SubscribeObama Defends Rev Wright’s Damnable Lies
A transcript of his historic remarks in defense of his 20 year relationship with Mr. Wright:
(Part two of this lengthy speech is available here.)
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.
I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:
“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”
That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.
Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans — the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old — is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”
“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
What sophistry.
Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
Apparently Mr. Obama’s previous statements to the contrary are now no longer operative.
But that’s okay. Everybody does it. Doesn’t your pastor, your priest talk like this?
Of course he does.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point.
Mr. Obama is telling us that not only can we not condemn Mr. Wright for his hatred and ignorance, but we need to understand where he is coming from.
Furthermore, we have to improve and apologize for ourselves and our ancestors so that Mr. Wright won’t get so angry and say such things ever again.
For, according to Obama’s argument, Mr. Wright is only saying in public what black people feel in private. Moreover, whites are just as hate-filled as Wright and blacks.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many.
And of course, as always, it is the corporations who are ultimately to blame according to Mr. Obama.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old — is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
What nonsense.
The profound mistake of Mr. Wright’s sermons is that he tells vicious lies about our country and its people, its history and its current activities. Indeed, it is the mission of his “ministry” to teach these lies as facts.
Nevertheless, the US was not founded on racism. America is not the number one killer in the world. It did not create AIDS to kill the black man. The US did not cause 9/11.
Nor did it do or is it doing any of the other outrageous things that Mr. Wright claims it did and does.
These are damnable lies whether there is upward mobility for minorities or not. (And weirdly, these are lies calculated to spread hate and distrust for the very same government that these same people want to run everything.)
Moreover, the very social dynamism that Mr. Obama speaks about is caused largely by our capitalist system, the selfsame evil corporations which he berates and wants to destroy.
Tellingly, while Mr. Obama described in his long winded speech his first visit to Trinity church, he artfully omitted an all too typical passage from Mr. Wright’s sermon on that day.
But it is detailed in his “Dreams From My Father,” page 293:
“It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most residents of Port-au-Prince see in a year, where white folks’ greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere… That’s the world! On which hope sits!”
And, yes, this is the “Audacity To Hope” (sic) sermon that Mr. Obama says gave him so much inspiration it changed his life.
All the problems of the world are the fault of “white folks’ greed.”
However, the truth is exactly the opposite. Capitalism (greed) has solved and will solve most of the world’s problems — if we will only let it.
For the text of Mr. Wright’s bizarre (and now obviously sanitized) “Audacity To Hope” sermon, go here.
Related Articles:
- Obama: Wright Not Racist, But Grandmom Is
- Obama's Church Re-Writes Its Mission Page
- More On When Obama Met Jeremiah Wright
- Wright’s Sermon - “The Audacity To Hope”
- Racist Jeremiah Wright On White Supremacy
- Rev Wright Erased From Obama's Website
- S&L Reprise: A Jeremiah Wright 'Jeremiad'
- Wright: US Is Too Racist For A Black President
- Obama Knew What Pastor Wright Was Saying
- Obama's Pastor's Uplifting Christmas Sermon
- Media Finally Notices Obama's Radical Pastor
- Obama's 'Mentor' Gave Farrakhan An Award
- Obama: Flag Pin Substitute For Real Patriotism
- Barack Obama's Pastor And "Spiritual Mentor"
- Obama's Afrocentric, America-Hating Church
March 18th, 2008 at 11:27 am
“I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters.”
Even though Michelle Obama was never actually a slave, she carries with her the victimization from hundreds of years ago. Then that “right” of victimization is passed along to her daughters. I think until we can get past this issue, there will always be race problems in this country.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:46 am
He always uses too many words to say too little. My eyes keep glazing over, trying to read his mostly empty speech.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
What a wonderful speech. I’m going to run right out and change my party affiliation to demonicrat so I can vote for the “Uniter”.
He was walking on a razors edge on Wright. Doesn’t want to offend whitey, but let’s not alienate my brothers either. What a crock of sh*t.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
The problem I have with all this is that my ancestors didn’t come to America until 40 or 50 years after the civil war was over. I resent being told that I am responsible for slavery just because I am not black. Hell, half my family comes from Italy and in Roman times most of the population were slaves. As to discrimination, the Klan wasn’t too fond of Italian and Irish immigrants, or any other Catholics for that matter. Now that assimilation is possible for blacks and hispanics they don’t want to assimilate, this is not a recipe for unity.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Didn’t you get the memo? Only whites can be racists. Besides, according to Wright, your ancestors killed christ. So, he can still hate you too.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
SOSDD. This reads just like all the preceding Obamessiah speeches, empty rhetoric with subliminal tones of “hope” and “change” (tm Obama 08′).
I had to get another cup of coffee to make it through that one.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
God almighty…if Obama were wasting any more oxygen there wouldn’t be enough left for the rest of us.
Someone please get that lying, racist sack of crap off my TV and out of this country. We have enough idiots, liars and sleazes in government without that bloviating creator’s blunder maybe becoming president!
March 18th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Did anyone hear him throw his grandmother (who happens to be white) under the bus?
