Pajamas Media » An Open Letter to Senator Obama

An Open Letter to Senator Obama

Filmmaker Lionel Chetwynd thinks Barack Obama got it backwards in his March 18th speech on race, when the presidential candidate urged us to take the extreme statements of Reverend Wright in “context.” Writes Chetwynd: “That is the teaching opportunity I hoped you would evoke: not explaining Wright’s outrage to me, but explaining his outrageousness to him.”

March 24, 2008 - by Lionel Chetwynd

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Dear Senator Obama:

I have now read and reread your speech, understanding you take this to be a “teaching moment,” I have applied myself to its lessons. But some questions have arisen and I need a little more clarification.

You tell me Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s horrendous remarks will take on a different meaning if I will but contextualize them and understand he has seen terrible things in his time, a burden shared by all African-Americans. A fair proposition; from Kant to Auden and beyond we learn we define by comparison and only by internalizing can we grasp true meaning. So I have done precisely that: looked inside myself to understand how hatred might need to be contextualized.

I did not have to look far. I remembered how, as a boy, I sat at the Passover Seder with my sister’s Polish-born husband and the remnants of his family. The remnants of five families to be precise, for the 12 weary souls around that table were all that remained of what had once been 300. The others – their loved ones, their sons, their daughters, their hopes and dreams – were gone, their lives consumed by zyklon-b gas, their mortal remains wisps of smoke from a Büchenwald chimney. These people, who had seen and suffered so much, read of my ancestor’s deliverance from Egypt exactly as the Bible instructed: in the present tense, as if it happened to them. “For with a mighty hand the Lord thy God raised thee out of Egypt and brought you from slavery to freedom.” But as they spoke – or really whispered such was the fear and holiness of the moment – they were not conjuring up Egyptian slavery as a present experience but recalling the horrors they themselves had witnessed, murder on a scope once unimaginable and only made possible by perverted technology. Though their Yiddish was foreign to me, I picked up the odd word. When they spoke of the Concentration Camp guards, they called them the Ukrainians. When they remembered the betrayal of their neighbors, I could distinguish the word Pole. But above all, it was the Germans, the hated Germans. The Hun. The Devil’s Scourge. And I was filled with a righteous hatred. Had I, in that moment, the power to end the life of every German on earth, I might have well done so. That is a shameful thought. I am humiliated by the memory. But perhaps, in context, you can understand my homicidal rage and forgive me, and should I have chosen to preach that doctrine in a place of worship and stir an audience to its feet as it cheered my righteous fury, I trust you would offer me the fig leaf of “context.”

As the Seder ended, my brother-in-law, seeing my rage, put his arm around my shoulder and asked what troubled me. I stammered the best explanation I could. He smiled, “Don’t be a fool,” he said, “the Germans left so many of us dead and stole the joy from so many that remain. So now you want to give them the final victory by allowing your own life to be consumed and twisted and deformed by the same hatred? Leave it to them. That’s why we, at this table, forgive. Not forget, but forgive. You just heard how Moses told the Israelites not to celebrate the death of the Egyptians in the Reed Sea. Learn.”

But his words were empty to me.

A few years later, work on a particular film took me to Munich, and as I drove past the road signs to Dachau, past Hitler’s favorite spot, “The English Gardens,” to my suite at the Bayerischof Hotel (where The Fuehrer himself once stayed) I was physically ill. I couldn’t stand to hear the German tongue, nor bear to see Germans smile, and when I noticed a man in traditional Bavarian dress I again felt my homicidal anger rise. I survived that trip, came back to the safety of my blessed America, promising never to return to part of the world that was home to alien races who had destroyed so many people just like me.

Sometime after that, I was invited to participate on a panel on “Hollywood and Stereotypes” sponsored by the American Jewish Committee and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. It was against my instinct, but a good friend had asked I participate and so I did. It began with a clip from Hollywood movies picturing stereotypical Germans and ended with the famous moment in Casablanca where the French stand and sing “La Marseillaise”. What a crock, I thought, Senator! After all, the short story upon which the film was based was set in Marseilles where the French were happily arresting Jews for transport to their own concentration camp at Drancy. Besides France had yet to apologize for her diligent rounding up and deportation of Jews even after the successes of D-Day. And yet they considered themselves victims which meant never having to say they were sorry. My first co-panelist to speak was a young woman, a German filmmaker. She spoke of how growing up as a German she felt ashamed and humiliated whenever it was necessary to admit her lineage and how her life was about working to ease her shame. It was pure self-hatred. Senator, by some strange alchemy I heard myself explaining to her the mantle of guilt did not fall upon the shoulders of her generation. In fact, I found myself describing Germany’s honest attempt to come to terms with the horrors committed in its name. I spoke of all the things they had done from which the French, the Ukrainians, the Poles had run. How they taught in their schools the truth of their actions, how they policed their civil society and punished words or acts that had echoes of that time, how they worked tirelessly to make reparation to those survivors not stamped out by their hobnailed boots. They had sought atonement. That is not say anti-Semitism and anti-Semites did not persist in Germany. Of course they did, as they do everywhere. But they are no longer the soul or intent of the German nation, they are seen for the abhorrent aberration they truly are. Mind you, Senator, the “new” Germans did not ask for forgiveness; they knew this was not within the power of humankind and could only be given by the grace of God. They acted out their atonement from pure understanding of what had gone before.

And in that instant I realized my hatred was unjustified. The “context” was false. I was nursing the anger for my own psychic advantage and not because the current state of humanity or my own experience gave it justice. And I shed my anger. And when another film project took me to Germany, my journey was completely different. I’m not saying as I sat in the lobby of the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kimpinski in Munich I couldn’t help but imagine it filled with SS Officers enjoying the fruits of their murdering conquest. Of course I did. But I also understood the young Germans around me could not be held to that account. When one of my colleagues, also Jewish, made a derogatory remark I engaged him, and with surprising ease found he agreed it was time to let go. I threw away the comfort of context, spoke the truth to him. And it freed me. Now, this is not true for all Jews, Senator; some still dwell on that bitterness, and you would say, understandable, given the “context.” Perhaps. But they are not our soul or intent. They are a past generation and we do not look to them for leadership. We teach redemption. We try to hold them to some form of account.

That is the teaching opportunity I hoped you would evoke: not explaining Wright’s outrage to me, but explaining his outrageousness to him. That’s how we’ll reach the postracial era: by no longer justifying ourselves with what was, instead speaking to what now exists. Not deny the past, but recognize that’s what it is: past.

You say you are devoted to Reverend Wright because he brought you to Christ. I can only imagine how powerful a relationship that forges. But, my imperfect understanding of the Christian Faith tells me you can do him an equally magnificent service: You can help bring him back to Christ. Show him redemption and salvation lie not in the satisfaction of doing little dances in a pulpit while you slander good and decent people. Teach him that great leadership and Christian love abjures the very filth – and I pick that word deliberately – that he spews on an apparently regular basis. After all, Senator, you know our government did not invent the HIV virus to kill African-Americans. You know, Senator, this is not the United States of KKK America. You know the truth of 9/11. At least you should. Both you and Michelle have benefited mightily from the new spirit that has come to America in the last two generations. I thought you were part of that. I thought you were post-racial.

But in your silence, in your justifications, in your facile instruction to contextualize, you seem just a more presentable version of those dreary self-promoters, Sharpton, Jackson, Bakewell and the rest. Surely this is not you. Please, Senator, be brave. Lead. From a position of honesty where context is our daily reality, not drawn from bitter memories, no matter how justified they once might have been. Deny Jeremiah Wright your comfort of “context”. Be Presidential. To all Americans.

Yours sincerely, and in prayer for the Grace of God,

Lionel Chetwynd

PS – I would like to discuss your stereotyping of “typical” white people whose only valid dissatisfaction is apparently the occasional irritation at the misuse of affirmative action. But enough for now. Perhaps another time.

Lionel Chetwynd is an Oscar and Emmy Award nominated filmmaker living in Los Angeles.

168 Comments

N. Linker:

Wouldn’t it be interesting if Obama wrote back? (I’m not holding my breath. Also, he doesn’t write this well.)

Mar 24, 2008 - 10:50 pm jody blackburn:

wonderful and thought provoking

Mar 24, 2008 - 10:56 pm PLJ:

Your post is both moving and thought provoking but the fact that posts like yours and thousands of others on the subject are evidence that the intent of Obama’s speech are having the desired effect; an open and honest debate on the subject of reconcilliation and not just race. I am assuming that you have viewed the full sermons as delivered by Rev. Jerimiah Wright and not the soundbites shown on tv. They are available from the church and on youtube. I personally found them to be full of anger, but not hate. I found his sermon regarding the “chickens coming home to roost” very powerful and moving as he said that in the aftermath of 9/11 that it was a time for self examination. The “boisterous” nature of black worship can be off putting for some but the truth somehow has a way of getting through and by truth I mean anything that promotes peace and love.Although I have not attended church for far too long I recall that the prophet Jerimiah was himself a little forthright in his criticisms of Israel when she strayed. The main criticism I have of the sermons is that they are not offering solutions and risk being seen as just someone venting their frustrations, but they make you think !!

Mar 25, 2008 - 12:26 am Anthea:

I saw the sermons and I must say they did not make me think at all. They were just one cliche after another, followed by anger. And I have attended many black churches.

Mar 25, 2008 - 12:40 am Ed Wallis:

PLJ, The author here hits the bullseye on Obama’s dangerous hypocricy of claiming to be a uniter of all Americans while simultaneously saying that white Americans must pay a price of Racial Indulgences (i.e. trillions more for programs targeted to blacks only) for the Original Sin of slavery.

In your moral equivalence to Reverend Wright, you mention his words were, “full of anger, but not hate.” There is no context in which “God DAMN America!” cannot be seen as pure hate - particularly coming from the pulpit.

You write further regarding his words, “by truth I mean anything that promotes peace and love.” Wright’s repeated race-baiting (see: white, rich, privileged…et.al.) only perpetuates and further poisons any “peace and love” between Americans.

I could never seriously claim, as you did, that NObama ever wanted to offer with his speech an “open and honest debate on the subject of reconcilliation and not just race.” In fact, he only put the chip on his shoulder for all to see: that he, in reality, is no different than many race hustlers who have come before him. But a really smooooooooooth charlatan.

Mar 25, 2008 - 1:57 am tgb1000:

“You know the truth of 9/11″. WTF?
Wright’s words are not Obama’s words, no matter how hard you people try to make it so. And let’s drop the pretense that any of you were going to vote for him anyway.

