM:
I’m very careful when I say someone is spreading hate, particularly that of black people. I think the problem is that because of a difference of values and the stark difference of interpretive lenses, which is SOLELY based on race (read: the color of one’s skin) and as a result, race determines one’s cultural and social view point, many others, usually whites, see it as hate speech.
There’s nothing that Jeremiah Wright or many other blacks say that has ever said that they “hate” whites or that they even “hate” this country. They are merely strongly, and vehemently criticizing the woes of this country and pointing out the injustices that occur as a result of white privilege.
Now, admittedly, Jeremiah Wright and the ilk don’t hit the target 100% of the time, and I think this open forum, which America has tried in many different forms and facets different regions with a cross set of people, should address moreover the poor in this country irrespective of race because many of the problems that black America suffers from are also the same problems that many non-whites suffer from.
Again, you’re correct that prejudice is not relgated to race alone, but, again, think about it some a black person from America walked in your shoes, would they necessarily have the same experience as you did (this is assuming that you are of European ancestry, not a given, but an assumption based on your comment).
And for the record, maybe you got a small taste of what it was like to be pre-judged without knowin the real you–something that millions of non-whites in this country understand all to well.
Moreover, to borrow from your comment, perhaps they were prejudiced against you because of your values, not because of you being from the US.
JLL