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From SeeingBlack.com The 411 Jeremiah's Failed Crusade
Let's be clear: Wright has been wildly mischaracterized and defamed. It's a natural instinct to respond to the kind malice that has been directed at him for the past six weeks. You see a fire, you want to throw water on it. But this situation is more akin to a grease fire, which means that you have to respond to it in a way that runs counter to your instincts. Instead, Wright opened the faucets and the flames have spread far beyond their original boundaries. In the wake of his appearance you heard disparate rumblings that are growing into a chorus of condemnation. The difference is that these jeers are now coming from Black people. He started out with the enmity of misinformed Whites who knew him only through the manipulated sound bites that had been looped ad nauseum (but which were, until now, dying down.) But now he has done nothing to diminish their scorn and has gained the contempt of a growing number of Black folk who feel that he has single-handedly ruined our chance to have a Black president. That perspective isn't accurate, but it is increasingly common only a day after that appearance. Writing in The New York Times, Bob Herbert accused Wright of vengefully sabotaging Obama with the press conference yesterday; Errol Louis in The New York Daily News gave Wright the benefit of the doubt and said that "he couldn't have done more damage to Obama if he tried." I received an email from a friend who referred to it as "black-on-black crime" another speculated that he was secretly on Hillary Clinton's payroll. And then there are the innumerable crabs-in-a-barrel references cycling around the internet. I'm not prepared to say that Wright was out to destroy Obama's candidacy (though that may well be the outcome) but it was entirely predictable that people would draw that conclusion. It has to be unspeakably difficult to hear oneself lambasted and defamed for weeks on end but Wright entered that conference with a flawed agenda: the commercial media exists to exacerbate controversies, not defuse them. The degree of truth in his words was nearly irrelevant; what matters is the way in which those words would inevitably be consumed, filtered, repackaged and distributed. If the media operated on the basis of people's good intentions we would have far more mutual understanding and they would have far less money. This might have been minimized had Wright called Roland Martin, Ed Gordon, Gwen Ifill and done a roundtable of responsible black journalists or even stopped after the Bill Moyers interview he did days earlier. But in addressing the National Press Club the reverend was like a man who had lost $10 to a card hustler but decides to play again in an attempt to break even. Wright was also likely buoyed by a false confidence in his own communication skills. He is a brilliant preacher but a podium is not a pulpit. He has spent the last 36 years in an arena where people literally say "amen" to your opinions, one where your credibility is virtually unquestionable. But at the press club he was talking to journalists, people who are, by definition, skeptical and start with the premise that if someone in public is talking, there's a good chance they're telling a lie. Anything Wright said was grist for the machine. He was playing an away game without recognizing that he lost home field advantage the minute he left his pulpit. Anything he said beyond "Jesus loves you" would be used against him. It's been argued that Wright felt Obama threw him under the bus with his Philadelphia race speech, but a moment's reflection would reveal that those words constituted anything but a political stiff-arm. In Philadelphia Obama offered as subtle and daring a defense of Wright as he could have and far more than any other politician would have given in the situation. (Jocelyn Elders and Lani Guinier were dispatched by Bill Clinton for offenses far, far less damaging than Wright's video clips have been to Obama.) The irony is that less than 24 hours after the press club debacle, Wright got to see what a real denunciation looks like. Obama has been painted into a corner, in large measure a victim of his own attempt to place Wright into context. It looks all but certain that Wright will be looked at by a large segment of Black America as the man who tried to ruin a dream. It will be a vast distortion of Wright's distinguished legacy but it’s what people will believe. And, as any one of the media in the room could have explained at The National Press Club, perception is reality. In Tension with the Quest for Power By Dedrick Muhammad www.ips-dc.org "I can no more disown him [Rev Jeremy Wright] than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother...These people are a part of me." -Barack Obama, March 2008
