The White Man’s Burden is Not the Black Man’s Responsibility

If you recall, throughout his campaign for the presidency, he’s been painted out to be an undercover Muslim who was swore into office on the Koran.  When that didn’t work, it switched to rumors that he doesn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance and he was the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s flunky.  He’s anti-Israel, friends with terrorists…who actually want him to win.  And the most absurd of them all…he’s the Anti-Christ.

Now the focus for Obama haters has turned to his former pastor Dr. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and what’s being called “controversial” comments he’s made from the pulpit regarding America’s politics.

It seems that it’s not enough that we’ve adopted their religion and most Blacks are worshiping to their white blue-eyed Jesus, but now they want to dictate the message that we receive as well.  And in the process, they’ve backed Obama against a wall forcing him to publicly distance himself from his pastor in order to prove that he’s not an angry Black man in disguise.

Civil rights icon the Rev. Joseph Lowery once said, “The country’s creating a 51st state—the state of denial.

I guess if the history books favored my race against all reality, I’d be pissed off at anyone who tried to say otherwise.  Too bad.

The fact is that Rev. Wright isn’t the first or the last preacher or Black to call out America for her racist history.  A history that for some reason we are always being encouraged to forget because today Americans are transcending race.  Is that why Black men and women are being imprisoned almost as fast their mothers can give birth to them?  Is that the reason why a man who called a group of young Black women “nappy-headed ho’s” is still on the air?  And were we rising above race when it was joked that Tiger Woods should be lynched?  Is us transcending race to blame for the pimps and ho’s parties on university and college campuses around the country? 

The belief that America is somehow transcending race because whites voted for a Black man is dangerous thinking.

Another greatly feared Black man, Dr. Maulana Karenga, taught me that I am American by birth and African by choice and quite frankly that’s the feeling of a lot of African-American’s who are fully aware of the United State’s role in the history of not only the underdevelopment of Africa, but generations of Black Americans.  And let me tell you, one Black man running for president isn’t enough to erase that history or the feelings that many Blacks harbor whether publicly or on the down low towards the United States government and white folks.  We haven’t touched on the issue of reparations, which our government continues to down play.

But it’s this constant state of denial that continues to have some white folks sheets all up in a bunch to the point where they want to now go into our churches and dictate the message that the pastor delivers.  And if they have their way, we’ll be singing hallelujah and thanking Jesus for slavery, Jim Crow, and the end of affirmative action because if you recall it was the Bible that justified whites mistreatment of Blacks.  But wait---we haven’t forgotten Guyana.

The church, our church, white Jesus aside, is the one institution that carried Blacks through America’s state-sanctioned slavery, lynching, racial discrimination, oppression, disenfranchisement, and exploitation.  It is not our responsibility as Blacks to sugar coat the truth to make it a easier pill for some whites to swallow.  We didn’t have a choice between the red or the blue pill, reality or make believe.  We came out of the womb awake to the ways of the world.

And it’ll probably be right about now that most whites reading this will begin to tune out. 

Yes, it’s that state of denial that begins to kick in right about now whenever the words lynching, racism, and slavery are mentioned in relationship to the Black experience and the role whites played  in it that is hard for some to comprehend.  Unless however it’s in the form of a primetime movie special during Black History Month, then it’s all good for about two hours and some change to remember.

So here comes the mainstream and at times divisive, media trying to take Wright’s comments out of context and making it into a bigger issue than what it should be, perhaps to make up for a slow news day and/or Clinton’s complaints of a media love affair with Obama.  Either way, I thought race isn’t supposed to be a factor in this election?  Maybe they’re forgetting that Wright is but one Black pastor in this country and I am willing to bet that a peek into other Black churches around the country and the message is quite the same, maybe even more controversial.  And that’s just Black churches.  Let’s not forget All Saints Church in Pasadena, California who had been under investigation for a guest sermon its former rector had given just before the 2004 presidential election.  In it, he strongly criticized the war in Iraq but said he believed that both President Bush and his Democratic opponent, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, were good Christians.  This was taken as an endorsement of Kerry over Bush and in came the IRS.

