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Wright caught in undeserved political glare Whites don't get it, blacks do
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | March 20, 2008 | Mary Mitchell

Posted on 03/20/2008 10:18:24 AM PDT by Kuksool

We get it. A lot of white people were offended by snippets of sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

But frankly, critics and those who are supporting a candidate other than Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination have gotten all of the mileage they can out of this debate.

The aftermath of this racially polarizing incident is predictable. Instead of rising to the challenge to move away from the racial rhetoric that Obama talked about in his historic speech, we the media will continue to fan its flames.

Next, you'll be bombarded with polling data that purport to show that Obama is losing ground with the white vote.

And, of course, the vote in Pennsylvania, where that state's governor, Ed Rendell, has already said "conservative" whites will not vote for Obama because he is black, will be dissected to prove that Obama's relationship with Wright cost him white votes.

At this point, Obama has done all he can do to put this matter to rest.

He has condemned Wright's controversial sermons as "wrong" and "divisive," even though he knows as well as I do that after 9/11, you could have walked into several activist churches in Chicago and heard a similar sermon delivered from the pulpit.

And he has given many black people reason to pause by distancing himself from a man he once introduced to the world as his spiritual leader.

But the one thing he has not done is give his critics the satisfaction of seeing him "disown" Wright by leaving Trinity and letting stand the false notion that Trinity is the "separatist" and "racist" institution it has been made out to be.

Nowhere to be found For many blacks, such an act would have been seen as a betrayal.

As it is, the political warfare has thrust Wright, a man with a charismatic leadership style, a big-hearted nature, and grass-roots organizing skills, into an undeserved spotlight.

Yes, undeserved.

Where was that spotlight when Wright, whose church was no less Afro-centric than it is now, led Trinity to be among the first in the nation to take the fight against South Africa's former racist government to the streets?

Where was that spotlight when Wright took a small but devout membership and grew it to an estimated 8 ,000 members that include some of the most respected citizens in Chicago?

Where was that spotlight when Wright launched one of the earliest responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the black community right here in Chicago?

Where were we?

We were nowhere to be found.

I have not spoken to Wright, who will retire in June as the church's senior pastor, but I imagine his heart is broken.

After all, he didn't labor in the vineyard for 36 years among the mighty and the low to be demonized by white people who not only don't have a grasp of the black church experience, but apparently don't have a desire to understand why that experience is rife with emotions.

Despite all the hoopla, Wright is revered on the South Side of Chicago and is treated as a gifted theologian across the country.

Politically astute Indeed, many would consider it a great honor to be nurtured spiritually at the feet of a man like Jeremiah Wright.

He has two master's degrees, including one from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and earned his doctorate from the United Theological Seminary.

Besides his four earned degrees, Wright has received eight honorary doctorates from acclaimed universities and colleges.

Abraham Lincoln once said: "To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."

But in this case, those who have held their peace about Wright aren't cowards. They are politically astute enough to know that this battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers.

As for Obama and his wife, Michelle, this episode must have been devastating.

There are few places in this world that one can find the kind of peace and camaraderie that is found among those of the same faith.

Yet at a time when Obama and his family needed it most, their sacred relationship with their church was tossed adrift by people who couldn't care less.

Like I said, we get it.

Now let's move on.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: blackpanthers; getwhitey; jeremiahwright; nobama; obama; racistwright
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1 posted on 03/20/2008 10:18:24 AM PDT by Kuksool
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To: Kuksool

Whites, at least Republican whites who survive in politics, don’t hang around with racist churches of ANY stripe. Any comments that can be interpretted as “racist” will destroy their career.


2 posted on 03/20/2008 10:20:58 AM PDT by Little Ray (McCain: If I have to. I guess...)
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To: Kuksool

I am just amazed how few commentators are concerned that Obama denied hearing the statements in church one day, then admitted it the next.


3 posted on 03/20/2008 10:21:03 AM PDT by Always Right (Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?)
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To: Kuksool

“Now let’s move on.”

DotORG.


4 posted on 03/20/2008 10:21:33 AM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo (Carry Daily. Apply Sparingly.)
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To: Kuksool
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
5 posted on 03/20/2008 10:21:46 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: Kuksool

“As for Obama and his wife, Michelle, this episode must have been devastating.”

Oh, I get it now!!!