But I’ll give you credit for “NObama”; that’s wicked clever.

Mar 25, 2008 - 2:38 am Ed Wallis:

tgb1000: You’ve argued as convincingly as any Democrat could.

Mar 25, 2008 - 5:38 am manuel:

If this does not move you then I wonder if you have a conscience! Its about the heart/will and not about who wins what! God places men and removes them! So vote anyway you want, in the end God makes the call and sways men’s hearts to do what His mighty will is! Men are just puppets or cups for use!

Mar 25, 2008 - 5:50 am 1000stars:

“How they taught in their schools the truth of their actions, how they policed their civil society and punished words or acts that had echoes of that time, how they worked tirelessly to make reparation to those survivors not stamped out by their hobnailed boots. They had sought atonement.”

First, I’d like to say that Obama is not Jeremiah. Even if he looks to him for leadership, it doesn’t make them the same person. I know more than a few Catholics who use birth control, have sex before marriage and other things which the Pope speaks against. They may have a true respect for him and his teachings, it doesn’t mean they agree with or practice everything he advocates.

Second, perhaps that’s the difference. Save for a few who are usually labeled as bleeding heart and ridiculed, there is not the same seeking of atonement as in Germany. In school, the slave trade is but a small portion of history books. The effects on American society through various generations usually culminates with a paragraph or two on Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. There’s no tireless work outside of the black community to atone, it’s simply “that’s old news, get over it.” From your article, it seems you have an understanding of how indirect past experiences can create animosity. Some move on into daily life and are able to leave it in the past. Others can’t forget.

“They are a past generation and we do not look to them for leadership. We teach redemption. We try to hold them to some form of account.”

I find it difficult to believe that there are no Jewish leaders who (understandably) let some bitterness about the past into their teachings. While they are revered and admired for their experiences, I also wouldn’t hold a young attendee of a synagogue responsible for their perspective or for trying to change it.

Mar 25, 2008 - 5:51 am dan:

“an open and honest debate on the subject of reconcilliation and not just race”

Ok, let’s drop the bullsh-t. There is no more pronounced cultural legacy dicussed during my entire lifetime (1976 - present) than the issue of race relations. A recent poll bemoaning the uneducated state of American youth confirms my own experience: virtually the only thing about American history most, even all, Americans study with any specificity and moral urgency is the slavery-jimcrow-civil rights arc. You know it, I know it. And guess what? It’s worked! And good! I see black people everywhere, in all positions. The Wayne County Prosecutor, and the Detroit mayor. The leading Democratic Presidential nominee and the lead NBA scorer. The guy I interviewed with for an investment banking position at the top-10 national bank two weeks ago.

The idea that at the present moment we need a candidate because of his ability to “heal the racial divide in this country” is nothing but rank opportunistic bullsh-t designed to trigger the pathetic pavlovian response in posters like tgb1000. If you need a talking head on tv to crystallize even issues that are so self-evident to any non-retarded, sane American then please, PLEASE stay home on election day. You are an IDIOT.

Mar 25, 2008 - 5:52 am Noisesome:

Beautiful, thanks.

Mar 25, 2008 - 5:53 am whocares:

may god protect us.

Mar 25, 2008 - 6:22 am DD:

We can never know the substance of private conversations between Obama and Wright. We can only hope that the Senator used those moments to try and persuade his Spiritual Leader to let go of the hate and bitterness. However since we will never know the nature of those conversations, we can only be saddened by the loss of an opportunity to heal. If Obama, with all his oratory and intelligence, can not lead those close to him to a greater understanding, how can he be expected to lead a country?

Mar 25, 2008 - 6:38 am Lem:

Well said sir.

Mar 25, 2008 - 6:41 am X Teacher:

The previous comment about black churches was spot-on. I taught one year at a school in which a local black church contributed use of its enormous facilities for a school-sponsored teaching event one weekend. That church spewed none of the bile that Reverend Wright did.

Mar 25, 2008 - 6:45 am Ed Wallis:

Dear 1000stars,

I don’t see how not using birth control, or not having sex before marriage (things which the Pope speaks against) can in any reasonable way be compared, much less equated, with “HIV was invented to kill blacks”, and all the other insane, anti-American and racist words of Reverend Wright.

As for the German comparison, it falls flat on the Jewish HOLOCAUST analogy. I don’t buy it. Besides, I find the suggestion itself offensive.

But we can play it both ways: how about if all black Americans (whether they personally benefitted or not) pay back to all white Americans (whether they personally paid or not) every single cent that has been spent since, say 1964/5, on lala “racial equality” programs, and for the next 40 years, all history books can mention the evils of slavery (but, to be faaaiiiir, I guess we’d have to include in those 40 years all the P.C. years from around 1990, when it was there already). Deal?! /sarc

Mar 25, 2008 - 6:50 am Insight:

Everyone’s anger is justified. Everyone’s is. No one’s Anger is more justified than the other’s. So Just because you testify that you have reached a level of forgiveness for ALL past pains (which is admirable if true; as we are all still healing from something that happened in the past), this does not invalidate another’s present process. If you truly were looking for understanding of Obama, Wright, and Black people, you wouldn’t belittle their conversation on Race. And to put it plainly, Your Outrage or Anger at Wright’s Anger, should only make you understand his more. Because Anger is = to Anger; it’s only Love that truly sets you outside of that equation (yet still allows you to understand the process of the Anger therein).

Mar 25, 2008 - 7:00 am Banjo:

But all of this is getting away the real reason Obama is not fit to be president. He hasn’t ever done anything but make speeches. I can’t think of anyone in modern times with a thinner resume, even if you throw in the votes evaded in the Illinois statehouse and in the Senate. This is what celebrity worship has brought us to, a man famous for being famous auditioning for the No. 1 role.

Mar 25, 2008 - 7:05 am Xanthippe:

Powerful and well-said. Would love to see a response.

Mar 25, 2008 - 7:07 am Clem:

Your post assumes that Obama has not had “teaching” discussions with Rev. Wright about the “outrageousness” of some of his sermons. It also suggests that Obama should have used his campaign to engage in this “teaching opportunity.” We do not know what Obama has said to Wright. The issue is whether it is correct for Obama to use his campaign to engage in this interpersonal “teaching opportunity.”

Mar 25, 2008 - 7:10 am Insight:

Ed Wallis, if there was financial “payback”, your puny tabulations of clumsy programs that were part of the government’s attempt to “do the right thing” (that black tax payers payed for too, mind you), it wouldn’t even begin to wash with the GROSS history of this country toward it’s minorities (AND majority citizens too; you just keep livin a little longer and you will be SHOCKED at the revelations that will be forthcoming; trust me). It is the unique perspectives of us all that have to be understood with what little bridges we can find in our perspectives to achieve that understanding. This is the call of this New Era! And it will happen. Because it must, in order for our evolution (as a human race/World/Country/etc.) to continue. This is the critical mass we find ourselves at, and lastly, I’ll say that I know that many will (in great Fear) not want to take that that enlightened next step. And, because of that, they will try to find other ways out, so they won’t have to deal with it. But ignorance is soon no longer becoming an available option, and btw, it never was bliss.

Mar 25, 2008 - 7:16 am Valerie:

Obama obviously agrees with Wright about something, and as voters, we have business find out what it is.

Mar 25, 2008 - 7:23 am Ed Wallis:

“Insight”: Ahh well, maybe it would help to suggest that, to move “the debate on race in America” forward, that blacks learn to forgive - for that which is nothing compared to what the Jews suffered under the Nazis - yet they forgive. I liked that part of this author’s article.

Mar 25, 2008 - 7:31 am Insight:

Valerie, if you’re serious about that, then you’d REALLY listen to Wright’s speeches, all the way through. And Really listen to Obama when he tells you those things he disagrees and agrees with about Wright. . . You know, If all of you who are so quick and happy to be against Obama because of his pastor and his (Obama’s) appeal: Really level with yourself and the blogsphere about why you Really don’t like him. Quit lying to yourself and others, and just be up front about your reasons. You serve no one by evading the truth about yourself.

Mar 25, 2008 - 7:31 am Insight:

Ed, you are right about forgiveness (For all of us). You are absolutely right. But You belittle and become pitiful when you make comparisons. It’s like you’re arguing for the Bottom. Or debating for the most pity. When the safest ground we can all stand on in that argument is just simply “From My Perspective…..” (because I happen to Greatly disagree with the conclusion of your comparison). That is my perspective. But again, I agree with you on the forgiveness thing. Look, There is a saying in the islands that goes: “Who feels it, knows it”. I’ll let you decipher that one. But I will say, that I also agree with Obama when he’s said, “there is an Empathy deficit” in this Country that we need to address.

Mar 25, 2008 - 7:41 am stealthpundit:

This is an outstanding letter. Of course, the logical extension is that Black Americans must heal themselves before racial divides can be totally conquered. Does spewing hate do so? I doubt it. Certainly a more constructive method would be to work on those issues that hold blacks back - education, job training, teen and unwed pregnancy. Reverend Wright should be saving his damnation for those who adopt and advocate that blacks (or anyone else for that matter) should drop out of school, that it is ok to be an unwed mother, that working is for fools. And the reason that he should do so is because these things hurt blacks a lot more than they hurt me. Sure, I may pay some more taxes for social programs but when split among all the taxpayers in the country my share is pretty small. Its the unwed mother with a 10th grade education and no job training who really suffers - poor housing, poor health, lower life expectancy -who really suffers. It is this culture and cycle of accepting failure that is the real enemy - not some made up BS about the HIV virus.

In the end, however, Reverend Wright has every right to spew whatever he chooses. And, as voters, we have the right to question Barack Obama’s judgement in staying with and supporting this for as long as he has. Just chickens coming home to roost I guess.

Mar 25, 2008 - 7:45 am cv:

“Quit lying to yourself”, how about the idea that Obama is different, or not a Liberal, or has honesty and integrity, or was just friends with Rezko, or never heard the bad sermons? Maybe you should look at the man in the mirror first.

Mar 25, 2008 - 7:54 am jim:

Excellent article.

It is shameful that a racist, anti-American, anti-Semite like Obama could become President. If he were white he would have already been forced to resign from the Senate.

Obama has shown poor judgment, and worse character.

I can forgive Obama as a human being for being a racist, but he is forever disqualified from being President. No one who harbors such vile beliefs should get anywhere near the White House.

We should not excuse vile racism just because it comes from someone like Obama and his mentor Wright.

