[Marxism] Obama speaks out on Jeremiah Wright controversy

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of 
Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging 
questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of 
American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him 
make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in 
church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? 
Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your 
pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply 
controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak 
out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly 
distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as 
endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we 
know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle 
East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, 
instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical 
Islam.

As such, 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.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, 
there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are 
not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first 
place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if 
all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons 
that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if 
Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being 
peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in 
much the same way

But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met 
more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my 
Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one 
another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who 
served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at 
some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who 
for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing 
God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the 
needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison 
ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of 
my first service at Trinity:

“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a 
forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in 
that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that 
cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the 
stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and 
Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s 
field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – 
became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, 
the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed 
once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future 
generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at 
once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our 
journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that 
we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study 
and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black 
churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its 
entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the 
former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are 
full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of 
dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the 
untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the 
fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and 
successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the 
black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. 
As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He 
strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. 
Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any 
ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he 
interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within 
him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he 
has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no 
more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped 
raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who 
loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who 
once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, 
and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic 
stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this 
country that I love.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/us/politics/18text-obama.html

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism