Well here's the thing. Obama's pastor is NOT the thing that most bugs me about Obama. His lack of actual experience, is enough to make me scratch my head at him being given arguably the hardest, and most powerful job in the world. It doesn't strike me as the kind of job you put someone in, and figure "Oh well, they have time to learn." That aside, my problem with Obama's pastor has less to do with Obama- and more to do with how the media is so afraid to step on toes regarding it. I mean if ANY other candidate had a man they called their "spritual advisor" who, was the most influential man in that candidates life-by choice, I think people would be justifiably concerned. It didn't bother me that much when the pastor was preaching focus on black community. However, preaching that America should not be blessed, but be "damned", suggesting that white people invented aids to kill black people, That the Us killed the people that died in 9/11....it's not one or two statements it's an obvious pattern of anti-Americanism, and blaming white people for all the ills of the country. And Obamas speech basically said that he could dissagree with the pastors words, but that he has a grandmother thats a racist, and he may not agree with her- but he cant denounce her from his life either. I think thats a completely nonsense point! You can't pick who your family is! But, you sure as heck CAN pick what church you go to for 20 years! You sure CAN pick who marries you, who baptizes your children! Barack even took the name of his book "The audacity of hope" -from One of this Reverends speeches! That is called VOLUNTARY. So explain again how thats just like having a racist grandmother again? Barack says he didn't know the pastor was preaching like this when he wasn't in attendance. Huh?? You go to the church that long, and are that close to that Reverend, that he is a father figure to you- but you just didn't know he felt that way??? The church sells videos with these speeches on them, but you never knew? Sorry- that seems less than probable. And finally- Barack was one the first people to condemn Don Imus for saying the infamous N word. He said if anyone, in his camp EVER uttered racial terms, they would be fired. They would never be welcomed in his camp.He was about Unity. And here, we have videos full of racial slurs and condemnations- from the man Barack looks to for "spiritual guidance." But thats different? Barack should not be made to distance himself from the Reverend? He shouldn't be asked to leave Barack's camp? Sorry, throwing stones in a glass house. I just feel like if a Republican was attending a church that said any of this stuff against another racial group- there would be hell to pay. But becuase it's in a black church- they are just expressing their "blackness"?? I thought Baracks speech was well crafted, but missed the point entirely. And frankly, I fail to see the message of "hope" or "unity." -Shan
Yeah, I can't really disagree with anything you've said. My gut reaction to this has been that people have been having an entirely racial reaction. No one was all that concerned when Obama brought along Donnie McClerkin, the fiery anti-gay gospel singer, on tour with him a few months ago. In fact, his reputation as the pure liberal hope only grew. This current thing just feels to me a little like white people closing ranks. Not that the concerns aren't legit, but I don't entirely trust the motives. I suppose that's splitting hairs, but it just doesn't feel like progress. When there have been so many reasons to stop a steamroller presidential candidate over the months and go "wait a minute…", it concerns me that this is really the first time we've done that. Like, everything was fine as long as people could ignore the black thing, but Wright tossed it right up front. That's not to dismiss the merits of people who are legitimately bothered by this (which, admittedly, I kinda did the other day), but I question where this is coming from in many cases.
I'd guess that the things that bother me about Wright's statements are probably a little different than your concerns. Like, the American government did literally kill hundreds of black men by intentionally witholding their diagnoses of syphilis, then pretending to treat them, all to watch the effects of the untreated disease. A simple round of penicilin would have kept the men alive and healthy, and prevented them from unintentionally passing the disease along to wives and children, many of whom also died. When the morality of the study was questioned in the 60s, it was decided that the study should continue until all of the then-current subjects were dead and autopsied. It went on for forty years, until 1972. There have been sociological studies since that strongly suggest that among many black people born during that time period, there's an absolute terror of the medical establishment and a rock-solid belief that things like AIDS were intentional. I've gotten off track a bit, but that's some context as to why I'm somewhat less appalled by a fiery black pastor's out-there statements. Anger's better than indifference. (I liked Salon's Joan Walsh's description: "a surreal amalgam of legitimate social commentary, paranoid conspiracy theories and reflexive anti-white rhetoric")
Nevertheless, his anti-semitism is alarming, and a prospective presidential candidate who bases his whole campaign theme (and his autobiography) on the speeches of his pastor shouldn't act surprised when the man is called on the carpet for some pretty blatantly unpatriotic, America is bad/whites are bad ideas. Just like I've been saying since Donnie McClurkin, being a uniter doesn't have to mean that you have to give a platform to people peddling division. That's still one of my biggest concerns about Obama: uniting, to him, often seems to be about playing nice with a lucrative democraphic, and then dismissing any controversy as the whining of those who "just don't get it." I do really think that there's been too much focus on slips of the tongues from people that the candidates know, and in general I'm completely OK with a candidate who has some controversial friends (to a point) but I think you're right that this is probably more than that.
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