“Brutus, Obama’s former “pastor” is not a racist. The problem was that he gave his opinions in an inflammatory manner. Sometimes the way you say things will tick people off.
Father Pfleger said the same things about Hillary and he’s white. Is he racist against his own race?
Just a little food for thought.”
Marion,
While you’re eating, please chew on this:
You need to spend more time listening to Wright’s sermons. I’ve taken the time to listen, and I find it hard to believe that any sane person can believe this man does not hold white people in extremely low esteem; that he believes they are ALL liars and cheats who seek to exploit and abuse blacks and other people of color; that they get what they deserve.
If you turned the tables, and had Reverends Falwell or Robertson made the same comments about African Americans that came from Wright and Ayres (who incidentally is also a raving homophobe), there is no question that you would be saying they were racist. But you excuse these “inflammatory” and ignorant comments because they are coming from a black man.
I am black, and I absolutely loathe the fear and anger that Wright and his kind are stirring up in our country.
I believe his “chickens coming home to roost” comment was perhaps one of the most damning, and I will explain why.
The fundamental reason that I take sharp exception to even the slightest suggestion that America has no cause to complain for consequences that are predictable; or that whatever America threw around came back around; or that our chickens came home to roost, is because I deeply and to my core believe that countries — and our country, in particular — are not properly represented by the people who control them. If we have learned one thing over the past eight, long, grueling years, it is that a country and its government can be high jacked to the dismay and horror of those living within its borders. A country does not consist of it’s government; it’s consists of the millions (and sometimes billions) who live within it, too often without a voice. America is the sum of its people, not the sum of a failed foreign policy; Iraq was the sum of its people, not a deranged and homicidal dictator.
Therefore, when Wright speaks of America’s chickens coming home to roost, he needs to be QUITE clear that the vast majority of Americans (black, white, brown and other) have no concept of the nature and scope of our country’s foreign policy or even how our economy actually functions. The successive members of Congress and presidential administrations who have controlled this country for the past one hundred years have kept its citizens woefully ignorant of the lengths to which they have gone to secure American supremacy, both militarily and economically. It is not that Americans have never sought the truth; rather, the truth has been withheld from them on a massive and deliberate scale.
I had a similar reaction to Sharon Stone’s comment last week which sparked a public outcry in China. In a candid interview, she observed that a form of mass karma might possibly explain the horrendous earthquake (and aftershocks) that befell that country and injured several hundred thousands of innocent people, many of them children. Karma for what? Karma for mistreating the Dalai Lama and the gentle citizens of Tibet, she explained. Understandably, millions in China went ballistic when they heard her comments, because they — like me — draw a sharp distinction between the Chinese government and the Chinese people. For the past 8 years, in fact, our president has pursued policies openly opposed by more than 50% of the citizens of this country. Should God damn ME or YOU because we choose to live in a country whose government flaunts the will of its people? Do we really know how the vast majority of Chinese feel about their government’s oppression of Tibet? Doubtful that we’d ever hear from them, it being a Communist country and all.
I agree that a small cadre of white men have royally screwed us all. But I wish that Wright would focus on the fact that it is our government, not the bulk of white Americans — “who needs to make things right.” The issue isn’t race; the real elephant in the room is class. And race has been used by our government for years to divide the classes so that it becomes veritably impossible to mobilize them against the forces that have oppressed not only those outside our country, but also those within. White, black, brown, other — we all share many more similarities than differences. Our struggle is a common one. Americans of all stripes are facing a common struggle to simply survive now. At this point, it matters little whether you are black or white, and to focus on these differences at this stage in the game is dangerous and foolhardy.
But instead, we allow ourselves to get caught up in race-baiting.
It’s so saddening to feel that whenever we start to move forward as a country, something or someone pulls us back — into the past. 15 years ago it was the O.J. spectacle. Now it’s Wright. When will we ever learn to simply let go and move forward? Being the flawed souls that we are, I suspect the answer is: never.
Have blacks attained equality in this country? Hell no. Far, far from it. On that, I completely agree with Wright and Wise. But place the blame where it belongs. It doesn’t belong with the single mother of three who can barely afford to feed her children or put gas in her car. Or the middle-aged white man with a high school diploma who just lost his job of 35 years at a GM plant. These are the Americans that Wright is “damning”. And when that single mother or that middle-aged man hears Wright say that “America’s chickens have come home to roost,” they wonder what the hell he is talking about, because they had no hand in letting the chickens out. And then they start to feel defensive, and confused. And angry. And that anger sets us back. It sets us ALL back.
Wright shouldn’t condemn the people who are suffering right alongside him; instead, he should recognize who the REAL culprits are, the men who actually let the chickens out, not the innocent white men and women and children who were hapless bystanders when they came home to roost.
Whether Wright realizes it or not, there is a leveling coming. Very soon, it won’t make a whit of difference what color you are as the screws begin to tighten against the American people.
It does not benefit any of us when people engage in mental gymnastics to rationalize this type of behavior, Marion. Your heart may be in the right place, but to forgive Wright for these comments unleashes a hell you can’t possibly imagine. If we legitimize his words, we give license for unenlightened white people to hold similar views about blacks. And I’ve got a BIG problem with that.