I am sure few in the media do. CNN and MSNBC were falling all over themselves talking about the courage and pain it took for Barack Obama to distance himself from his pastor. How does it take any type of political courage to distance oneself from a pastor of Black Liberation Theology that refuses to hide his respect for Minister Louis Farrakhan or back down from his condemnation against United States armed aggression throughout the world? Maybe this is the same type of political courage it took for Barack Obama to not attend the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King for fear that it might make him look too Black. Or maybe it is the courage he exemplified when he commented on the verdict that found three police officers not guilty of any criminal charges for shooting at a group of unarmed Black men 50 times, "The judge has made his ruling, and we're a nation of laws, so we respect the verdict that came down." Barack then went onto say that "resorting to violence to express displeasure over a verdict is something that is completely unacceptable and counterproductive." So the violence of shooting at unarmed Black men 50 times is not deemed totally unacceptable, only forms of Black anger to this injustice. Dr. Cornel West, a long time student of Black Liberation Theology and one of the most respected intellectuals today, said of Barack's refusal to attend the memorial honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, "Martin Luther King Jr.'s deep commitment to unarmed truth and unconditional love can in no way be subject to strategies for access to political power. Hence, I have a very deep disagreement with my dear brother, Barack Obama - in this case, commitment to truth is in tension with the quest for power." I voted for Barack and I still hope he becomes president of this nation. I love all the Youtube songs and rocky animation supporting Barack's campaign. But we can't be blind to the politics as usual routine that Senator Obama is engaged in. Are we supposed to believe that after 20 years of attending Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church that boldly states it's commitment to Black Liberation Theology, a theology with strong roots in Black Power and the theology of Malcolm X, that Barack had no idea that his pastor's theology would be considered radical by most of America? Senator Obama, please come to your senses. You are not going to win the working class White vote in Indiana or anyplace else even if you change your name back to Barry. You might say now that Rev. Wright is not the same man you met 20 years ago, but is he the same man you secretly prayed with last year in a basement because you were afraid to pray with your pastor in public. Senator Obama, you are better than this, even if America is not. You wrote a brilliant book titled after your former Pastor's sermon "The Audacity of Hope." I hope that you find the audacity to stand in public with the Black Liberation tradition that so clearly has been inspirational to you, but from which you now sacrifice in your quest for power. Obama's ‘Race Neutral' Strategy Unravels of its Own Contradictions By Glen Ford www.blackagendareport.com "Obama positioned himself at the political/historical fault line alongside the defenders of the Alamo and American Manifest Destiny." Things fall apart; some things, like an ill-tied shoelace, sooner than others. Barack Obama's strategy to win the
That day came on Tuesday, April 29, when a battered and (truly) bitter Barack Obama made his final, irrevocable break with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose televised Black Liberation Theology tour de force the preceding Friday, Sunday and Monday had laid bare the contradictions of Obama's hopeless racial "neutrality." It was the masterful preacher and seasoned political creature Wright - not the racists who had endlessly looped chopped snippets of the reverend's past sermons together in an attempt to make him appear crazed - who forced Obama to choose in the push and pull of Black and white American worldviews. Obama was made to register his preference for the white racist version of truth over Rev. Wright's, whose rejection of Euro-American mythology reflects prevailing African American perceptions, past and present. Obama was less than eloquent. "All it was is a bunch of rants that aren't grounded in truth," said Sen. Obama, low-rating Rev. Wright's remarks at the National Press Club, in Washington, the morning before. Rev. Wright had become a "caricature" of himself, said the wounded candidate - another way of calling the minister a clown. Under questioning from reporters in Winston Salem, North Carolina, Obama swore up and down that he had never before, in 16 years as a member of Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ congregation, observed his pastor behave in such a way. The declaration rang patently false, as even a red-state Republican White evangelical observer would have recognized Wright's Press Club performance as that of veteran pulpit-master with a vast repertoire of