Mar 25, 2008 - 7:54 am Insight:

None of you know with any verifiable evidence that HIV did in fact come from a green monkey. A green Monkey? In Africa somewhere? That is the made up bull that you/we as Americans are told to swallow; and most sheeple just blindly believe, maybe, because the truth is too scary and too hard to accept. I challenge you to wake up; and Google “the tuskegee experiment”, and tell me that you don’t think that a gov that would officially/unofficially do that to it’s citizens, wouldn’t create AIDS for pop. control etc. Yea, stay asleep if you want to. But cold water is ‘colder’ to the unaware.

Mar 25, 2008 - 7:56 am IT:

cv, you didn’t follow your own advice.

Mar 25, 2008 - 8:04 am b:

Insight is one of the “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for” brigade. They are truly the most perceptive, enlightened, evolved group of people ever to grace the face of the earth–their trite platitudes and contextualized postmodern nonsense notwithstanding–and only out of Fear do we not follow them to the promised land.

Mar 25, 2008 - 8:11 am b:

@Insight: “But You belittle and become pitiful when you make comparisons. ”

You mean exactly like your exalted one did in his “I have a dream (I can blame this on you)” speech?

Mar 25, 2008 - 8:12 am rkb:

A marvelous letter. I hope someone will forward it to Obama. He and those who share his “contextual hatred” need to think about it in the terms offered here.

Mar 25, 2008 - 8:15 am IT:

Naw b. I just see unhealthy and infinite skepticism in your unsavory arguments against Obama. I really believe that some of you are just simply (and literally) “Hopeless”. It’s You who are the one’s who thing in your untowardness and fixed contrarianism, you are the saviors to those who have found something to hope for in the otherwise dismal world of poli-tricks. But I, somewhat understand: Your undying disbelief is comfortable to you. I find that more complacent than still looking for possibility in an obviously dying system. Have seen the Dollar lately? Enjoy yourself none the less.

Mar 25, 2008 - 8:21 am k-doll:

Forget the politics for a moment and look at the effects of the religion on the community. Has no one considered that it’s not a coincidence that so many young black men end up incarcerated if they spend Sundays sitting in church — church of all places, where they surely never question the truth of what they are hearing — listening to the vilest hatred, being told they’ll never get a fair break, having their anger constantly inflamed? Is it any wonder they do stupid stuff when they leave? That so few of them manage to commit themselves to the things that will make them successful?

What about the supposed “Great Racial Divide” in this country? How suprised can we be that African Americans that attend such churches and listen to such preachers assume that all white Americans are prejudiced? If they’re willingly hearing that on Sundays, what must they convince themselves the whites are listening to? If they believe that stuff, even a little bit, what do they tell themselves the white people believe? It would be easy to excuse it as being a way that people are coping with the stress of bigotry in their everyday lives, but I live in a majority African American city, in a majority African American county, where all of the positions of power are held by African Americans and where many neighborhoods are exclusively African American, yet such churches and such preachers are very common here. The permission to hate is very seductive.

Lastly, I don’t know how it is in Chicago, but I’m from the South, and G-D America? G-D anything?! A preacher saying that! Encouraging Young people to sing it? Other preachers calling it a mild profanity?! Please no. I’m not sure what sophistry convinced them that wasn’t taking the Lord’s name in vain, but that’s not one of the commandments that preachers want to be skirting the ragged edge on. Long after questions of Barack Obama’s patriotism are moot, preachers in the black community are going to be trying to teach young people to fear the Lord, because you can’t teach them anything if you can’t teach them that, and this sets that back. Way back.

Mar 25, 2008 - 8:22 am IT:

Correction: Think

Mar 25, 2008 - 8:22 am Byron:

Rev. Wright’s staged paranoid rantings have paid off very well for him. Good career strategy, no doubt. But what has been the payoff for his flock? Where has it led them? Pandering never advances those who are pandered to. But that’s never the point or purpose of pandering, is it? Hustlers like Wright are always around to afflict their people, always have been, always will be. Obama hitched a ride, a good career move for a South Chicago pol; but maybe not so good for a presidential candidate, he lately discovered. Obama’s sudden call for more talk about race is just shuck’n and jive’n masquerading as sweet reason. Too slick by half.

Mar 25, 2008 - 8:22 am pgyanke:

There is another class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs….There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who do not want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.

– Booker T. Washington

Mar 25, 2008 - 8:32 am Bob Balfrey:

1. Obama goes to a church that preaches Hate of America.

2. Obama’s Church gave an award to Louis Farakkan, who hates Jews and Homosexuals. Farakkan is the Leader of the Nation of Islam.

Google “louis farrakhan jews” and you will see what Farrakhan says about Jews. He blames Jewish Film Directors in Hollywood for pushing the gay agenda… Farrakhan hates Jews and gays… see his quotes.

Obama is an extremist, who goes to a church that views America as Bad and hates Jews and homosexuals through its stamp of approval on Louis Farrakhan.

Obama is a great orator but very scary candidate.

Mar 25, 2008 - 9:00 am Mary M:

The fact that Obama takes his young daughters to a Chruch that preaches hate, tells all we need to know about his judgement and outlook.

Mar 25, 2008 - 9:04 am Mattsky:

Great letter Mr. Chetwynd.

Mar 25, 2008 - 9:05 am GW Crawford:

I had people make the statement that if Obama i not elected president, it proves they are not ready for a black president.
This is the biggest load of … hogwash I have ever heard

Maybe it is because Americans see him for the white-hating, grandmother selling out, socialist in sheep’s clothing that he is?

Ever wonder why the UK’s 1st female PM was Thatcher? Was it because she embodied feminism? No, it was because she proved she had what it took to lead.

Anyone who votes on the basis of being afraid to be labelled a racist is a coward.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid
~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Or, I would add, to the easily cowed

Mar 25, 2008 - 9:27 am PP:

Being Jewish, I too can relate to the author’s Passover Seder’s and hatred for my parent’s and grandparent’s german tormentors and murderers. Because of their experiences, i too experienced their fears and distrust of the outside world which they carried deep in their soul, although there was never any burning of the flags or threats of murder against anyone.
I must part company with the author for I know how the denial of the Holocaust carries swift penalties, you see Germany is the biggest trader with Iran and they refuse to adopt any debilitating sanctions against Iran that will stop their march to nuclear statehood and their promise of Israel’s annihilation. I believe the Prez of Iran stated that it was good 6 million Jews lived in Israel, the easier it would be to murder them (again).
So, I hope the author does forgive me for not removing my suspicions of a country that so systematically tatooed & terrorized, starved and tortured my people, with great help from many other “civilized” countries of the world.
When Germany is willing to stop doing business with the Jews new Nazi-Iran enemy, then everything else they say and do is shallow, hollow platitudes. For me, actions speak louder than words. Rev Wright’s words and Obama’s ability to sit there with his wife for 20 years and have the Rev as his moral compass also speaks louder and in contradiction to his words.
What a shame, the first time in history we have a woman and a man of mixed race and they are not the best, honest and most bright representing their own.
I am waiting Germany for you to fulfill this author’s dreams of not holding this generation responsible, while they are financing the next Holocaust on the Jews of Israel. Horrific irony !!??!!

Mar 25, 2008 - 9:28 am Assistant Village Idiot:

Excellent, clear letter, for those who can hear.

Mar 25, 2008 - 9:31 am Paul:

Thanks for the thoughtful and personal article. I certainly agree about the importance of judging people by their own actions rather than those of previous generations and the harm that we can do to ourselves by not being prepared to forgive .

I do think that Obama’s speech did contain a significant element of that same message though:

“The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made”

“But what we know — what we have seen - is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation.”

That sounds to me like he’s saying that staying stuck in resentment about historical injustices isn’t a good idea.

Paul

Mar 25, 2008 - 9:43 am Snoop Diggity-DANG-Dawg:

Typical half-white people.

Mar 25, 2008 - 10:34 am EMMANUEL ACHEM EGBE:

HONARABLE SENATOR OBAMA I’M SURE WILL WIN THE WHITEHOUSE.

Mar 25, 2008 - 10:39 am mark:

Mr Chetwynd,
A beautiful letter. Thank you.

Mar 25, 2008 - 10:52 am Pat:

“Your post is both moving and thought provoking but the fact that posts like yours and thousands of others on the subject are evidence that the intent of Obama’s speech are having the desired effect; an open and honest debate on the subject of reconciliation and not just race.”

No. An open and honest debate requires openness and honesty by both sides. What we have here is a conversation in which people like Lionel Chetwynd are open and honest, and the people on the other side of the debate respond with hate, lies, evasions, and mealymouthed platitudes.

Mar 25, 2008 - 10:54 am JohnnyT:

Many Obama supporters have asked that the Rev. Wright’s comments be put in the proper context, so I will. It just so happens to be one Mr. Chetwynd is familiar with. Only one word needs to be changed:

“The Jews spread disease to destroy us.” - Hitler.

“The (white) government invented AIDS to inject into the black community.” - Wright

“Rich powerful Jews hold us down and strip us of our dignity.” - Hitler

“This country is run by rich white people.” - Wright

“The Jews will bring their own annihilation down on their heads.” - Hitler

“America’s chickens coming home to roost.” - Wright

See? All you have to do with Rev. Wright’s rants is to change the word White to Jew and you’re right back in the Reichstag circa 1935. Also, Notice that the last two statements essentially justify mass murders?

Racism is racism, no matter WHO does it, be it David Duke or Jeremiah Wright. Racism is an Equal Opportunity Employer. There is no context that justifies it. And this is a man Obama not only sat listening to for 20 years in silent complicity, but whom he claims as his spiritual mentor and refuses to disavow.

His speech was less an attempt to bridge the racial divide between black and white than it was to bridge the ideological gap between mainstream American voters and Rev. Wright. As history has shown us, that is a bridge we cross at our own peril.

Were this situation reversed and it was John McCain and a racist white preacher he called his mentor and refused to disavow, how many of you Obama supporters would be willing to give him a pass? Fact is, on Election Night it will be the Rev. Wright’s words echoing in my mind, not Obama’s. And I am FAR from alone.

Mar 25, 2008 - 10:59 am mishu:

Insight, here’s an article about the origins of HIV. It’s a little sciency but nowhere does it mention anything about a green monkey. It does state that the conspiracy theories’ “evidence given to back them up is usually based upon supposition and speculation, and ignores the clear link between SIV and HIV or the fact that the virus has been identified in people as far back as 1959.”