I know it’s hard to believe for some, but everyone isn’t down with America’s unwritten policy of bomb now ask questions later.  I think we all know what lengths the American government will go to keep the truth from coming out.

It wasn’t that long ago when we were dealing with the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow.  Then came the mysterious arrival of crack cocaine in Black neighborhoods around the country and COINTELPRO.  By the late 70s, the white sheets had been replaced with business suits and phony smiles.  And even though the damage had been done that didn’t stop them from giving us Reagan.

A.M.E. church founder Richard Allen said “the only place that Blacks felt they could maintain an element of self-expression was the church,” and I’ll add, but they still managed to burn down more than a few back in the day.

Fortunate for Dr. Wright, it’s not so easy to get rid of dissident voices today as it was 30 and 40 years ago. 

Dr. Wright may be retired now, but thank God for us that there are still pastors and ministers like him out there who aren’t afraid tell it like it is when it comes to the United States Government and the history that was so conveniently left out of the schoolbooks.

Those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it…and this ain’t no reentry in slavery.  Preach on, preach on.

Comments

[Ann]

And this is precisely the rhetoric I and most of my family & friends fear: "And let me tell you, one Black man running for president isn’t enough to erase that history or the feelings that many Blacks harbor whether publicly or on the down low towards the United States government and white folks. We haven’t touched on the issue of reparations, which our government continues to down play."
I am not tuning out "And it’ll probably be right about now that most whites reading this will begin to tune out." - but Obama loses any support that I may have had for him because of all of a sudden all of the angry blacks have ganged up on me, thinking that a black man will be president -

I simply agree with one of the previous posts: "Unfortunately Barack has painted a picture of being a candidate for all people and to have this man, who is clearly very slanted toward one race in particular, as an advisor in his camp nullifies what Obama has been saying his campaign is all about. This is not just some man Obama heard give a sermon a few times, this is a man that Obama has claimed to be his spiritual advisor. This is the real issue with Pastor Wright and Obama's relationship. How can you be a candidate for all people when you are being advised that the majority of them are the root of all evil in America?"
The truth is as soon as Obama became a viable candidate, the real racists came out of the closet.

[Ann]

And this is precisely the rhetoric I and most of my family & friends fear: "And let me tell you, one Black man running for president isn’t enough to erase that history or the feelings that many Blacks harbor whether publicly or on the down low towards the United States government and white folks. We haven’t touched on the issue of reparations, which our government continues to down play."
I am not tuning out "And it’ll probably be right about now that most whites reading this will begin to tune out." - but Obama loses any support that I may have had for him because of all of a sudden all of the angry blacks have ganged up on me, thinking that a black man will be president -

I simply agree with one of the previous posts: "Unfortunately Barack has painted a picture of being a candidate for all people and to have this man, who is clearly very slanted toward one race in particular, as an advisor in his camp nullifies what Obama has been saying his campaign is all about. This is not just some man Obama heard give a sermon a few times, this is a man that Obama has claimed to be his spiritual advisor. This is the real issue with Pastor Wright and Obama's relationship. How can you be a candidate for all people when you are being advised that the majority of them are the root of all evil in America?"
The truth is as soon as Obama became a viable candidate, the real racists came out of the closet.

[MonicaR]

I'm not condeming Rev. Wright for his remarks until you white peeps start doing foaming-mouth denunciations of the anti-American comments of John Hagee, Pat Robertson, Rod Parsley, James Dobson and the rest of the right wing (sac)religious crew.

[Reality]

Hey, Mimi - got anything more to say than blind paranoic suppositions and accusations about people you don't know and obviously don't want to know? Too busy raging, telling people "what they are" (with no clue) and chugaluging the Hateraide?

[Toni]

I'm not quite sure what the focus of your blog post is...you seem to be making quite a few comments about a multitude of things but not summing up any particular point about anything. I know that you strongly support Obama, but like any other canidate, he too must clarify publicly made statements made by folks he is close to be they family members, mentors or campaign supporters. The kid gloves are coming off now, and the repugnant party will bring out all of the stunts and nonsense they employed against Kerry. I wonder if the press will seize upon the video of McCain being corrected by Lieberman after making inaccurate statements regarding Iran "training Al Qaida". All canidates should have their feet held to the fire to keep them honest. It has been Nauseating to read and hear the sexist attacks against Hillary launched by the media...thank goodness for organizations like MEDIA MATTERS that hold not only the media accountable but also the canidates and their staffs accountable as well.

