Race Now Issue in Race

It was bound to happen – we all knew it would. I’m just surprised that it took this long. Race has now become an issue in the campaign for the 2008 presidency. However, I don’t think it will turn into the normal explosion of mud-slinging and misquoted statements – at least towards Obama. But what it could do is crumble Obama’s whole campaign if he doesn’t reconcile some of the views supported by his former pastor, close friend, spiritual advisor, and “member of the family” of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright.

In what is being called an “historical” speech by Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday, he discussed sermons that have been circulating on YouTube and other media outlets since last Friday. These sermons are from Obama’s “spiritual mentor” and retired pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ Jeremiah Wright, and basically show an angry black man yelling about how racism is still prevalent in America, and how people don’t like Obama because he doesn’t fit the “white, rich, privileged” mold of politicians, as Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani do, and mention how Hilary has never been passed up by a taxi driver because the color of her skin or called “a nigger.” Wright also mentioned in his speeches that 9/11 was a wake-up call to white America, and alluded to a governmental conspiracy that invented HIV/AIDS in order to get rid of African Americans.

After watching some of these sermons, they are pretty inflammatory, and in my opinion, blatantly racist. However, making snap judgements by a 3 minute clip on YouTube I think would be about as unfair as taking some other statements by politicians, sportscasters, and other public figures out of context in order to make them appear as racist.  Are Obama opponents just using selected clips and sound bytes of this guy in order to make him look bad? If they are, isn’t Obama doing the same thing by saying that Wright is a “a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine . . . and who for over 30 years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work on Earth by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy.”?

But is Wright really a racist, hate monger? Perhaps he is just trying to light the proverbial fire under the rears of African Americans who have become complacent and stuck in a socio-economic rut that many African Americans are in these days. Perhaps he is just saying this, or perhaps he really does think that the rich, white American is the enemy. After all, he did say that God commanded us to love thy enemy, and quoted this right after discussing how rich, white America is holding African Americans back, and in fact trying to eradicate them with the HIV/AIDS virus.

In his speech, Senator Obama said that Jeremiah Wright’s sermons “…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,” and reminded listeners how he has “won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country.” Obama also commented on the recent speculations of former Representative Geraldine Ferraro (who said that she believed Obama has gotten to where he as in his campaign simply because he is African American) saying that his candidacy is not an exercise in affirmative action,  and isn’t simply a plan for “wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap.”

Obama then warned against ignoring racial issues all together, but also warned of dismissing Wright as a demagogue or Ferraro as “harboring some deep-seeded racial bias,” arguing that if we don’t analyze these issues and simply walk away back “to our respective corners,” these issues will never be dealt with, and we as a nation will ever be able to come together.

This is all well and good, as was how Obama said that the Pastor’s views  are “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,” but what Obama fails to do is explain why this man has been a “member of his family” for 20 years now. He did the marriage ceremony for Barack and his wife. He baptized his two daughters. He’s been a close friend to Obama and helped introduce him to his Christian faith. And, if according to Obama, Wright’s views are in fact so distorted and divisive of America, and not working to solve the problems, why has he been so close to this guy for 20 years? One might think that if he doesn’t agree with some of the views he would have stood up against them in church, or possibly stopped such being good friends with this guy to begin with. Because to me, you can’t defend statements saying that white America wants African Americans dead, or that 9/11 should be seen as a warning for white America. Statements like that, while not directly said to Obama, will inevitably be tied to him because of his close association with Jeremiah Wright, even if Obama calls them distorted and divisive. If they’re that bad, stop listening to this guy! Don’t let him baptize your kids or marry you to your wife! Stop taking his advice as “spiritual adviser” – just what type of advice is this guy giving Obama? And if Obama gets elected, then what will he be advised to do by this guy?

Personally, I think this Jeremiah Wright dude is wacked, crazy, and a bigot. This speech by Obama, while in agreement about trying to solve these problems while acknowledging history and how all of that and other former solutions have worked to shape the racial divide that we now face, all sounds good on paper – but does he really believe it? Is he just trying to disassociate himself with the teachings of Jeremiah Wright now that the cat is out of the bag about some of his ideas and teachings? I am reminded of the old adage that says, “if you lay down with dogs, you will wake up with fleas.” How could Obama possibly believe that Wright’s sermons are so divisive and distorted if they’ve been as close as family for 20 years?

I don’t buy it, and think this could lead to some serious problems in Obama’s campaign – not because of this speech he gave, it was very well done. But how believable is it? And if someone like John McCain was found to have a good friend of 20 years in the KKK, or Hillary found to have a life-long pedophile/rapist/cannibal/puppy killer friend, wouldn’t their candidacy be pretty much over too?