Bravo! Dayum!!! You were brutal! Kick his ass! Kick his ass!

Bam!

Is America Too Racist for a Black President?
March 13, 2007

SPIEGEL: Do you think he will be President in two years?

Wright: No. Unless Barak pulls off nationally what he was able to pull off locally, and wins the hearts and minds of people who have been perennially anti-black. Racism is so deeply engrained in this country that he could be flawless in terms of his policies. But he’s still a black man in this country, which has a sorry history in terms of how it sees African-American males. That’s my 65-year-old, jaded perception of where this country is. I was pleasantly surprised in the Senate election. I would like to be as pleasantly surprised in the presidential election.

Read the whole interview. Only the last 2 questions out of 11 fit the title.

So, dear Anon, because you have failed… you are in no position, have no standing or reason to give me any advice, not that you had any standing or reason in the first place. But I guess when you’re such an utter failure you have to have something else to yap about.

Also, you can’t question my intelligence when you’ve shown your own deficiencies in that department.

ANON: “I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this…”

Come to what? What were your hopes, expectations, agenda and SCRIPT before? Simply, when you call yourself talking to me, having a discussion/debate with me then you best keep your comments to things relevant to what we have discussed.

When you drift into some mode talking about what you perceive about anyone but me then you start, by your own choice, to take the discussion downhill.

No one here is your child. No one here has solicited your advice and no one is fooled by your vain professions.

“I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this…”

I’ll be nice and won’t send you into a tail-SPIN the idiotics in your other statements deserve. I’ll just ask you what point you think you make with such a pretentious statement?

First, you have to reconcile YOUR ERROR. You really have no conversation for me until you do but to try to wax all moral authority/moral highground on me with more of the same paternalistic, preconceived, poorly-prefab admonishments, advice and other assorted nonsense where you position yourself as someone I should listen to… Well, all you’re doing is increase the entertainment value for me.

I mean, seriously…

You just tried to dust off the lamest rhetorical tactic in the book (*sniff*“you’re a poor representative”*cry*). Like you (1) having standing to make emotional appeals to me and (2) like I’m going to cry or feel bad based some bs assumption and transparent rhetoric of yours.

Let me put it to you this way: you had your chance and blew it.

I respect people who tell and can deal with the truth. You had your opportunity to tell me what issue you honestly had with Rev. Wright’s statements and YOU BLEW IT!

Maybe that patriotism thing means something to you but it was your standard that Wright met and it was your standard that you did not uphold.

That’s END OF CONVERSATION right there. But, feeling sorry for yourself and your sparkling ineptitude… you want to make this about me.

You just better be sure you’re not making another grave/fatal error.

It’s better for the Senator to handle this stuff now, it clears the deck for him to handle the more critical issues later.

Anon 02:14:00, where do you think we got words like damn and hell? From the Bible. The King James version says “Jesus rode on his ass.” Oh, my–the Bible used a bad word. My hears are burning.

If you re-watch the video, Rev. Wright doesn’t say “goddamn America for shedding innocent blood,” he says, “God damn America for shedding innocent blood.” There’s a difference. In the Bible God damns a lot of people for shedding innocent blood.

Like nquest said, you haven’t offered proof that what Rev. Wright said wasn’t true. It seems like you have issues with the linguistics of his message. If that’s your problem, then that’s a different matter, and you should state such.

Another point I would like to make–why we are required to worship some symbol–America or the flag or whatever? So what if Rev. Wright is unpatriotic. Is that a requirement to be a U.S. citizen? I don’t think so, and you use words like unpatriotic (Republican buzzwords, I might add) like it’s some sort of scarlet letter. Well I say God damn America, too. And so what if I’m not patriotic. Saying that didn’t strike me dead. Patriotism hasn’t added a few thousand dollars in my wallet. I’m not going to go blow up buildings because I’m not “patriotic”. My point is this unhealthy attachment to patriotic symbolism is just b*llsh*t. It’s an illusion to keep us in line. It means absolutely nothing.

Yes, yes, yes

Let me just add:

Anon,

We are not defending Obama on this issue. Some are defending Rev. Wright’s right to make these statements and not have them deemed hateful or racist.

We are defending the truth and his right to tell and our right to have it heard.

I understand that this is not good for Obama politically, but quite frankly I care more about the truth. I won’t stand by silent – or get you a pillow – while you tell black america to shut the fuck up.

The truth is that the outrage at Rev. Dr. Wright is the tamping down of the truth about race in America.

I agree with some of your statements, but one in particular simply makes the point of what America really is:

PS III: Ironically my biggest fear as to why America may come close but yet fail to elect a minority to the Presidency was not necessarily because of some white racism but because of some overzealous minority supporters. If the guy loses they some will scream racism while waving bloody hands in the air.