Mar 25, 2008 - 11:10 am Ed Wallis:

Pat: …and you forgot a few things…the people “on the other side” (as NObama the non-uniter, who so deftly accentuates the divide, might say)
also respond with

tin-foil-hat conspiracy theories,
racism (there’s nothing “reverse” about racial prejudice),
threats

but, of course, all in the name of “unity,” since they love so to practice what they preach…
…well…err…based on what Rev. Wright “preaches”…never mind!!!

Mar 25, 2008 - 11:15 am AnOldFriend:

Insight, that is the biggest crock of dung I have ever read. We have all faced indignities in our life, and you can chose to let those indignities rule the day or you can chose to let them go. I have absolutely no problem with Rev. Wright being a racist, but please let’s credit him with what he truly is. Slavery is not a uniquely black experience nor is slavery something that is not still to this day practiced. It is practiced in the Middle East, as well as, Africa to this day. Whitey gave up the insideous practice of slavery well over 100 years ago. If slavery is the object of hatred that Wright feeds his racism from, then why is it he remains silent about slavery that continues to exist in the Middle East and Africa? Could it be that Wright merely wants to make a single race, a race he hates, pay atonement for the practice because he deems they have the deeper pockets? You cannot just separate Obama from Wright simply because Obama did not utter these statements. Obama has been well aware of Wright’s racism for years, and Wright’s bringing him to God does not justify Obama’s continued presence in Wright’s congregation as their are many who teach the word of God, the vast majority better than Wright did I might add.

Mar 25, 2008 - 11:16 am Insight:

Thanks Mishu for the ref. I’ll check it out. My point on HIV is that conspiracy assertions aren’t too far fetched given the way civilians, soldiers, etc. have been guinea pigged in the past (this too is undeniable and documented).

& as for “b”, Obama made no greater or worse comparisons in his speech (as your friend posted). What I heard him do was validate both groups’ frustrations. Which is a Great start, in my opinion. Because both sides are valid. And we get nowhere if we don’t see that. That’s the type of dialogue Obama began and that we ought to have with others. We can’t stay in denial, and expect the problems to go away. NOTHING works like that. NOTHING.

Mar 25, 2008 - 11:24 am Alberto:

FIDEL CASTRO ALSO PROMISED HOPE AND CHANGE !!!!

Mar 25, 2008 - 11:33 am Insight:

So, my “AnOldFriend”, is your anger over HIS comments, just as justified as HIS anger over whatever He’s angry about?
(I’ll answer that for you: Yes)
You’ve got to be fair in reverse.

Your reality is different than another person’s, and my general point is. We’ve got to Try on some Understanding if you’re also human and allowing enough of yourself to get mad at things (namely, Wright’s anger).

How ’bout this: everybody who’s judging Wright for his reactions to his Reality, YOU, right now “Get Over” EVERYTHING in your personal life that you’ve been personally griping and complaining about up til now. “Get over it” This Instant! LOL! Including the comments by Wright.

I have no real Wright to tell you that, do I?

Hey, respect EVERYONE’s Process. And you’ll find that yours will be too.

Mar 25, 2008 - 11:35 am AnOldFriend:

nishu: Well actually it does say the following:

HIV-2 for example corresponds to SIVsm, a strain of the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus found in the sooty mangabey (also known as the green monkey), which is indigenous to western Africa.

Mar 25, 2008 - 11:47 am AnOldFriend:

Corrections chose should be choose and their should be there

Mar 25, 2008 - 11:50 am Carl:

Insight:

Both sides are NOT valid. On one side, we have a private person, the Senator’s grandmother, who let her grandson know in private that she had been afraid of a young black person. This is not an unusual fear; in fact, the Rev. Jessie Jackson has reportedly said the same thing. On the other side, you have the Senator’s pastor, who let the entire world know (proudly) of his hatred of white people (millions and millions of them).

The Senator’s error was in thinking that most people would agree with his comparisons. He is a very intelligent man and has great rhetorical skills. I am sure he is well aware that no matter how well the argument is made, the conclusion cannot be true if any one of the premises is false. Nonetheless, he has tried to foist his faulty argument on the public. Either he thinks most people are stupid or he is not as smart as he seem to be.

All in all a very great disappointment and a tragic missed opportunity.

Mar 25, 2008 - 11:57 am el polacko:

a big amen to the comment by “dan” !
i have a couple of decades on you, and i too have heard quite enough about ‘racial issues’ during my lifetime. are we electing a chief executive here or are we looking for a national preacher/faith healer/black pope ?! i don’t need a politician to prod me to ‘think about race’ and i have plenty of my OWN ‘hope’, thank you very much. enough about barrack’s race and religion. we need somebody in office who can run the country and i am convinced that he is not that person.

Mar 25, 2008 - 12:07 pm AnOldFriend:

INSIGHT, Perhaps you can use the supposed insight you have to point out the anger emotion conveyed in my post. Was it the: biggest crock of dung I have ever read, line. If so I said that with a smile on my face because it was in fact the truth. I said before that he has every right to be a racist, but I did not mean that he was right for being one.

Let’s imagine that I am running for President and I have attended Reverend Phelps sermons for the last 20 years and then try to tell you that I never heard Phelps utter any ati gay rhetoric in his sermons. Would you believe that? I hardly think so. Then I came back, because this was a little too hard for you to believe, and told you that Reverend Phelps had been chased around the room by gays and was wildly fondled by them, therefore, Phelps was justified for his hatred of gays. Would you then buy that excuse? If so you have no insight at all, but I already knew that. Lastly, I do not gripe or complain about anything. Instead I analylze things I perceive to be bothering me and come to the conclusion that they are minor and dismiss them before they even become an issue. Bottomline is my analization has led me to conclude that Obama is disengenious with his explanations of Wright and that Obama is no more a uniter than are you.

Mar 25, 2008 - 12:14 pm AnOldFriend:

Insight, one more thing. I do not need anyone to respect my process other than God as he is the only one that truly matters to me. Furthermore, I accept Obama’s explanation of his loyalty to Wright. I do not, however, buy it as truthful.

Mar 25, 2008 - 12:19 pm Insight:

Carl, you are just (understandably) biased to your perspective. But if you don’t realize that, then there is indeed a stalemate in the dialogue. “This is not an unusual fear” begs the question: “unusual to whom? Whites and Jesse Jackson? Come on now bro! If you can only understand one group’s prejudice, then eventually you’ve got to understand another’s. Or else, again, stalemate (which equals ‘No Growth’).

And just fyi, Wright’s comments were only parsed and made available to Millions, by the negative intentions of Faux News.

Yet, I must say still that, private or public racism are both ailments that need cure.

I wish you all the best. Much Love to you all. Peace.

Mar 25, 2008 - 12:31 pm Ed Wallis:

Carl,

I’d say “the Senator’s error” was (being generous here) trying to have it both ways. The art of the charlatan. On one hand, the I disagree with what he said cover…on the other, the but you whites don’t understand that this is all so legitimate for all blacks sham. He even topped it off with the if-you-whites-want-absolution-you’ll-have-to-pay-and-pay-the-blacks scam. NO SALE.

Mar 25, 2008 - 12:33 pm CT:

One of the true ironies of this entire slavery/race matter is that probably 90% of all Americans alive today are the great grandchildren of slaves, and that includes whites. Places like Europe, where the great majority were serfs, toiling in the fields their entire lives. Most with no last name, unless of the most minor nobility. And treated as poorly as any black.

Now consider how many Americans landed on these shores as immigrants (some as the offspring of the aforementioned slaves) after slavery was outlawed. My own relatives came here from Germany in the 1850’s, just in time to sign up to fight as volunteers in the Turner Verein, an all-German group of Union soldiers that detested slavery (having lived under it already). Do these people have some responsibility for the institution?

Lastly, if all this race-based talk swerves into the subject of reparations, as many of those like the Reverend Wright would likely entertain, then what does a half-white man like Obama get? 50% share? What about newer immigrants that held no slaves?

The biggest irony to anyone that actually read the history of the slave trade is that many blacks enslaved other blacks in order to deliver them to slavers. And perhaps even more ironic to the likes of the Farrakhans , is that others enslaving blacks were Arabs.

Main point is that it’s time to get over this race business. Most of us today have dozens of bloodlines running through us. And carrying around the hatred promoted by a Jeremiah Wright or Louis Farrakhan is no way to live your life.

Mar 25, 2008 - 12:43 pm 1000stars:

Dear Ed Wallis,
Include the value of slave labor in building America, factor in inflation, and I still doubt if things would even out, but go for it.

I personally think that both slavery and the Jewish holocaust were evil. I think what’s happening in Darfur is evil. I don’t know what you find so offensive about teaching that slavery was evil, just as it’s taught that the German actions perpetuating the holocaust were evil.

You made my point. Germans at least acknowledge that they were satanic a**holes to jews, Americans - mostly white - think it’s okay to gloss over the part of history where they were satanic a**holes to native Americans, blacks and lots of other groups.

I know, I know, Native Americans have casinos, black people have professional sports, so hey - why can’t everyone just get over it?

/sarc

Mar 25, 2008 - 12:59 pm 1000stars:

” blacks learn to forgive - for that which is nothing compared to what the Jews suffered under the Nazis - yet they forgive. I liked that part of this author’s article.”

Really. Were you around during slavery?

Let’s see, slavery: people removed from their birthplaces, stuffed into a cargo hold, shackled and treated like animals. The holocaust: people removed from their homelands, stuffed into cargo trains and treated like animals.

Neither sounds too peachy, but I doubt the Jews suffered under the Nazis any more than African slaves did under the plantation owners in the US. Both were inhumane systems of treating people that catered to the ignorant.

Mar 25, 2008 - 1:08 pm AnOldFriend:

CT:, You bring up good points. I would like to add to yours: what about the overwhelming majority of whites who lived in that era and never owned a slave. Should their descendents owe a share of the reparations commitment? It is a big lie to tie all whites to slavery, or even a majority. Should blacks, who also had slaves, be culpable?

Mar 25, 2008 - 1:10 pm Ed Wallis:

Oh my 1000stars, On German and Jews, please note the operative is that (generally speaking) the Jews forgive the Germans. Germans have and are not paying trillions to Israel or all Jews. They learn/ed, as Americans about slavery. By the way, the Germans learned NOT that they were “satanic” as you say, but rather something far more fragile - human, with faults and all. DEAL WITH IT.

And please do so without the utterly illogical and offensive attempts to equate the Holocaust and slavery in America. Your thinking is almost laughably: brussel sprouts are green, my coffee cup is green, so brussel sprouts are a coffee cup.

And please get off the YOU-OWE-US ideology.

