SIMPLY SAD: Rev. Wright's Speech Today
For weeks now I have been reticent regarding Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama, and the allegedly "honest dialogue" on race apparently occurring in the United States. I have had many reasons for being quiet, for suspending judgment, but I will keep those reasons to myself.
I just watched, live on CSPAN2, Reverend Wright's speech and Q&A session at the National Press Club breakfast. Last night, I watched a significant portion of his speech to the NAACP. All I can say is that Reverend Wright's opinions, at least to me, are an unmitigated social, cultural, religious, theological, and political disaster. Rev. Wright is wrong in so many ways it is impossible to reply to him in one short blog post. I am simply stunned, to be honest. In fact, I am almost stunned right back to reticence.
Reverend Wright appears to be intentionally fomenting racial hatreds. I am tempted to think he is even provoking assassination. Sorry. I am speaking solely from my heart. The sort of message and the manner in which that message has been presented by Reverend Wright almost seem to be an invitation to raise hostilities to their most feverish heights; to incite even an attack on not only "the black church," which Rev. Wright proclaims the media have undertaken, but an attack on a black leader. I am left feeling -- FEELING -- that Rev. Wright's prophetic message may indeed be naught but a self-fulfilling prophecy: Incited violence and hatred will prove that America is GUILTY, UNREPENTANT and RACIST.
Forgive me. I DON'T WANT these feelings. But I am deeply saddened by a demonstration of a self-righteousness and an arrogance so stunning as to be almost a scripted caricature. One would think this is more like a Hollywood depiction of a crude stereotype of arrogance and self-righteousness than it is a representation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It even feels like Reverend Wright wants to sabotage Barack Obama's candidacy. Seriously, this man is NO PASTOR to Barack Obama.
(I would urge you all to find replays on CSPAN or online of Reverend Wright's complete speeches. Watch them in their entirety. Listen carefully. Be discerning.)
It would be foolish of me to make predictions, so I won't. But I can't imagine that the Reverend's speeches to the NAACP and the National Press Club can be good for Barack Obama, OR race relations in America. I can tell you this: they were not good for me.
Honestly, I admit that I've been jaded by politics in the past, though such hardening was perhaps skin deep. But I would say that this particular narrative, playing out mainly in the Democratic Party's primaries, has jaded me close to the core: I may be jaded all the way through.
Peace.
©Bill Gnade 2008. All Rights Reserved.
Bill Gnade
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Reader Comments (14)
Thanks for the comment. I heartily agree that we MUST listen to each other, respectfully. And I would LOVE to have a dialogue about race. But I think that if you watch Rev. Wright's press club speech in its entirety you will see that he is not REALLY interested in a discussion, as he clearly believes he is so very, very right. He's ARRIVED; the rest of us, well, we just don't get it.
I believe that Rev. Wright is under the impression that he is a top-shelf intellectual and that he has complete mastery over his subject matter. But he isn't, and he does not. Hence, as you listen and watch you can't help but feel that this is a bully protecting some sort of profound insecurity that is NOT racial in its genesis. His condescension, arrogance, self-righteousness and body language (during the Q&A), remind me of that guy on the loading dock who wants to be respected on his terms, carrying a chip on his defensive shoulder and pronouncing those who dare challenge his swagger, bluster and inflated rhetoric are fools, even racist fools.
Peace to you,
Bill Gnade
We don't need another dialogue about race. We need to move BEYOND race. No more racial data in the census. No more affirmative action. And condemn all race baiting unequivocally without making any excuses for it.
Identity politics has got to go!
Reverend Wright isn't fomenting racial hatred. The out of context quotes being played for hours each night on the corporate owned media (when did CNN become the same as Fox News? Shocking) are fomenting racial hatred. Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly are fomenting racial hatred.
Wright isn't running for president. To go on and on about Reverend Wright, instead of focusing on REAL issues (looked at the price of food lately?) is doing the American people a disservice.
Those who don't want to deal with race, condemn it as "identity" politics. Bigots don't want to have a real discussion of race, they want to shut down any discussion and pretend that there aren't racial problems in the US.
No good will come of buying in to the hysteria of bigots, Bill - but it's too late. You already have.
Wright isn't a minister and he doesn't preach.