Obama has a silver tongue, he does.
Memo to the Obama camp:
I was born in 1983. Not 1783. Not 1883. I have not now, nor will I ever, own a slave. Together, my husband and I bring home just over $35,000/year. We both work full time. We have a son. We have rent and other bills. We pay our taxes. We are not rich or privileged. Everything we have - we’ve earned through our own work and sacrifice. What we do not have we have not earned.
We do not judge someone by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.
Unfortunately, that means I will not be voting for you in the primary. It has absolutely nothing to do with the color of your skin. It has to do with your classist politics. It has to do with your frightening support of abortion rights - including partial birth abortion. it has to do with your view on gay marriage and gay rights. It has to do with your stance on taxes. It has to do with your views on terrorism, national security, and foreign policy.
I have measured your character according to my standards and your character does not meet those standards.
I don’t care if you’re black, white, red, purple, or pink with green spots. When you engage in the immoral and devious politics you choose to engage in - you lose me as a voter.
Reassess your platform. Change your views on things like marriage, abortion, taxes, and terrorism and then we’ll talk. I’d have no problem with a female president, a black president. Just so long as they have the best interests of America as their first priority.
You don’t.
I want a president who is not ashamed to wear the flag pin on his lapel. I want a president who will say the Pledge of Allegiance - including the phrase “under God” - with pride as she holds her hand over her heart. I want a president who understands that respecting the dignity of life begins by protecting the most innocent and defensless - the unborn. I want a president who knows that stable, nuclear marriages are the best way to raise a family and a solid foundation for a society. I want a president who will work to rid the world of terrorists and not give a damn about America’s “reputation” in a culture that wants to destroy us. I want a president who knows my wallet and my paycheck are not the government’s personal piggy bank. I want a president who respects my right to keep and bear arms - to defend my family, my property, and my life.
When you do that, you earn my vote. Race is not an issue. Stop making it one.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
What many people do not know is what Rev. Wright said can been heard in many black churches across this land, on any given Sunday. I am a black conservative, and have been in churches and wincing because of some comment from the pulpit. You can turn on the black radio station on Sunday and hear this stuff. This is nothing new or unique. Bush/Republican bashing is common fare in the black church. That is why Obama will continue to receive 90+% support in the black community. Whites are now waking up to this, but it has been here for over 100 years. Democrats tapped into this anger (they don’t really care about blacks, they just want their vote) and have been exploiting it for the last 40 years.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
In contrast to BHO’s rambling empty diatribe, read Thomas Sowell’s op-ed over at NRO, which by the way, came out well prior to this speech. The money quotes;
Sowell keeps it simple, gets to the point and with imitable style, delivers the coup de’ grace. I dare say it’s a home run.
March 18th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Yeah, I read that GM. Mr. Sowell has an elegant way of telling the truth succinctly.
March 18th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Remind me again, are blacks such as Obama and Wright, and the people who fill the pews to hear his diatribes African or American? To me, African-American means you were born in Africa and immigrated to America, where you know have citizenship. Obama was born here or he wouldn’t be eligible to be president. Most of those other people were born here too. They aren’t African anymore than I’m Irish.
This is the problem with race in this country. Blacks who are now reaping the rewards of MLK’s civil rights fight can’t seem to get past the fact that it was a victory for them. They either weren’t there or they were and are now still bitter about it. But like the clueless youngsters nowadays that yearn to recreate the ‘Summer of Love’, younger blacks really want to be back in the sixties.
So they continue to “fight injustice” and seek to “enforce civil rights laws” and other nonsense. Every black preacher with a sizeable congregation thinks he is MLK. They use the same tone and diction and act as if nothing was achieved by the man. Now who doesn’t know their own people’s history here?
Or is it an identity crisis? Rev. Wright dresses in African garb as if he has some kinship with the continent. Is it just me or aren’t there thousands of Africans killing other Africans with machetes in several coutries in Africa becausse they aren’t of the same tribe or religion? Now, how did white people and corporations accomplish this?
You’re not Africans, you’re Americans. I realize we’ve had a sad past of slavery and racial violence, but it’s gone now. Enjoy the fruits of the hard work your predecessors egaged in for you. Stop hating the country that has been so good to you and become a part of it.
March 18th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
SG: Should we file Obama’s speech next to Richard Nixon’s “I’m not a crook.” speech?
March 18th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
“I don’t want to wake up four years from now and discover that we still have more young black men in prison than in college.”
–Barack Obama, fund-raiser in Harlem, NY, Nov. 29, 2007.
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Mr. Obama’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, gave the sermon at the school’s Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel in Washington on Jan. 15, 2006.
“We’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college,” he began.
March 18th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
evansj42 I believe you are correct. This scandal is the first many have ever heard of something like this happening in a church. Here in the Dallas area we have a very large black church (which I believe is run by Dr. Tony Evans, though I could be thinking of someone else), and the pastor was involved in a controversy concerning the white members of his church. He had to rebuke his elders and the congregation who were worried that the white members were diluting the black church.
