Racism?

I am surprised that Jeremiah Wright’s recently dug-out-of-archives statements are so inflammatory.  I had forgotten that it is not common knowledge that the United States is a mostly racist environment unless you are not white.  Racism persists beyond Civil Rights.  Just because it is not popularly accepted for black people to be lynched anymore does not mean that racism is gone.  Come on now: Jenna, MS, remember that? A noose is hung from a tree in the south and its not a hate crime?!  Sure, arrest the arrest the black kids who may have reacted violently.  But you can’t really blame them when that kind of thing is practically a death threat. We still have quite a ways to go.  I have not heard much of Sen. Obama’s reaction today about the controversy but I have high hopes.  I have heard Rev. Wright a couple times and am acquainted with his work at Trinity.  People in the rest of the country have to recognize what the church and its ministry represent.  It is an afro-centric community in southside Chicago.  He preaches to a congregation that lives daily with the reality of racism that is alive and well.  Rev. Wright has a responsibility to empower his congregation to understand and do what they can to work with that reality in a Christ-like way.  Anyone who has ever heard a sermon before knows that you can not understand the whole message by only listening to the emotional climax. I hope that this can serve as a reminder to us all that racism is real. Avoiding it will get us absolutely nowhere. Forget the democrat/republican division, the experiential division among races is far more pernicious.

~ by ajdele on March 18, 2008.