The media has gone crazy in assailing Jeremiah Wright about his statements, and many of the things the Reverend said are wrong, but i spoke to a man who put it all in perspective. He got me thinking who the hell are these guys to say Wright is wrong.
I got in a discussion with a black police officer in his sixties and he opened my eyes to world of Jeremiah Wright. I'm going to try to lay down the the guys arguments.
(1) Jeremiah Wright grew up at a time when if you landed at Miami airport, you'll find two water fountains. One for whites and the other for blacks, the difference between those two fountains is that unlike the one for whites your dogs can drink from the one for blacks.
(2) A time when a black man can be sent to Vietnam to die for another man who would tell him "i don't sell drinks to Ni&&ers". He said he was at Vietnam, but when he came back he couldn't buy a house, not because of his poverty, but because he wasn't the right complexion. He claimed there is an element of hypocrisy in going abroad to fight for freedom while he didn't have the freedom back in his home, and when you fight through that for a life time it's hard not to harbor any animosity or bitterness.
(3) A time when if you were colored and you dated white girls "your f*$&ing ass would be found hanging on the tree somewhere".
(4). A time when you couldn't go sight seeing to certain areas except you were there to clean or wash or your black ass would go sight seeing in the four walls of jail cells.
It might have been easy for Jeremiah Wright to live just like every other black man and enjoy welfare, but he went ahead to earn four degrees.
(5) He has seen an America that has gone after Black Liberation forces with colossal force and allow the KKK to pass at the same time, and many more reasons
He has struggled to build a colony for himself out of nothing. During this struggle he must have had to shut up and kiss lots of white asses. Now that he has earned the right to speak out, he's doing just that.
That been said, Wright doesn't see America the same way we(the current generation) sees her. Wright doesn't see America the beautiful. He sees America the hypocrite, he sees America the ugly. Like i mentioned in my new religion, he has refused to move on. How do you then treat this guy? Do you attack him and make him look bad, or sympathize with him. Do you look into his struggles and explain his psychology or pitch him against standards of a time when black and white can spring break together. YOU TELL ME!
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i would agree that i can see your point (or his point). i think what it comes down to is that people make far too big of a deal about it. I mean quite frankly we have freedom of speech and just because he is obamas pastor doesnt mean that he is going to speak flawlessly or that obama is going to agree with everything he says. Personally i dont follow everything my priest says... and im sure im not the only one.
I for one believe most of what Wright said and I'm your average Caucasian male from Montana. That's beside the point, anyway. Your post gives a pretty balanced look at the issue.
But for some reason I really dig Huckabee's response, which is surprisingly non-partisan.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fFyyfAoksRY
Sustainably yers, http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/green-underbelly
Thank you for going the extra mile, actually thinking about what Wright is getting at here, and providing a well-rounded answer to the question of "Does he have the right to do this?" I think you basically summed it up in the most powerful way--the pain of that kind of past doesn't just go away. The forgiveness for all you have experienced and suffered through mentally and physically over decades does not just coming pouring out of your heart. It doesn't work that way. I have always felt that as a caucasian person, I need to repent for the many wrongdoings of the people that I am associated with. I struggle with the reality of the statements above, the reality of what I hear about in history class. I really just can't grasp what happened in the past. And I still can't grasp the fact that racism is still alive in some people's hearts today.
Wright also understands that it is not just the African American people that America has done wrong. Basically every non-western ethic group from the native americans to the people in the middle east today, have been wronged by US foriegn policy.
read my blog on this very subject if it interests you. I have the one of the FULL sermons Rev Wright is being scrutinized for, as well as a debate between Rev. Al Sharpton and Greta Van whatever from Fox news.
http://www.progressiveu.org/111949-america-deserved-911
"my first name must be, "He aint sh@t", cause everytime I come through, yall be like "He aint sh@t"!....I'll be dat" --Redman
"Anything that can go wrong, Will go wrong"----Murphy's Law