The inflammatory "God damn America" soundbites of Barack Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright still in heavy rotation on the cable "news" channels were taken completely out of context. Watching a mere 10 minutes of video of any of the “offending” sermons reveals Wright’s message was far from what the snippets portray. It's sickening that professional news people couldn’t spend a few extra minutes of research to gain perspective.
The implications — that Obama, a wonderful orator of mixed race, must be a divisive and hateful person, because he went to that man's church for 20 years — had staying power. Two days after Obama delivered the most honest and open speech on race we have ever seen, addressing his relationship with Wright and his church, I overheard two women saying they had soured on Obama because his pastor is racist and therefore how could Obama not be?
Even if Wright were a bit salty, we need to give Obama credit for having his own brain and opinions. People disagree with their churches all the time without abandoning them, including (and perhaps especially) American Catholics.
Wright does have some anger toward the way things are done racially in America. Many blacks do. Unlike the Native Americans who were victimized on their own soil, black folks were dragged here, something that gets casually overlooked in many history classes. Even just 40 years ago, blacks still were dealing with the residual effects of Jim Crow laws and other discrimination. Today’s black people in their 30s and 40s were raised by parents who dealt with vicious racism and have firsthand experience with the subtle ways lingering racial attitudes manifest themselves.
Several days ago, my son was home on spring break and got questioned on the street by a police officer searching for a young man who had been testing door handles of cars. Apparently a 6’2” biracial young man walking home loaded down with a cheesesteak sandwich, fries, and iced tea wearing Abercrombie and Fitch matches the description of the hoodie-wearing Italian-looking kid I’ve seen pulling on car door handles near my house. Thankfully, it got cleared up and the officer apologized. But before that ever happened, he told my 16-year-old that he didn’t need a parent or guardian present and berated him in front of neighbors — and only grudgingly took him the three blocks to our house to have an adult present. So my son got his first taste of racial profiling and his first ride in the back of a cop car. It brings back memories of shit that my brother and many other blacks I’ve known have had to endure. Yet white men I’ve known never experienced this.
A man like Wright has seen worse than I or my son, and that will color his perspective. But that doesn’t equate to racism. And for Obama, a man living on both sides of the color line, I suspect that Wright connected him to his Black heritage in important ways. But that doesn’t make Wright a mirror for analyzing Obama.
Shay Stewart-Bouley can be reached at diversecity_phoenix@yahoo.com.
