Surprise! America has done some pretty terrible things
I’m actually really amused by the media and (most of) the blogosphere’s reaction to the Jeremiah Wright controversy.
For those unaware, Jeremiah Wright was Obama’s pastor at Trinity United Church in Chicago, and by Obama’s account, was responsible for his conversion to Christianity, and has been something of a spiritual mentor to Obama for the past twenty years.
This past week, a video surfaced of one of Wright’s sermons, where he lampoons the United States for being a racist, imperialist country. Here’s a taste:
“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people,” he said in a 2003 sermon. “God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” [...]
“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001. [...]
“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost,” he told his congregation.
Predictably, white pundits and journalists are shocked, shocked that an older black man could harbor any anger towards the United States. Why, Wright should know that the United States is not only the best country in the world, but has never done anything wrong. Wright should be grateful that he was born in our great, virtuous democracy. And if he doesn’t understand that, well, he’s just a bigot and a hatemonger. For an example, read what Clive Crook has to say on Obama’s response:
Obama does all right in the interview. (It is good that he laughs at one point at the questioner’s comically portentous and inquisitorial demeanor. I thought that was funny too.) But does he bury the issue? By no means. His claim in the interview and in the statement that most of Wright’s anger and (in my view) bigotry comes as news to him is just not credible. Tactically speaking, that is a transparent evasion, and will keep the problem alive.
But what I most want to know is why the Obama we thought we knew could hold this man in such esteem. Perhaps it is just a matter of loyalty to a father-figure, flaws and all–which is both understandable and, up to a point, admirable. But does Wright’s bitter resentment in fact resonate with Obama, despite all appearances to the contrary? That is a question that will trouble a lot of less-than-fully-invested Obama supporters.
“Does Wright’s bitter resentment in fact resonate with Obama?” You know, this question would have a lot more weight were not for the fact that about a decade ago, Obama wrote about how he explicitly rejected Wright’s paranoid black nationalism. Or how, going back to the beginning of his Senate race, Obama has been emphatic about the need to heal our nation’s wounds and work together for real progress. But, I guess it was too much for Crook to actually do any research, and much easier instead to be a concern troll.
What pisses me off the most about Crook’s post though, is his assertion that Wright is both somehow wrong for refusing to buy in to the accepted historical narrative, and a bigot for laying the blame where it belongs: at the feet of the rich, white, Anglo-Saxon men who have largely controlled this country since its inception.
Jeremiah Wright has every right to be pissed off at the United States. And not just because he came of age during a period when most of America saw African-Americans as subhuman third-class citizens. Like it or not, the United States has supported or engaged in horrible acts of violence against brown people at home and around the world, all the while talking as if we are some kind of paragon of virtue.
America has – in its long and distinguished history – enslaved millions of Africans and their descendents (in the process building much of our early national wealth), and once they were freed, engaged in a century-long effort to suppress them to the furthest margins of society. During the course of the twentieth century, the United States has: waged an imperialistic war for the Philippines (killing close to a million Filipinos), overthrown governments in South America for the benefit of American corporations (and we’re only in the 1920s), overthrown a democratically elected government in Iran (again for corporate benefit), fought a decade-long war in Vietnam in a misguided effort to maintain imperial structures (killing two million Vietnamese and Cambodians in the process), overthrown a series of democratically elected South American governments, sponsored and trained right-wing death squads in South America, gave its support to South Africa’s brutal apartheid regime, and propped up murderous authoritarian dictatorships in the Middle East. All while at the same time ignoring (and sometimes exacerbating) its own systemic problems.
I’m talking about America’s reluctance to deal with: persistent urban poverty, persistent rural poverty, hypersegregation, and poor schools. I’m talking about America first disregarding the crack cocaine epidemic sweeping through the cities, then demonizing and criminalizing those caught in its wake. And I’m talking about a “war on drugs” which has largely had the effect of throwing one in every nine black men into a still-growing prison-industrial complex.
Now – considering that I want a President Obama – I’m glad that Obama repudiated Wright’s political statements. Regardless, Jeremiah Wright’s anger is justifiable in every sense of the word, and I wish it weren’t taboo to acknowledge that.
Re: “God Damn America”
I immediately thought of what a parent might say to a kid who just threw a baseball through the front window, and it kind of reminds me of what Al Franken said:
You see, America has thrown a few metaphorical baseballs through a few windows.