church-pleasing moves and grooves to draw upon, all of them honed over decades for the entertainment of his parishioners - including Obama. But the senator was intent on giving the impression that Rev. Wright was - unbeknownst to Obama - a Jekyll and Hyde character, whose statements "were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate." An amazingly Bush-like turn of phrase! The man who married Barack and Michelle and baptized their children is now rhetorically linked to Osama bin Laden or the Ku Klux Klan. Clearly, this is what panic looks and sounds like when Obama's flimsy tissues of "race neutrality" are stripped away. He berates Rev. Wright and other Black voices for self-centeredness in failing to strike a balance between African American grievances and whatever ails white people. "When you start focusing so much on the historically oppressed," said Obama, "we lose sight of the plight of others." Obama is desperate to convince these "others" that he rejects anything that smacks of an Afro-centric worldview, as represented by Rev. Wright. "What became clear to me was that he was presenting a world view that contradicts what I am and what I stand for." Rev. Wright succeeded in drawing a line in the sand, whether that was his intention or not, daring Obama to take his stand on one side or the other. Race "neutrality" – an impossibility in the actually existing United States - went out the window as Obama in extremis positioned himself at the political/historical fault line alongside the defenders of the Alamo and American Manifest Destiny. As dictated by the logic of power, Obama furiously maneuvered toward "White space," shamelessly taking cover in a kind of populist White patriotism that has always branded Black grievances as selfish, even dangerous distractions from the larger national mission. Rev. Wright's "rantings" amounted to "a complete disregard for what the American people are going through," said Obama. "What mattered to him was him commanding center stage." Obama's flimsy tissues of ‘race neutrality' are stripped away. Obama had belabored the same theme in his Philadelphia speech on race, a few weeks earlier - a widely applauded piece of oratory that was at root an exercise in moral equivalence that equated white and Black grievances in the U.S., as if history and gross power discrepancies did not exist. Obama is as quick as any smug corporate commentator to dismiss as the ravings of extremists and those who "prey on hate" the very idea that U.S. imperialism is an historical and current fact. Chickens cannot possibly come home to roost in terroristic revenge as a response to American crimes against humanity, since "good" nations by definition are incapable of such crimes. It is beyond the pale to contemplate that the United States has Dr. Deaths on its covert payrolls dealing in ghastly biological warfare - the AIDS genesis theory. In order for his race-neutral strategy to appear sane, Obama must constantly paint a picture of an America that does not exist. This cannot be accomplished without mangling the truth, assaulting the truth-tellers, and misrepresenting America's past and present. Since Obama's candidacy is predicated on minimizing the pervasiveness of racism in American life, it is necessary that he cast doubt on the legitimacy of those with race-based grievances. Otherwise, he would be morally compelled to abandon his neutrality and side with the oppressed minority. Thus, he announces in Selma, Alabama that Blacks "have already come 90 percent of the way" to equality - a non-truth by virtually any measurement. He says the "incompetence was color-blind" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, thereby deracializing all that occurred in New Orleans from the moment the winds died down to this very second. He claims that 1980s Ronald Reagan voters had understandable grievances due to "the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s," in the process cleansing the Reagan victory of any racist content. Race neutrality requires that Barack Obama become a cleanup boy for racists, historically and in the present day. At the same time, Obama is driven to loath most those people and facts that might lead to divisiveness. America's worst enemies are not the racists, but those who point out the facts of racism, as Obama explained in mid-March in Philadelphia: "Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all." Rev. Wright and his ilk, by this reasoning, are Public Enemy Number One, standing in the way of the racial harmony that is the natural order of things in Obama's mythical America. Ironically, in practice, race-neutrality also requires that Obama disarm himself in the face of racist attacks. "If I lose," he told reporters with a straight face, "it would not be because of race. It would be because of mistakes I made along the campaign trail." Perhaps it is fitting that, having absolved American racists of all manner of crimes against others, Obama