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America,
race, religion and redemption?
E.
Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot
It is a
moment like this that you get a real glimpse of racism in
America: That barely two weeks ago, Senator Obama, a man
said to be the most eligible Black candidate to date vying
for the American presidency and leading in the polls; should
falter because of sermons preached by his pastor, the
Reverend Jeremiah Wright, a Black preacher should inform the
world about how deep the racial divide is in America
Is
America beyond race redemption? That was the problem that
faced Barrack Obama on March 18, 2008, as he delivered a
speech that lasted some 40 minutes at the National
Constitution Center in Philadelphia in the attempt to
confront the matter of race relations in America.
Whether
the Senator’ speech had its intended impact or not can only
be told by time. For now, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright,
Obama’s preacher, has taken over his voice.
Conservative Talk Radio, which at the start of the 2008
campaign for the presidency hated Senator Hillary Clinton,
has gone after Obama with vengeance and glee. In a sense,
it may make strategic sense. Obama, probably, has a better
chance of defeating Senator McCain, the presumptive
Republican candidate, in the upcoming November elections.
Sermons
preached by the Reverend Wright, collected over some 20
years, have become the negative benchmarks of Obama’s
character, integrity, patriotism and ability to lead for
Conservative Talk radio.
Meanwhile, Hillary, Obama’s opponent in the Democrat race,
has been left alone, in complete mirth, to reap the benefits
from the racial attacks on Obama.
Any
wonder then that Hillary was the first to gravitate to a
microphone immediately after Obama’s speech to commend him?
It must be said, however, that in a typical Clintonian
manner, she denied having seen or heard the speech. Make
this what you will, but this twist in logic was a simple
attempt to rise to a higher ground while giving her hit men
time to do a hatchet job on Obama’s speech.
Meanwhile, the rivet like attention of the media on Obama
allowed Hillary a chance to release her long sought-after
records. Who would have thought that Obama’s discomfiture
would have made such perfect timing!
Hillary
has reason to rejoice. The negative media attention will
continue to rest on Obama until the primaries in
Pennsylvania are done. She will win Philadelphia, not on
the merit of her qualification, but on the negative impact
of the Reverend Wright past sermons; never mind the fact
that these sermons form part of the narratives of the racial
history of America.
Instead
of abandoning the Reverend, Obama has chosen to stand fast
and had this to say about race in America in his speech in
Philadelphia:
"(T)he
anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away,
to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves
to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between
the races."
America
should be listening to this man, but knocking him down now
has proven to be very emotionally and politically rewarding
for some.
In
Obama, some say America has a unique opportunity to confront
its number one problem. This brilliant son of an African
father and a white mother, can only be described as the
quintessential American - the “melting pot” kind. That he
can just be seen as a Black man shows how nonsensical this
notion about race in America, that owes its antecedent to
the “one drop rule,” is.
Obama
attends the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago,
where Reverend Wright preaches. The Reverend is the reason
for his political troubles today. But had Obama been a
member of Dr. Billy Graham’s mission, some would still have
found his blackness troubling.
At
certain places in this land, even the worship of the Lord on
Sundays is segregated. Whites go to White churches and
Blacks go to theirs on Sundays. Ask President Jimmy Carter
about a story that appeared on August 23, 1996, in The
Augusta Chronicle on Line, courtesy of the Associated Press:
“Shortly
before the 1976 presidential election, Jimmy Carter's church
canceled a Sunday service rather than open its doors to a
black man.
“Mr.
Carter, a church member and one who would go on to win more
than 90 percent of the black vote in the election, had to
make a difficult decision.
“If it
was a country club, he told reporters, he would just quit.
``But
this is not my church. It's God's church. I can't quit my
lifetime habit of worship and commitment because of a
remnant of discrimination which has been alleviated a great
deal in the last 10 years,'' Mr. Carter said.
The
Black Church exists in America today partly because of this
type of exclusions. Reverend Wright’s church is no
exception. He preaches to a Black flock in a tradition
comfortable to their experience; “liberation
theology.”
Historically, the message of a Black Church would be
nothing, if it were not about liberation. For, no honest
person today can say that Blacks in America have not
suffered and are not suffering from the experiences of
slavery. Spirituals and hymns of the Black church would be
rendered impotent should they not carry the message of
liberation and hope.
What is
happening to Obama is not about what preacher Wright said.
It is about raw politics holding back a possible Black
president, just like it did to Black quarterbacks in
American football. When the Clintons accused the press of
overlooking Obama’s experience, they probably were waiting
for this reaction to kick in.
The
Clintons attacked Obama on race in New Hampshire, South
Carolina, and when it didn’t work they shifted the attack
and attention to Farrakhan. Reverend Jeremiah Wright was
the latest and the most successful find.
But why
Reverend Wright? Overly concerned “Christians”, who were
worried about Obama’s middle name, Hussein, because it
recalled for them Saddam, 9/11 and Islamic radicals, have
sadly forgotten that Reverend Jeremiah Wright carries the
name Jeremiah, after the Prophet and fire and brimstone
preacher from the Bible.
E.
Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher
www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, March 20, 2008
Permission to publish: Please feel free to publish or
reproduce, with credits, unedited. If posted at a website,
email a copy of the web page to
publisher@ghanadot.com . Or don't publish at all.
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