If this is indeed something going on in churches all across America, then as Christians we have a serious problem, one that government won’t be able to solve no matter how many Obamas are elected president.
That said, Obama is an incredible speaker. If one can become president based on such a superficial skill, then the White House is his. That said, I’m a little jealous. It would be nice to have a politician we could swoon over even if I don’t respect his seemingly mindless groupies.
March 18th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
He Who Cannot Be Named is an actor - not one such as Ronald Reagan who then took his ability to speak lines clearly and with the proper emotional expression - but rather much like a car salesman who knows very well, he must say the right thing to ‘close the deal’ and is everything to everyone. . .but much like that self-same car salesmen - the second you walk out the door - HWCBN is something else to someone else.
He is not an incredible speaker - he is an incredible fake and way too many Americans are being sucked in. . .Sounds like a lot of his stuff is lifted from the Rev Wright and the HWCBN I’ve seen and heard on tv does not strike me as someone who would go to a ‘church’ like Wrights at all - so the question becomes which is the real HWCBN?!? As I said, an incredible fake.
Fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice - America is going to be in big trouble. I can’t believe I am rooting for the Hildabeast. . .At least she is a known evil.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
wardmama4 I don’t see why you believe incredible speaking skills and being an incredible fake are mutually exclusive traits. So far as I can see, Obama embodies both, and that’s the main reason he even has a chance at winning his party’s nomination.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
IMHO Obamamama jumped the shark with his speech today. What I and others got from it was that if you do not vote for him, you are a racist.
There will be a lot of yellow dog dems sitting this election out if barry is the candidate.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I have sitting back looking over the many threads concerning my church and my pastor. What makes you think that the church or its pastor is racist? Being Afro-centric does not mean we are anti-White. Guess what rich White people do run this country. The real problem is that many of you will never understand the Black church and what goes on in the Black church.
Do we agree with everything that Rev Wright says? Of course not but in the bigger picture I support what he has ment to me, my family and the Black community. He has preached self determination, encouraged men to be responsible fathers, stressed the importance of education to the youth of the church and to be proud of what we as Black people have accomplished dispite all the obsticles.
When did it become a crime to speak out about this country. If I want to say goddamn America than I can and it doesn’t make me any less of an American. Its called freedom and isn’t why we are in Iraq now? I’ve heard many people say if I don’t lime this country I should go back to Africa. Been there too hot.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
If I want to say goddamn America …
You best not say that around me if we are close enough to play tag.
Sometimes there is a very fine line between “free speech” and “treason”.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
That is my point 1st. So my freedom to speak my mind ends with your agreement? Now I have not expressed that notion but how is what Rev Wright said about 9/11 different from what Rev Fawell and Pat Ribertson said during that time. They both expressed that 9/11 was God showing his displeasure with this country. Damn Robertson subscribes Gods rath to just about every natural disaster that hits this country. They said it was because of the moral decline of the country but they did say that God has damned America.
You best believe that if you felt the need to tag me I’d tag your ass back. I’m not the turn the other cheek kind of man.
This country is strong enough to tolerate dissent.
March 18th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Doc, Saying God damn America is not much different from burning the flag or spitting in a mans face.
Saying it in your opinion makes you no less American, It almost certainly doesn’t make you more American.
As far as Rev Falwell and Pat Robertson, They are not and have not been coaching a presidential hopeful, Wright has, So we are focusing on him, And if the other two come into play we will hammer them in the dirt as well.
March 18th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
You best believe that if you felt the need to tag me I’d tag your ass back. I’m not the turn the other cheek kind of man.
When I tag you , you don’t get up.
March 18th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
drdobgyn, It’s the damn double standard we abhore. If the shoe were on the other foot, you would be screaming from the rooftop of the CNN building. It’s amazing to me how you can make excuses for other blacks, but have no forgiveness for whites saying, as in you say in your own twisted example, similar things. There’s a difference between God damned America and God damn America. One is a lament of the tragedy of those judged and the other a prayer for judgement against your own country. I’ve never heard of anyone asking God to damn their own country… until now.
Why shouldn’t I believe you are racist? You defend and make excuses for them. If I hung out with the Aryan Brotherhood you would be well within your right to believe me a racist until I could prove differently. Now, prove it to me. I’m listening.
March 18th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
“What makes you think that the church or its pastor is racist?”
Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community … Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love. [1]
In the black liberation theology taught by Wright, Cone and Hopkins, Jesus Christ is not for all men, but only for the oppressed:
In the New Testament, Jesus is not for all, but for the oppressed, the poor and unwanted of society, and against oppressors … Either God is for black people in their fight for liberation and against the white oppressors, or he is not [Cone]…
And that’s not racist, how…or am I just too stupid to know peace, love and cheerios when I see them?
If a white man had said ANY of that, he’d have everyone from the NAACP to ACLU to Barry Lynn’s happy little band of mutants calling for his head on a pike!
Deal with it! Cone, Wright, and the others who follow that slime are as racist as David Duke, Bobby Byrd and George Wallace!
That’s not Christianity…it’s hate! And saying it isn’t hate doesn’t change what it is…an Appaloosa isn’t a bay no matter how many coats of paint you spray on him!