“Ressentiment” - even pronounced in French - doesn’t make the whining any prettier, or the argumentation any more persuasive.

Mar 25, 2008 - 1:14 pm RP:

Excellent post, Lionel.

Mar 25, 2008 - 1:23 pm G Man:

Obama’s real problem is that he can’t explain why, for 20 years, he lacked the courage to confront his pastor and church concerning the lies and hate that was coming from the pulpit and cheered on by the congregation. If he can’t confront racism in his own backyard why should we believe that he has the courage and ability to confront the issue on a larger scale?

The other problem is the way he handled the problem when the Wright video came out. Long story short his initial instinct was to lie about what he knew and when he knew it. Not a good trait for a politician that wants to bring change and hope.

My guess is that he will win the Democratic nomination as Democrats tend to be more forgiving of these types of transgressions than the general public. In the general election think 45 state loss.

Mar 25, 2008 - 1:49 pm mishu:

Thanks AOF. I missed that. However, I don’t see why sooty mangabey would be called green when you look at him.

Mar 25, 2008 - 1:55 pm Lily S.:

Very enlightening post!

Lily S.
http://zrii-for-life.blogspot.com/

Mar 25, 2008 - 1:57 pm Futureman:

To tgb1000:

No, Obama never said those comments about 9/11. But he chose as his spiritual adviser, for 20 years, someone who holds these crackpot views and should have his judgment questioned for choosing such a man.

And what difference does it make whether we pretended we were going to vote for him or not? In November he could be OUR president and as OUR president should be scrutinized for any and every thing he’s ever said or done. Are you saying that liberals who oppose the Iraq war have no right to question McCain’s support for the war because they weren’t going to vote for him anyway?

Obviously you missed the whole point of Lionel Chetwynd’s piece. The only way to get through such hatred and paranoia is to confront it rationally within each other, not defend it outward on the grounds that it is “understandable” or “contextualized.” Not holding people accountable only enables them to continue as such and keeps them insulated within their hate-filled cocoons, ultimately widening the gap that people like Obama say they want to narrow.

P.S. Why do you think Jewish people today are so successful despite rampant anti-Semitism and recent genocide? Is it because of affirmative action? The intervention of civil rights groups? A Million Man [Jew] March?

Mar 25, 2008 - 1:57 pm Ed Wallis:

THANK YOU Futureman for bringing this discussion back to topic.

A brief on-the-lighter-side aside:

“Where conspiracy theories and Nazi comparisons were once found only at wacko rallies and amongst the muttering class, they’ve now become par for the course….”
- from Michelle Malkin’s “Unhinged”

Lionel Chetwynd’s article here is an eloquent appeal for reason, a constructive appeal to move forward.

We can both hope that those “on the other side of the aisle” might listen, think and reconsider. Hope indeed does spring eternal. Yet, I keep my expectations low, as Dr. David R. Kamerschen wrote:
“For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.” see: http://theconservativepost.com/WordPress/?p=322

Mar 25, 2008 - 2:13 pm John:

There is a contingent of the black population that fears living without the “white oppression / slavery” safety net — because without it, that means they have to go through life completely responsible for their own circumstances.

Guys like Wright, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton simply give them what they want: excuses.

This is not to say all black people need this, or that Obama buys in or is in any way responsible for it. But the author is right, if Barack wants to help heal racial divides, he can start by telling Wright how very wrong he is.

Mar 25, 2008 - 2:41 pm AnOldFriend:

100stars, Really. Were you around during slavery?

You talk as though you were around for slavery, yet I doubt you were even around for the holocaust. So why is your “knowledge” anymore realiable then the person you asked this question of?

Let’s set one item straight. Blacks were sold into slavery by other blacks. These black slaves faced either death at the hands of their enemy tribes or a life of slavery.

As slavery became more lucrative then people were kidnapped for the sole purpose of slavery, by both black and whites, but still predominately blacks. Many whites did not want to venture to far from the port cities as it was not safe.

The inhumane packing of slaves into a ship’s cargo area really didn’t start until after America had outlawed the importation of slaves. This was because they were smuggling in contraband, much like the drug trade today.

The holocaust on the other hand was nothing more than pure hatred.

I think while there may be some pverlapping simialities, it is like comparing apples to oranges. They are both fruits but are nothing like each other.

Mar 25, 2008 - 2:43 pm art-attack:

Does Obama think he is God? Well perhaps this image says a lot more than we think!

Image taken in the Southern Hemisphere but worth thinking about carefully.

http://kungfoox.typepad.com/kungfoox/2008/03/d-foox-enough-w.html

Mar 25, 2008 - 2:56 pm triviaqueen:

Mishu, you are right that the sooty mangabey does not look green. However, one of his relatives, Chlorocebus sabaeus, is described as having golden-green fur. I’ve also heard of some deep-rainforest-dwelling primates whose fur gets a green tinge from having moss grow on it.

Mar 25, 2008 - 2:57 pm Futureman:

To 1000stars:

“Let’s see, slavery: people removed from their birthplaces, stuffed into a cargo hold, shackled and treated like animals. The holocaust: people removed from their homelands, stuffed into cargo trains and treated like animals.”

You left out one crucial part: when the Jews left the cargo trains they were marched directly into gas chambers, killed and cremated. The slaves went from the ships to work on plantations. “Neither sounds too peachy,” as you’ve pointed out, but I would prefer the latter.

And say, for arguments sake, that the slaves and the Jews did suffer equally. How does that help any argument that suffering and oppression are the sole cause of permanent arrested development among certain groups of people?

As long as the left continues to dwell on the battle of grievances which dominate identity politics, they will continue to relegate those they pretend to care about into permanent second-class citizenship. Then again, if all those ‘oppressed minorities’ were to wake up and transcend their mostly self-inflicted status, most of the left would be unemployed.

Mar 25, 2008 - 3:22 pm Kevin T. Keith:

Mr. Chetwynd:

You have offered a thoughtful and moving perspective on harm and forgiveness, but I think you have missed much of what the distinctly American experience, and Obama’s speech, are about.

Though there is a long history of persecution of Jews, the Nazi horrors you mention occurred in one specific, historically circumscribed time and place. Their impact was incalculable, but their temporal and geographic extent was in fact quite limited. They were a product uniquely, and solely, of the Nazi regime; when it ended, the German persecution of Jews ended. Though Jews had faced discrimination throughout Europe, the Nazi horrors did not begin until Hitler came to power, and lasted only in areas in which he had control, for only so long as he had it. At any time beginning with the Allied occupation of post-war Germany, and afterwards, it became safe for Jews to live in the same countries that had worked their destruction only a few years previously (though few chose to do so). Germany itself (with American prodding), as you note, undertook a remarkable self-examination and self-flagellation; it now harbors the most stringent anti-fascist laws and regulations in Europe, and has been a major supporter of Israel.

All this is distinctly different from the American experience. Anti-black discrimination in America is not limited to a particular time and place, or a particular political context. It predates our nation, and was incorporated into the founding structure of that nation. Slavery itself persisted for 90 years after publication of the declaration that “all men are created equal”. Obama - in a remarkably generous reading of the Constitution - notes that the founders who gave us slavery also gave us the tools to remove it, but it remains true that it was not removed for almost a century, and that half the nation living under that Constitution fought the other half in our bloodiest war to retain it. Slavery was then replaced by Jim Crow - official laws and policies restricting and limiting blacks to conditions often near enough to slavery as to be indistinguishable. That required a slow struggle for redemption that, arguably, is not complete. It was followed by a mass movement to simply exercise openly the civil rights the Constitution supposedly guaranteed - a struggle that was met with dogs and fire houses, bombings, arson, and murder, and beatings and lynchings of those who dared to sign black voters’ names on election rolls, or, as black voters, attempted to cast a ballot. Those crimes and murders were committed, often openly, not merely by leading white citizens but by officials of state and county governments. That period took place during the lifetime of the people condemned by those who rejected Obama’s speech about that history. And today, operatives of the GOP, acting as officers of state governments, have acted to falsely purge voter rolls of black citizens’ names, and have conducted elections in which, suspiciously, black - and always black - votes have been undercounted, and black communities have suffered lost or malfunctioning voting machines and closed polling places. As Faulkner notes, and Obama reminded us, this part of our past “is not even the past”.

But that is only the history of open and coordinated - and legal - discrimination and oppression against blacks. This is a history that spans not the dozen or so years of the Nazi regime, but close to 400 years of systematic American racial discrimination, from the founding of the nation through every change of government, affecting every single generation of black Americans and, through its impact on black family lineage, education, and wealth accumulation, and on other social factors, continues to affect the vast majority of black families today. Crucially, too, it affected every generation of white Americans, ensuring that they would always grow up and live without ever fearing being denied their Constitutional rights, never be lynched in daylight by mobs of their hometown neighbors led by the local sheriff, never see the most basic public accommodations closed in their faces, never wonder at the gaps in their family histories. But those overt consequences are only one way in which the American experience casts a uniquely long shadow.

In addition to the imposition of this great divide upon itself and its own citizens, and again in distinction to the Nazi experience, America has never grappled with its own past. There have been programs aimed at alleviating obvious examples of black misfortune. Usually those programs were grudging, mismanaged, and temporary (and against the entire history that has brought us to this point, what program could possibly have made more than a dent in the legacy of American racial history?- what program, however successful, could be regarded as other than partial and incomplete so far?); always they were limited to specific, visible consequences of discrimination – school enrollment, housing, money for college – and not the deep history of underclass oppression that haunts America today. Whatever they were, they were mechanical responses to a failure of social mores. America treated its black community not only as sub-par but sub-human, in one way and another: first the obscenity of slavery, later generations of color bars, literal starvation wages, abusive medical research, pathetic and incompetent education, and demeaning fables of inadequate IQ, excessive sexuality, and animalistic physical prowess offered to excuse it all. Those abuses continue unabashedly (one of the authors of the infamous The Bell Curve is a prominent member of National Review’s online writing staff).

America – while grudgingly admitting that certain specific practices, usually 100 years or more in the past, were wrong – has never admitted that the mistreatment of blacks has been systematic, pervasive, and grounded in the ideology and psychology of influential elements of the white population. But the discriminatory practices have been systematic, pervasive, unending (though changing over time), and defended by certain elements of white society and white politicians. Individual events or practices have sometimes been redressed – usually incompletely and usually very late – but the fact that white America could and did, and often still does, defend and excuse those practices, and virtually never apologizes for them, let alone grapples in its conscience with the fact that it was possible for one part of our society to do so to another, less powerful, part, does not change. This is not opinion or interpretation – it is simple observation. It is no more that obvious fact – facts that blacks are not blind to.