It’s OUR FAULT!


6 posted on 03/20/2008 10:21:57 AM PDT by PetroniusMaximus
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To: Kuksool

The Chicago Sun Times...

Now this sure is an example of the pot calling the kettle “black”...

Pardon the pun...

Or not...


7 posted on 03/20/2008 10:22:19 AM PDT by stevie_d_64 (Houston Area Texans (I've always been hated))
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To: Kuksool

rotflol

Where’s the barf alert? They’re going to get a rude awakening and if it takes that long, then in November.

They’re ignoring how this thing is growing. And there’s a lot folks are learning.


8 posted on 03/20/2008 10:22:56 AM PDT by F15Eagle (1 John 5:4-5, 1 John 4:15, John 11:25, John 14:6, 1 Tim 2:5, John 3:17-18, John 20:31, 1 John 5:13)
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To: Kuksool

BS! Wright was caught with his pants down and truly exposed for the perverted racist he is.....


9 posted on 03/20/2008 10:23:33 AM PDT by eeevil conservative (GIVE ME A PLACE TO STAND AND I WILL MOVE THE EARTH....Archimedes)
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To: Kuksool

RE: “Ed Rendell, has already said “conservative” whites will not vote for Obama because he is black”

Conservatives of all color will not vote for Obama because he is a socialist.


10 posted on 03/20/2008 10:24:08 AM PDT by Gil4
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To: Kuksool

I think this will cost him more black votes than white; the blacks aren’t dumb enough to fall for all this false-speak.


11 posted on 03/20/2008 10:24:32 AM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Kuksool

Well, like it or not, because of Mr. Wright, Obama is now, and will always be, the race candidate or the black candidate.

America got to peek behind the curtain and did not like what it witnessed.

And let’s not forget, the Panthers like BHO and so does the Nation of Islam.

Good Lord.


12 posted on 03/20/2008 10:24:40 AM PDT by RexBeach
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To: Caipirabob

lolz


13 posted on 03/20/2008 10:24:48 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Kuksool
Sure. If a white person had a relationship with a racist white pastor the one thing the Left would certainly NOT say is forget it and let's move on. There's a double standard here.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

14 posted on 03/20/2008 10:25:15 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Kuksool

"Wah wah wah wah wah wah"

15 posted on 03/20/2008 10:25:16 AM PDT by big'ol_freeper ("...millions hate what they mistakenly think that the Catholic Church is." ~ Archbishop Fulton Sheen)
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To: Kuksool
The "racial double standard" has been in place since at least the mid-1960s: Blacks (and, to a lesser extent, other minorities) can get away with endorsing the most neoFascistic, racialist ideologies, while whites who do likewise are (rightly) condemned.
16 posted on 03/20/2008 10:25:21 AM PDT by Clemenza (I Live in New Jersey for the Same Reason People Slow Down to Look at Car Crashes)
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To: Kuksool

17 posted on 03/20/2008 10:25:29 AM PDT by Bob J ("For every 1000 hacking at the branches of evil, one is striking at it's root.")
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To: Kuksool
Obama’s failure to get it was wrong to associate himself with an American hating racist and moving on several years ago is why we are not moving away from this subject today.
18 posted on 03/20/2008 10:25:55 AM PDT by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it!)
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To: Little Ray

If George Bush had a cousin who was married to someone who bought a car from a car dealer who attends a racist white church, the Dems would have run Bush out of office by now, with Obama leading the charge.


19 posted on 03/20/2008 10:26:25 AM PDT by puroresu (Enjoy ASIAN CINEMA? See my Freeper page for recommendations (updated!).)
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To: Old Professer
I think this will cost him more black votes than white; the blacks aren’t dumb enough to fall for all this false-speak.

LOL. Were you speaking sarcastically? If anything, this made Barry MORE popular with blacks. Those who thought he was an "Oreo" before are more likely to support him now.

On the ground, this brought Barry more street cred with "the people."

20 posted on 03/20/2008 10:26:56 AM PDT by Clemenza (I Live in New Jersey for the Same Reason People Slow Down to Look at Car Crashes)
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To: Kuksool

If whites “don’t get” the black Churck its because those who attend such churches “don’t get” the Christian Church.


21 posted on 03/20/2008 10:28:28 AM PDT by joebuck (Finitum non capax infinitum!)
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To: Clemenza

I’m serious.


