At the risk of beating a dead horse...and being just like the media, I feel the need to bring Jeremiah Wright up just one more time (unless, of course, something comes up again :) ). I really appreciate Bill Moyers' perspective. He articulates so well the points that I have thought about over the last few weeks. I wanted to give everyone the chance to see what he said on the Journal last night. I couldn't get the video so you can either click on the link or read the transcript below.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05022008/watch.html
May 2, 2008
BILL MOYERS:Welcome to the Journal.
I once asked a reporter back from Vietnam, "Who's telling the truth over there?" Everyone he said. Everyone sees what's happening through the lens of their own experience." That's how people see Jeremiah Wright. In my conversation with him on this broadcast a week ago and in his dramatic public appearances since, he revealed himself to be far more complex than the sound bites that propelled him onto the public stage. Over 2000 of you have written me about him, and your opinions vary widely. Some sting: "Jeremiah Wright is nothing more than a race-hustling, American hating radical," one viewer wrote. A "nut case," said another. Others were far more were sympathetic to him.
Many of you have asked for some rational explanation for Wright's transition from reasonable conversation to shocking anger at the National Press Club. A psychologist might pull back some of the layers and see this complicated man more clearly, but I'm not a psychologist. Many black preachers I've known - scholarly, smart, and gentle in person -- uncorked fire and brimstone in the pulpit. Of course I've known many white preachers like that, too.
But where I grew up in the south, before the civil rights movement, the pulpit was a safe place for black men to express anger for which they would have been punished anywhere else; a safe place for the fierce thunder of dignity denied, justice delayed. I think I would have been angry if my ancestors had been transported thousands of miles in the hellish hole of a slave ship, then sold at auction, humiliated, whipped, and lynched. Or if my great-great grandfather had been but three -fifths of a person in a constitution that proclaimed, "We the people." Or if my own parents had been subjected to the racial vitriol of Jim Crow, Strom Thurmond, Bull Connor, and Jesse Helms. Even so, the anger of black preachers I've known and heard about and reported on was, for them, very personal and cathartic.
That's not how Jeremiah Wright came across in those sound bites or in his defiant performances this week. What white America is hearing in his most inflammatory words is an attack on the America they cherish and that many of their sons have died for in battle — forgetting that black Americans have fought and bled beside them, and that Wright himself has a record of honored service in the Navy. Hardly anyone took the "chickens come home to roost" remark to convey the message that intervention in the political battles of other nations is sure to bring retaliation in some form, which is not to justify the particular savagery of 9/11 but to understand that actions have consequences. My friend Bernard Weisberger, the historian, says, yes, people are understandably seething with indignation over Wright's absurd charge that the united states deliberately brought an HIV epidemic into being. But it is a fact, he says, that within living memory the U.S. Public Health Service conducted a study that deliberately deceived black men with syphilis into believing that they were being treated, while actually letting them die for the sake of a scientific test. Does this excuse Wright's anger? His exaggerations or distortions? You'll have to decide or yourself. At least it helps me to understand the why of them.
But in this multimedia age the pulpit isn't only available on Sunday mornings. There's round the clock media — the beast whose hunger is never satisfied, especially for the fast food with emotional content. So the preacher starts with rational discussion and after much prodding throws more and more gasoline on the fire that will eventually consume everything it touches. He had help — people who for their own reasons set out to conflate the man in the pulpit who wasn't running for president with the man in the pew who was.
Behold the double standard: John McCain sought out the endorsement of John Hagee, the war-mongering Catholic-bashing Texas preacher, who said the people of New Orleans got what they deserved for their sins. But no one suggests McCain shares Hagee's delusions, or thinks AIDS is God's punishment for homosexuality. Pat Robertson called for the assassination of a foreign head of state and asked God to remove Supreme Court justices, yet he remains a force in the Republican religious right. After 9/11 Jerry Falwell said the attack was God's judgment on America for having been driven out of our schools and the public square, but when McCain goes after the endorsement of a preacher he once condemned as an agent of intolerance, the press gives him a pass.