He is a left wing, hate spewing nut who hates America because it isn't a socialist utopia.
And he has found through his willing audience of "professional victims" a no heavy lifting gig that suits his enormous, insatiable, ego.
Please provide examples of any TRUTH in Rev Wright's understanding of black theology and his church's statement of faith that suggest that God should be killed if God does not support blacks over whites.
dave
Greetings.
I have to say your comment saddens me to no end. I am tempted to say you can't be paying attention to what appears to be a race crisis. But I won't say it, as I suspect that your confidence comes from your having investigated all of Rev. Wright's recently spoken views. I am correct in that assumption, no?
Reverend Wright is indeed fomenting racial hatred, or so it appears to me. When he begins to explore the varying learning styles of whites and blacks, arguing that evolution has left the two races separate, I think he begins to foment hatred. When he again avers that the white government of the USA is responsible for dispensing the AIDS virus on the black and African peoples, I think he means to incite racial fear, which breeds hatred (please note that there is very well documented evidence that the "America created the AIDS virus for genocide" calumny comes from the former Soviet Union's KGB, which a former KGB head has admitted propagating).
And when a "pastor" accuses one of his own sheep with political posturing solely for political gain; that Barack Obama is "wink-wink" really "one of us" and NOT a figure who means to transcend race in America, then I believe that such a pastor is not fomenting love, grace or concilation.
You might hear the voice of the Christian's Savior in the gospel Rev. Wright preaches, but I sure don't. I hear contempt, ridicule, mockery, envy, and yes, even insecurity and immaturity.
Lastly, when you suggest that Rev. Wright and Barack Obama are not REAL issues, you choose, or so I believe, myopia over clarity. This past weekend Barack Obama freely offered that Rev. Wright's opinions are fair political game. And both Rev. Wright and Barack Obama have insisted -- along with many other African-Americans -- that we need an "honest discussion" on race in America. Hence, I will not be distracted by your red-herring that there are "real issues" I am neglecting. This is clearly a MAJOR issue, or Barack Obama would not have held a press conference on it yesterday. I'll take my cues from him.
Greetings to you.
I know the Jewish prophetic literature and tradition quite well. Rev. Wright is not a prophet.
Peace.
BG
Don't pretend that my comments "sadden" you. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hidden in your passive aggressive phoniness is typical neocon racist hatred.
I have indeed read the entirety of Reverend Wright's recent speeches. I'm not using the Sean Hannity cliff notes version, which you seem to be.
I'm also not making the bigoted mistake of trying to interpret Wright through the lens of white privilege and the whitebread Christian experience.
I'm not interested in Wright's gospel. I'm an atheist. Wright is challenging us to think differently. It's a pity that so many choose to eschew thinking and go right to McCarthyism.
Honor to Labor!
pinko
My comment was cut off at the end (my fault). Nothing important, I am sure, was lost.
I bid you well.
Peace.
BG
Indeed, I remain quite sad, Pinko.
Had you witnessed Rev. Wright's "performance," which is how Barack Obama described it, then I can't divine how you can conclude that he was not fomenting racial hatred and division. Mr. Obama seems to think so highly of Rev. Wright's "rants not grounded in truth," as he so aptly described them, that he has denounced them. Why would the United States' first-ever presumptive black presidential nominee denounce words from his black pastor if he did not believe them racially divisive? Why would he call them rants and insults if he did not believe them fit for arousing hatred and fear?
Alas, since you have no idea who I am or what I am feeling, I am left wondering how you can stand convinced I am pretentious. Moreover, I haven't a clue what you mean by "white privilege" or "whitebread." Of course, I know what these terms mean, but I do not understand how you could meaningfully imply that anyone here views Rev. Wright from on high. From what vantage do you judge Rev. Wright? And are you sure that vantage is not itself a position of bigotry?
The only intellectual challenge Rev. Wright offers is a call to erroneous and fallacious thinking. There is nothing "new" or even perceptive in his rhetoric, nor is there anything approaching enlightenment. McCarythism, Pinko? I should think that Rev. Wright is a perfect example of that sort of reactionism.
So, in the end, I have but one question: Do you really watch Sean Hannity? Well, I don't. No one irritates me more.
Peace to you,
Bill Gnade .