In a well-written piece combining sheer advocacy and objective journalism, Kelefa Sanneh attempts to get at the root causes of Jeremiah Wright’s apparently race-baiting gospel. Some of the influences and topics treated by Karl in his various posts will be familiar to those who’ve read them (the influence of Cone, for example). One of the more striking features of the piece is the way in which it dispatches with Wright’s “controversial” comments with a minimal rehearsal–not unlike the approach that Obama’s adopted:
Wright’s successor, Otis Moss III, seems to acknowledge that some of Wright’s claims were best heard as mere “barbershop†talk. But, when Wright is in full prophetic mode, he can make it difficult for listeners to separate metaphorical claims from literal ones, visions from explanations, urban legend from history. He has propounded dubious theories about how Africans and African-Americans are “right-brain people.†And, like many preachers who see Biblical parables in contemporary politics, he has a weakness for theories that match his sense of outrage but not the facts, as when he repeated the popular conspiracy theory that “the government lied about inventing the H.I.V. virus as a means of genocide against people of color.†His forays into electoral politicsâ€â€Ã¢â‚¬Å“Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger!â€Ââ€â€can come off as simply churlish. At the same time, the sometimes outlandish rhetoric remains tethered to his practical, social-mission side; one YouTube clip, posted by Trinity, shows Wright, at the pulpit, having his mouth swabbed for an H.I.V. test, in the hope of persuading worshippers to follow his example.
Now, not being a biblical literalist, and being addicted to various kinds of irony and ambiguity myself, I can appreciate the sophistication of different forms of exegesis (as presented, for example, in Dante’s Epistle to Can Grande). However, I’ve nowhere seen provided a basis for understanding the Reverend’s rantings with regard, for example, to AIDs, in a sense other than literal. It does not excuse it to state that it’s popular. It does not excuse his parish from printing a Palestinian activist’s letter claiming that Israel and South Africa collaborated on a whiteytron bomb that would eliminate only people of color to state that it comes from “a Farrakhan ally.” It smacks of white phosphorus, just as the right-brain theory smacks of sun-people pseudoscientific nonsense. In fact, it seems like the sort of thing that might have gotten Reggie White into trouble, had he bothered to try and couch it in sciency terms.
Obviously, there’s a place for faith in religion: something beyond or beneath or apart from reason, depending on one’s perspective. But the transfiguration of faith does not extend to publicizing falsehoods as though their (perverse) desirability makes them true. What Wright knew or should have known at the time he was promoting paranoid lies is a matter regarding which we must stand in judgment, if for no other reason than it is a kindness not to let people like this pervert reason as though, Gleenlike, they could reshape reality by massaging it with a lawyerly tongue (sorry).
Mostly, though, Sanneh excuses Wright by virtue of the time-line that he builds, which does its best to exonerate Wright (and through him, Obama), for example by stating that Wright retired well before the controversy broke, preaching his last sermon on February 10. What nobody bothers to mention is that the timing of the Reverend’s retirement just might have had something to do with the role he was assuming in Obama’s campaign.
Sanneh reflects: “As millions of people with no particular interest in African-American religious institutions now know, Trinity is home to the Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.” There are now many more people with a particular interest in African-American religious institutions. Sanneh’s piece does little to put the concerns to bed.
Look..Dan..we’ve been over this.
Had Obama not known that Jerry was planning to retire, he would have left the church. Period. End of story.
In fact I think I have a transcript from 2002:
Rev Wright: America has been dropping the soap in front of us for 200 years! We want to be clean, so we pick up the soap, but America makes us feel real dirty! They do us like they did Nagasaki! They done jammed a big fat missile up our behind!
*cheers* *hallelujahs* *chuckles*
Rev Wright: Obama knows what it’s like to be a afraid to pick up the soap!
*standing O*
Obama: What is he, 65? He’s got to retire sometime. I’ll wait him out. Besides, his shit is tight!
If the standard for letting Wright off the hook is that he’s also done good works and we must view the totality of the man, then can we get Wright and Otis Moss to give George Washington and Thomas Jefferson props now?
I mean, they owned slaves and all, but they did do good works as well.
No?
Didn’t think so. We all know that street only runs one way.
Sean said it before I could. Ditto.
One rarely sees such an explainer attempted so dramatically when perceptibly right-of-center preacher sorts–falwell, robertson, and the like–step on their dicks.
As a Bush voter in 00, I felt ill when falwell claimed that 9/11 was a result of Americas embrace of sundry sinners.
there is a subtle and ugly undertone to the forebearance given asshats like Wright–he cant help it etc. and so forth.
BTW, best explanation I was ever given for this was from a black co-worker who described the schism in this sort of Black church as generational. Guys like Wright saw and know racism first hand, and have been unable to get over it, or grasp the massive societal shifts that have taken place. They play to the older parishoners who put them in place, given the mutuality of experiences.
Younger clergy and parishoners have mostly lived in a racially tolerant society and have little fear of white people, although they remain engaged with the black church’s hard-liberal, left economic and social policies.
seemed plausible to me, FWIW.
mcgruder, Barry-O advanced the same idea in his “major speech.”
Hmm, looks like Obama’s poll numbers are going up. That, of course, was the reason given to keep dredging up Rev. Wright, so said Karl. Poll numbers! Further it was said that people’s opinions are amplified by the sway of poll numbers, and polls reflect people’s opinions. All this circulation theory was defended with a most familiar and final rhetorical missive – it’s not an orgy! It’s a toga party!