Jon Stewart recently played a tape from the Nixon white house in which Billy Graham talks in the oval office about how he has friends who are Jewish, but he knows in his heart that they are undermining America. This is crazy and wrong -- white preachers are given leeway in politics that others aren't.
Which means it is all about race, isn't it? Wright's offensive opinions and inflammatory appearances are judged differently. He doesn't fire a shot in anger, put a noose around anyone's neck, call for insurrection, or plant a bomb in a church with children in Sunday school. What he does is to speak his mind in a language and style that unsettles some people, and says some things so outlandish and ill-advised that he finally leaves Obama no choice but to end their friendship. Politics often exposes us to the corroding acid of the politics of personal destruction, but I've never seen anything like this — this wrenching break between pastor and parishioner. Both men no doubt will carry the grief to their graves. All the rest of us should hang our heads in shame for letting it come to this in America, where the gluttony of the non-stop media grinder consumes us all and prevents an honest conversation on race. It is the price we are paying for failing to heed the great historian Jacob Burckhardt, who said "beware the terrible simplifiers".
Showing posts with label Jeremiah Wright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeremiah Wright. Show all posts
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Disowning Jeremiah Wright
The media has gone crazy over Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his association with Barack Obama.
As I watched Nightline's report on Barack's latest disownment of Wright, I'm discouraged and saddened.
On a daily basis, I converse with friends about Barack's chances at the nomination and we express our hopes, concerns, and even skepticism.
Barack represents an opportunity for our country to demonstrate it's ability to deal with race and ethnicity. Of course, that's not the only reason to vote for him, but to many of us, we see his ideas as different. He addresses issues that many people seem to think are unimportant. Yet, to those of us who deal with race on a daily basis, his words are a breath of fresh air. It's nice to know someone is finally talking in a constructive way...not just about race, but about the way our country can be an agent of change. In my opinion, it seems like dealing with race as a core issue would help any number of other issues fall into place.
Some of my friends have said things that imply we are making concessions for Obama...and for Wright...because they are black. I have heard people say Wright's comments are equal to the KKK and Obama should disown him if he knows what's good for him. I completely disagree.
The more I think about this, I think I've figured out yet another reason why I am so disappointed by his move to disown Rev. Wright.
If Obama disowns his long-time friend and pastor, what does that mean for me?? In order to protect my reputation of living in an urban community, do I need to disown my own family and friends??? I may not be running for president, but in my mind, my reputation and my integrity is just as important to me...and the people around me would have just as much right to ask me to do that in order to prove my loyalty and to back up the message I profess.
Thank goodness I have friends here in Dallas who do not judge me by the people I grew up with or the people I know here in Dallas who make racist comments--some overt and intentional...others covert and out of ignorance. Thank goodness the people who know me don't judge me by the color of my skin or the baggage that might seem inevitable for someone with my cultural background.
My approach to my white friends who make overt or covert comments is just like my approach to my friends in Turner Courts, my friends with the city, or my friends at work. If I want to see things change, I must develop and maintain the relationship. People have to know me and I have to know them. We have to be able to have conversations. Relationships are reciprocal. Relationships imply you learn from each other. In genuine relationships, people are comfortable being themselves. Genuine relationships have allowed me to have amazing, challenging conversations with Black, White, and Hispanic friends. I have learned from all of them and I would like to think they have learned something from me as well.
Though I don't always agree with people...and I have often made blunt comments, I don't want to disown people. Nor do I want them to disown me.
I am still very much a Barack Obama supporter. I don't think he should be let off the hook just because he "has to be a politician" in this situation. I think he is better than that. But more so than being disappointed in Obama, I am disappointed in us...the White, Black, and Brown people...who have convinced Barack and ourselves that we have to distance ourselves from the black culture and distance ourselves from having the conversation in order to be accepted.
To amend a quote from Hillary, "Shame on us!"
As I watched Nightline's report on Barack's latest disownment of Wright, I'm discouraged and saddened.
On a daily basis, I converse with friends about Barack's chances at the nomination and we express our hopes, concerns, and even skepticism.