March 18th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
drdobgyn, do you really feel that the racial divide can be bridged by black ministers damning this nation? Or by influencing the young people, who have never known segregated schools, poll taxes and separate water fountains to hate, yes, I said hate, white America?
Bridges are never crossed when one side has a sword in their hand. And Wright definately has a sword. And he wants to stick it in the side of every white American that he, and Obama, feel are guilty of the nation’s original sin of slavery. And yes, Obama mentioned the original sin of slavery in his opening paragraph today.
If I heard a priest say what Rev. Wright has said, I would be sitting in the Bishop’s office the next day demanding that the priest be called on the carpet and told to apologize to the congregation and to keep his political opinions to himself. He is there to teach the word of Jesus, not create racial strife. And if I ever heard you call God’s wrath down on the United States by saying God DAMN America, the next time you thought about saying that, you would probably decide against it. But then, I am sure you would say that my anger was directed at you because you are Black, not because you damned my nation.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Frankly, I did not go to church to bridge some racial divide. Do you people really think that members of TUCC are that concerned about White people? Talk about arrogance!! This is not about you people and you need to get over yourselves. Face it there are Black people who are angry about the policies of this government.
He has said things during his sermon which made me uncomfortable and I’m sure made others also uncomfortable but it is the church that played a significant role in my family. Frankly, if Barak wasn’t a member you people wouldn’t even care. Politics and prayer go hand in hand in the Black church. I believe that Jesus died for my sins as does EVERY member of TUCC. Do members of TUCC view the gospel differently than many of you? Yes we do, but different does not mean it’s deficient. Many of you are attempting to tear down something that you just don’t understand and probably never will. The relationship between the pastor and parishiner in the Black church is difficult to explain to people who will never be apart of that community.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
I have never heard of my preacher or any other white preacher saying that blacky should be destroyed.
Actually I have never heard a white preacher talk about anything other than saving souls.
Looks like the blacks have finally PO’d the majority of the US this time. Even the most liberal liberal is not happy with what is going on.
BTW, Isn’t it against Federal Law to talk politics in a house of worship?
March 18th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
you have never heard or read Rev Wright say that your cracker ass should be destroyed or that anyone for that matter. Every thing that you write just continues to demonstrate your White arrogence. For you to think that we are so pre-occupied with White people is amazing. You are not that important.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Apparently you are like obamamama. You went to church but did not listen to the sermon.
Did you sleep through it?
BTW, Name Calling?
You are a joke.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
dez Robertson did run for president.
no it is not against the law to talk politics. In 50 years only 2 churches had IRS issues. One took out a full page ad in USA Today for a canidate.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
no it is not against the law to talk politics.
You might want to check that out a little further.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Doc, you’ve been here on and off for quite some time now and I don’t -and never did- think you’re a bad person, but if you’re honestly sitting there saying that the Reverend’s remarks about whites are somehow acceptable, then you’re completely blowing whatever credibility you’ve ever had here.
I won’t answer your last post line by line though it’d be awfully easy to dismantle it.
But just think about this one sentence of yours:
He has said things during his sermon which made me uncomfortable and I’m sure made others also uncomfortable but it is the church that played a significant role in my family.
OK, so let me get this straight - by your own admission this guys says things that you’re not comfortable with and yet you still expose your kids to that ???
Have you ever even questioned the things that made you uncomfortable ? Have your kids ?
I doubt it. In fact, I’d be willing to lay money on the table that if any of you had, you wouldn’t be welcomed in that church.
Doc, you’re not stupid and I doubt you’re a pushover -so WTF ?
Nobody wants to tear down your church. You’re right, nobody’d care if Barak wasn’t a member or even if he was -except that he’s vying for the job of President of the United States.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
you said “blacky which in my book us not a term of endearment. So that would make you the joke. Easy to dish it out but I’m a joke if I respond……typical
On O’Reilly today the point was raised about politics and both blonde lawyer’s said that what he did pushed the envelope but was not against the law.
Didn’t sleep through the sermons I went there to worship.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
doc, Do you ever call your white patients, “cracker ass”?
Probably not.
Do “blonde lawyers ” have the final say?
What about “nappy headed lawyers”?
Thanks for the laughs “doc” I am going to bed.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
I do understand the words coming from the mouth of a preacher in a House of the Lord that defile my country. I also understand Obama has listened to this anti-American crap for 20 years without saying a word publicly in opposition.
If Obama won’t stand up for his country when it is trashed in his own church, how can any sane American expect him to stand up against our “real” enemies as President?
March 18th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
1st so let me get this right you start this shit saying “destroy blacky” and you can’t let it go. I called them the blonde lawyer because I don’t know their names. I wasn’t using blonde as an insult but I’m sure you ment “nappy headed” as an insult. You are real class person.
DW what did he say about White people that you find offensive. Not the government just White people. To answer your question his comments are often discussed by parishiners. We are not a group of Kool-aid swilling people who can’t think for themselves. Some have left because if his comments but others have been drawn to the church because of him and the ministries if the church.