[milly]

Just had to de-lurk to say that was an awesome essay. long, but very well written, as ever. keep at it, and rise above the negative comments.

[Mimi]

I see the "likkker" fans are back with thier usual nonsense, trying to call Jas a bigot for telling them what they are, gay white men who hate blacks, and, as if any of hat has anything to do with this election, although, all of them are in the Miss Hillary camp. Don't hate the truth boo's, in the real world, we all know where you stand and it sure isn't as a fair and decent human, the lies of a coward behind a 10 year old computer don't carry too much weight here, at least, not as much as your beloved comic.

And, Shemp,interesting, and, while things may be better, lets keep it real, how can "laws" that are seldom enforced for equality, and, being taken off the books by the right wing Supreme Court every year, going to make things better? 40 years of alleged "fairness" can't make up for 360 years of injustice. There is no hope that this counry will ever get over its issues with race, the hate runs way too deep on all sides. Which is why the USA is headed the way of Rome, down the tubes from all its inner issues and so called leaders who are afraind to confront them so they don't lose a vote.

[Shemp]

Between 1450 and the end of the nineteenth century, slaves were obtained from along the west coast of Africa with the full and active co-operation of African kings and merchants. (There were occasional military campaigns organised by Europeans to capture slaves, especially by the Portuguese in what is now Angola, but this accounts for only a small percentage of the total.) In return, the African kings and merchants received various trade goods including beads, cowrie shells (used as money), textiles, brandy, horses, and perhaps most importantly, guns. The guns were used to help expand empires and obtain more slaves, until they were finally used against the European colonisers. (i base most of my beliefs on facts)

http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa080601a.htm

[Mirror]

Jas, wouldn't it be more productive to work on your racist hatred of whites than to keep proving it with these rants?

"They" generalizations all over the place. Imus represents the white race, does he? And on and on.

You need therapy, babe, not a keyboard.

[Shemp]

no sarcasm in my comment. just sadness.
i have a good friend who is black(i know what your thinking. please dont.) he's a professional engineer. we get along the same as any other friend i have. when we walk down the hall at work though, we pass others of african decent on occasion and when we do they do not acknowledge me. only him.
he explained many of the feelings in your "community" to me. this was a common thing he said. we also got the cold shoulder when in a sporting goods store once. and he pointed out that it was because he was with me. when i realized that we were the only customers in the store and the white help didn't seem to want our money then i knew it was true. so i understand to a degree.

two sides of a coin that needs to be tossed into a fountain.

please consider that the reason slaves were owned at the time was based on a belief that we are not all equal. that belief has been proven wrong and thus man moved on and tried to evolve and get past that period...we have to. or like Obama said, it will destroy our country from within.

i guess the key is to not let it hurt unless its a physical pain or financial. then you get the law involved.things are possible now for blacks that i'm certain were not in the 50's and 60's. time is passing and i see improvement. take it or leave it.

{thanks to the host for the oportunity to comment}

[Jon]

This is just more nonsense from the USA, the black guy, who has no power to make the rules where white men still have every advantage just because of being white and white women right behind them, no matter their sexuality. This whole thing is a joke, he has to answer for racism??? It makes no sense, but, this whole primary and election has shown, the USA is still as racist as it ever has been, and, always will be, and, the last thing anyone here wants is someone like Obama, who does not believe that it should be that way, but, who should have had enough sense not to be sitting in the pews with some one telling the truth, since, his truth is offensive to those who don't want to hear it and say that race hasn't been an issue for the past 40 years and no one is treated differently based on skin color.

So, thanks to Hillary, Bill and Fox Noise for a GOP landslide in November now that the ugly head of racism is out in the open for all the pundits to keep alive until election day. Racism will destroy this country from within more than any of the so called outside "terrorists."

[John]

bugger, re-reading before hitting the post button would have been good...first sentence was a bit wonky.

Sorry for the double post...

