Protesters shouting racial epithets at black lawmakers illustrates that prejudice against African Americans and the poor persist in the United States, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President Barack Obama’s former pastor, said in an appearance at Jackson State University yesterday.
“As much as many people would like to live under the delusion that we’re in a post-racial society, those names called (U.S. Rep James Clyburn, D-S.C.) … illustrate just how deep-seated the hatred is (in) the health care fight,” Wright said during a keynote address at the annual Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement conference. “The whole compromise that took the public option off the table shows you the power of the rich and the wealthy in this country to continue to ignore the poor.”
Asked if he thought the government still mistreats black Americans, Wright quipped, “Ray Charles can see that.”
Wright’s speech struck a more hopeful tone, albeit one tempered with the belief that racism still pervades American government and society.
“What do we tell our children?” he asked repeatedly, paraphrasing writer Margaret Burroughs’ poem, “What Shall I tell My Children Who Are Black?” about prejudice in society, family and government. “Your family says you ain’t; the government says you can’t,” Wright repeated. Wright weaved those refrains with biblical stories of David’s protection by God, despite scorn from his family and leaders.
Toward the end of his address, Wright brought the audience to its feet with applause by cataloging Civil Rights Movement figures and organizations: “The spirit of the Lord kept the veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, when the Klan was trying to stop them, the King of Kings kept them going. The spirit of the Lord kept the white Citizens Council in check, while keeping the (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committees) in charge. The Council engaged in trickeration, and SNCC kept up the job of voter registration.”
Wright then turned his attention to the students in attendance, a racially diverse group of students, both local and from elsewhere. Hate brought the assassinations of Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr., but hope had preserved activists like Bob Moses and Jimmie Travis, Wright said. Moses was a civil-rights leader and math teacher at Lanier High School and Travis was a Freedom Rider who died last July.
“Hate took Andrew Goodman–a Jewish man–but hope kept countless other Jews working and walking beside blacks in Mississippi,” Wright continued. “Hate took Michael Schwerner, a white man, in Neshoba County on June 21, 1964, but hope found Lyndon Baines Johnson–another white man–signing the Civil Rights Act in ’64, and the Voting Rights Act in ’65.”
The legacy of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement rests with younger generations, Wright said.
Wright told reporters before his speech that he is not in contact with the president. Clips of old sermons delivered at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, which Obama attended for years, became a controversial issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. Obama’s Conservative critics seized on purported anti-American sentiments in some of Wright’s sermons to attack Obama. Obama eventually distanced himself from Wright, severing his ties to Trinity and delivering an extensive speech on race meant to place Wright’s words in context.
Asked yesterday about the presidential campaign controversy, Wright was first dismissive of his role, saying that the controversy was a media fabrication. After repeated questions from some reporters about his comments, Wright grew visibly irritated, at one point cutting off a question from WJTV’s Ross Adams who asked him, “You don’t repudiate (the controversial sermons)?”
“I have nothing to repudiate,” Wright said. “Those sermons that were clipped were all before he ran for (the) presidency.”
“If you don’t listen to the sermon in context, you don’t hear what I said,” he added.
Touching on two controversial sound bites circulated at the height of the campaign controversy, Wright said that the description of the Sept. 11 attacks as America’s “chickens coming home to roost” came originally from comments by former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Edward Peck on Fox News. The phrase “God damn America” derived from a similar criticism of U.S. policy in the Philippines by the 19th-century philosopher William James, he argued.
“I was saying that that was the attitude that people had,” Wright said. “The attitude is, ‘Governments lie; governments change; God doesn’t lie; God doesn’t change.’ Nobody heard the whole sermon. They heard the clips that were pulled out so we could generate some anger.”
Previous Comments
I was glad to see Rev. Wright at the Jackson State University forum. He has nothing to feel bad about. I have listened to the sermons in their entirity and there is nothing that Wright says that is not on point. He is to be admired for treating Obama as a bird being pushed from the nest. He (Obama) was a grown bird with strong feathers and the ability to soar. Being pushed from Wright’s nest only gave him strenth and the country was able to see that these two people are not joined at the hip; however, they are both on a mission to heal this country of our many, many ills. The challenge is for all who have criticized Wright is to get a copy of the entire sermons that only gave the world two (2) sound bites. Great article, Ward.
#156952 | Author: justjess | Date: Mar 29 2010
I may need to view those sermons myself. It’s so easy for people to only be spoon-fed what the media gives them. Only the more red-meat portions are presented by the media and with technology, they can easily be manipulated to make it seem what it may not be. I’ve had this theory for a while that America is the most uneducated country in the world when you consider how much access to information we have, but yet will not use it to research what is truth or not. We live in such a microwave society that we need our information now or that we care about happens on American Idol or in some celebrity marriage more than we do with what’s really important.
#156956 | Author: golden eagle | Date: Mar 29 2010
Revern Wright is a sage. I’m glad the right wingers have left him alone. I hate I missed him
#156963 | Author: Walt | Date: Mar 29 2010
Duan, It was a press conference for the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Ironically, I was off obeserving “Confederate memorial day” as the office was closed, and happened to catch the entire press conference live on C-Span. The issue with Rev. Wright was that he had the politics of liberation and the rhetoric of the Gospel that most Christians in the U.S. don’t like to confront. So, instead of engaging his ideas, they swamped his rhetoric with cries of “hate speech” and “un-patriotic traitor” and such. But, as already stated, if you look at his ideas, his critiques, and his pronouncements, they are right in line with the traditional, historic prophetic preaching of the Black church, or at least that vein of the Black church that is recognized as being at the vanguard of social change in this country. Admittedly his ideas and rhetoric, and that revolutionary vein of church is sparsely observable among the cadre’ of Black churches, espcially in the south, in the 21st century. But, his preaching and teaching is more nuanced, prophetic, practical, and necessary than 95% of the preaching you’d typically hear on Sunday morning in any Christian church, Black or White. He was on point about the racism that these tea party protesters try to subtly hide. We cannot be asleep at the wheel in today concerning how racism looks and its effects. From public policy, media representation, and disparate social and economic outcomes; the struggle must continue to highlight, agitate, and work towrads progressive solutions to the problems that plague us all.
#156969 | Author: Renaldo Bryant | Date: Mar 30 2010