Its my job as a parent to explain Rev Wright statements to my children when they asked. The same way you explain things to your children when they question things they see or hear.
Bigoil believe or not I understand your concern but understand again what was said in TUCC is not unlike what is said in many Black churches maybe without the same flair and anger but it is not unusual. As I have been saying many of you can never understand the Black church. Just trying to give some balance to the subject.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Yeah, Whatever, “doc”
You have been exposed for the racist hypocrite you really are.
go to hell you low life son of a bitch.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
drd….I think you’re in denial. I know it has to be a “punch in the stomach” to you that maybe, just maybe, everyone in your church, your family and friends and, as ABC reports, apparently nearly every black person in this country is a racist. At the very least, you are all tolerating a racist philosophy to be taught to your children and this can only lead to the death of even the symblance of racial harmony. I think you all should do some deep soul searching. Blacks have a great opportunity here. we can change all this in a day. Forever. I know that most whites would easily forgive our fellow americans if they would only reject this in a manner in which would be plain for all to see. I know my family and freinds would and I suspect every person on this site. If blacks aren’t willing to face the obvious then you only reenforce what white racists have been saying about you for years. Don’t allow them to be right man. Please. God loves us all and will forgive every sin, but we must repent, pick up the cross and follow him.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Amen, Noyzmakr, Amen.
Blacks are the only ones standing in the way of blacks.
The rest of us have moved on.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Noyz tell me what have you have read or heard which was racist?? I’ve asked this a couple of times with no response.
Do I have some racial prejudice? Of course I do but I don’t live my life blaming White people for anything but that doesn’t mean I go through life thinking that there is no racial bias. I tell my children that only person responsible for your success is you. Blaming other people is pointless but don’t be a blind
1st you are an ignorant MF
March 18th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
drdobgyn, let me tell you this; if, in black churches, talking about white people as if they are evil personified is common practice, then you, and these churches have a real problem, and it is not white Americans. It is hatred that is fetilized to grow and if you think that is a way to end racial divisions in this nation, I can promise you, it will only have the opposite affect.
America, more than any nation in the world, has tried to provide equality to everyone. 360,000 men died to provide freedom for African Americans. I guess to you they are just a number and don’t count. Better to listen to hate speech from a pastor that in 99% of white churches would be thrown out on his ear and would never get another church as long as he lived. Name me one sermon of Rev. Wright’s where he has pointed out that this nation, according to revisionist historians, went to war to free black Americans. I will buy it. Hell, I will even donate to Trinity.
Now you use the carnard that if you are not black, you cannot understand Rev. Wright’s message. How long do you intend to use that excuse? Wright did nothing to build bridges. Instead he instilled hatred, distrust and contempt for white Americans and the [white] government. Obviously you are not subjected to that [white] government since you managed to get your M.D. Maybe you would like to tell me how, since I was not a product of slaves, that I cannot understand the black experience and the understandable distrust of white America. Perhaps I should then not trust black Americans since the Buffalo Soldiers were responsible for the deaths of many of my ancestors. Innocent women and children, hunted down like dogs and killed for no other reason than they were Amerindians. And please, don’t insult me by saying they were ordered to do so by white officers. They were led by BLACK officers. Has Wright ever mentioned the genocide of Amerindians by the black Buffalo Soldiers? I seriously doubt it.
If Wright proved anything, it is not that we have not traversed racial division, it is that racial division is taught, preached and promoted in HIS black church. YOUR black church. And if you chose to sit in the pew and listen to such bigotry, then you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
‘Barack, I Didn’t Do It for This’: An Homage to Andrew Goodman
March 18, 2008 8:23 AM
Barack Obama’s speech today moved Roger L. Simon to poetry for the first time since high school. He apologizes for the inadequacies.
Support Pajamas Media; Visit Our Advertisers
by Roger L. Simon
Barack, I didn’t do it for this.
Barack, I was a civil rights worker… South Carolina, 1966… 22 yrs old … helping old folks register to vote, teaching kids to read and write, directing Raisin in the Sun…
Barack, I didn’t do it for this.
Barack, I dream of my kindergarten best friend Andy from Walden School, Manhattan, born one day after me, shot dead in Mississippi 1964.
Barack, I idolized Stokley Carmichael and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Barack, I lost the full use of my left hand for life in South Carolina.
Barack, I didn’t do it for this.
Barack, I gave hundreds to the Black Panthers for their children’s breakfast program when I was 25 and a young screenwriter in Echo Park, Los Angeles, even though I knew Huey was crazy and was worried my money might have been going for guns, even though I had my own children in the house when the Panthers came over, their jackets bulging.
Barack, I made excuses for the Black Power Movement even though I knew it was turning racist.
Barack, I didn’t do it for this.
Barack, your speech was bullshit.
Barack, this isn’t about generations.
Barack, this isn’t about the black church.
Barack, this is about a pathological minister whose uncontrolled anger wounds his own people and keeps them down.
Barack, this is about a man who ignored that rage for his own political gain and even now won’t admit a huge mistake and looks for nuance and excuses.