When America as a nation, openly acknowledges its guilt – its sheer and inescapable moral unrighteousness, extending in some way through every aspect of its being and contaminating every aspect of the history and treatment of its most visible minority group, every year and every generation back as far as it is possible to trace – then it will have begun to grapple with its own legacy. White Americans of today – like Germans of today – do not have to accept personal guilt for the actions of white Americans of yesterday, but they must acknowledge that white America as a group treated black America as a group in unconscionable ways, throughout history and in some ways still today. America need not, and perhaps should not, pass laws criminalizing praise for slavery or the display of relics of the Confederacy, as Germany has done regarding Nazism, but until white Americans stop displaying the Confederate flag as a (entirely unironic) symbol of their “heritage”, and conservative politicians stop seeking votes by pledging their commitment to that same flag – until America as a whole is as shamed and heartsick over references to slavery and the Confederacy as Germans are now regarding the Nazis – then America will only have pretended to try to come to terms with its own past, and sham American “growth” will in no way resemble the authentic soul-searching the Germans have given themselves.

There is simply no comparison, in terms of historical reach and pervasiveness (though a different argument might be made regarding their impact as actual genocides), between Nazism and American racism. Worse, there is simply no comparison between the openness, honesty, authenticity, and success of the overt German effort to acknowledge and purge itself of its racist inclinations, and America’s interminable insistence on minimizing its own, vastly more extensive and far-reaching, past. We have simply never admitted to ourselves who we ourselves are. And again – for the stupid among us – yes, it is true that to declare America blood-guilty in all the depths of its history and nature, as it surely is, is not to imagine that today’s living Americans are personally guilty of particular historical abuses, or the direct sufferers of those abuses. But today’s Americans are the inheritors, white and black, of the social groups who imposed and profited from, or suffered and despaired under, the discrimination that pervades our history. And yet whites deny the role of whites in that history, and they deny their place today as its inheritors. White America, throughout its history and today, has always pretended that its behavior was somehow accidental, incidental, not reflective of any actual decisions carrying the weight of moral responsibility. White America has succeeded at the seeming impossible: it has made itself less morally responsive than the ex-Nazis of Germany. And until America – which means white America – faces, claims and owns up to, and accepts its own past, that will remain true. Black America knows this, has always known it. It is the most minimal act of decency – an act that far precedes actual atonement – to stop lying to ourselves about it. Now is as good a time as any.

Mar 25, 2008 - 3:50 pm Noga:

To Kevin T. Keith:

“At any time beginning with the Allied occupation of post-war Germany, and afterwards, it became safe for Jews to live in the same countries that had worked their destruction only a few years previously (though few chose to do so).”

This is not historically accurate:

“The Holocaust victims were confronted with more or less open hostility on the part of the Polish population, which ultimately ended in pogroms. Gross’ book examines three of these in detail, in Rzeszow (1945), Krakow (1945) and the most notorious pogrom in Kielce (1946) in which 37 Jews were murdered.”

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1642.html

“Poland in 1968 when the regime responded to student protests with anti-Semitic propaganda: “Almost all the Polish Jews who survived the Shoah and who didn’t leave Poland immediately after the war, went then. They left from the Gdansk railway station in Warsaw for Vienna, from where they travelled on to Israel, the United States or West Germany. At the time, people called this station the ‘Umschlagplatz’ (the German word for collection or reloading point which was the name of the area in the Warsaw Ghetto where the Jews were collected for transportation to the Treblinka concentration camp.) Thank God their journeys did not terminate in death, but virtually no one decided to leave the country of their accord.”

http://www.signandsight.com/intodaysfeuilletons/1655.html

These examples are aside from the rising tide of antisemitism in Europe which has already claimed Jewish life:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E1DD1631F935A15751C0A9649C8B63

and shrunk the liberal space which should be the right of every citizen:

http://imshin.blogspot.com/archives/2004_08_15_imshin_archive.html#109310531498698773

I would suggest re-organize your arguments to better reflect the reality of Jewish existence.

Mar 25, 2008 - 4:40 pm Don Meaker:

Grandma (who I will NOT throw under the bus) said that holding a grudge is like taking poison and expecting the other person to die.

And so it seems. Racism is prevalent in the black community, and it hurts that community and holds them back, alas!

And the first case of HIV was found in the early 1960s, (as confirmed by tests of long frozen blood samples around 1990). The notion of creating a virus by the hand of man at that level of technology is ludicrous.

Mar 25, 2008 - 4:50 pm Professor Guvinof:

Lionel Chetwynd is right on. Obama is trying to ingratiate himself with those who dwell on whatever can conceivably be regretted about the past. This is precisely the kind of indulgence to guard oneself against in order to build one’s future, regardless of extraction, racial or otherwise!

A great pastor is one who elevates the perspective of his followers, not one who encourages them to wallow in self-pity. Why should this criterion apply differently according to one’s skin pigmentation? What does context has to do with it?

Just in case we forgot, we got a dramatic reminder about the fact that not all pastors can be great, alas, and some of them can even be AWOL, to put it charitably.

How can one maintain a close personal relation to a pastor who cultivates a sense of victimhood, and at the same time paint some kind of luminous future in his melodic campaign speeches? Something is broken in this picture!

My gratitude to Lionel Chetwynd for illuminating the issue, and to Pajamas Media for publishing his letter.

Mar 25, 2008 - 4:57 pm 1000stars:

1. I think slavery in America and the Holocaust were equally bad. We’ll have to agree to disagree if you really think that either was any better than the other.

“And please get off the YOU-OWE-US ideology.”

2. This seems to be your ideology more than mine. If it weren’t for white Americans in history (Jewish even!), conditions for blacks and other minorities would probably be significantly worse than they are now.

Slavery is not responsible for any problem black people have, or resentment or anger. It is responsible for a culture which has continuously treated black people as less than their white counterparts in terms or rights, abilities and opportunities through very recent times. If anything, I think black Americans and Jews have more in common than separates them. At times in the civil rights movement there were Jewish activists who felt the same.

But why do black people owe it to you to forget what has happened? Granted, I think it’s silly to make it some doctrine that someone would live life around, but I don’t know every black person’s experiences just like I don’t know every Jewish person’s experiences. If a Jewish person wants to be bitter to Germany, I might not agree, but based on history I’d say they have the right. If a black person - especially older - wants to be bitter towards the US, I don’t agree, but based on history I’d say they have the right.

And when have trillions ever been paid to blacks specifically? I’d like links and receipts on that.

Further, my English is much better than my French and your argument is still half baked.

Mar 25, 2008 - 5:02 pm Eric:

Excellent. This summarizes a lot of how I feel and think. I was pro-Obama for nearly 3 weeks. I can’t say that I love McCain, but I do not doubt that he is sincere in what he says. Unless Obama is more direct with his words, he will not get my vote.

Suddenly I see McCain as presidential and someone worthy when I had never considered him before. I have voted for the Republican presidential nominee only once in my life (this is my fifth national election) and I probably will again this time. . .

Mar 25, 2008 - 5:09 pm Rev. Billy E.Jacks:

What comes out of a mans mouth is what is in his heart. It is that which defiles the man. Obama became a COC member to defleck the Islam background. He has never confessed that Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior, that He died, buried and resurrected for our sins. I have never believed that Obama was serious only in his endeavor to become the first black president. What is scary is, would the mask come off when he began to appoint his cabinet, his staff, and judges? I believe once he is in, the true colors would show….and then he would proclaim Islam as a national religion. Sound impossible? Well, Hitler was impossible….Japan was such a small bunch of islands, no one ever considered them a threat, and Josef Stalin was an illiterate
common worker…who’d a thot? Folks, to use a phrase, we have met the enemy, and it is us! Our inability to see beyond the next new car, Ipod, cell phone, HDTV, the two party system, one on Friday and one on Saturday.

Mar 25, 2008 - 5:25 pm PLJ:

Wow !! I dont know whether its a consequence of the somewhat impersonal nature of blogging but boy it sure seems that there is a lot of hate flying around here from both sides. What I find incomprehensible though is attempts to compare the Jewish holocaust with slavery; Hitler tried to exterminate a whole race of people and slavery was a systematic dehumanisation of a people for economic purposes. Which is worst ? the answer, neither!!. Both were appalling acts perpetrated by humans on other humans. There seems to be some competition for the victimhood prize. As there are those who deny the holocaust there are those who deny that the affects of slavery and Jim Crow did not disappear with the passing of civil rights legislation. I also find it more than a little confusing when references are made to the opportunities now available to be enjoyed by blacks, (more specifically, Obama and his wife) in America and that they should be grateful and by implication, not complain. This has a hint of patronization. I do not believe that this is the intention of the blogger but I hope you see that it might be construed as such. These opportunities were not as a result of some gracious gesture on the part of the American government, they were hard won and came at a high price; a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I do however accept that it is fair criticism of those blacks who have chosen to disrespect the sacrifice of those who have gone before (both black and white - whites also died in the civil rights struggle)by not striving to improve their lives. I must make it clear at this point that I am actually British and living in the UK, via the Caribbean so my experiences are not the same as black Americans. I therefore have different cultural references so for me “GD America” was not offensive, for me it is akin to “A pox on both your houses”. So while I disagree with some of Rev. Wrigths statements, I do not find them as offensive as others have and would be quite happy to sit in on his sermons. I can say this, because after listening to the 9/11 sermon and his statements on the need for self examination, I found myself in Church on Easter Sunday.

Mar 25, 2008 - 5:33 pm Danusha Goska:

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

I study and write about Polish-Jewish relations in the wake of the Holocaust.

Also, I am a cripple. I was crippled after being attacked by an African American female professor who was fully empowered in her serial abuse of underlings by the Politically Correct staff of a major research university. I lost years of my life to disease. I will be crippled for life.

The Holocaust, and my own story.

There is such a thing as forgiveness.

There are such teachers as the psalmist David and the rabbi Jesus.

There are hundreds, thousands, millions of common people who have been grievously wronged and who live their lives in radiant joy and love.

Barack Obama is the worst kind of liar. He insists that injury must lead to the abyss.

I know, Lionel Chetwynd knows, millions of people know, of forgiveness, and service, and love, and light, of never giving the dark side the victory.

Thank you.

And … YES.

Mar 25, 2008 - 5:35 pm 1000stars:

Kevin T. Keith made excellent points, which I’ll try not to repeat.

