Foxfyre wrote:teenyboone wrote:Butterflynet:
Rather than face the brand of prejudice practiced throughout America' history and the history of Blacks in America, the posters here, who are so rabid against Minister Wright, can't and won't face and admit, that they are prejudiced against Obama, in the first place. What I'm reading here, is what I was warned against as a child, growing up Black, in racially segregated New Orleans. I was also taught, that not all whites were prejudiced or bad, however this country chose after the Civil War, to turn a blind's eye, to the Jim Crow laws practiced throughout the South.
Before 1964, the nations prisons were 80% white and with passage of 2 civil rights Acts, not laws, just barely 40 years ago, the draconian Rockefeller drug laws and institutionalized racism, have reversed the prison population to 80% Black and drove a new industry, the prison industrialization complex, that has imprisoned over 2 million Blacks, since 1964. The disenfranchisement of Florida's Blacks in the 2000 election, the "fixing" of the voting machines in Ohio in 2004, a conservative Supreme Court deciding a federal election, now high unemployment, poisons in children's toys, plastic in dog food, the price of oil in the US, that is not short on supply, but the fixing of the prices by Bush's Arab honchos and this last statement by Tim Wise is so telling.
"So white folks are mad at Jeremiah Wright because he challenges their views about their country. Meanwhile, those same white folks, and their ministers and priests, every week put forth a false image of the God Jeremiah Wright serves, and yet it is whites who feel we have the right to be offended. "
A white man defending what Blacks and people of color have felt for over 450 years, when we were "stolen" from our native lands and told we had no history, no culture, no language, yet no one speaks with truth, because the light of truth blinds the hell out of the lies told for centuries.
TeenyBoone, I know you are describing it as you see it, and I respect that. But I think the way you (and some others) see it is part of the problem. Here's why:
One says that the rightwingers on the thread are 'dismissive' of anything defending Jeremiah Right or Barack Obama; yet that same person and those who agree with her ignore the accusations of bias, prejudice, dishonesty, etc. etc. etc. directed at opposing points of view. The rebuttals are often angry or dismissive and/or insulting. A little ability to see that both sides hold strong, if differing, views and have valid reasons for holding them could go a long way toward finding what common ground exists. (I hasten to say that ALL members, Left or Right, are not insulting or dismissive and some do seem to be making at least an effort to understand the point of view of the others.)
You say
Quote:the posters here, who are so rabid against Minister Wright, can't and won't face and admit that they are prejudiced against Obama, in the first place.
I think any American who loves his/her country and who is capable of seeing the whole history that includes some really good stuff as well as bad stuff will oppose the message of Jeremiah Wright, and that includes a lot of Obama supporters. Racial dynamics in America can and should certainly continue to improve, but neither America nor the average white person, rich or not, deserves the condemnation that Wright heaps upon it. His message is angry and divisive and prejudicial and promotes the very attitudes that we need to get past in order to move forward.
Some here will be supporting Hillary because they believe she is the better candidate. The conservatives will be supporting McCain or 'none of the above' because they can't stand Hillary and/or know Obama to be so far left in his ideology that he will certainly push a socialist agenda that we cannot support. Those of you supporting Obama may be doing so because he appeals to you as a person or because you like what he says or because he seems better than Hillary or because you wouldn't vote for a Republican no matter who he or she was.
Prejudice comes into play for sure, but I am reasonably certain that what prejudice exists in the dynamics is ideological and not racial.
What you are seeing are edited sentences/sound bites, re-edited and placed together to make it look like one, big, hate speech, which it isn't! Read the link and you will see, from ONE speech, he was trying to make a point. Played together, I would have thought, what so many of you already think. You see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear.
I make no apology for being born Black. I make no apology for being taught a version of American History, that purposely leaves out the 250 year legacy of slavery. Children in America are "brainwashed" a line of "white supremacy", backed by biblical quotes intrepreted to mean that whites are superior and blacks are inferior. Whites have fooled themselves into believing that the country stolen from the Native Americans, was okay! Watch any western from the 30's through the 70's and see the justification. You brand yourselves Irish-Americans in March, Italian-Americans, on March 19th and Oct. 12th for Columbus's so-called "discovery"! Jesus, Himself, is depicted in every American, Catholic Church as white, although He was born in North Africa, from a Palestinian Jew, named Mary, an unmarried pregnant girl, rescued from disgrace by Joseph.
None of you "get" it! Yet, it is the very foundation on which Christianity, is based! When the Angel Gabriel appeared to Joseph, in a dream and TOLD him, to take Mary and the baby to Egypt, why? Because they BLENDED, in and wouldn't be recognized by Herod's men! A biblical lesson in racism, spelled out to you. Jesus came amongst His own and His own, knew him, not! For that, he was tortured and crucified! Today, it's no different. You elect people who act against your own best interests, but because they LOOK like you, it's better than electing the Black, guy, huh? So, since I have been voting for whites, who do NOT represent MY best interests, I'm voting for the brother, this time!
Go on, elect McCain. You'll get exactly what you deserve! I can walk up to a statue of the "white" Jesus and feel that the "real" Jesus, who hears my pleas! Hears my prayers and has blessed me this far by my faith, in Him!
So I wish you all a Blessed Easter and for renewal in your faith! Whether Obama's minister is evil or not, believe what you want. You want something to chew on, so now you have it!
