"Logically I even asked one of our members to point out in specific quotes
where the racism was. I received no answer beyond a trite cliche"
JS not sure who you asked the earlier question to, but I would consider this a
racist statement "White folks' greed runs a world in need," but before we
get into some long parsing of words over what constitutes a racist, to me it's
not so much that Rev Wright's words fit the exact defintion of a racism, it is more
that Rev Wright is racially divisive.
JS the reason it is an issue and I think rightfully so is because one of Obama's
campaign themes appears to be that we as a country need to move beyond race.
That color shouldn't matter. That Obama will in some way bring people of all colors together.
But while Obama is campaigning on "racial harmony" we find out Obama freely chose
to attend a church for the last 20 years with a pastor that screams racially divisive
hurtful things from the pulpit. The guy spewing the racially divisive stuff from the
pulpit was Obama's mentor, he performed Obama's wedding, he baptized Obama's
kids. This was not a casual relationship.
Do these kinds of statements "bring people together" or divide them?
"wants us to sing God bless America. No, no, no, not God bless America, God damn America
The hurricane exposed the hypocrisy," Rev. Wright said,
"protecting white folks' property took priority over saving black folks' lives."
"For every one Condoskeeza [sic] Rice
"The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color.
So is it really a surprise that a campaign of "racial harmony"
doesn't jive with Obama sitting there for 20 years listening to
the racially divisive rants of Rev Wright? I think it is not out of
the question that people are honestly concerned about Obama's
judgement and sincerity?
As far as I know Obama never once condemned any of the remarks until it
became an issue in this campaign. Now Obama has condemned some of
Rev Wrights views/comments. Obviously Obama thinks something was wrong,
so honestly JS, why did Obama wait so long?
To me you can't have it "both ways".
Those eager to dismiss this I wonder if they honestly can say that if President Bush
campaigned on a pro-gay rights agenda but then at the same time had
attended a church for 20 years, where the preacher performed his wedding,
had the preacher baptize the Bush twins, the preacher was his mentor, but the
preacher spewed divisive, hateful and demeaning things about gays from the
pulpit and you can say it wouldn't be an issue?
btw: JS For the time being I am just going to converse with you
on this particular post since I was answering your post. I know there will be those
that will find some word parsing(define "is") type of stuff they will want to debate
for hours and I just dont have the time to get into 10 different sub arguments of
long word parsing contests with those that enjoy that.
I appreciate the reply CU4.
I have no interest in getting into a debate on semantics either so let's avoid that.
JS the reason it is an issue and I think rightfully so is because one of Obama's
campaign themes appears to be that we as a country need to move beyond race.
That color shouldn't matter. That Obama will in some way bring people of all colors together.
But while Obama is campaigning on "racial harmony" we find out Obama freely chose
to attend a church for the last 20 years with a pastor that screams racially divisive
hurtful things from the pulpit. The guy spewing the racially divisive stuff from the
pulpit was Obama's mentor, he performed Obama's wedding, he baptized Obama's
kids. This was not a casual relationship.
First, does it really matter what minister performs the wedding of a candidate or baptizes his or her children? In fairness, this is a candidate who
some (note the word "some) have slandered as being a Muslim and not a Christian at all. And yes I say slandered because that was the intention of those who made that claim. Now many of those same individuals freely admit that the man is a Protestant Christian, but his pastor is not the right kind of pastor.
I cannot speak for the denominations of the Protestant tradition (I imagine it differs with the various ones) but the Catholic Church recognizes any baptism performed with the Trinitarian formula. It does not have to be performed by a minister and in fact it does not have to be performed by a Christian (though that is rare). Again, for Catholics, marriage is one of the seven sacraments (as is Baptism). Yet, it is not so much a matter of who performs the marriage as the couple that is involved. They confer grace upon one another (though for validity a priest must be there and it should be in the church blah, blah, blah). To get to the point, I'm not seeing much of an issue with who married the Obama's and who baptised their children.
Is their an issue of racial division? I think the real question is: does Obama
really believe the message of racial unity that he campaigns on? Obviously that is a question for the individual voters to determine.
Racial division exists right now. Detroit is primarily African-American and the per-capita income is somewhere around $14K. Go to Auburn Hills and see what the per-capita income of this primarily white suburb of Detroit is. Memphis is primarily African-American and the per-capita income is around $17K yet nearby Germantown which is 97% white has a per-capita income of nearly $98K. So, does racial division exist? You better believe it. If you think Jeremiah Wright invented it, you're dead wrong.
In almost every economic and health statistic the African-American community is
well behind. While white Americans have enjoyed low unemployment, African-Americans have faced nearly double-digit. They've faced higher poverty rates, especially in the cities I mentioned and many more. They have far worse public schools for their children.
So my question is: why shouldn't blacks be angry about this? Why should they sit around and talk about harmony and how wonderful the country is - when clearly it isn't so great and has honestly
never been that great for their history?