Barack, this about a woman who went on scholarship to Princeton and Harvard and still hates America.
Barack, you say you want Black-Jewish reconciliation but you hung with an anti-Semite.
Barack, I didn’t do it for this.
Roger L. Simon is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, novelist and blogger, and the CEO of Pajamas Media.
http://pajamasmedia.com/2008/0.....r_this.php
March 18th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Nobody I know is preoccupied by their race ,creed ,colour or nationality . It’s who we are by our Creator , period ! Only governments, politicians , dictators and tyrants want to separate us from our God given rights and responsibilities . Why are you so stuck on race when you should be focused on this country ? I will not mend a fence that I did not run through .
drdobgyn , you seem to be the preoccupied one . Why the anger ?
March 18th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
If white America is such a racist nation, Just how the hell did “doc” become a MD?
splain that to us Lucy!!!
March 19th, 2008 at 12:16 am
I went to an historically Black medical school in Nashville. Again can somebody tell me what was said that was racist by Rev Wright? This is a racist country. Europe has racial issues. Is it so alarming to many if you for people to feel that way? Just because I can acknowledge that this country has a race problem does not make delusional. To continue to say the country does not makes you delusional. As with any problem to acknowledge that a problem exists is the first step in fixing the problem and unfortunatly many Whites seem to think everything is just fine. It us for a great many, myself included, but not for all Black, White and Brown people.To point out injustice and to get rid of injustice is x Christian thing to do and that for many in the Black Church it is part of our mission. Some White people get so very defensive when injustice and inconsistent policys are pointed out to them and shown how it effects the disadvantaged.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:16 am
drd, just look at this and if you don’t see anything wrong with it……I’m at a loss for words.
Start here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW3-seOp1rg
Then read this. Not the posts. Just the article…all documented
http://sweetness-light.com/arc.....n-theology
Then come back and explain to me how this isn’t racist hate against whites.
i’ll stay up( way past my bedtime) and wait for you because i think you’re sincere in really wanting to know what offends us so much. this is it.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:25 am
“Again can somebody tell me what was said that was racist by Rev Wright?”
LOL.
As Louis Armstrong said about jazz, “if you have to ask you will never know.”
But of course you really do know.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:26 am
dr, YOUR ONLY DISADVANTAGED IF YOU DON’T USE YOUR BRAIN . No colour bias here .
March 19th, 2008 at 12:29 am
I went to an historically Black medical school in Nashville.
( Should be “a historically”) but what else could we expect from you “historically educated blacks”?
So you only are allowed to see Historicaly black patients?
My family doctor is either Indian or Pakistanian. I have never asked. He is a very fine doctor in my opinion. It does not matter to me as it does to you what his skin color is nor his religion.
Grow up and act like a man instead of a whimpering child.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:40 am
drdobgyn
A historical “black” medical school? How the hell did [white] corporate America allow that to happen?
Why did you not answer any of my questions? Why are you still promoting the idea that racism is alive and well and if we do not see it, we are delusional? Yet, you do not respond to my question about the Buffalo Soldiers.
Ever been to a reservation in North/South Dakota, Arizona or New Mexico? The poverty there makes the inner city blight of Chicago look like Park Avenue. Wonder what it would be like to have to travel 30-40 miles just to go to school? Or in an area where the nearest job is 125 miles away? Or how it feels to know that while your ancestors were the first inhabitants of this nation, they were not even considered citizens until 1954 when they were given the right to vote? So almost 100 years after the black man had the right to vote, Amerindians were still struggling to gain that right.
But I hear nothing on that from you. No apology for the actions of the Buffalo soldiers. You seem to be of the opinion that the black experience of bigotry is the only one that counts. Why, because you have better lobbyists? Because you have had those who have brought the injustices to the forefront while you [your black community] has done nothing to improve the lifes of another race?
Slavery ended 145 years ago, while the Native American continued to be driven out of their homes, off their lands, and all done with the help of black soldiers. African Americans do not have a corner on the market for suffering.
But you don’t hear much about a people that are not even considered by law to be minorities because they are native to this land. No one to lobby for them. To take to the streets, demanding that white Americans continue to wear the hair shirt for eternity over what happend to their ancestors. We have no Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton to tell us how we will never be absolved of our sins when it comes to Native Americans, do we? Why is that, drdobgyn? Is it perhaps that Native Americans don’t wallow in victimhood?
As I said, you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:46 am
uh….me thinks it’s pronounced Pakastani. It’s late.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:48 am
You are probably right. ;)
March 19th, 2008 at 12:59 am
retire05 says “Ever been to a reservation in North/South Dakota, Arizona or New Mexico? The poverty there makes the inner city blight of Chicago look like Park Avenue.’
I can attest to that. Oklahoma reservations too. BTW I’m 1/16 Cherokee…..white man holding me down too. I’m in the oil bussiness. Uh oh……shouldn’t have said that. Big oil is a real favorite of the left. Oh well…..
retir05 says “….while the Native American continued to be driven out of their homes, off their lands,….”
