Understanding the Sin of Racism

by TheBigRuski | March 25, 2008 at 08:22 am

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Thoughts from a white guy and a former black nationalist

OPINION

It may be playing the victim card or doctrinal psychology, but most of us are familiar with the notion that “those that were abused become abusers.”

Of course, it’s not 100% true. Who really knows what the real statistics would be for a term so broad as “abuse?” One thing is certain, this notion has been used to explain or reason away or even defend the action of abusers.

In some cases it makes sense. In others it doesn’t.

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., former pastor to Sen. Barack Obama, had a perception of abuse. As a black man, he perceived that not only himself, but the black community in the U.S. was being abused by white America.

The problem is that his perception is more than just his imagination. At different points in our history and even to this day, racism rears its ugly head…and abuses.

So, how does Wright deal with it? He lashes out. He exalts his congregation to free itself of the abuse and along the way, throws in abusive language himself. His perception of his own abuse and the abuse of other blacks has distorted his view of “white America” and he becomes the abuser…if only in words...(MORE)

....This from the Washington Post:

He’s Preaching to A Choir I’ve Left

By Jonetta Rose Barras
March 23, 2008

I’ve known preachers like the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., former pastor to Sen. Barack Obama. Like many of them, he no doubt sees his congregation as full of victims, and thinks that his words will inspire them to rise out of their victimhood. I understand that.

Once upon a time, I saw myself as a victim, too, destined to march in place. In the 1970s and ’80s, as a clenched-fist-pumping black nationalist with my head wrapped in an elaborate gele, I reflected that self-concept in my speech. My words were as fiery as the Rev. Wright’s. And more than a few times, I, too, damned America, loudly, for its treatment of blacks.

But I turned away from such rhetoric. Is it time that Wright and other ministers do, too?

African Americans differ on this question. “Some of these ministers are like some hip-hop artists,” says E. Ethelbert Miller, an Afro-American studies expert. “Their language is not healing.” Counters former civil rights leader Lawrence Guyot: “I am so proud of Rev. Wright, who speaks with unreserved passion, who accepts no quarter and gives no quarter. I’m glad the church is standing with him.” ...(MORE)