This country is truly out of its mind. L'affair Wright has demonstrated that all too well. First as a secularist I look in wonder as Wright is cast as fracking Rasputin to Obama. At the end of the of it all, what you do on Sunday--I don't care if you worship snakes--is your damn business. No preacher, Rabbi, Iman or holy man should have any baring on the political future of this country. Of course, this distinction is generally maintained if the candidate is of the Vanilla variety. Rightwing loon preachers run to the protection of the Church/State divide whenever they are under attack, with their lovely tax-exemptions and the "oh I was just was just talking about how "God" wants to smite gays, minorities uppity women etc., Don't worry judgement days a long time off; you've got time to reform your ways sinners.
This leads me to my concern--Wright is merely a convenient excuse for America to indulge its insatiable appetite for racial pornography. The media loves to explore pathologies--anger, sex, the irrational--through its depiction of black folks. And Wright is the Willy Horton de jour, a two-dimensional black boogie-man, against whom Obama must perform some symbolic exorcism--I cast thee out you scary black man.
Who is Wright after all? Well, plainly put he is no demon. He is if anything a classic Black Power preacher circa 1970, something of an anachronism, but someone with a history and context. If you are of African descent you likely have an Uncle like Wright. He's the Uncle who worked his ass off to get an education during Jim Crow, joined the military where he encounter savage racism, returned from war freaked out and angry, was restless with the Civil Rights movements rhetoric of reconcilliation, yearns for black empowerment but is constantly frustrated by his own limitations and the limitations set before him. Mind you he is angry, but charming. He's the Uncle who has never met a conspiracy theory he didn't like--why because people have conspired to screw him over enough times for him to believe that that is how the world works. He is the Uncle who at your graduation buys you the most lavish gift, but mortifies you as he begins to loudly denounce "TheMan" during the commencement speech. He is accompanied by your Aunt "la resignada" who has stopped talking to white people all together because "It's just a waste of time chica." Again, the MSM wants nothing more to take this man and turn him into a convenient spectre for white fears. But it could be any working class black man in Obama's past frankly. Michelle's father is fair game, or any other.
One day I'll post my thoughts on the problems with Black Power rhetoric. There are many, but the most important thing, is that the problems with Wright's bad theories--the differential racial cognition theory is bunk--brains are brains--and the cultural angle doesn't cut it either--is that the tragedy of these theories will be borne by black folks. Again paranoia and contempt is the only motivation behind the legions of critics who point out Wright's so-called extremism. There is no real desire think about this from the point of view of the poor and excluded folks in the South Side who cling to such ideas. If Obama's race speech argued anything it was that we as Americans have an ethical duty to think from the perspective of those who suffer--all Americans regardless of race.
As I have posted elsewhere the current press on Obama has little to do with Wright in the end. This avenue of attack will not stop. It will continue even if Wright goes on a nice long vacation somewhere, or if Obama swears on a stack of bibles blessed by Mr. Charlie himself. What we are witnessing is the manner in which the first serious black contender for the highest office of the nation will be treated. It is unfair, it is barbaric, it is irrational--but that is precisely the manner in which the MSM treats black public figures. And President Obama will not be immune. To all the chicken littles, get used to it. Fight the idiots of the MSM tooth and nail. That IMO is the best strategy. Welcome to an ordinary day in Mayberry for people of color.