Sorry to say I’ve done that too. We payed handsomely for the right of way and nobody lost their home. what little there was…sadly. It is bad retire05. That’s a real unjustice we can all get behind.
retire05 says …”Is it perhaps that Native Americans don’t wallow in victimhood? ”
I didn’t see it. They were all polite and hard negotiators and we all had mutual respect for each other. The experience changed me a little.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:04 am
If you really need to be taken by the hand, Doc, and shown a few examples, how about these:
- “We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority”
- “…rich white boys in the senate…”
- “White folks greed runs a world with needs”
- “…a girl can’t grow up to be a nuclear physicist if she’s black”
- “Racism is so deeply ingrained in America”.
And I’m not “offended” by that. I just don’t think any one with issues (to put it charitably) like that should be in a position of responsibility.
What “offends” me is the fact that, by virtue (or sin) of being white, I can’t even so much as question someone (non-white) who espouses hatred like that without being automatically branded a racist or a fearmonger or arrogant.
Doc, I’m a Canuck who lives in the north and I haven’t even seen a black man for over two years. The last one I saw was a guy whose car was broken down at the side of the road and whom I stopped to help. Now personally, I think Obama’s going to be your next president. As it happens, I’m moving even further north here shortly anyway, so if you and Barack and your mentor, the Reverend Wright, think that perpetuating the hatred is the way to go -well, it’s really no skin off my nose.
I just hope one of your kids doesn’t find him or her self, broken down at the side of the road some day but has to wait for someone of the right colour to happen along. We’re supposed to be beyond that.
Come to think of it, who would you prefer to have pull up behind your kid: 1sttofight and I, or a couple of those kids from Jena, Louisiana -who have criminal records and are demonstrably violent, but can do no wrong because they’re black. ?
March 19th, 2008 at 1:08 am
05, agree with what you said and hope ” we ” can do better . Been through Mission and the Rosebud .
That is ” the badlands ” . We got a lot of work to do , but like others , we can’t do it for them . Only dearness gives value .
March 19th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Alright DW. I love this guy!
My brother-in-law’s form Alberta. He told me he had never spoken to a black man in person until he married my sister and moved to North Carolina. Quite a wake up call.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:16 am
Oh yeah. The Cherokee nation is doing quite well here in NC. The casinos and all, but they were doing pretty well with the tourists before that. at least in the western part of the state. They’ve turned out to be quite the capitalsts. Good for them. DrD…..see what hard work and determination can do for a people.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Okay guys, let me end this once and for all with just one question for the doc.
Ahemmmmmm.
So doc, say I went to the church while I was visiting my family and while the Rev. was talking about how the US gave the black man AIDS, I stood up and instead of saying Amen, I said nice and loud ‘I’m proud to be a White Man!!’
What do you think would happen?
March 19th, 2008 at 1:32 am
What do you think would happen?
Oh you’d be OK, Joe -you’re a Democrat
snort
Hi Noyz.
I knew and worked with lots of black guys when I lived in the south. Some were good guys and some were arseholes. Things’r the same all over.
Toronto’s been having lots of grief the past couple of years -largely caused by Jamaican and African street gangs shooting at each other in the streets (Liberal response: ban handguns- which are already restricted right up the wazoo).
Naturally, since “racial profiling” is far worse than innocent kids being killed, nothing was done. Which has resulted in -wait for it- innocent kids being caught in the crossfire and killed.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Oh well. I guess my post to “drdobgyn” sent him on his merry way. After begging to see the proof of the good reverends racism and my sending him straight to the source, I suppose he saw the video and read the S&L outing of Black Liberation Theology and either didn’t see anything wrong with it or was too embarrassed to return to the debate. Either way, he’s a racist whether he knows it or not. That’s a real shame. And such promise too.
Someday, this too will pass.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Anybody that relies on others ,to do what they should be doing for themselves is unreliable .
Capitalism works . Why else do we get out of bed ? So get off your arse and in to the game . Untold thousands are waiting with a hand out looking for a hand out . Haw ! Define rich , define white and define guys . Reverend . No colour bias here ?
March 19th, 2008 at 1:49 am
“Been there too hot.”
Correction,
“been there, too much AIDs”
March 19th, 2008 at 2:11 am
Yes DW. I can relate. I live in a very small town in northeastern NC where the population is %65 black and %35 white. It was the opposite when I was young (think 60’s) and race relations were never really a big problem. Now, we have to lock our cars and the doors of our homes and old ladies clutch their handbags in terror everytime they visit the store or even walking into a church. The thugs, crackheads, crack dealers, whores, pimps and just downright degenerates are just standing around, all day long, waiting to pounce on any unsuspecting soul of any color whilst they wait for the first of the month to get their government handouts and spend it all in a flurry of wild all day and night parties and gun battles in the streets. They drive around in the nicest cars you’ve ever seen with the music blaring so loud you I can feel it through the walls of my brick home (this might be why they claim they don’t hear the racists sermons) and live in shacks that they rip the wooden siding off for firewood because they are too damn lazy to walk 20 yards into the forrest and get dried wood.They have frightened almost all of the productive members of society away to the coast where you can barely find anyone who isn’t white. I lived down there for years too. Alas, after years in a great job, in Texas and Wyoming, I came home to take care of my mother (78 and great), who never had a bigoted bone in her body, so she wouldn’t have to go to an old folks home. She’s afraid to get out of her car (yes…she drives) in front of her church. It’s appalling. She doesn’t want to leave her home and I will stay until she goes. I’m afraid one day I will have to kill another human being just to protect her and her property and God forbid, if that ever happens I’ll be branded the racist.