Unfortunately Barack has painted a picture of being a candidate for all people and to have this man, who is clearly very slanted toward one race in particular, as an advisor in his camp nullifies what Obama has been saying his campaign is all about. This is not just some man Obama heard give a sermon a few times, this is a man that Obama has claimed to be his spiritual advisor. This is the real issue with Pastor Wright and Obama's relationship. How can you be a candidate for all people when you are being advised that the majority of them are the root of all evil in America?

[John]

Unfortunately Barack has painted a picture of being a candidate for all people and to claim this man, who is clearly very slanted toward one race in particular, nullifies what Obama has been saying his campaign is all about. This is not just some man Obama heard give a sermon a few times, this is a man that Obama has claimed to be his spiritual advisor. This is the real issue with Pastor Wright and Obama's relationship. How can you be a candidate for all people when you are being advised that the majority of them are the root of all evil in America?

[Kisha Dykes]

It was great to see you on Reily. I'm glad you didn't budge in saying that Wright's comments were hateful. Its sad that Barack has to make a speech defending his ethnicity. He never mentioned anything about race in this campaign. Others have injected race into this campaign to marginalize Obama and now whites are starting to react and flee to Clinton. Wright was not hateful. Hateful is saying that the reason 9/11 and Katrina occured was because of the gays! That's hate. Were they afraid when President Bush and Repbulican nominee McCain went to SEEK the endorsements of Jerry Fallwell when he was alive?? How about Rod Parsely saying that America was created to make sure the Muslims are DESTROYED? Don't remember Wright talking about the destruction of a people because of their faith? Are they afraid that McCain called Parsely his SPIRITUAL ADVISOR?

So it'd be ok for a white preacher to denounce black men as an attack on humanity?

[AO]

I challenge anyone to give one example of an untruth in Rev. Wright's statements. I kept hearing media folks decrying Rev. Wright's words but didn't hear any attack on the words other than they were said. Everything I heard was perfectly true. Isn't America racist?

Even if by some stretch of the imagination you think it isn't, doesn't one have the right to speak one's opinion? This is America after all. The land of freedom of speech and expression? Isn't that one of Bush's alledged reasons for invading and causing all the death and mayhem taking place in Iraq? But maybe that shouldn't be said either, since it might offend some of the very people that claim Iraq was invaded to bring such "democratic" principals as freedom of speech to the long suffering Iraqis. Many the same people raising "hell" about Rev. Wright's words. Should Rev. Wright move to Iraq?

Maybe America should be invaded so that all Americans will not only have freedom of speech, but will also have the freedom to listen to whomever we want and associate with whomever we wish without sanction. Not one of the media luminaries made a claim they heard Obama say any of the "controversial" things said by Rev. Wright. I feel like I've fallen down the rabbit hole again. Now a person is unworthy of being considered for the presidency because he (or she) was exposed to certain people and words (all be they true) that certain other folks don't like to hear. I've always thought it admirable to speak truth to power. Now I guess we have to revise that to include "listen to truth when spoken to power".

The irony of all this silly frenzy is that while it was going on, folks are being blown up in Iraq, people are losing their homes, the bottom is threatening to drop out of the financial market, American taxpayers will be asked to bail out Bear Stearns' creditors to a tune of 40 BILLION dollars, our children are being under-educated (if their lucky), millions of Americans don't have access to health care, people are getting shot on US city streets because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, American Iraqi war veterans are testifying to some of the realities of what is really going on in Iraq at the Winter Soldier Tribunals (the mainstream media made no mention of this), oil raises to an all time high of $112 a barrel and the price of food continues to increase (Have you bought bread, milk and eggs lately?). And oh yes, where is Osama ben Laden? These are the issues Americans want to hear discussed in connection with the upcoming presidential election.

But what do we hear? A firestorm about words spoken by the retired minister of one of the candidates that some folks just don't want to hear regardless of their reality. Maybe this is what Obama means when he says people want CHANGE!

[L.A.]

I agree with Chaka. It seems that Shemp has a chip on his/her shoulder. Africans and African-Americans have endured the most horrible genocide (HOLOCAUST) known to man. It saddens me that this election can't even commence without the obvious racist remarks. Black folks have come along way since slavery days yes....but if the racism is there everyday looking us in the face, how do you expect us to get over it?

