Many of you presumably have seen or read Pat Buchanan's recent blog post in which he castigates blacks for not being more thankful for their enslavement at the hands of Europeans, for a century of segregation, for property burned and innocent people murdered - that they should thank the white man for the institutional and cultural belief that black skin devalues the worth of a person, because hey, we whiteys built some apartments for them. The immediate response to this kind of nonsense, for many of us, is incredulity and anger. But our better angels - the ones Obama appealed to in his speech on Tuesday - call on us not to approach his words with anger but with understanding and to react with sober-minded reason. Buchanan would like nothing more than to stoke the flames of anger that permeate any discussion of race. So let's not let him do that this time. Let's show people what a dinosaur Buchanan is. Let's do that with our actions, and with our words. A simple two-part proposal (writing letters and making donations) below...
Basically, it's time to elevate the conversation even further. What I propose is a series of heart-felt, detailed letters, sent to MSNBC, PBS, the DNC, and anyone else who will listen (emails to family members, blog posts, etc.), in which the following, or parts of the following, are discussed:
- The handling of the Wright footage. Specifically, the ten-second sound bites that were taken out of context to promote a singular image of an angry, paranoid black man.
- How that footage led some us to seek out the greater context of that footage by watching other sermons, in their entirety, on YouTube, and how those sermons led us to better understand the complexity of Wright. Examples here (along with a defense of Trinity by a white minister):
http://www.youtube.com/...
http://www.youtube.com/...
http://www.youtube.com/...
http://www.youtube.com/...
- And how after an even further investigation of the church and the good works it has performed and continues to perform in its community, some of us were led to the belief that the slander of the church was inappropriate and that some of us decided to donate to the church.
- A personal discussion of and reaction to Obama's speech. To me, this was a very important part of the speech, and obviously flew over the head of Buchanan:
Legalized discrimination -- where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments -- meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations.
That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families -- a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened.
And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods -- parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement -- all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.
This is the reality in which Rev. Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted.
What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
And here is my favorite excerpt:
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle -- as we did in the O.J. trial -- or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina -- or as fodder for the nightly news.
We can play Rev. Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words.
We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
- Discuss examples in our daily lives with people we interact with as proof that Obama's speech has already produced some "ripples of change." In addition, there was Mike Huckabee and Chris Wallace - two very conservative people - attempting to elevate the discussion on national television.
- And finally, an appeal to the networks to either get rid of Buchanan or, better, have a panel to discuss race in which Buchanan is invited. His words fare better in a blog post where he is not held accountable for his views. In the context of a panel discussion dealing explicitly with race, his opinions will be seen as the archaic, destructive philosophies of hate and resentment that they truly are.
What is IMPORTANT is to tie everything together - the media's handling of Wright, Obama's speech, and the reaction of Buchanan - as a REASON to attempt to elevate the discussion in this country, as a REASON to seek out the full sermons of Jeremiah Wright and to donate to his church, as a REASON to challenge Buchanan on the merit of his words instead of simply yelling at him.
Buchanan and his ilk want this to be a shouting match. But in this situation, only the bigots win in a shouting match. We win when we follow the lead of Obama - take the time to craft a passionate and personal letter to those who will listen and say NOT THIS TIME. No, this time, we will not take your 10 second sound bite and jump to a conclusion. We will seek out more information, we will listen to what Wright has to say, and we reject the simple and pathetic bromides of Pat Buchanan. We will listen to them, and we will respond. Will they listen to us?