March 17, 2008 -- Senator Obama is mistaken. The problem with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the Chicago minister who is the Obama family's pastor and the subject of recent fierce attacks in the media, is not, as Obama has stated, that "he has a lot of the…baggage of those times," (those times being the 1960s).
The problem is also not, as one paper characterized Obama's position on his minister, that Wright is stuck in a "time warp," in a period defined by racial division.
No, the problem is that Wright's opinions are well within the mainstream of those of black America. As public opinion researchers know, the problem is that despite all the oratory about racial unity and transcending race, this country remains deeply racially divided, especially in the realm of politics.
Most white people and the mainstream media tend to be horrified (in a titillating voyeuristic type of way), when they 'look under the hood' to see what's really on blacks folks' mind. Two thirds of whites believe that blacks have achieved or will soon achieve racial equality. Nearly eighty percent of blacks believe that racial justice for blacks will not be achieved either in their lifetime or at all in the U.S. In March 2003, when polls were showing strong support among whites for an invasion of Iraq, a large majority of blacks were shown to oppose military intervention.
In a survey I took during the week that the U.S. went to war, blacks not only opposed the war in large numbers, but a very large majority also thought that protest against the war was one's patriotic duty. A majority of whites thought protesting the war was unpatriotic.
The same type of divides, as I noted in an earlier essay, have appeared in evaluations of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, of evaluations of President Bush during the first six years of his administration, during most of the Clinton administration, and for the entire Reagan presidency.
More specifically, Reverend Wright's blend of leftism and Afro-Centrism remains one of the classic patterns of black political ideology. His philosophy is very similar to a number of honored black theologians, including the esteemed Reverend James Cone of Union Theological Seminary.
Indeed, one could argue that Reverend Wright's criticism of racial dynamics in the U.S. and American foreign policy is milder than the biting criticism of American capitalism and imperialism found in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the last years of his life. During the 1990s, seventy percent of black Americans believed the country was racially, economically, and socially unfair toward blacks and the poor (See my 2001 book Black Visions for statistical details and the question wording for these three separate questions).
The black community is angry about race relations in this country. The black community is angry about the bankrupt foreign policy that this nation has pursued since before 9/11. Blacks are angry about what is perceived as the political and moral blindness of white Americans. This anger is spread across the black ideological spectrum (with the exception, perhaps, of within the ranks of black conservatives).
Black nationalists, black leftists, black feminists and black liberals may differ on their solutions for what America's ills, but they all generally agree on the overarching problems Not surprisingly, the last time a scientific survey of black political ideologies was conducted, a large segment of the black population fell into the category of those who believed in the principles of liberalism, yet they held no hope, the survey indicated, that this country would ever live up to its democratic and liberal creed.
So Barack Obama is wrong. Reverend Wright does not represent outdated thinking. The critical views he expresses are all too rooted in the present. The racial divisions that Obama seeks to transcend with his message of hope and unity are not a feature of the past, but a deep structural fixture in this nation's present.
Obama will be continually called upon by the mainstream media to prove that he's not a nationalist like Minister Farrakhan, or an Afrocentric leftist like Reverend Wright. The suspicion will always be that he holds opinions closer to those expressed by Rev. Wright than those he is voicing in the campaign.
Consequently, if the Obama campaign wishes to bring this campaign to a successful conclusion, it will have to realize that it cannot run away from the issue of race and racial division, but will have to find a language that both addresses our hopes for the future while recognizing the difficulties and divisions of the present. The nation's in real trouble if its politicians and pundits continue to believe that that the only road to racial harmony is through denying the past and refusing to discuss the injustices of the present.
Michael C. Dawson is the John D. MacArthur professor of political science at the University of Chicago.
I meant to post something about Obama's pastor's recent comments and elicit some feedback. I personally don't find his comments so outrageous--at least not so much as people are making it out to be. Wright is not calling for violence or racial intolerance. It seemed to me that he was calling out leaders that ignore persistent racial inequality and condemning the blatant hypocrisy that exists among the leadership of the country (on both sides). I can see why he raised some ire with his "Goddamn America" quote...but I don't disagree entirely, at least with the context. My understanding was that he was condemning much of America's recent behavior (in the world and at home) and pointing out the fallacy in trying to claim that the US is somehow blessed by God--rather, he argues in particularly inflammatory way, that God would condemn the US. Regardless, I can see why this is such a hamstringing for Obama's campaign.
4 comments:
For me, the issue isn't the substance behind Wright's remarks. I can listen to, absorb, and even adjust my own viewpoint if you present your case in a reasonable, sensible, and convincing fashion.
But Wright's rhetoric doesn't do that. It generates resentment in whites, and stokes a mentality of entitlement in African Americans that shifts responsibility for fixing their woes to anyone other than themselves (not to mention perpetuating the myth that a white man can't SAY this aloud without being a racist).
As far as I'm concerned, the likes of Wright, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton have done more to undermine the civil rights movement than help, because their hair trigger on the race card has planted the seeds and solidified a level of resentment in millions of people in our generation that otherwise genuinely want absolute equality in our society for everyone, regardless of race (or gender)... but are chaffed raw by the hypocrisy of many of the most visible leaders of the African American community, and the insinuation that the woes of African Americans in our community or our fault and our responsibility. And that is going to be extremely hard to undo.
"Racism requires a position of power"
My fucking god. It makes me want to vomit in angst and frustration.
Regarding his comments regarding 9/11: Well, as I said, he could have presented them in a thoughtful, persuasive fashion. Pope, for instance, does this very well... He can argue a point without being disagreeable to the point of needing a punch to the face. And on some points, he has made a convincing enough argument to influence some of my views. Maybe not change them, but at least loosen my grasp enough to understand the other side of the argument.
Wright, on the other hand, can go fuck himself.
I would also like to point out that Obama's speech (publicity stunt though it may be) quite eloquent pointed out many of these very issues I raised here. His themes of "Black Anger & White Resentment" were spot on, and I applaud him for it.
I will say this: If McCain weren't the Republican nominee, this speech was almost enough to swing my vote.
I just finished watching the 37 minute speech on the state of race in America by Obama. I totally agree with Beck. Barrack's speech was frank and full of candor and strength. Amazing speech... wow. I posted it on the blog.
Rev. Wright is an artifact from another generation. He expresses views not unlike those I have heard from white Americans (just reversed). I think both are out-of-date and detrimental. Until we begin to let these views go, we will be continued to be held back.
Yup. Obama scored big points with me... though I do kinda wish he would have said these things before Wright became a liability in his campaign, i.e. take a pro-active approach, rather than take on the issue as damage control. I understand that he didn't want to run as the "Black Candidate", but he knew race relations in this country needed to be addressed, and that he was in a unique position to do so while appealing to everyone equally and fairly.
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