Excellent post.
I’m a Hillary supporter but I know bullshit when I see and hear it.
Let me see if I got this straight. Obama knows Wright has legitimate complaints, but you’re glad he repudiated his comments because you want Obama as president because he’s, like, totally different than your regular, run of the mill politician who’ll say and do anything to get elected. Hah! Luckily, Obama is through.
Um, you actually didn’t get this straight.
The entire point of the post was that A) Obama doesn’t share Wright’s views and B) Wright has a legitimate complaint. I’m glad Obama repudiated Wright’s views because they don’t reflect his own, and they’re damaging to his campaign.
Obama sells himself as a racial healer, kind of a political Sidney Portier. But his preacher and his real views appear closer to Al Sharpton. Those may be truthful views–though I think they are in fact ridiculous–but if they were well known, Obama’s crossover appeal would disappear. Whites may not be as united as they once were, but we know when people mean us harm and have no interest in voting for them. This is a rational and normal behavior by any group of human beings.
Do you actually have any proof that Obama shares Wright’s views?
Or do you think that black people mindlessly swallow everything their pastors say? Because really, since when was it the case that you joined a church because you liked the pastor’s political views? And since when was it the case that if you are a member of a church, you must agree with everything said in the building?
More on the larger context here: http://acropolisreview.com/2008/03/barack-obama-condemns-reverend-jeremiah.html
It really pisses me off that everyone is getting so angry at the man for being angry. Being angry is fantastic. If we don’t get angry and REMAIN angry about horrible things they happen again.
I was reading Sullivan’s blog and he keeps talking about how Obama needs to stay as far away as possible from “racial resentment”.
And yet, no one has offered a reason for why it’s so inappropriate to be angry. At least, no one I’ve been reading has said (except for Cortes) that there’s nothing to complain about. That the facts aren’t in favor of blacks being able to characterize their experience in America as pretty shitty. Then why shouldn’t blacks be angry?
It seems like the reasoning is simply: yeah, you got screwed but stop making me feel guilty already, why don’t ya?
So…people need to stop making it seem like Wright is being unreasonable. Like right now. It’s ridiculous.
Exellent post-
Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, amd he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr., But they were already presidents, so nobody cared.
But the attack on Rev. Wright reveals something beyond ignorance of basic dynamics of Christian community. It demonstrates the level of misunderstanding that still divides white and black Christians in the United States. Many white people find the traditions of African-American preaching offensive, especially when it comes to politics.
Typical of the form used by black preachers is Frederick Douglass’ address, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” first delivered on July 5, 1852. The address, a political sermon, forcefully attacks white culture. “Fellow-citizens,” Douglass proclaims, “above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wails of millions! Whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them.” He goes on to calls American conduct “hideous and revolting” and accuses white Christians of trampling upon and disregarding both the constitution and the Bible. He concluded his sermon with the words, “For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.”
What? We’re not perfect? You Commie …
Seriously … the more I look at what Wright actually said, the more I have to shrug my shoulders and say, “Yeah, okay.” I admit that I had a lot of the same knee-jerk reaction as much of the Right, but the more I’ve looked into it, the more I just don’t care if he’s upset Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
The US has done some terrible things. At least, it’s worth discussing what was and wasn’t right. Was bombing Hiroshima right? Minimally, it’s worthy of discussion. Slavery was wrong. What’s being done to the Palestinians is wrong.
Rev. Wright isn’t tactful or diplomatic … nor should he be. The role of a pastor is to confront the world with the truth. Sometimes that involves being tactless. I have other issues with some things I’ve read, but the ones getting all the publicity don’t bother me that much anymore.
Racism vs Racial Resentment? Geraldine Farraro coins new phrase. What do you think?
I invite you to read my most recent post on this subject at: http://sojournersplace.blogspot.com/2008/05/not-racism-but-racial-resentment.html
SjP
Why the hell you still bringin up the damn racism issue, slavery existed a hundred years ago. part of the issue is that people like you just dont want to let go of it. we need to STUDY history to make sure it doesnt repeat itself not bring it up every time an employer highers a white man over a black man!!!
It looks like you need to learn basic spelling and grammar. When you do, then you can come and sit at the adults’ table.