Rev. Wright came on the Bill Moyers show last week to explain himself. I was worried the interview would go one of two ways: 1) he’d come off like the fiery, angry black man in the video clips who has white America shaking in its boots, or 2) he’d come off like a certain member of his congregation – apologetic, begging for understanding.
To my surprise, he did neither. Instead, he came off as an intelligent, self-aware, highly-educated, soft-spoken black man who neither disavowed those carefully selected sound bites or projected the bitterness and hate that has been leveled against him and his church the past few weeks.
When asked if his comments were miscommunicated, he replied, absolutely not. Those who went and publicized those sound bites knew exactly what they were trying to communicate. They were trying to paint me as an uneducated, un-patriotic, un-American racist hate-monger, he explained. Uneducated? He has a PhD from the University of Chicago. Un-patriotic? Rev. Wright served several years in the military (Marines and Navy). Un-American? He leads a vibrant congregation on the South Side of Chicago which has several charitable programs serving the less fortunate, troubled or at-risk teenagers and senior citizens. Racist hate-monger? His inter-racial church was actively involved in opposing South Africa’s apartheid back in the 70s when our government maintained strong diplomatic and military ties to the racist country.
So why did his comments, which were six or seven years old (some of them took place the Sunday after 9/11 with church members in the audience who had lost loved ones in the attacks), elicit such a passionate and hateful response? It’s the miseducation of America, he said.
The fact that we can start wars and support policies that kill and maim millions around the world, and not flinch an eye. The fact that we will withhold humanitarian aid to nations because their leaders will simply not do everything that we demand. The fact that this nation clings to the words of its forefathers – We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights – yet does not see the contradiction in enslaving or discriminating against its own people. To not recognize, no, to deliberately ignore these facts from the days we begin to teach our kids in elementary school to the time we become adults – that, is the miseducation of America. Rev. Wright went on to explain that these shared American values are simply not consistent with the words of God, so he preaches on regardless of who thinks what.
What Rev. Wright didn’t touch upon, and what I think says a lot about the discourse, is that this is a problem for white America and white America only. (Mind you that when I say “white America” here I mean those who had the harsh words for Rev. Wright.) I have yet to find one Black, or Latino, or Asian or African American who disagrees with anything that he said. What if Obama came out and revealed to white America, which is either delusional or stupid about racism – a topic too long to cover here, that minorities would agree with just about everything Rev. Wright said. Look at how we’re handling the illegal immigration issue, or the racial disparity in our prison population, or the countries we’re invading and bombing to the stone age, or the state of our inner city schools, or who doesn’t have access to health care, or the lack of minorities in our government, etc. etc. etc….
In conclusion, if there’s anyone who needs to have a conversation about race relations in this country it is white people. Correction, delusional white people who think America is simply perfect in everything it does and stands for. They remain incredulous of ideas and opinions that reflect reality or shake the foundation of their vision of Americana which goes through life unquestioned. Needless to say, America isn’t perfect nor do I think anyone expects it to be, but there are many out there who are now re-considering Obama because of what Rev. Wright said. If we continue to apologetically brush this issue aside or pretend like Rev. Wright was in the wrong here, then this discourse goes nowhere and the only thing that comes out of it is yet another opening for the neocons to pander to “patriotism” like they did with evangelicals four years back with the gay marriage issue.
