Rhetoric Race and Religion
I hated the way Reverend Jeremiah Wright was treated during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Republicans used him as another means of fueling White racial fears that then Sen. Barack Obama was some militant Black man who, if elected, would force every White person to pledge allegiance to Bad Boy Records, start eating scrapple and be forced into slavery by way of some magical executive powers he was bestowed by a Kenyan demonic spirit.
Obama had it right the first time when he said Wright ”is like an old uncle who says things I don’t always agree with.” But actual racists with an agenda just couldn’t leave well enough alone.
Some may not have agreed with the tone of this now infamous 2003 speech that was exploited during Obama’s first presidential campaign, and it was easy for those with obvious agendas to turn substantive comments into a spectacle. But Wright was correct in his condemnation of the prison industrial complex, our widening inequality, and America’s past support of domestic terrorism abroad.
It does not excuse the horrific events that transpired on September 11, but one of the biggest failures of the 9/11 attacks was this nation’s refusal to see how its own behavior has spurred a sizable hatred for our country across the world. It’s just easier to turn a thoughtful and progressive Christian leader into another Black boogie man.
Thankfully, Rev. Wright is back in the spotlight, thus, being given another chance to steer the conversation beyond the superficial.
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