22 posted on 03/20/2008 10:29:00 AM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Kuksool

I pray our entire opposition is made up of fools like Mary.


23 posted on 03/20/2008 10:29:03 AM PDT by Niteranger68 (Where are they hiding Obama’s white half?)
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To: Little Ray
Any comments that can be interpretted as “racist” will destroy their career.

You don't get it. What this author is saying, and what the MSM is saying, is that poor Black folk can NOT be racist, by (their) definition. Only people in "power" have the ability to discriminate.

This is the big divide between "elites" and joe six pack. Its all about power and privelige, not right and wrong.

24 posted on 03/20/2008 10:29:22 AM PDT by Nonstatist
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To: Kuksool

Whites don’t get it? We’ve been getting it for over 100 years and we’re tired of it. No matter what happens, when it happens, how it happens, who does it..........whites get blamed. We’re tired of it. Black leaders keep yelling and screaming in their churches that whitey is bad. They ain’t seen bad yet.....something is going to break one of these days.


25 posted on 03/20/2008 10:29:47 AM PDT by RC2
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To: Kuksool

Wow, how easily this could have been written about Hitler in 1938. Revered as the man who turned the German economy around and beloved by those who followed him. He put the people first. Just ignore his racist plans for a better world.

This writer is nothing but an apologist for a racist of any color.


26 posted on 03/20/2008 10:30:20 AM PDT by Azeem (Only thing worse than war is peace at all costs.)
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To: Kuksool

As others have pointed out repeatedly, Obama’s failure to remove himself & family from this “church” reveals his lack of judment and character...
but then racists Blacks like this sort of thing!
BLACK POWER! BLACK POWER! BLACK POWER! Right on, Bro! LOL

Obama might fool some of the whiteys with his BS but not this whitey!

As Mort Kondracke has said, Obama might win the Primary but he’ll lose the General election.


27 posted on 03/20/2008 10:30:31 AM PDT by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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To: Kuksool

I think the problem for them is that we do get it. And no we will not move on, we will stay on it until the obama threat to our nation is gone.


28 posted on 03/20/2008 10:30:46 AM PDT by Anonymous Rex ( For Rent)
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To: Kuksool

Mary Mitchell's weekly column addresses issues that concern us all: justice, social responsibility...

Stopped reading right there.

29 posted on 03/20/2008 10:30:46 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Old Professer

You would be wrong. Judging from the crazy sh-t I’ve heard over the years, this makes Barry more popular with black folk.


30 posted on 03/20/2008 10:30:51 AM PDT by Clemenza (I Live in New Jersey for the Same Reason People Slow Down to Look at Car Crashes)
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To: puroresu

The white house is the last place we need to have anyone looking back on this nations problems rather than looking forward to solutions. I heard it said recently, why don’t somebody interview these racists and find out once and for all what would make them happy. Then they can shut up. Of course, the dems now have to decide on having a race batter in the white house, or a third term for Bill Clinton...hehe


31 posted on 03/20/2008 10:31:09 AM PDT by DonaldC
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To: Clemenza

You’re absolutely correct!


32 posted on 03/20/2008 10:31:49 AM PDT by puroresu (Enjoy ASIAN CINEMA? See my Freeper page for recommendations (updated!).)
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To: Kuksool
Politically astute Indeed, many would consider it a great honor to be nurtured spiritually at the feet of a man like Jeremiah Wright.

If this is true, I'm really sad.

33 posted on 03/20/2008 10:31:50 AM PDT by jennyjenny
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To: Kuksool

Yes, it’s time to move on. From Obama. He has destroyed his chances, and frankly, it’s a good thing. Suppose he had gotten in the White House undetected as the liberal racist that he is?


34 posted on 03/20/2008 10:31:57 AM PDT by chesley (Where's the omelet? -- Orwell)
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To: Kuksool

I dont care what else this guy did that may be wonderful and nice
a “compassionate racist” is still a racist
if a Republican was going to Klan meetings but the grand dragon also ran an orphanage for poor whites the press would crucify him and not care about anything else. Please.


35 posted on 03/20/2008 10:32:03 AM PDT by DM1
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To: Nonstatist

You hit the nail on the head. I’ve just recently had this talk with my most Liberal, black friend. And he said the same thing. Blacks CANNOT be racist by definitions BECAUSE they “don’t have the power whites do.”


