The Wright and Wrong Assessment

I have been very conflicted about the events that happened this week. After holding our proverbial breaths this weekend with the Bill Moyers interview and the speech before the Detroit NAACP, all hell broke loose Monday with Dr. Wright before the National Press Club. Subsequently, Sen. Barack Obama obviously disturbed by what he witnessed, pulled the plug on his twenty-year relationship with his pastor.

What’s very unfortunate in the denunciation of Dr. Wright by Sen. Obama is the loss that both men will experience. Dr. Wright who said in the Moyers’ interview he was shaken by what was said about himself, his church and his ministry. He eloquently spoke about his life and experiences that led him to the ministry and why Black Liberation Theology was so important in the life of his church and the community he has served for nearly forty years.

Dr. Wright before a national audience in Detroit gave a keynote address before the local NAACP branch. The subject of his address was “Different Doesn’t Mean Deficient.” In this speech he addressed the differences between African-American and European-rooted cultures from language, education, music and the arts. It was a great mini-dissertation of what many whites have failed to recognize and most importantly fear about black culture.

In understanding where Sen. Obama’s position is, it’s one of complete conflict. He loves Dr. Wright. He has known him for nearly twenty years. He has had a relationship with his family and most importantly, is/was someone he respects or respected. He has had a major impact on his life. Obama, in his speech on race made a decision to stand up for Wright while publicly disagreeing with some of his comments. It was his way of "hating the sin, while loving the sinner.” That was a risk he took despite many whites who wanted to see him kick Wright to the curb to justify his own acceptability as a candidate for President. But Wright fatally personalized his anger towards white media while losing sight that the prize was Obama’s candidacy for President.

Dr. Wright in my opinion forgot that Obama was the one on trial and was pulled into this as a “character witness” by the conservative right. He failed to understand it was never about him. As we moved through the six weeks prior to the Pennsylvania Primary, I would argue that many had placed Wright in their rear view mirror. Many were trying to grasp Obama’s “bitter” comment and how that was going to play with white voter in Pennsylvania. All the while, Governor Ed Rendell said that many in his “would never vote for a black candidate.” So why did Wright do this now?

Wright never could get past the pain of Obama’s comments on March 18th when he called his statements “offensive” and “hurtful.” Also, if you were trashed after thirty-seven years of service for having an opinion which to my knowledge has not hurt anyone, how would your emotions play as you have been reduced to a caricature figure by media who has not done its job in fact checking its stories? An overwhelming number within the black community would say that Wrights views have a very high degree of truth. Anyone would agree that Wright should defend his name, honor and legacy. Dr. Wright was innocently dragged into a media feeding frenzy that wreaks the stench of divide and conquer politics, designed not just to scare whites away from Obama. Many on the right believe that the end result of Obama’s denunciation will spark a backlash against Obama in the black church and maybe increase black apathy at the polls even if he’s the nominee. Both men unfortunately were played against each other in no win situation.

The larger issue is the double standard that has been placed on Obama and Wright. This double standard has placed African-American culture under a magnifying glass for white America to approve or disapprove. Whites have a very different view of what they perceive as racism from African-Americans. The way it seems to me is that whites view racism primarily as an individualistic tendency, while African-Americans view racism as an historic and institutional issue within this nation. And justifiably so.

As the facts have been reviewed over and over again, there is nothing that Obama has done or said that would point to him not being some sort of subversive racist. He was described as being to black or not black enough. He was called a Muslim, which obviously he's not. He was pushed into a corner by white media who made it seem that he sought out Minister Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement. Farrakhan simply stated that, “Obama, who came from a white mother from Kansas and a father from Africa may the one sent by God to heal America’s wounds.” He was then placed in a corner in a debate by Sen. Hillary Clinton to “denounce and then renounce” Farrakhan because denouncing wasn’t enough. Then there was the black-brown divide.

Wright is portrayed unfairly as racist for preaching Black Liberation Theology. Many whites have very little historical understanding about what it is and why it was even necessary. Trinity United Church of Christ was depicted as a black cult. But the mainstream media completely dismissed the fact that Trinity is a member of the United Church of Christ (UCC). The UCC is a predominately white denomination.

This dissecting by whites of African-American culture, religious practices and politics is a very dangerous sign of where our value as citizens stands within the fabric of American society. I have never heard the same demands placed on people of other cultures races or faiths. I am very afraid that if there is no resistance to this, what all people of color value as precious in their cultures will ultimately be threatened with a continued “Americanism” response to what is not ethnically European.

But there are some whites who get it. Mark Brown of the Chicago Sun-Times made this statement in his column today.

“Barack Obama and his presidential campaign are at a crossroads, brought there in large part by his old pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But he's not at the crossroads alone. We're all pretty much right there with him, standing in various corners of the intersection, facing in different directions. Where we go from here in the next few weeks and months could determine our course as a nation for a long time forward.

The Wright affair has such resonance in this campaign because Wright has shown himself to be the kind of black person that white people don't like. He brings out our prejudices. Yes, I said "our" prejudices…..part of it is that he talks louder than white people would prefer and part of it is that he uses the sing-song cadence they associate with other black ministers they have grown to hate over the years such as Jesse Jackson.

I've seen this happen so many times in politics where black candidates are involved that I've lost track. An opponent has trouble attacking the black candidate, so they find somebody connected to the candidate and attack them. I can't say why this is more prevalent with black politicians unless it's that the black experience has produced more fringe players who can be used for this purpose. Plus, there's always Farrakhan. Then the opponent starts in with the disavowal game. Will you now disavow this black person who is of some stature in the black community to prove to us that you really aren't one of "those" black people? And now that Obama has provided the disavowal, left with no choice by Wright's latest display, the reaction is "too little, too late."

This is a gut check time for white America, and don't give me the "double standard" baloney. If we could ever clean up the white racism, the thing that some of you (whites) consider black racism would take care of itself."

Wright was correct that this was an assault on African-American culture and the Black Church. However, Wright was out of bounds to make himself the “star” to this drama. Obama described Wright’s behavior as ridiculous. I would characterize it as conduct unbecoming of a pastor. Arrogant rebukes and his “shout-out” to Omega Psi Phi‘s “Q-dogs” or dealing the dozens was not what this moment needed. It needed maturity and sobriety of the need to call a ntion to look within itself for healing.

Can you imagine The Rev Dr. Martin Luther King behaving in such a fashion? No I can’t. Neither can you.

He miscalculated the audience. Not the one in the room, but the one behind the pen and cameras at the National Press Club. He artfully made his point with Bill Moyers. Had that interview been the last word on Dr. Wright, we would have already moved forward.

Obama is wrong when he says that there was no attack on the black church or black culture. When church members are called on their dying bed in a hospice for quotes about Dr. Wright, there is no respect for that institution. When there are bomb threats against inncocent members of churches that invited Wright to speak, it's callous and scurrolous. When a funeral is secretly recorded against the wishes of the bereaved family, with hopes to get another controversial sound-bite from Dr. Wright, there is no respect. When black liberation theology is called racist, where then does that leave the black church and most importantly the legacies of stallworts such as Dr. Gardner Taylor, Otis Moss, Jr., Dr. King and others? Both men have been exploited with African-Americans suffering in the middle with their culture up for debate.

African-American Culture is a rich and proud culture, but not one to be exploited for political purposes.

There has to be a stop this. And it has to start right now.

Somewhere, I hear James saying,” We’re people. We’re just like the birds and the bees. We’d rather die on our feet, than be livin’ on our knees.

SAY IT LOUD!!! I’M BLACK AND I’M PROUD!!!

Pass it on….

Copyright 2008 © Algernon H. Penn