Obama And His Preacher (part 2)
By Mary Moore
April 30, 2008
The headline in the local paper screams “OBAMA OUTRAGED BY EX PASTOR” which is hardly news since his outrage has been all over the place since the Rev. Wright spoke at an NAACP dinner and then went before the National Press Club to clarify his previous remarks. Those remarks, of course, set off the first round of national outrage from White America that a black preacher would have the nerve to express himself impolitely in regard to Black America’s outrage that has actually been around for several hundred years.
Well, I’m outraged by Obama’s outrage over Rev. Wright's outrage which reflects the afore mentioned outrage felt by a people who have been stolen, sold, enslaved, castrated, humiliated, manipulated, insulted, families deliberately torn apart, and never officially apologized to for any of it!! So now that we are all officially in outrage mode is it still possible for a black man in America to tell the truth and get elected President or was it all a pipe dream to begin with?
Some of the more optimistic among us think that we’re having a healthy and overdue dialogue about race. I agree that it is way overdue but how healthy is it when the first black man who actually speaks his truth is vilified this strongly not only by the usual suspects but by his supposed allies as well?? I don’t really care if Wright did his clarifying out of ego or other personal reasons but I do care that it seems so astonishing to White America that it must be the only reason for his expression.
The lens through which I’m looking seems very clear. Is it possible that the reason that Obama was so popular with the white folks was that he represented reconciliation, forgiveness and all that other “coming together” talk without the white folks having to do any kind of mental or emotional stretching themselves? All that guilt could just be washed away with a vote and no deep understanding required. The Rev. on the other hand was challenging very unexamined attitudes and assumptions that required digging past that denial thing. He seemed to have no desire to appease long standing beliefs about how much better things are and why we can’t go directly to healing and by pass the work.
The notion that a black man could get elected President by honestly reflecting the depth and diversity of feelings in America’s black community was never realistic. Obama had no choice in this climate but to distance himself IF he wants to get elected by a majority in this country. But is it possible that there are even more important goals for us to reach for in our short lives on this planet? Like holding on to our integrity, our honesty and dare I say, our souls. I may end up voting for Obama as the lesser of the evils but this whole psychodrama has served to re enforce my view that America needs a hell of a lot more than a change in the window dressing at the top—whether it is a black or a woman. It needs to start examining its deepest assumptions in a way it never has about race and class at home and abroad. And that will take a real conversation that doesn’t shut down at the first sign that white folks are getting uncomfortable.