Wright was wronged

[Apologies for a long absence-- needed to break the blog-spell.]

My wife forwarded an essay by Tim Wise, author of White Like Me, defending (for the most part) the statements and sentiments of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Here is an excerpt from the essay, "Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth; Of National Lies and Racial America":

Whites are easily shocked by what we see and hear from Pastor Wright and Trinity Church, because what we see and hear so thoroughly challenges our understanding of who we are as a nation. But black people have never, for the most part, believed in the imagery of the "shining city on a hill," for they have never had the option of looking at their nation and ignoring the mountain-sized warts still dotting its face when it comes to race. Black people do not, in the main, get misty eyed at the sight of the flag the way white people do--and this is true even for millions of black veterans--for they understand that the nation for whom that flag waves is still not fully committed to their own equality. They have a harder time singing those tunes that white people seem so eager to belt out, like "God Bless America," for they know that whites sang those words loudly and proudly even as they were enforcing Jim Crow segregation, rioting against blacks who dared move into previously white neighborhoods, throwing rocks at Dr. King and then cheering, as so many did, when they heard the news that he had been assassinated.

For the most part, sadly, I have to take Wise's (and Wright's) side. In any case, Wise's contextualization of Wright's infamous comments is helpful to read.

Trying not to be self-righteous in my rejection of [white] American self-righteousness ( life is full of challenge, eh?). . . .

Happy Spring, from ChiTom