Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the right to defend his name if he feels he has been unfairly maligned, regardless of how it might help or hurt Barack Obama, but the church should provide no sanctuary for shameless self-promotion. For their part, the Clintons do not care who or what they have to take in or out of context in order to gain the political advantage. Obama has crashed Hillary’s ‘my-turn-to-be-president-party’, so it is scorched earth time. Barack just needs to saddle up his flame-retardant underwear and keep movin’.I watched Rev. Wright defend himself this past weekend and found myself wishing I could stay ignorant about what he really thinks. Without knowing it, he set black people back fifty years with his ‘different not deficient’ diatribe. I have a child with ADD, and I hear this different thinking/learning crap all the time. But what I know is this bright kid thinks no differently than his white classmates, he is just easily distracted. Thankfully, his medicine controls the distraction problem. End of story.
Black kids are not right brain, to whites kid’s left brain – what hogwash. Did he really say white brains are logical and analytical, and blacks brains are creative? Come on Reverend! All kid’s brains, no matter what race, work exactly the same way, even as some face learning difficulties. The difficulties, like ADD or dyslexia, do not change the workings of the brain, but rather toss in roadblocks that need to be addressed. Black kids as a group suffer from cultural distraction that devalues education and the hard work it requires. This is what is different!!! Please!
People need to see the Clinton political machine for what it is. Rev. Wright is not so much the divisive ex-pastor of Obama, as they have portrayed, but rather an opportunist. In fact, the Clintons invited Wright to the White House for some high-powered prayer support, just after the Lewinsky rough patch. In the end, to say that the brains of whites and blacks work differently, or that the US government created HIV to kill blacks, shows Wright as an ignorant sheep herder, not the thoughtful shepherd.
Lord help us.
James C. Collier
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Technorati Tags: Acting White: The Wrong of Rev. Wright, Barack Obama, Clintons, Politics, Divisive, Acting White
I am a fan of your blog, but this is my first time commenting.
ReplyDeleteI feel troubled by Wright's speeches and sermons, and I am neither black nor white. I am an Asian woman, a naturalized American citizen.
Over the years I have developed a great deal of sympathy for the plight of African Americans as well as respect for their struggles and their achievements.
And so, it is heart-breaking to me to hear this small egotistical man spout such divisiveness. I don't hold Obama responsible for this at all - if anything my regard for Obama is greater because he sat through such sermons and managed to remain a thoughtful, rational unifying man.
However, I am afraid that this may well be the beginning of the end for Obama's candidacy. And the loss is as much America's and the world's as his personally.
Today I respect Bill Moyers a little less for his soft glove interview of Wright.
Each time stupid people like Wright come out with the black-white dichotomy, I want to say to them - how do you explain the abilities of people of other races and experiences and backgrounds. If whites are right brain and blacks are left brain, what part does he think is left for us S. Asians?!
I don't think Rev. Wright meant that white brains work differently. He means white kids learn differently. There is a big difference. I don't think he is saying there is no such thing as ADD, etc. Of course there is. His church tutors and works with kids with different learning abilities. He was trying to say that black kids are more quickly labeled than white kids. Just as black kids may test differently than whites based on cultural differences. That is what I took from his speech.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Collier,
ReplyDeleteThis is my first time commenting on a post at your blog. I am a fan of your site and visit it often. Although I don’t always agree with your thesis, I admire your writing and your rhetorical style; thoughtful, as well as expressive, discourse is hard to come by when discussing the items you choose to write about.
We do agree on the potential for Rev. Wright to do harm to the progress made, regarding universal civil rights, in our country over the last forty years. Watching his address to the Detroit chapter of the NAACP was literally torturous. I was stupefied as his eugenic argument began to unfold; didn’t we put this fallacy to rest a long time ago?!?!
That an educated man like Jeremiah Wright could believe this bunko is truly astonishing. Sadly, there are other fallacious notions that he continues to profess as truths, in part to affirm his own worldview, for a variety of psychological reasons. We all have gotten a taste of these notions over the last few days. What is perhaps the most egregious though is that he had a regular bully pulpit to disseminate these prejudicial myths to folks who didn’t all enjoy the level of education that the Reverend did. And, by virtue of his clergy status, Rev. Wright also benefited from an implicit moral authority that automatically validated his twisted beliefs.
Reverend Wright is not the only, the first, nor even the most strident, self proclaimed man of God to promote division and rancor instead of love, oneness, forgiveness, and acceptance. If you believe the Bible then you know that there is a special place in hell for those who lead people astray in the name of God; he’ll spend eternity with the preacher Klansmen, famous inquisitors, and unrepentant child molesting priests.
Even if one takes a more secular view on life it must still be apparent that there is no room in modern society for ideological dinosaurs like Jeremiah Wright. As long as discourse is divided along black and white sentiments we will never get past old animosities and, as a previous commenter said, will leave no room in that discussion for any other groups that arise in our country. One of the fundamental pillars of our nation is that fact that all people are equal. As long as we tolerate suspicious, divisive, and racist attitudes-this time under the auspices of religion and the false notion of multiculturalism-we’ll never achieve the truly color blind society that Dr. King envisioned.
Our nation faces special challenges in the modern world that are political, moral, environmental, and economic. In this crucial time, much like during the Second World War, it will take all of us working together in order to retain all that we have worked so hard for over the past three centuries. The solutions for all of these problems lie in the kernel of our national character; American ingenuity and invention born of individuality and the divergent thought processes that true diversity fosters. I also have faith that this common purpose of confronting these issues will help restore our notions of the greatness of our nation, the opportunities it presents to us collectively, and the unique bond we share as a society.
All the Best,
Keep up the good work…….
Off topic: Have you tried eliminating or reducing artificial flavors and colors in your sons diet? I know it wont work for all, but I had a friend with ADD and that was his parents solution to the problem. And it worked well, for him.
ReplyDeleteL
FSA calls for voluntary ban on artificial colourings!
ReplyDeleteMy son suffers from epilepsy. He rarely has any seizure now, ever since he has banned all foods with artificial colour, artificial flavour, aspartame and other sugar substitute. Those ingredients ALWAYS brought on a seizure when he had them in his food!
And so I concur with the above comment.
Regarding Rev. Wright, as one commentator wrote above, he was not saying that the two brains (black and white) worked differently, but that insomuch that there is a black culture different from a white culture within the American society, generally speaking the black kid will learn differently from the white kid (culture not nature).
Thanks LOLA and ANON9:00 for the hints. I will give it a try.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Rev. Wright...his assignment of left brain thinking, that is analytical and logical, to whites, and right brain thinking to blacks is undeniable. He said what he meant and he is very wrong.
"But what I know is this bright kid thinks no differently than his white classmates, he is just easily distracted. Thankfully, his medicine controls the distraction problem. End of story"
ReplyDeleteR U serious? If your child needs medicine then some part of his brain aint getting no lovin