Another Preacher From ObamiWan Kenobe's Inner Circle
An Obama Delegate's Preaching, On Par With Jeremiah Wright
**
3.20.08
National Review
So, the spin goes, Jeremiah Wright may have said some controversial things. So, maybe Obama has described him as "his mentor", and maybe they've had a close relationship for the past twenty-three years. But Wright has left his largely ceremonial post, and it's not like he has any direct relationship with Obama's presidential campaign.
I mean, it's not like we're hearing this from a Democratic elected official.
It's not like we're hearing this from an Obama delegate to the Democratic convention or something.
It's not like we're hearing an Obama delegate from Chicago in a church pulpit saying, "We don't have slave masters, we got mayors! But they are still the same white people who are presiding over systems where black people are not able to be educated. You got some preachers that are house n———! You got some elected officials that are house n———! Rather than them try and break this up, they're gonna fight you to protect that white man!"
Oh, wait, now we are hearing this.
What's fascinating in the video that Confederate Yankee dug up is the state senator, Reverend James Meeks of the South Side Baptist Church, declaring that the N-word is a "term of endearment." I kid you not.
So... apparently Wright's not a one-time deal, huh? How many other members of Obama's crew from Chicago sound like this on Sunday mornings?
It should be noted that "Meeks has since apologized for that remark and says he will never use that kind of language again."
UPDATE: A reader asks if we really want to go down this road, as we will see the press looking at every comment by every delegate for McCain.
Let them; if any have preached from a pulpit something on par with this, they probably ought not to be delegates. Anybody can misspeak or say something they regret, but all of these appear to be deliberate, forethought, impassioned expressions of what is in these mens' hearts.
Geraldine Ferraro, now freed from the Hillary campaign, expresses what I think will be a common sentiment in response to the Wright (and now Meeks) controversies.
"To equate what I said with what this racist bigot has said from the pulpit is unbelievable," Ferraro said today. "He gave a very good speech on race relations, but he did not address the fact that this man is up there spewing hatred."...
"What this man [Wright] is doing is he is spewing that stuff out to young people, and to younger people than Obama, and putting it in their heads that it's OK to say `Godd*** America' and it's OK to beat up on white people," she said. "You don't preach that from the pulpit."
Ferraro also said she could not understand why Obama had called out his own white grandmother for using racial stereotypes that had made him cringe.
"I could not believe that," she said. "That's my mother's generation."
There are a lot of reasons that race relations in America aren't as good as they could be, and a lot of those reasons can be laid at the feet of white America. But some of that blame can also be laid at the feet of African-American leaders who describe their community's problems with no real sense of perspective. Is the mayor of Chicago really comparable to a slave owner? Does any elected official or minister deserve to be called a House N-word? Is it fair that use of the N-word is considered an automatic firing offense for most white Americans, but it's used as frequently as a comma in some circles with no consequence?
If Obama (and leading Democrats) tell us they have no problem with James Meeks' preaching, it will be one more example of an eagerness to go after easy targets (like Don Imus) and an unwillingness to confront hateful words when they come from a political ally.
03/20 11:30 AM
So, the spin goes, Jeremiah Wright may have said some controversial things. So, maybe Obama has described him as "his mentor", and maybe they've had a close relationship for the past twenty-three years. But Wright has left his largely ceremonial post, and it's not like he has any direct relationship with Obama's presidential campaign.
I mean, it's not like we're hearing this from a Democratic elected official.
It's not like we're hearing this from an Obama delegate to the Democratic convention or something.
It's not like we're hearing an Obama delegate from Chicago in a church pulpit saying, "We don't have slave masters, we got mayors! But they are still the same white people who are presiding over systems where black people are not able to be educated. You got some preachers that are house n———! You got some elected officials that are house n———! Rather than them try and break this up, they're gonna fight you to protect that white man!"
Oh, wait, now we are hearing this.
What's fascinating in the video that Confederate Yankee dug up is the state senator, Reverend James Meeks of the South Side Baptist Church, declaring that the N-word is a "term of endearment." I kid you not.
So... apparently Wright's not a one-time deal, huh? How many other members of Obama's crew from Chicago sound like this on Sunday mornings?
It should be noted that "Meeks has since apologized for that remark and says he will never use that kind of language again."
UPDATE: A reader asks if we really want to go down this road, as we will see the press looking at every comment by every delegate for McCain.
Let them; if any have preached from a pulpit something on par with this, they probably ought not to be delegates. Anybody can misspeak or say something they regret, but all of these appear to be deliberate, forethought, impassioned expressions of what is in these mens' hearts.
Geraldine Ferraro, now freed from the Hillary campaign, expresses what I think will be a common sentiment in response to the Wright (and now Meeks) controversies.
"To equate what I said with what this racist bigot has said from the pulpit is unbelievable," Ferraro said today. "He gave a very good speech on race relations, but he did not address the fact that this man is up there spewing hatred."...
"What this man [Wright] is doing is he is spewing that stuff out to young people, and to younger people than Obama, and putting it in their heads that it's OK to say `Godd*** America' and it's OK to beat up on white people," she said. "You don't preach that from the pulpit."
Ferraro also said she could not understand why Obama had called out his own white grandmother for using racial stereotypes that had made him cringe.
"I could not believe that," she said. "That's my mother's generation."
There are a lot of reasons that race relations in America aren't as good as they could be, and a lot of those reasons can be laid at the feet of white America. But some of that blame can also be laid at the feet of African-American leaders who describe their community's problems with no real sense of perspective. Is the mayor of Chicago really comparable to a slave owner? Does any elected official or minister deserve to be called a House N-word? Is it fair that use of the N-word is considered an automatic firing offense for most white Americans, but it's used as frequently as a comma in some circles with no consequence?
If Obama (and leading Democrats) tell us they have no problem with James Meeks' preaching, it will be one more example of an eagerness to go after easy targets (like Don Imus) and an unwillingness to confront hateful words when they come from a political ally.
03/20 11:30 AM
posted by jillosophy at 3/20/2008 12:51:00 PM
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