EDIT: It looks like Obama over performed in both North Carolina and Indiana by 10% over what most of the polls were claiming. All the pundits at this point say that the primary is basically over and that he won – so I was completely wrong about the first part.
Yes, ‘wrongness’ is an actual word; I looked it up. And unfortunately for the candidate who I hope to have the privilege to vote for in November, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Affair has again reared its ugly head and threatens Barack Obama’s chances of winning Indiana and even North Carolina in the primaries.
Granted, many of the comments were taken out of context, and I think that it is extremely important to have a long-overdue discussion about the many times the United States has committed wrong during its long history than the “we’re the best country in the world, cover your ears” crap that has become the mainstay of political commentary. On the other hand, Wright wasn’t very tactful in driving across any of his points, and other contentions such as “the government created AIDS to harm black people” simply have no basis and definitely are insulting.
It is clear that Reverend Wright’s radicalism stems mostly from his political rather than religious views; all his points are political and are not mired in the fundementalist rhetoric used by Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. Unfortunately Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens took the bait and automatically attributed Reverend Wright’s political views as his religious views; in my opinion Jeremiah Wright would still hold such views regardless of his religion or even if he were a non-believer. But as I discuss below, religion may have played a role in his personal decision to come out last weekend and create even more controversy.
Of course Barack Obama had to respond to such a scandal, and defied political convention in his Philadelphia Speech by trying to shift the political discourse towards trying to understand the simmering interracial tensions that persons of all colors feel to a degree and away from the one-dimensional tirades of his former pastor. As part of this discourse, Obama refused to disown his pastor and instead urged the public to understand that Wright was a “child of the 60s” who had gone through the pain of the Civil Rights Struggle only to see that African Americans in his community were just as destitute as before; such an experience, Obama argued, molded the political views of Wright and more than a few of his colleagues and formed a generational as well as a racial rift.
Wright finally broke his silence over the weekend, appearing on a three-stop “media tour” which included the Bill Moyers Show, the NAACP, and the National Press Club. Wright’s appearance on Bill Moyers was harmless enough, and he did a good job at framing his previous arguments in the appropriate context. But upon appearing in front of the NAACP, Wright essentially caricatured himself and at one point resorted to a painfully bad imitation of John F. Kennedy. Things only got worse at the National Press Club, where Wright defended both Louis Farrakhan’s denunciation of Judaism as a “gutter religion” as well as his own comments about the government causing AIDS. So essentially Rev. Wright again adheres to his black-and-white caricatures on race, having this whole non-issue being brought up to the forefront again is – and I am certain that Wright is aware of this – very damaging to Obama. Keep in mind that Obama did essentially the opposite, took a political risk, and defended Rev. Wright earlier.
So what does this whole debacle have to do with religion? Well, it appears that the root of the problem is with the capacity (or lack thereof) of individuals to change their beliefs or admit their own mistakes in the fact of reality. I will be the first to admit that we are all guilty of this no matter what belief system we adhere to. This applies for atheists too – Christopher Hitchens, for example, still adheres to the hideously flawed foreign policy of the neoconservatives. However, would not the knowledge that an omnipotent, static entity endorses your belief system be the greatest encouragement for both arrogance and absolutism?
So my question is (and keep in mind I’m not quite sure about this myself) – did the fact that Jeremiah Wright is a pastor and the possible belief that he was justified by God compel him to defend indefensible comments as arrogantly and vociferously as he did, or something else? Or do you think that old age, resentment of Obama, some other non-religion-related factor was the primary reason why he decided to appear at the National Press Club and make those outrageous claims?
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Last 5 posts by Robin Zhang
- Bobby Jindal - Why Science Majors Are Just As Irrational as Everyone Else - June 26th, 2008
- Random Thing of the Day: Ultimate Christian Wrestling - June 12th, 2008
- How Astrology Ruined Myanmar's Economy - May 26th, 2008
- "God sent an angel, and his name was Adolf." - May 22nd, 2008
- Random Thing of the Day - May 18th, 2008
Look, just look Rev. Wright’s skin tone. I’m not trying to be irreverent, I’m just pointing out that he’s not even fucking HIGH YELLOW, and the vast majority of people would never be able to discern his mixed racial background just by looking at him.
He also lives in a multi-million dollar home safely nestled within a predominantly white neighborhood. That’s about as “white” as you can possibly get, folks. He might as well name his children Caspar Milquetoast and send them to posh boarding schools in New England.
The man is certainly not spewing vitriol because he understands the African-American experience, nor because he cares so deeply about the plight of black Americans. No. Fuck that. Jeremiah Wright is a minstrel of the lowest possible caliber– a charlatan who screams Jeremiads to throngs of unsophisticated buffoons every Sunday, and generously helps himself to the fruits of their labor like a pig at the trough.
Don’t give him any more attention than he deserves. I don’t give a shit if Barack Obama is somehow guilty by association with this imbecile. Wright is certainly not any worse than John McCain’s religious advisers, and he serves as a distraction from important domestic issues that will decide the victorious presidential candidate in November.