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Wright: The Catch 22
After Rev. Wright's "Best Of" YouTube clips made headlines 24/7, everybody and their mother was screaming about how offended they were.
And one of the most serious complains was: "Why is the Obama campaign hiding this guy away? We want to ask him questions! He needs to answer to this! He needs to apologize for insulting us!"
Now, Rev. Wright was supposedly on a cruise at that time. But even after he came back, Rev. Wright, as he told the Press this morning, didn't go out and speak right away.
He said he learned something from his mother, and so he let the press make total fools of themselves for as long as they would (it was funny to see that the "top" MSNBC analysts couldn't understand what he was talking about there).
But now that he's back and talking, seems these same people can't stand to hear him speak his mind and answer their questions.
Number 1 complaint: "Why can't the Obama campaign put this guy away?".
People who keep saying that Wright should have been "loyal" to Obama and waited to speak out are the same ones that would be up in arms if anybody had suggested that Obama was standing in the way of Wright answering questions from the press.
You see, Obama is a presidential candidate, not the end-all be-all of anybody. Wright is his pastor, and he's been attacked and ridiculed badly. And he has the right (and, frankly, the responsibility to his congregation), to respond as he sees fit.
I don't think this is helping Obama with the people that assume that anything pro-black is anti-white, and those that feel threatened when a black man speaks loudly.
Rev. Wright's words should be heard, and maybe this country will stop hiding from the reality of the black experience all over this great nation. We can't solve our problems unless we can face them without turning our heads away.
Those that want to put Rev. Wright into a box and have him hidden away have done the same to King, Malcom, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Anybody see a theme here? Black man better not be speaking truth to power lest he be deemed "controversial".
And one last thing. Weren't the Clintons close with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in the past? Aren't they considered controversial by the same people that see Wright as controversial? Why are the Clintons not forced to explain how their views differ from those of the Revrerends?
Oh, I forgot, black person is friends with black person who's controversial, he's "conspiring". White person is friends with controversial blacks, they're "tolerant".
Now I'm angry.
And one of the most serious complains was: "Why is the Obama campaign hiding this guy away? We want to ask him questions! He needs to answer to this! He needs to apologize for insulting us!"
Now, Rev. Wright was supposedly on a cruise at that time. But even after he came back, Rev. Wright, as he told the Press this morning, didn't go out and speak right away.
He said he learned something from his mother, and so he let the press make total fools of themselves for as long as they would (it was funny to see that the "top" MSNBC analysts couldn't understand what he was talking about there).
But now that he's back and talking, seems these same people can't stand to hear him speak his mind and answer their questions.
Number 1 complaint: "Why can't the Obama campaign put this guy away?".
People who keep saying that Wright should have been "loyal" to Obama and waited to speak out are the same ones that would be up in arms if anybody had suggested that Obama was standing in the way of Wright answering questions from the press.
You see, Obama is a presidential candidate, not the end-all be-all of anybody. Wright is his pastor, and he's been attacked and ridiculed badly. And he has the right (and, frankly, the responsibility to his congregation), to respond as he sees fit.
I don't think this is helping Obama with the people that assume that anything pro-black is anti-white, and those that feel threatened when a black man speaks loudly.
Rev. Wright's words should be heard, and maybe this country will stop hiding from the reality of the black experience all over this great nation. We can't solve our problems unless we can face them without turning our heads away.
Those that want to put Rev. Wright into a box and have him hidden away have done the same to King, Malcom, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Anybody see a theme here? Black man better not be speaking truth to power lest he be deemed "controversial".
And one last thing. Weren't the Clintons close with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in the past? Aren't they considered controversial by the same people that see Wright as controversial? Why are the Clintons not forced to explain how their views differ from those of the Revrerends?
Oh, I forgot, black person is friends with black person who's controversial, he's "conspiring". White person is friends with controversial blacks, they're "tolerant".
Now I'm angry.
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"Oh, I forgot, black person is friends with black person who's controversial, he's "conspiring". White person is friends with controversial blacks, they're "tolerant"."
You nailed it. Double standards galore.
April 28, 2008 7:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
See
http://www.thoughttheater.com/2008/04/crossrace_recognition_deficit_why_linking_obama_to.php
For some "researched" insight into the topic.
(posted at TPM as well by the good fellow, but the HTML editor scrambled it)
April 28, 2008 7:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I realize this was kind of a rambling post, but what do you think would please these guys regarding Rev. Wright?
Should he stay or should he go?
Should Obama hide him, ignore him, defend him, denounce him?
I think this is playing out the best way it could be. Wright becomes a household name on his own, and people actually start referring to him by name, instead of "Obama's controversial former pastor".
April 28, 2008 7:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I couldn't agree more. I hope Wright continues to utilize his place upon center stage of the public discourse, upon to which he was pushed by talking media hairdos, to confront racism and the differing standards to which different groups int he USA are held.
Here's a bit of what he had to say this morning at the National Press Club on the subject.
April 28, 2008 7:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I had given Wright the benefit of the doubt until these past few days. Now I just want him to go away. I have no qualms with his theology, and he's done a good job building an important church and loving community. However, like a lot of pulpit clergy, he's an egomaniac who loves the sound of his own voice and who lacks introspection. I cannot stand his essentialist pseudo-science (w/r/t "black" and "white" learning styles, that discredited left brain/right brain stuff), his lack of nuance, and his "claiming" of Obama. Wright has been arguing that Obama is just cloaking the his own ideas and perspective in the more genteel language of politics. In addition to being arrogant and just plain wrong, that comment is extremely damaging to Obama's campaign: all it does is confirm right-wingers' fears that Obama is a closet radical-- because that's what Wright himself seems to believe.
Obama needs to go back to the part of his Philly speech where he explained just where he and Rev. Wright part ways philosophically, and he needs to hit those points hard. And then he has to tell that blowhard to take another vacation and stop undermining his messages.
A couple years ago I nearly entered the seminary. There are a number of different reasons why I didn't end up going down that path, but one of the reasons was my disappointment at realizing that self-aggrandizing, performer-type pulpit clergy were the rule and not the exception. And that includes Reverend Wright. I'm disappointed in Wright and worried for the future of the Obama campaign.
April 28, 2008 7:49 PM | Reply | Permalink