also holds them blameless for their assaults on himself. That's his prerogative, as long as he's the only one being assaulted. But Obama was also dogged over the long weekend by the ghost of Sean Bell, whose death in a 50-shot New York City police fusillade was held blameless by a white judge. Many African Americans anxiously awaited Obama's reaction to the three police officers' acquittals on all charges. "We're a nation of laws, so we respect the verdict that came down," said Obama, when asked about the case by reporters in Indiana. "Resorting to violence to express displeasure over a verdict is something that is completely unacceptable and is counterproductive." That was it. Hillary Clinton, aware that the Sean Bell verdict was an outrage to Black America, issued a prepared statement: "This tragedy has deeply saddened New Yorkers - and all Americans. My thoughts are with Nicole and her children and the rest of Sean's family during this difficult time. The court has given its verdict, and now we await the conclusion of a Department of Justice civil rights investigation. We must also embrace this opportunity to take steps - in our communities, in our law enforcement agencies, and in our government - to make sure this does not happen again." It is difficult not to conclude that Obama distanced himself from the facts of the acquittal - except to counsel against violence and urge folks to "respect" the verdict, whatever that means - while Clinton had the sense to prepare a statement that sounded sensitive to Black anger and on top of developments in the story. The Sean Bell police and judicial atrocity revealed with horrific clarity that Black life continues to be systematically devalued by police in the United States, even when the officers involved are of African descent, as were two of the three shooters in the Bell case. The New York verdict shows that Black lives are devalued by all actors in American society, including Black actors: the essence of institutional racism. Institutional racism is alien to Barack Obama's version of the nation, a fantasy place where racial oppression has never been so endemic to the political culture as to overshadow the "promise" of America. In Obama's public vision, his Democratic caucus victory in 98 percent white Iowa, which began the cascade of Obama wins, proves that the U.S. is ready for profound racial "change." Left unnoted is the fact that Iowa incarcerates African Americans at 13 times the frequency that it locks up whites, the worst record in the nation. For people like Rev. Jeremiah Wright, mass Black incarceration and slavery are seamlessly linked, part of the continuity of racial oppression in the U.S. Most African Americans see the world the way Rev. Wright does - that's why he's among the top five rated preacher-speakers in Black America. This Black American world view, excruciatingly aware of the nation's origins in genocide and slavery, is wholly incompatible with the American mythology championed by Barack Obama. When the two meet, they are mutually repellant. The relationship between Rev. Wright and Sen. Obama has undergone "great damage," says Obama, understatedly. But the break was inevitable and is no tragedy, because it reveals the incompatibility of Obama's adapted world view with the body of knowledge amassed by African Americans since before the landing of the Mayflower. The truth is always a revelation. What Obama Needs to do to Move Beyond Rev. Wright By Roland S. Martin www.rolandsmartin.com
Now that he has taken the necessary steps to separate himself from Wright, Obama must go on his most vigorous offensive to date and make it clear that he is running for president, and not Wright. Sen. Hillary Clinton is doing all she can to make the case to undeclared Democratic superdelegates that Obama is a wounded duck because of Wright; that she has a better shot at winning white working-class voters; and he's not tough enough to take on Sen. John McCain. With that said, Obama is leading among the pledged delegates and the popular vote. He's also significantly closed the gap between himself and Clinton in superdelegates. Bottom line: He's winning. But now it's time for him to ratchet up his message and to take back the stage from Clinton, McCain, and of course, Wright. One way to do that is to be far more forceful in advocating his position and direction for the country. Here are a few suggestions: Let voters know that you will be calling the shots, not Wright. I've seen e-mails from voters who say they will not vote for Obama because of Wright. The junior senator of Illinois must challenge them directly. Tell them flat out that Wright will not keep their homes from foreclosure. Tell them that Wright has absolutely nothing to do with gas prices doubling under the presidency of George W. Bush. Make it plain that your name is on the ballot and not his, and you're the guy who has the right plan to transform the country. Have your supporters