Barack represents an opportunity for our country to demonstrate it's ability to deal with race and ethnicity. Of course, that's not the only reason to vote for him, but to many of us, we see his ideas as different. He addresses issues that many people seem to think are unimportant. Yet, to those of us who deal with race on a daily basis, his words are a breath of fresh air. It's nice to know someone is finally talking in a constructive way...not just about race, but about the way our country can be an agent of change. In my opinion, it seems like dealing with race as a core issue would help any number of other issues fall into place.
Some of my friends have said things that imply we are making concessions for Obama...and for Wright...because they are black. I have heard people say Wright's comments are equal to the KKK and Obama should disown him if he knows what's good for him. I completely disagree.
The more I think about this, I think I've figured out yet another reason why I am so disappointed by his move to disown Rev. Wright.
If Obama disowns his long-time friend and pastor, what does that mean for me?? In order to protect my reputation of living in an urban community, do I need to disown my own family and friends??? I may not be running for president, but in my mind, my reputation and my integrity is just as important to me...and the people around me would have just as much right to ask me to do that in order to prove my loyalty and to back up the message I profess.
Thank goodness I have friends here in Dallas who do not judge me by the people I grew up with or the people I know here in Dallas who make racist comments--some overt and intentional...others covert and out of ignorance. Thank goodness the people who know me don't judge me by the color of my skin or the baggage that might seem inevitable for someone with my cultural background.
My approach to my white friends who make overt or covert comments is just like my approach to my friends in Turner Courts, my friends with the city, or my friends at work. If I want to see things change, I must develop and maintain the relationship. People have to know me and I have to know them. We have to be able to have conversations. Relationships are reciprocal. Relationships imply you learn from each other. In genuine relationships, people are comfortable being themselves. Genuine relationships have allowed me to have amazing, challenging conversations with Black, White, and Hispanic friends. I have learned from all of them and I would like to think they have learned something from me as well.
Though I don't always agree with people...and I have often made blunt comments, I don't want to disown people. Nor do I want them to disown me.
I am still very much a Barack Obama supporter. I don't think he should be let off the hook just because he "has to be a politician" in this situation. I think he is better than that. But more so than being disappointed in Obama, I am disappointed in us...the White, Black, and Brown people...who have convinced Barack and ourselves that we have to distance ourselves from the black culture and distance ourselves from having the conversation in order to be accepted.
To amend a quote from Hillary, "Shame on us!"
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Jeremiah Wright...in context, please!!!
I have learned over the last several years that there are well-intentioned people who end up doing some abhorrent things unintentionally (I'll give them the benefit of the doubt here).
On the other hand, there are people who are intentionally spiteful.
The sad part is, whether unintentional or intentional, both have the same result.
Without being educated on whatever message it is we are sending, even the "unintentional," well-intentioned people can end up perpetuating a stereotype that is hurtful at best. (My last post addressed this on a different issue).
For the last several weeks we've heard Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sound bytes played over and over again.
I can't say that I agree with everything he says...but I think before we condemn Rev. Wright for his "hate speech" and incendiary language, we need to look in our own back yard. I know I grew up with preacher's who spoke of being in the "wrong church" because it was a black Church of Christ. I grew up with sermons about Miriam and Aaron's sin being that they were an interracial couple. I don't think we can condemn Rev. Wright for all of his comments until we scrutinize our own church and our own pastors. And I don't think we can condemn Rev. Wright until we listen to his entire message.
Bill Moyers interview with Rev. Wright confirmed what I suspected. A lot of the inflamatory nature of his words were taken out of context and thus made to sound more "angry." As a White woman who knew nothing about the Black church or Black Liberation Theology until the last decade, I believe much of the media attention to Wright's soundbytes are to incite fear. (I have added the clips below so you can see the interview and the broader context for the soundbytes that have been played and scrutinized out of context incessantly).