If White America would vote for Obama if not for his zealous black supporters, then they would in essence be voting against his black supporters.

Why?

If that aint racist I don’t know what is.

My advice to you is this…the best you can do for Obama (if I presume you are supporting him and want him to win in Nov)..right now, right this minute and for the rest of your life is to vote for him in whichever state or district that you reside in and keep your mouth sealed shut!! You are clearly a poor advocate and God forbid if you worked on his campaign team, you’d be leading him towards a disasterous general election rout like Mondale ‘84 or McGovern ‘72. Is that what you want? I did not think so…let those who have ears hear.

Losing all sense of reality and the credibility you never had to boot.

Seriously, what the hell is all that about? Why is all that garbage anywhere close to some point or response you called yourself making to me?

What does even a word of that have to do with anything that’s been discussed here in this thread? Let alone anything I said?

Why are you losing it, going off making wild and idiotic statements that you can’t substantiate.

Rev. Wright didn’t say “b*tch” but you sure tried to see if you could throw it out there to see if it would stick… just like the “unpatriotic” charged premised on the notion that “if he… criticized a particular government policy… then that is not unpatriotic…”

Well, by your own standard, Rev. Wright is found NOT GUILTY.

“Now I know a lot of people are excited about Obama, particularily in the AA community. But I would strongly caution that those who support him should do so in a constructive and dignified manner…”

What is that about? Which one of your kids post here for you to start dispensing paternalistic admonishments about how to behave?

Yes, you’re compounding your error and your own prostitution of your stated principle:

“If he meant to criticize a particular government policy or an adminstration, then that is not unpatriotic…”

That was the end of your argument/objection right there. You didn’t get it right then and you can’t make it right now.

And given your error, you are the last person to lecture anyone about OVERREACTION.

Say it!

Maybe I missed it. But I don’t remember him saying that word.

If I missed it, then ok. But I’m only bringing this up because it seems like some people want to imagine words and sentiment just to paint their own picture of Obama: First he wasn’t black enough, now he’s Huey P. Newton!

The fact that no one holds John McCain to the same standard; the fact that people forget George Bush spoke at Bob Jones University; that McCain CAMPAIGNED for Jerry Fallwell’s blessing; that Rudy Giuliani accepted Pat Robertson’s endorsement. . . all of this tells me all I need to know about this situation.

Some people’s pain and frustrations are more important than others.

For some reason we assume that Bush, Giuliani, McCain and the like are intelligent enough to think for themselves. But Barack. Oh wait, now. That Barack is a little different. Somehow we’re supposed to believe that he’s under the spell of Mr. Wright. Like he can’t think for himself.

Thus, NOTHING that this man has said or done is good enough for this country. He has bent over backwards trying to make white folk feel comfortable. His smile can’t get any wider. His tone can’t get any softer. He can’t say enough about unity to make this country happy.

People say he created a “holier than thou standard.” Guess what. That’s the only way this brotha can run for president. There is no other way.

I see Hillary talk about the sisterhood all the time. She’s gets to rail against the “all boys club.” She gets on tv and talks about how women can run things differently.

I don’t have a problem with any of that.

But I do have a problem with the fact that Obama can’t do the same. Obama can’t talk about “black power.” He can’t vent about the “white man,” or encourage white america to vote for him because a black man will run things differently.

Apparently, he can’t even have a relationship with a black man who does any of these things.

Funny how the only person to have his patriotism questioned just so happens to be the black guy named Barack Hussein Obama.

So the message is clear. When Katrina hit, Jesse Jackson lamented that this country has a high tolerance for black pain. Ain’t that the truth. My pain does not matter. My struggle and frustrations must be silenced so as not to make white america uncomfortable.

I once had a debate with a classmate from law school a couple of years ago over affirmative action. We were about 30 minutes into it when I realized that his argument boiled down to one issue: he didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of affirmative action.

I was floored . . . absolutely floored because it finally hit me. He was so privileged in his thinking that he honestly believed his “comfort” was powerful enough to dictate policy and control other people’s lives. The sad part is he was and is absolutely correct. But black folk don’t have that type of sway.

I, and a lot of other black folk, have NEVER thought that we could control someone else’s life based on how comfortable or uncomfortable something made us feel. Sometimes we get lucky and white guilt throws us a bone. But even that usually comes after some tragedy in the black community.

We know the drill. We’re uncomfortable almost every day. It’s just that we’ve learned to live with it and move on.

You know what, black folk have been uncomfortable for over 400 years. When are we gonna ask white folk to be a little uncomforable for a change? I don’t mean that in a racist way. I’m just asking.