Anoldfriend:”The holocaust on the other hand was nothing more than pure hatred.”

I’m sorry if you don’t agree, but torturing people every day and treating them worse than dogs seems pretty hateful to me. I think both are a combination of evil, ignorance and propaganda. There is undeniably some evil at the core. Spewed in the right way, the ignorant begin to accept it as what is right, and perpetuate the propaganda. Let’s say 75% of Nazi Germany wasn’t evil - just ignorant and misled. The 25% is enough to become a cancer for the rest of the society. Let’s say 75% of colonialists weren’t evil - just ignorant and misled. The 25% who marched Native Americans down the trail of tears, enslaved Africans and after “giving” them freedom legislated where they could live, how many freedoms they were allowed, etc. are enough of a cancer to the rest of society.

My information on slavery, and the holocaust, come from reading accounts of the time which go beyond text books. Further information on the holocaust comes from lasting monuments such as the museum in Washington, DC, friends, family members and a trip to Poland to see some of the remnants firsthand.

Unfortunately, most slaves were not given the ability to read or write, so the accounts I read are generally from the perspective of slave trafickers, proud of their efficiency and inhumane accomplishments.

Where do you get your information? Wikipedia?

Futureman:”You left out one crucial part: when the Jews left the cargo trains they were marched directly into gas chambers, killed and cremated. The slaves went from the ships to work on plantations. “Neither sounds too peachy,” as you’ve pointed out, but I would prefer the latter.

It was at least equal. The remnants of slavery in the US persisted legally into the last century - as Kevin noted, longer than Nazi behavior. In general, I’m sure both racism and anti-semetic attitudes persist.

I’d like to take on your last assertion of “permanent arrested development”. I don’t assert that suffering and oppression are the direct cause of anything, but I can certainly understand ow they could cause bitterness, resentment and anger.

Please explain to me why blacks, as a sole group, have permanent arrested development. I see plenty of black people in various industries who’ve gotten education through school or experience, worked hard and are achieving at an equal or higher level than their white peers. I also see some who are an embarrassment by any standard, but no better or worse than their white peers.

Statistically, there are at least as many slovenly, uneducated, ignorant, unambitious white people as there are black and hispanic - I’m referring to welfare statistics since that’s the popular fallback. While you’re explaining black people and arrested development, please explain white people with permanent arrested development as well.

You can even leave out people like Obama, Rice or Powell since their achievements are obviously due to the affirmative action of benevolent white people who push them ahead despite their permanent arrested development and deep bitterness and resentment.

Mar 25, 2008 - 5:43 pm Michael:

Thank you, sir. More than a little to think about.

Mar 25, 2008 - 5:44 pm Believer:

Dear Sir:

I am so thankful to have found myself reading your letter to Senator Obama. Yours is the “teaching moment” — not only for the senator (and his pastor), but for all who have been blessed to have read it.

As a believing Christian, forgiveness is the pathway to our salvation. By putting to work the love of God instead of our own sense of justice, we can be saved from destructive anger. This is the victory of the Cross: to not just take from God His gift of forgiveness, but to offer it freely in love to our fellow man — to those who sin as easily as we.

You are a man on whose heart the laws of God are written. It will be those laws that ultimately unite us as a people and lead to our collective salvation.

What you have taught us today has timeless value. Thank you.

Mar 25, 2008 - 6:02 pm Chris:

1) It is possible to be a member of a community and not completely agree with every aspect of its ideology.
2) The ability to be a member of a community whose ideology you disagree with is a good thing to see in a politician, given the current state of partisanship.
3) For Senator Obama to do as you request, for him to spend his campaign damning ideologies he disagrees with rather than promoting those he stands for, is to ask him to run against the grain of his “post-partisan” campaign.
4) Abandoning his current rhetoric, his focus on empathy and healing, would be the equivalent of turning his back on his own campaign, which has been popular precisely because of how inclusive it is.

Mar 25, 2008 - 6:30 pm Ed Wallis:

1000000000starrrrz: Your latest post misquotes me or at least splices together words of various posters, as if one person would say something. DISHONEST, as all Democrats who profess to do things in the name of social justice….

My goodness, it seems someone MUST just has to make that “nazi-slave” connection…as if one existed.

Oh Lordy.

But then again, I have previously explained, to no avail to your “waaaaaahhhhh”….

So be it.

Then hear all the others here who also say: enough with your whine whine whine (echoes of Jerry Lewis!) and finally learn to live and love life!

That may be too much to ask, but it’s always worth a try.

God bless you (without the by black apologizers justified “DAMN” die to existential reasons) in any case.

Please think about the author’s great idea: don’t forget, don’t move on, don’t ignore it, FORGIVE.

Otherwise, you’re just offering “PR” for the sanctimony factory.

Mar 25, 2008 - 6:41 pm ruhla:

I sobbed while reading this wonderfully powerful piece, at once for sorrow and promise. What gripped me the most in watching the Wright videos was his influence on the young people in the congregation. If Senator Obama were truly the leader he claims to be, his efforts to be “post-racial” would have started in that, his very own church. Rather Obama used the church as a political stepping stone. He is not a leader but an opportunist consumed with his own importance.

wright videos

Mar 25, 2008 - 9:17 pm Prosperity In America:

A solution:

Welcome to the Grey Area, neither white nor black.
History tells us where we have been, now to go forward.

What is the American Dream - Proserity In Our Great
Country of America shared no t socialism, not
Communisim, but Unitalrialism.

Lets put our heads together to realize on a down to
earth perspective, what this means to each American.

What can we each do to stablize our economy, care for our natural spaces. (Trash recepticles along
every highway, so that as we stop at a red light
we dont litter our roads with cigarette butts from
our ash trays, garbage accumulated in our cars, or
thrown wrappers out of our windows. Did we create
that las t forest fire with our cigarette butt out
the window, our tax dollars wast ed to put ou t the
fire.

In other words, we have discussed the whys of our
ways, now what can I as an individual do.

Answer, at the base level, the above.

And, as prosperity and good fortune in our free
America, causes some have more to have more than
others.

And those who do, must turn around, remember when
you did not, and help those in need.

1) Protect our basic freedoms, and be wary of those
who would threaten it.

2) Help to boost our ecomony, becoume industrious.

3) Personally help the elderly, those ill, in
hospitals.

4) Personally care for our elderly, who cared for
us.

5) Vote for vocational education in prisons, and
a job waiting for them, as an alternate choice
of repeat violations. Give them hope and our
protection from their crimes toward us.

6) Create after school programs for children of working parents, murseries for infant of w orking
parents.

Lets ge t back to be basic needs, how we can each
be productive, and continue to protect our great
country, our freedoms and the prosperity we can
help ourselves and others to.

Mar 25, 2008 - 9:31 pm Prosperity In America:

Not Unitariaism to Democracy

Mar 25, 2008 - 9:37 pm Evan Sayet:

Thank you for this, Lionel. Only the stubbornly ideological could fail to be moved personally, morally and intellectually by your story and your insight.

Mar 25, 2008 - 11:02 pm Ed Wallis:

Dear Prosperizy in America,

It all sound so pretty, until one (as current example) Islamist terrorist dirty bomb ruins a pretty day.

Forgiveness DOES have true power.

Mar 26, 2008 - 12:35 am P. Ami:

Look, you can’t blame blacks who can’t quite get over the few hundred years of slavery and the few decades between its end until the civil rights adjustments were made. They don’t have the experience with depredation and inhumanity that Jews have. The few hundred years under the Pharaoh’s slave-masters were a start. The Assyrians managed to whip out a majority of our people and the Babylonians conquered the rest and took us away from our land as captives. The Persians let us return but then great Greek kings tried to systematically disrupt our culture. When that failed the Romans and their proxy kings had a good try at it. The Romans managed to kill a few million of us and then ship many of us around their empire as slaves. Those that remained in the Holy Land had the Byzantines to worry about and their making various aspects of Jewish life illegal. They set pogroms against the Jews when their wars with the Persians didn’t go as they wanted and then they enforced such a poverty on the Jews that exile became the choice of many more. Ah, then we had dhimmi status when the Arabs took over from both the Persians and the Byzantines. In Europe we had the Crusaders who tested their swords on the Jews before heading out to liberate the Holy Land. Edward Longshanks not only disemboweled Braveheart but also stole all Jewish property and then sent the Jews of London to drown in the English Channel. Those that survived made it to Spain and France. Then we had an education during the Spanish Inquisition and the French were often unfriendly. The Poles invited Jews to help them figure out how to establish a decent country and once things started going well there some of the the Jews got the periodic beatdown by the drunken Polish mobs who had to make someone suffer for Jesus’ time on the cross. Why not the ones who put him on it? No, not the Romans… the Jews. How about having your sons stolen from you by the Tzar’s army. They are trained to be Russian soldiers and when the family passes on the street, neither recognizes either as all Jewish tradition has been deprogrammed from them and their memory of home is distant… forgotten. The Cozsacks used to raid Jewish towns just to be sure the Jews remembered to be afraid. Did I mention the Church laws that made it illegal for a Jew to own land or join a guild? I’m sorry I don’t know as much about life in the Muslim World. There were periodic massacres and various infidel taxes plus you couldn’t cross the path of a Muslim while wearing shoes. All kinds of interesting cultural idiosyncrasies were forced on Jews living in the Muslim World and guess what, I left off quite a number of other Jewish experiences in the gentile world from the last 4.5 thousand years. We don’t forget it, frankly we still have anger and worries. We have the Persians suggesting that killing another 6 million of us could be fun. We have Arabs trying bit by bit to haggle for our land in exchange for signatures. But, we have a talent for forgiveness. Its no wonder that former Africans haven’t quite gotten that trick down as I don’t see quite as long a history with persecution. Kevin T. Keith, you are an overeducated ignoramus.

Mar 26, 2008 - 1:21 am Jenn:

Lionel, a brave and beautiful piece. But I would ask you to extend your understanding to the people of Poland, as well. I grew up in suburban Detroit, surrounded by Polish Catholic immigrants. When I was a child, one neighbor woman would grab me up in her arms, sobbing and crying, “convinced” I was the child she lost in wartime Poland. Just remembering how my parents had to pry me from her arms, it fills me with horror and sorrow. I can’t imagine her suffering. These people, many of whom were my distant relatives, were utterly destroyed by their WWII experiences, internment in concentration camps, medical experiments, wounded while fighting in the Home Army, or “just” the experiences of being starved or raped or utterly dehumanized in a civilized world turned upside-down.