36 posted on 03/20/2008 10:32:12 AM PDT by EarthBound (Ex Deo,gratia. Ex astris,scientia (Who the hell do I vote for now?))
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To: Little Ray

Even when the “racist” comments are only “snippets?”
/sarc/


37 posted on 03/20/2008 10:33:24 AM PDT by Elsiejay
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To: Kuksool

Immam Wright is a fanatic on par with the Islamists who would destroy America. He is no different except for the Klingon like mantle he uses as a costume.


38 posted on 03/20/2008 10:33:26 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Never say never (there'll be a VP you'll like))
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To: Kuksool

I get racism. White or black, it’s still racism.


39 posted on 03/20/2008 10:34:18 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch (US Constitution Article 4 Section 4..shall protect each of them against Invasion...domestic Violence)
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To: Kuksool

This rant by Mary Mitchell is anything but surprising. Shye conveniently ignores that horrifically anti-white credo of James Cone, the guy whose uber-racist black liberation theology so inspired Wright and his TUCC. We get it, Ms. Mitchell. We get it that black liberation theology incites hatred of whites, and has since day one.


40 posted on 03/20/2008 10:34:43 AM PDT by ought-six
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To: Kuksool
"Undeserved" my foot!

This Wright character is part of a festering cesspool of racial bigotry and hatred that needs to be exposed.

41 posted on 03/20/2008 10:34:55 AM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: RexBeach

Obama was Ridin’Dirty.


42 posted on 03/20/2008 10:35:22 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus (( commander of the simian host))
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To: Kuksool

He’s a racist, treasonous hate monger, Mary. Being black doesn’t excuse that. You’re the one who doesn’t get it.

That’s the e-mail I sent her.


43 posted on 03/20/2008 10:35:27 AM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Kuksool
He has condemned Wright's controversial sermons as "wrong" and "divisive," even though he knows as well as I do that after 9/11, you could have walked into several activist churches in Chicago and heard a similar sermon delivered from the pulpit.

I'm white and I know this too, so how does this make it right madame? Fact is, anyone attending those churches and supporting such nonsense are part of the PROBLEM not the solution... Fauxbama has shown what he is, his first real challenge and he handled it like the complete amateur he is. Don't hate whitey for seeing the want to be emporer has no clothes... blame yourselves for not seeing it earlier.

44 posted on 03/20/2008 10:36:46 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: Kuksool
Okay, here is the simple formula:

When a white person is offended by something a black says, it is because the white person doesn't understand.

When the black person is offended by something a white says, it is because the white person is a racist.

45 posted on 03/20/2008 10:37:07 AM PDT by Space Moose
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To: Kuksool
. . . the black church experience, but apparently don't have a desire to understand why that experience is rife with emotions.

If Rev. Wright represents the typical black church experience, then there's no wonder why blacks generally have grown more resentful toward whites and hold so much hostility toward the US and the white population. Obama practically admitted that most blacks will not show their anger when with white coworkers or "friends" when he stated that the conversations are different in the "barber shops."

They are politically astute enough to know that this battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers.

This journalist is telling us that the battle is against whites because we are a part of satan and his dominion (biblical interpretation of principalities and powers).

46 posted on 03/20/2008 10:37:50 AM PDT by DallasDeb ((a.k.a. USAFA2006Mom!))
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To: Kuksool
Now let's move on.

The calling card for someone who knows they've lost the discussion.

47 posted on 03/20/2008 10:38:11 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: Old Professer
I think this will cost him more black votes than white; the blacks aren’t dumb enough to fall for all this false-speak.

Yeah, sure.

He's now down to 96% of the black vote, but he's up to 3% of white Vietnam vets, that received an Honorable Discharge.

48 posted on 03/20/2008 10:38:21 AM PDT by USS Alaska (Nuke the terrorist savages - In Honor of Standing Wolf)
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To: Kuksool

In other words, it’s okay if blacks are racists, cuz it helps the Democrats win elections.


49 posted on 03/20/2008 10:39:42 AM PDT by rightinthemiddle (The Mainstream Media Controls Our Party. Go, RINOS!)
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To: Always Right

And they are even less concerned that Obama didn’t leave the church but continued to support it.


50 posted on 03/20/2008 10:40:26 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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