Politicians go to the black community all the time and ask for our trust, tolerance and understanding. We always give it to them. We vote for a white candidate every four years – regardless of his shortcomings; in spite of our doubts and questions (that never get answered); despite our discomfort, we trust that everything’s gonna be alright.

Well, this black man is asking white america to return the favor for once. I know it’s different. I know we’ve never seen this before. I know white america has it’s questions. But Barack has done all he can to ask for white america’s trust and understanding. All he wants is the same chance black folk have been giving white politicians since we got the right to vote.

Nigger when used while describing an adjective used to describe African Americans is not offensive to me as an AA, the use of it as an adjective to describe me is.

I don’t know why many are offended by a word that they created and frequently use when it is used in the context to say this is what some think of others.

nquest… I watched 100% of it and listened clearly. My point, if you read what I said above, is that you don’t need to use incendiary language to get to make your case. Like I said you can criticize a government policy or admininstration but damning a whole country is beyond the pale and yes, per se unpatriotic.I don’t care if he single handedly fought the Vietnam War and won.
Secondly,there is no fake outrage anywhere…I wouldn’t want a pulpit with a white pastor talking like that anymore than a black pastor doing the same, regardless of the subject matter. Again, the messenger should avoid being the message and let the word of God speak for itself.

Now I know a lot of people are excited about Obama, particularily in the AA community. But I would strongly caution that those who support him should do so in a constructive and dignified manner (as he has so far conducted his campaign) and if he is criticized politically, as any normal politician would expect to be, there should be no overreaction that can easilyt become counterproductive. He is the first non-white candidate of either party to get close to the Oval Office and that has a lot of upside and downside as anyone with sense should know. Personally, I find him appealing and symbolic of change, but I am yet to be convinced that he should be President at this time (I have my reservations about Hilary and McCain also so it is not one sided). One can push back vigourously against smears (e.g. he is a Muslim) but one should not be throwing broad charges of racism willy nilly just because he lost nearly 95% of the counties in the OH primary or that his pastor sounds like a militant fiery preacher. If the goal is to get him elected, then one should avoid discussing his candidacy in overtly racial terms..the vast majority of voters in Nov aren’t black and it is not beyond the reach of reason that some may be truned out by candidate advocacy that appears racial. He can’t and won’t win if his coalition is made up only of black voters and white upper income liberals. He was doing well leading up to Iowa and arguably soon after that…that’s the way he wants to run his campaign and his supporters will help him a lot if keep that in mind.

Finally, I am sophisticated enough not to allow an overzealous and uninformed defense of Obama in repsonse to his critics, to lead me to rule him out. I think it is foolish to project one’s comments about another to the subject when the subject himself has not said anything or acted in any way to butress that view. I said I seriously question his judgment, but that does not mean i can’t or won’t vote for the man. However, for a potentially earth shattering event of Obama becoming president, it is not beyond the realm of possiblity that many persons with some prejudice would not be seeking anything (real or imagined) to use as a reason to disqualify him. Hearing rants from overzealous supporters only makes that more likely.

PS: The bitch thing (again if you read clearly) was not directed to Wright. It was actually used by another pastor (can’t recall his name but its on Youtube..type white bitch Obama’s mother) to describe Obama’s Mum.

PS II: Black people don’t need to hear the word nigger to know what discrimination means thank you very much.

PS III: Ironically my biggest fear as to why America may come close but yet fail to elect a minority to the Presidency was not necessarily because of some white racism but because of some overzealous minority supporters. If the guy loses they some will scream racism while waving bloody hands in the air.

Just stop! Rev Wright was making a f-ing point! And in my book—a d%mn good one!

Black people know/should know about the struggle we as a people have every single freaking day!

Say it!

“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.”

That’s how ABC News quotes Wright and there’s plenty of policy explicitly referenced along with what was implicit in the idea of KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE let alone the whole litany of decades of US policy Wright was quoted as criticizing.

It really doesn’t make sense to say, “God Bless America” for acts like the Iraq war. That’s one f-cked up concept of God and country. Innocent human beings lives lost and wrecked as a result of US foreign policy.

So it seems your objections fail. They represent the fraudulent. There’s a serious problem with you saying his statements would have been okay “if” he did what he did. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Also, please cite where Wright said “b*tch.” I missed that part and I find it hard to believe how you missed the litany of US policies Wright decried but caught the word “b*tch.” And spare me the fake outrage over Wright using the N-word.

Do you mean to be sarcastic because of the part of my statement where I said I am neither pro-hilary or pro-Mccain or when I said I think the comments are distressing to say the least? Which is it? or is it something else?

“yes really..what is your point?
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What’s Yours?