Mar 26, 2008 - 3:45 am 1000stars:

From Ed: “Your latest post misquotes me or at least splices together words of various posters, as if one person would say something. DISHONEST, as all Democrats who profess to do things in the name of social justice….”

What? I specified the quotes I was responding to with usernames and added my response below. You’re apparently suffering from Republican Comprehension Disorder. For the record, I’m independent. I don’t like that Democrats don’t challenge Republicans - not conservatives, the current Republican party is anything but - on their asinine ideologies more often. The current Republican party isn’t truly conservative, especially not financially, so I’m in the middle of two parties who each embody things I don’t like.

With the RCD I’m sure that will all boil down to I…like…Democrats or something else conveniently supportive of your babble.

Mar 26, 2008 - 5:51 am RattlerGator:

Here is my thank you to Lionel Chetwynd; perhaps some of you will find it of interest:

Contextualize This

Kudos, again, to Lionel Chetwynd.

Mar 26, 2008 - 7:57 am josie:

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your moving and insightful piece of writing and sharing with us your understanding about the power of forgiveness.

Mar 26, 2008 - 8:41 am vakibs:

There are several presumptions that went in before you started writing your post

1) That Rev Wright is a racist, foulmouthed hate monger
2) That Sen Obama is trying to justify him, assuming that he is indeed a hate monger

Neither (1) nor (2) is true. If you frame your world outlook on minutes of soundbites aired on fox news, nobody can save you from miserable pitfalls such as these.

Mar 26, 2008 - 9:52 am ibmgoogletre:

and climb rich flavor. crashing down were having home attempt. came School personalities. planted I thought

Mar 26, 2008 - 12:37 pm morpheus:

vakibs,

These words have meanings. For example, “racist” is “Discrimination or prejudice based on race.” “Foulmouthed” refers to someone who uses bad language. A “hate monger” is “a propagandist who seeks to provoke hatred and prejudice, esp. against a minority group or groups.”

Now, if you cannot see that these words in fact DO apply to Rev. Wright, then no one can help you. #1 of your two “presumptions” listed is 100% provably true.

Now, on to #2. Was Obama trying to justify the Rev. Wright’s behavior? Well, if “justify” means “to supply good or lawful grounds for; warrant” then of course that’s what Obama was doing. Half of his speech was supposedly supplying “context” for the Rev. Wright’s “teachings.”

Another definition of “justify” is “to free from blame; declare guiltless; absolve.” Again, this is what Obama was trying to do in noting the sheer quantity of hate that the Rrev. Wright has had to live through. (/sarcasm off)

These statements are true and no amount of blaming the messenger (I refer specifically to your inane comment about Fox Newes) can change that. The evidence is clear and the logic is sound. Rev. Wright is a hate-filled black racist, and Obama was somehow able to go to his church for 20 years.

Mar 26, 2008 - 1:22 pm Hope:

Rev. Wright is old enough to recall where the first Mayor of color was elected and who nominated him, financed his campaign and made Mayor Thatcher a really good mayor. The city was Gary, Indiana, the names of the Jewish people involved in his
campaign are today irrelevant. The NAACP in this city was lead by a wonderful man, Mr. Andrew Means, a builder of afforable housing during the WW11 years and after for people of color coming North to work in the steel mills. His financing started
with a family bank owned by a Jewish family and was one of the biggest contributor to the NAACP. It was back in 60’s here in L A, at a NAACP Conv. that the Means Family saw that this long time very close friend & member of the family was honored.
After all these years does any just thinking person of any pigmentation want what was, I truly do not and doubt that the majority does either.
What we must face is that those enemies of our way of life look at us and say,
” we need not attack “, they are destroying themselves with the promotion of Hatred and political unrest. If the Parties continue at the pace they are moving we will not have to worry about any of what we need to solve on the street’s across our Nation. Let us all wakeup and start working to repair the damage of yesterday and those who say no, walk around them and continue to mend.

Mar 26, 2008 - 1:45 pm Marty:

Mr Keith should also be advised that the black family was far more intact in the past than it is now—even under slavery, as best anyone can estimate, the rate of illegitimate births was not as high as it is now. Black labor force participation was as high as that of whites as recently as the 1950s and early 1960s. There was terrible discrimination that took much too long to end, but they survived it and built strong families and communities which should be a source of pride in their children and grandchildren.

This does NOT excuse slavery or Jim Crow, but there comes a point when it’s time to let go the self-pity and make a life for yourself and your family and your neighbors—saying that is pretty much what got Bill Cosby so much trouble a few years ago— but even if he was wrong on a detail or two, he was right on the big picture.

So, if Mr. Keith wants to maintain all his false historical beliefs because they help him feel burning resentment and self-righteousness, well, there’s nothing I or anyone else can do. He certainly doesn’t “owe” anyone anything, it’s entirely his choice to make.

But if what works is of any importance, there are lots of examples of very impoverished people and groups who have “made it” in America—yes, their ancestors weren’t slaves, but I guess in 2008 it’s up to you what shackles you chose to wear.

Mar 26, 2008 - 3:44 pm jim:

I’m just glad that Obama’s true nature has been revealed. I’m confident that decent Americans will vote against that racist traitor.

Mar 26, 2008 - 4:02 pm JE D:

What bothers me is the transmutation of a small handful of objectionable quotes into the sum and substance of the philosophy of Obama or all or many or any of the members of his church as opposed to the simple expression of black frustration with America. I don’t go to Temple every Saturday, but I’ve heard probably close to two hundred sermons over the last twenty years with my “reform/conservative” congregation and to tell you the truth, I maybe _listened_ to a half-dozen at most. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time I actually _listened_ to one. I go to temple for the socio-cultural experience of being a Jew and to participate in the community of which my family is a part, not because I have any particular knowledge or concern about the political-moral philosophy espoused by my Temple’s leadership (who are the sort of pushy and overbearing people I generally try to avoid). Actually, I strongly suspect the politics of my synagogue’s leadership and rabbi are quite far from my own. If somehow I came to enter political life, I would really be disappointed if all the sudden I was expected to account for all of the things they’ve said from the bima (thats “pulpit” for all you goyim) over the years — good or ill. Chetwynd argues that Obama should have seized the moment to “educate” his former Minister about how inaccurate the things he’s said are. Essentially, Chetwynd is objecting that, because of a handfl of wrongheaded statements, Obama did not wrest the mantle of Church leadership out from underneath Wright and put him in his place. After all, if Chetwynd is enlightened, everyone can be. At the same time, Chetwynd’s ego seems to know no bounds as he assumes that he knows best how Obama should “guide Wright back to Christ.” Who the F do you think you are? I think that what Obama did was adequate and dignified: he said, “those statements are wrong, I don’t agree with them” END OF STORY. I actually feel no small degree of outrage about Chetwynd telling people who to manage their interpersonal affairs (remember, this is an “open letter” not a personal reaction by Chetwynd). How self-rightous can you (Chetwynd) be to believe that the conversation you had either in private or with a limited audience with a colleague is the very same conversation Obama should have with the elder leader of his 8,000 member religious community on national television. From what I can learn about the Rev. Wright, he’s a fairly remarkable person who built from next to nothing a massive community institution that is now a bulwark of middle class black professionals in the small part of S. Chicago that is not economically blighted. (For anyone who thinks that all black people get a fair shake in this country, I suggest you take an hour some time and drive through selected parts of S. Side Chicago, or N. Philadelphia, or E. of the Capitol in DC, or Liberty City Miami, or S. Central Los Angeles and ask yourself if you’d be where you are today if you had grown up there.) As for Wright, his military service was admirable and I am particularly impressed that he took controversial positions within his S. Side Chicago community such as promoting tolerance for gays.(See FN1) I read also (on Wikipedia, so don’t take it as gospel) that he was saluted by Pres. Reagan for the role he played in persuading Libya to release hostages. So if the man gets a little upset from time to time (its very clear that the objectionable comments are not the regular substance of his sermons) about the way black people have been crapped on in this country, well who am I to begrudge him some outrage. To be frank, I’d be surprised if there’s a Jew reading this now who hasn’t repeated or listened (without objection)to a mean-spirited “shvartza” joke — probably in the men’s room at snyogogue — I know I have. I have a holier than thou religious uncle that was addicted to telling them for years (he’s gotten a little better, now he mainly tells jokes about the Clintons). I’m not going to apologize for it, its just the way things are… or were. Hopefully some day people will get over that kinda crap. Permit a digression: reflecting on this sort of thing, I recall that I grew up with children’s books that had aunt-Jemima/blackface character illustrations throughout — and get this — my family thought they were liberal, progressive, tolerant, and certainly not racist. This stuff was just staring them in the face and they didn’t see it. I didn’t get it (or remember it) until I found a pile of them in a box as a teenager. And, of course, like “a typical white person” I can remember my mother locking the car doors if we pulled up to an intersection where a black person –ANY black person — was standing…and this was circa 1987… not racist, just taking “reasonable precautions.” Of course she doesn’t do that anymore… (now the car doors lock when you go over 15 miles an hour…. the blessings of technology). Again, I’m not going to apoligze for it, but this kind of behavior is the kind of ancient history that I can pretend hasn’t gone on for a generation or two.

FN1 Actually, I am particularly impressed by Wright’s tolerance for gays position. Generally I look at large megachurches led both spiritually and organizationally by evangelical or charismatic pastors and I see them as essentially quasi-for-profit ventures where somehow in exchange for bringing his flock (of sheep) closer to Jesus Christ(See FN2), the “pastor” ends up with megabucks or big real estate holdings. Building membership in such a venture generally equates to serving up lowest common denominator positions… so for Wright to take a position that is not particularly popular with his targeted demographic, I interpret that an act of decency and genuine moral courage.

FN2 Since we’re putting it all out in the open here: me and every Jew I know get the willies when all you protestants, especially all you evangelicals, say “Jesus Christ.” I guess its a combination of how weird it is for us that you gave your god a proper name and our general nervousness that you’re going to go start crusading, or inquisitioning, or pogromming, or doing whatever it is that all the anti-semitic German Lutherans did to us, all over again. Chetwynd may be enlightened past all of this, and while I can recognize that rational, its a conditioned response that I don’t think I will ever outgrow.

P.S. My mother never forgave the Germans until she decided she actually did want a Mercedes, and she has never forgiven the French, probably because all they have to offer is the Renault.

P.P.S. My family were Russian and Polish and all of my direct family moved to the States in the 1880s though we know of distant cousins who died in the Holocaust.

Mar 26, 2008 - 4:27 pm