In the end those donning togas with orgiastic glee were the story. Ya drank spiked purple Kool Aide from a trash can but eventually found yourself spent, your toga spoiled and owning devastating headache the morning after. Surely, Freshmen, who could have ever predicted that ending.
The core story, in reality, of Barack Obama’s journey toward the White House is the busted Pinocchio noses of Bill and Hillary Clinton, and one can now add Chelsea too. A small family unit of vermin bent on making history got bent, exposed and flayed, flogged and handled bestially by a black unknown named Barack. The liar whore, her pimp and their ugly kid joe are about to become a well footnoted footnote in the annals of American political history. When my grandson looks up to me and asks “gram-paw, where were you back when the Clintons got bent?” I’m proud I won’t be the one saying “I can’t remember, I was too focused on Rev. Jeremiah Wright at the time.”
The Focal Hero of the historical core! Me-Me-Me! Pat my head, Dan. Give me my strokin’!
Thus, I stroke you!
“Obviously, there’s a place for faith in religion”
I think you’ve gone out on a limb there, Dan.
Well, wrath is a sin, and Rev. Wright seems to be a man of wrath, and his sermons do seem to have a lot of that in it. So he is teaching wrath to his congregation, which I would think is a sin. I wonder what Jules would say about that?
Jules: “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”
I don’t think Jules would approve of Rev. Wright.
He’s losing ground against McCain who doesn’t need to invent sniper fire to burnish his foreign policy creds.
understood.
I found the thing overwrought and defensive, so did not retain much from it.
Ah, lest we forget the “He been raping white women” card.
Does the willingness of Obama supporters to accept his close association with racists strike anyone as, in itself, bigotry? “Oh, they can’t help it…”
Bah. Hate is hate. We’ve pilloried (metaphorically) people for less; Democrats make hay from more tenuous associations between Republicans and white supremacists. At least now we know the following:
o Democrats have no problem with racism. The platitudes they mouth are more about keeping black voters beholden to them than in actually confronting racism and bigotry.
o Democrats have no problem with corruption. Their objections to it come when they’re not the ones benefiting; if they are, then it’s either a personal matter (Spitzer) or ignored (“Cold Cash” Jefferson). If someone else is benefiting — or even appears to be benefiting, then it’s a horrific crime, a violation of the public trust, etc.
o Democrats have no regard for truth. They’ll submit bills to reinstate the draft and campaign on preventing Bush from reinstating the draft. They’ll approve a surveillance program, then decry it in public.
That’s OK. I’m a McCainiac as well as an evil, white Obama shill.
That’s a hell of a lot of padding around the typical, “those black people are animals; don’t listen to them; they don’t even know what they’re saying; let me translate for you,” Whitey-stroking bilge you’d expect from someone with a name like that at New Yorker.
You’re arguing with the padding. That’s not what it’s for, and you’re not who it’s for. It’s there to ratify (and displace (in the psychological sense)) the racism of white Obama supporters. Arguing with it justifies them (in part by making you a named target for their displacement).
But so does everything. So it doesn’t matter. But still. Let’s not pretend this isn’t what it is.
I love selective outrage.
Wouldn’t a whiteytron bomb kill only white people? Just asking.
“Wouldn’t a whiteytron bomb kill only white people?”
Uh oh. Say, isn’t there some sort of “one drop” deal? Now I gotta dig into the geneaolgy stuff again – great-great-great-great-grandpa Bill had a rather mysterious background.
Whoops
OT – Just wanted to say hello. Been reading the posts for a while and finally decided to register. Glad to be here.
Juliette, you’re trying to be logical. Don’t try to be logical. It only annoys them.
Anyway, no. After all, a neutron bomb doesn’t kill neuts.
Regards,
Ric
Juliette, you’re trying to be logical.
Sorry.
Nice to have you here, Big D.
Don’t be sad, be glad, Juliette.
Oh. The nasal rat-woman on teh NPR gave her whole show to a Black Liberation Theology apologia today. Mormons she’d just as soon fuck sideways with her nasal rat-woman strap-on though.
Progressivism, Islam, I don’t think either cares one whit for ultimate veracity so long as desireability is maintained.
I’m all for getting into the nitty-gritty of what it is that makes this shit stink, but it’s not necessary to over-intellectualize it. That can end up being a distraction and even an obfuscation.
Just read some of Wright’s sermons posted at tucc.org. These aren’t allegories or barbershop-trash or prophetic visions. In one, Wright states that the “entire reality of America” – he then lists every dimension of American society – is based on “white supremacy” so that “rich whites” can oppress blacks. So it’s their duty to educate children at the earliest to see everything through this prism; they even started up a school for that. He explains that integration is pointless because whites are hopelessly and irredeemably racist – America always has been, still is, always will be.
With this level of all-encompassing racial hate, who the hell needs to know about metaphorical claims and Biblical parables? Even if Wright hadn’t spouted the AIDS conspiracy and other garbage captured in the videos, he’d still be guilty as hell for the disastrous effects of such foul brainwashing on the lives of the children.
Cap the S.O.B.
I hear that “house nigger” is the new “my brothah”…
Go figure. Kids these days.
Need we look any further for the source of this miasma of passive victimhood that’s settled on so many urban blacks? If you’re doomed to failure by racism then there’s certainly no point in getting an education and working to improve your lot in life. What’s the use? No point in beating your head against that wall. I can’t imagine a more poisonous message.
So when did “we shall overcome” become “we are so fucked”?