increase the book sales of Alan Greenspan. McCain said last year that the economy wasn't his strong suit, and that he needed to read up on the books of the former Federal Reserve chairman. I would put some of those young supporters to use and have them greet McCain at every campaign stop with a copy of a Greenspan book. Even print up some Greenspan masks and hound him to death. Then you must back that in-your-face campaigning with an economic message that speaks to the masses, especially those blue-collar voters. Show them that the Bush tax cuts that McCain wants to continue will benefit those same business owners who are shipping their jobs overseas. Tell blue-collar voters that the hedge fund owners that are snapping up companies and slashing their jobs don't care about them, and will be happy to fund the campaign of McCain. Make the case that he might be a good guy, but he's more concerned about the tax bracket of his wife (she's worth in excess of $100 million) than the middle- class voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania. They say you've got a White problem? Tell those White rural voters that voting against their economic interests is political suicide. Make it clear to women, especially White women, that Roe v. Wade will be extinct if McCain wins. The next president is going to choose three Supreme Court justices. There is no way -- no way -- that the religious right will let a President McCain appoint anyone with a moderate bone in his or her body. Remember Harriet Miers? Bush even said he knew her heart, and they told him to go to hell. What Obama has to tell those women, who are supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton in huge numbers, and will be disappointed if she's not the nominee, is that sitting at home on Election Day, or crossing the aisle and voting for McCain, virtually assures that a woman's right to choose what to do with her body will be taken from her. I would run an ad slapping a large "C" for conservative on the faces of Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Antonin Scalia, and make it clear that three other justices will likely step down. If McCain chooses, the new justices will vote with the conservative bloc. That is a day the pro-choice movement never wants to see. Make college tuition a cornerstone of your campaign. You and Michelle paid off your student loans three years ago -- why keep that such a secret? Hit folks over the head with it. With Sallie Mae cutting back and being more selective on student loans, parents' ability to pay for their kids to go to school is a huge issue. Push it. Hard. Don't let it be just one of many items on the list. Convene a panel in Indiana, North Carolina and Oregon of parents and young folks and let them express their fears about not being able to go to college and get a good job. There isn't a parent, aunt or uncle who isn't concerned with that issue. The war still matters. I'm watching Lanny Davis, a big-time Clinton surrogate on "Larry King Live," challenge Obama's judgment on attending Wright's Chicago church for 20 years. Obama must re-engage the electorate and say that the judgment of Clinton and McCain has led to a war that has cost us 4,000 lives and billions of dollars. Those costs are real. Don't let it slide by. Ratchet up the sound. Don't let voters forget for a second that the wrong choice was made by your opponents. A lot of folks are assuming the doom-and-gloom scenario for Obama. Everyone is saying he's toast, and this race is over. But we forget that conservatives really don't love McCain, and the evangelicals aren't hot in love with him either. Go back to who you are: Mr. Change. Drive the issues home in a more forceful manner. The election is little more than six months away, and a whole lot can happen between now and November 5. ____________ William Jelani Cobb is an associate professor of history at Spelman College. His most recent book is The Devil & Dave Chappelle and Other Essays. He can be reached at jelani9@aol.com or via his website at www.jelanicobb.com Dedrick Muhammad is a graduate from Union Theological Seminary where he focused on Black Liberation Theology. Dedrick currently works for the Institute for Policy Studies and recently co-authored the report "40 Years Later: The Unrealized American Dream." Blackagendareport.com executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com Roland S. Martin is a commentator for TV One Cable Network, also host of "The Roland S. Martin Show" on WVON-AM/1690 in Chicago. He can be heard daily from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. He is also a CNN contributor. ______________ Read and search hundreds of news stories on SeeingBlack.com's 411 Channel. Go to the Between the Lines blog by Jackie Jones and join the discussion on Rev. Wright Click here to view all our blogs and discussion groups, where you can comment on any news stories or post your own news. © Copyright by SeeingBlack.com |