We can't and we won't. I pray that Obama is elected President of the Unites States. I would love for him to change the way history is taught in schools. My little sister who is ony 12 told me that her teacher told her that the europeans came to Africa and asked Africans politely if they would come to America. I couldn't believe what she had told me.

Europeans were the ones that brought racism to Africa and to America. Europeans were the ones that tried so very hard to burn and demolish any and all African history, as to make it seem like all inventions came from them. When in all actual reality, Europeans were illiterate...didn't know how to read or write until Africans made education universal, because after all, where else do you think europeans learned how to read, write, cook, bath themselves, law, science, math, astronomy, agriculture and the list goes on and on...and believe me it's a long ass list!

Africans discovered America long before the europeans did and left their traces in mexico and elsewhere and of course the europeans tried to destroy our history there as well. But no matter how hard they tried to destroy our history, they couldn't. Because black people are the beginning and the ending and our natural creativeness and strength shines through ALWAYS! We were just made that way.

So hell no we will never forget our REAL history and where we came from. The government needs to acknowledge the past and the present and for once in their lives...TELL THE DAMN TRUTH!

[Justin Early]

I think someone is rightfully angry yet pandering to drama to make more of a name for herself.

*&^ <----- fake smile

[gemini72]

I am often confused about the lack of "internal reflection" that is allowed in OUR country. Why is it when one (especially a person of color) chooses to express problems in the history of this country his/her love, commitment and devotion to this country are questioned? I don't believe that criticism and devotion are mutually exclusive. Specifically, if I want to discuss the footprint left within my culture by a history of maltreatment to my racial or ethnic group in this country (e.g. blacks, Japanese, Native Americans) that discussion is not devoid of my pride in the good things that this country has provided to all Americans. I think what makes some white folks uncomfortable is the tone (sometimes angry) in which some of these things are communicated; however, what is forgotten is that most of us have family members still alive who actually experienced some of this maltreatment OR remember the cultural story passed down within the family of the maltreatment.

Unfortunately, as a nation we have not really dealt with (nor have we really figured out how to deal with) the negative aspects of OUR history. Legislation has not really worked and neither has the "just get over" sentiment been effective. The latter really becomes an issue when only certain parts of history are not supposed to be discussed. For example, slavery in the US and its historical effects are not to be discussed, BUT we would NEVER tell the Jewish people (nor do I believe that we should) to "just get over" the Holocaust. Until we allow for all aspects of history to be discussed and evaluated we are doomed to repeat many of OUR previous mistakes.

[Chaka]

Guess that made you feel balanced and honest huh Shemp? The sarcasm in that post says everything, and frankly renders your comment ignorable, but I'm choosing not to let it go.
If you don't get it, you won't get it until you wake up. No one can wake you up but the Most High or an experience that makes it impossible to deny what Black Americans face DAILY.
Could care less if you want to paint us as complainers. A squeaky wheel gets oiled. This country was built on our backs as well as on the backs of Indians. It's time for both our apology and our reparations, period.

Get over it.
The founding "fathers" were racist slaveholders you can't escape that fact.
Time to create some laws and programs that actually eradicate white privilege and level the playing field.
The days of white privilege are coming to a close. Sorry if that takes the wind out of your haughty sails. Thanks also for the fake smiles. I'm sure the scowling ones thought it very big of you seeing as you're "calm and balanced". Maybe you taught them how to stop being angry, hmmm?

[Shemp]

shouldn't you be denouncing the pastor for his comments? he broke the law by trying to influence an election and will probably cost the church its tax free status.
he clearly was not discussing his religion.
and he clearly is full of rage and anger as i see in many black americans. lose the rage or plan on many more years of misery.

count the number of laws passed by OUR govt. which were put in place specifically for the benefit of minorities. do they solve the problem of races not getting along. no.
but they were done with obvious intentions.
there will always be bigots in any society.

and the fake smiles. i've seen them and produced them. i think it's an attempt to try and make someone else feel better since the look on their face is usually a scowl...