Brian Ross’s report for Good Morning America on Barack Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is potentially a huge problem for Obama. In the piece, Ross has clips of Wright delivering sermons in which he says we should not say God Bless America, but God “Damn” America, in which he calls America the US of KKKA (referring to how racist the country is), and in which he says about September 11 that America’s “chickens have come home to roost.”
As if that weren’t bad enough, Mark Halperin has a Youtube of Wright in which he says Jesus was a black man killed by rich white folks and he drops the N-Word in reference to Hillary.
Jeez. This is Obama’s “spiritual advisor”?
I knew Wright had said supportive things about Louis Farrakhan, and that’s bad enough. But I had no idea it was this bad.
Unless our news media is totally in the bag for Obama, I think Bevan is right. He’s going to face increased scrutiny on this, and it could be a real problem for him.
He's right. And what he is going to discover, if Barry is the kind of brother I think he ought to be, is exactly how deep the rabbithole goes with regard to the amount of lipservice blackfolks give in defense of our weaker bretheren.
To wax theoretical for a moment:
I was listening to a talkshow the other night and the host couldn't figure out if Obama ever wrote about being damaged by the n-word. If Barry were to concede that it's so hard for a black man like himself today, he's going to get dissed far and wide. He won't. So it's difficult for some whitefolk to understand how or why superstars like Barry should give 'victimology' any play whatsoever. So here is what whitefolks need to hear (and I'll make a video too) which they always get when it is explained to them this way in person.
OK. This is for you white dude. I want you to go back you highschool memories and think of your first crush. You can see her face, her blonde hair, her blue eyes, the way she walked, her voice and how a mere glance from her turned your insides to jelly. She never touched you, she never even spoke to you, but you spent so much time thinking about her. You loved her and hated her at the same time. There are still songs that take you back to the moment. One day she actually spoke to you and told you that you were lower than toad poop. You never forgave her, and you never will.
For some blackfolks, this is what the first racist experience is like. For you, maybe it was the first time you saw your father hit your mother. The first time a bully smacked you in the face and gave you a bloody nose. The first time you flunked a class. The first time you wrecked your parents' car. You had nightmares.
Now grow up and get over it. Easy right? For some people yes. For others there are decades of reading self-help books and going to therapy and strange obsessions. For some blackfolks, racism is like that. On the surface, the stupid act of a stupid person and in the context of world history, less than a drop in the bucket - like your job, your marriage and your kids. A mere nothing. Disposable minutia in the great scheme of things, like a night with a hooker.
So. Will Obama ever admit that it hurts to be a black man in America? No. But will he play to the politics that caters to the victims of America? Of course. He's a 'new' politician. So Jeremiah Wright is the baggage - he's the man responsible for saying 'bad things happen to good black people, and it's not your fault'. And this is the kind of fellow traveller Democrats need because they are holistic, and Obama is holistic. Like Bill (and unlike Hillary) Barry feels your pain, especially if it's black pain of the sort mentioned above. It's real.
I don't think that area is proper to bring into politics which is why crusty, impersonal characters like Cheney don't phase me. I don't need the guy to pretend like he likes me and can relate to me on a personal level. Which is another reason Obama doesn't sway me outside of his policy positions. (see here).