Quite honestly, it is still somewhat uncomfortable for me to enter a Black mega-church. However, although there are people there who may resent my presence, what I find over and over again is that people are kind and accepting and my discomfort is more about me than it is about them. Though I don't always agree with everything the pastor says, I seek to understand it from his perspective (and all of the other people who are shouting "amen" to his words). Their experience has been much different than mine. Before judging, I need to listen, hear, and seek understanding first.
This morning I had the opportunity to hear Rev. Wright speak at Friendship West Baptist Church. He made some comments that I'm sure could be taken out of context and exploited just like the ones he made in Chicago. But the overall message was not about the oppressiveness of White America; it was about not making excuses for not being able to do something. The message was about accountability. And, since Friendship West is a black mega-church (though I saw several White people there...perhaps to hear Rev. Wright), Rev. Wright's sermon was primarily targeted toward Black people. Unlike what we have been coached by the media, he did not encourage Black people to bemoan the oppression by White people and wallow in their pity. Quite the contrary. ...But we don't hear that soundbyte.
We live in a free country. Everyone is free to have their own opinion. I know some of my friends may listen to Rev. Wright's whole sermon and still find him offensive. My only request is that you *do* listen to all of his words first. Listen to his message. Talk to other black people (not just *one* other black person who might agree with you!). Disagree with what you must. But base your disagreements off of informed and educated opinions.
How about challenging ourselves to begin open and honest dialogue with people who don't look like and think like we do with the goal of thinking more critically about the messages we are receiving?
On the other hand, there are people who are intentionally spiteful.
The sad part is, whether unintentional or intentional, both have the same result.
Without being educated on whatever message it is we are sending, even the "unintentional," well-intentioned people can end up perpetuating a stereotype that is hurtful at best. (My last post addressed this on a different issue).
For the last several weeks we've heard Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sound bytes played over and over again.
I can't say that I agree with everything he says...but I think before we condemn Rev. Wright for his "hate speech" and incendiary language, we need to look in our own back yard. I know I grew up with preacher's who spoke of being in the "wrong church" because it was a black Church of Christ. I grew up with sermons about Miriam and Aaron's sin being that they were an interracial couple. I don't think we can condemn Rev. Wright for all of his comments until we scrutinize our own church and our own pastors. And I don't think we can condemn Rev. Wright until we listen to his entire message.
Bill Moyers interview with Rev. Wright confirmed what I suspected. A lot of the inflamatory nature of his words were taken out of context and thus made to sound more "angry." As a White woman who knew nothing about the Black church or Black Liberation Theology until the last decade, I believe much of the media attention to Wright's soundbytes are to incite fear. (I have added the clips below so you can see the interview and the broader context for the soundbytes that have been played and scrutinized out of context incessantly).
Quite honestly, it is still somewhat uncomfortable for me to enter a Black mega-church. However, although there are people there who may resent my presence, what I find over and over again is that people are kind and accepting and my discomfort is more about me than it is about them. Though I don't always agree with everything the pastor says, I seek to understand it from his perspective (and all of the other people who are shouting "amen" to his words). Their experience has been much different than mine. Before judging, I need to listen, hear, and seek understanding first.
This morning I had the opportunity to hear Rev. Wright speak at Friendship West Baptist Church. He made some comments that I'm sure could be taken out of context and exploited just like the ones he made in Chicago. But the overall message was not about the oppressiveness of White America; it was about not making excuses for not being able to do something. The message was about accountability. And, since Friendship West is a black mega-church (though I saw several White people there...perhaps to hear Rev. Wright), Rev. Wright's sermon was primarily targeted toward Black people. Unlike what we have been coached by the media, he did not encourage Black people to bemoan the oppression by White people and wallow in their pity. Quite the contrary. ...But we don't hear that soundbyte.
We live in a free country. Everyone is free to have their own opinion. I know some of my friends may listen to Rev. Wright's whole sermon and still find him offensive. My only request is that you *do* listen to all of his words first. Listen to his message. Talk to other black people (not just *one* other black person who might agree with you!). Disagree with what you must. But base your disagreements off of informed and educated opinions.
How about challenging ourselves to begin open and honest dialogue with people who don't look like and think like we do with the goal of thinking more critically about the messages we are receiving?
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