It happened again last night- Barack couldn't explain his relationship with Wright in a satisfying way. Of course Barack is inspiring and hopeful, but Wright isn't and this is very problematic.
I think that Barack has a very complicated relationship with Wright, looking on him as a father-figure. I get that. But what I don't get is why he can't see how Wright is a bridge too far for some of us. Wright has said some things that sound like they came from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He has even reprinted Hamas doctrine in the church's newsletter. I lived in Munich. Twenty minutes from my apartment was Dachau, a major concentration camp. The day they were about to open the new Jewish Comunity center in downtown Munich, just across from Marienplatz, bomb making materials were found in a house of Neo-Nazis. Passover is in two days. My family jokes about the ritual and in fact that has become part of the ritual-making jokes about it. I don't think we even manage to get the herbs right anymore. But despite what Barack said, I don't cling to this night, I look upon it as a beautifully transcendent moment of celebrating emancipation, an emancipation that unfortunately has had to happen over and over again.