Racism is wrong. That seems to be simple enough, but not everyone, everywhere agrees with that in America. That is a hard truth all of us, no matter our race, have to acknowledge. Jeremiah Wright is a man, born in 1941, who knows this truth intimately. He is being criticized for helming a "separatist" church: that somehow it and he is a threat to the very fabric of this country. From everything, I have read about him, he does not advocate violence against anyone and he does not believe whites are superior to blacks--or vice versa. He and Obama share the same goal for the future of this country, except that Obama's speeches are conciliatory like Martin's while Wright's are blunt like Malcolm.
Another difference between Wright and Malcolm X, other than their views on the role of violence in defeating racism, is that Wright is a preacher. In this country, religion and politics cannot mix legally. A church can lose both its tax exemption status and status as a religious institution once it dives into politics. This law has for so long been applied to only white churches. Because, you see, our government like Native American reservations has treated black churches for the longest time. Black churches had revolutionaries like the political preacher Martin Luther King who wanted equality for all people. The government at the time not legally left Martin Luther King alone for his political speech. Until whites and blacks listened to him and realized he was right. The same thing is happening with Obama-- we of all racial backgrounds realize he is right.
The black church was a cross section of politics and faith. In Alabama, a country town named Lowndes County was home to the Black Panthers and Civil Rights meetings in the black church. Where else were they going to meet? They could not let their white counterparts find out or the fight for equality would have been ended. In addition, whites at the time ignored the black church all year long with one exception. When you saw white people sitting in the pews at the back of a black church, you knew it was election time. Politicians would go there to scrounge up votes. Empty promises made to blacks that their needs and wants addressed. .
The racist people not voting for Barack simply because he is black--not because of his policy ideas or his aptitude to handle the problems facing this country- are the ones Pastor Jeremiah Wright is discussing. We all, of every nationality and ethnic background, should have a problem with those people. Racism is no less insidious than it was in the past. There is no difference between racism of today and racism of the past because racist sentiments give rise to the violent acts that no doubt follow them.
Racist acts, the violent and the non-violent ones, of today are not being committed by some ethereal, non entity or even by some large intangible mass but instead by individuals we know and care about--friends, neighbors even our own mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles. Those are the people who Jeremiah Wright, blacks and whites, Asians and Mexicans, Indians and Arabs must both possess and direct ire towards. Let's not forget there are many knowing blacks who are angry about past and present racism in this country as well as there are knowing white mothers, white daughters, white sons and white fathers who are just as sick and tired of being sick and tired that racism is still exists.