You wouldn’t believe the stories of my school years. I have a post on here somewhere, yesterday I think, all about it.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:15 am
will respond in morning, too tough to do this on an I phone but let me say to 1st about historically Black schools they were needed because White schools were not allowing Blacks into their schools. The most frightening thing to an average White man,like yourself 1st, is an educated Black man with options. I will pick this up with you later.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:22 am
drdobgyn says…”The most frightening thing to an average White man,like yourself 1st, is an educated Black man with options.”
I doubt that Doc. I’ll bet he really doesn’t care whether you are successful or not, as long as the government isn’t reaching into his back pocket to feed your kids, house your family, pay for their schooling or give your kids a pass to the front of the line over his, because of the color of their skin.
I would hazard to guess that 1st, like me and other conservatives, welcome and celebrate your success because that means you’re probably pulling the cart with the rest of us instead of riding in it.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:31 am
When are we going to get the “First” Black President in our history William Jefferson “Fornicatin” Clinton to finally weigh in on this? Shouldn’t HE be the great RACE unifier?!?! ROFLMAO!
March 19th, 2008 at 10:48 am
drdobgyn, if you will quit calling us “you people,” maybe we can actually have a dialog here.
For the record (since I’m a grammar troll) “an historic” used to be the proper way to say/write it because of the vowel sound produced by the silent “h.”
And maybe you didn’t go to church to bridge any racial divide. I can’t say it was on my mind when I picked out a church. However, you’ve picked one that’s only made the divide worse, and I can’t for the life of me figure out how Jesus and Christianity have anything to do with such a hateful practice.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
testing
March 19th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
5X5
March 19th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
” The most frightening thing to an average White man,like yourself 1st, is an educated Black man with options.”
I’ve spent 50 years around educated Black men with options, not a single one of them frightened me. Every one of them had the same start I did, we finished high school without getting in trouble, kept our grades up and walked in the military recruiting office and were welcomed. Some did better than others, but options are available to every single human who is free. Which option is chosen is what determines a person’s life.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
This whole thread is amazing…the name calling, the bashing of one another’s beliefs…everyone, Republican, Democrat, white, black, brown, yellow, whatever color/race/ethnicity/gender you choose to identify with…needs to grow up. Please. This is why our country is in the state it is in. No one can have a debate nowadays without someone getting their feelings hurt, taking something the wrong way (ugh…everything has to be PC now huh?), or just plain refusing to hear what the other side has to say. Do you have to agree with everything someone says? No. Do you have to agree with ANYTHING someone says? No. Let’s all be adults and have a good discussion.
I realize a lot of times people are just trying to vent frustration about what is going on…and that is perfectly fine…but don’t beat one another up for what someone is feeling…if you don’t agree with that person’s feelings, by all means! Tell them! But don’t get upset if that person doesn’t throw up their hands in resignation and agree with you.
Now, of course, for my two cents on the issue…race is an issue because we as a country make it one. I grew up a military brat…being of mixed races myself. There were so many different races/ethnicities of kids on any given military installation. My friends were Bob, Sue, Zack, Brittney, etc….they were just other boys and girls that I knew. As crazy as this may sound…until I moved to Alabama and went to a non-DoD school….I never saw race. Zack wasn’t an Asian kid…he was Zack…Brittney wasn’t a white girl…she was Brittney…Sue wasn’t black…she was Sue…It is possible to be “color” blind…We as a society force people to alienate one another for whatever various reasons we come up with. It happens with everything!!! Teenagers do it about adults, military does it against civilians, blacks do it against whites, and vice versa. This whole debacle about Mr. Obama and his reverend is just amazing…what could further divide a nation than to talk about how one group of people is different…if we all started treating one another as human beings instead of whites, blacks, Asians…then maybe we’d be that unified country that everyone talks about.
I agree heartily with what numerous people have said already in this thread…while in Church…while giving sermons, lectures, or whatever your faith feels like calling it…one should not be talking about politics…Church should be an uplifting, relaxing, peaceful experience…it shouldn’t instill hatred and “preach” the differences between races!
What we all should be doing now is moving on…how long can we continue to talk about this?? How much longer are the news channels keep hammering it? Yes, crazy shenanigans happened, Mr. Obama probably should’ve realized the sh*t storm that was going to come about because of this. I cannot possibly think that a man running for our nation’s highest office was oblivious to this sort of thing going on in his own church. If he truely was…then I am scared
March 19th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Same thing Al Sharpton said yesterday. Yet he dragged Imus through the mud for weeks. DOUBLE STANDARD!