| Weekend
Edition
April 19 / 20, 2008
Why
the Reverand is Right
Jeremiah
Wright and America's Continuing "Separate and Unequal"
Societies
By
Rev. WILLIAM E. ALBERTS
Rev.
Wright is right—and Michelle as well. America continues to
be dominated by powerful and wealthy white interests who use a system
of white-skin privileges to control access to political and economic
power. A white-controlled hierarchy that still maintains “separate
and unequal” societies. A hierarchy camouflaged with white-trumpeted
“integration” (only on their terms), and which is being
threatened by the 2008 presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. A
white-favored hierarchy that triggered riotous urban eruptions 60
years ago, and the insidious fallout continues to contaminate the
lives of people at the bottom. America’s historic “separate
and unequal” societies are still with us.
In
1968, after studying the 1967 urban riots in the United States,
the President Lyndon Johnson-authorized Kerner Commission released
a report indicting white America: “Segregation and poverty
have created in the racial ghetto a destructive environment totally
unknown to most white Americans. What white Americans have never
fully understood,” the report emphasized, “but what
the Negro can never forget, is that white society is deeply implicated
in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions
maintain it, and white society condones it.”
The
Kerner Commission warned,
“Our
nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate
and unequal.”
(Report
of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Bantam
Books, 1968, pages 1 and 2).
In
1998, an updated, more racially inclusive study revealed that the
Kerner Commission’s prophesy had come to pass. This commemorative
thirtieth anniversary update found,
“The
private market has failed the inner city. The prison system is
a symbol of discrimination. A class and racial breach is widening
again as we begin the new millennium. . . . The rich are getting
richer, the poor are getting poorer and minorities are suffering
disproportionately.” (“Kerner Prophesy on Race Relations
Came True, Report Says; Despite Progress, Foundation Finds Separate
and Unequal Societies More Deeply Rooted,” by Michael A.
Fletcher, The Washington Post, Mar. 1, 1998. See “The Millenium
Breach: The American Dilemma, Richer and Poorer,” by Lynn
A Curtis and Fred R. Harris, Executive Summary, Second Edition,
1998, The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation and The Corporation
for What Works).
In
2008, the words of a prophet are finally heard again throughout
the land. A prophet speaking truth to America’s “separate
and unequal” white-controlled hierarchy of access to political
and economic power: “What people have to put up with. Who
cares about what a poor black man faces every day in a country and
a culture controlled by white people.”
A
prophet whose words were constantly and disdainfully reported and
played like a broken record by mainstream media, guardians of America’s
white-controlled hierarchy:
“It
finally came to me within the last weeks, you’all, why so
many folks are hittin’ on Barack Obama. He doesn’t
fit the mold. He ain’t white. He ain’t rich. And he
ain’t privileged. Hillary fits the the mold,” he declared.
“Hillary never had a cab whiz past her and not pick her
up because her skin was the wrong color. Hillary,” he thundered
as his mostly black congregation roared approval, “Hillary
never had to worry about being pulled over in her car as a black
man driving on the way.” (“Barack Obama Pastor Jeremiah
Wright Black Jesus Hillary Nigg,” YouTube, Mar. 16, 2008)
A
prophet exposing America’s white-favored “separate and
unequal” societies before a knowing congregation: “Barack
knows what it means to be a black man livin’ in a country
and a culture controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never
know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger. Hillary
has never had her people defined as non-persons! Hillary,”
he shouted, “ain’t never had to work twice as hard to
get accepted by the rich white folks who own everything, or to get
a passing grade when you know you are smarter than the C student
sittin’ in the White House.”
Members
of this prophet’s congregation stood and clapped and responded
also with knowing echoes and arm-length salutes. At one point, a
man smiling broadly, even ran up behind him fleetingly and affectionately
caressed his back. An animated Trinity United Church of Christ congregation,
whose membership consisted of 87 people when he arrived in 1972,
and grew to over 6,000 because of his “inflammatory”
preaching.
A
reviled not revered dominant media-portrayed “eye-brow-raising,”
“militant, angry and threatening,” “fiery,”
“inflammatory,” “controversial,” “provocative,”
“offensive,” “turbulent,” “outrageous,”
“notorious,” “incendiary,” “vitriolic,”
“scandal[ous],” “harsh,” “racially
charged,” “anti-American,” “hate speech”-
filled prophet who proclaimed, “No! No! No! Not God bless
America. God damn America—that’s in the Bible—for
killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens
like less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like
she is God and she is supreme.” (“Jeremiah Wright,”
ABC News report aired on YouTube, Mar. 15, 2008; “Obama’s
Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11, by Brian Ross
and Rehab El-Buri, abcNEWS, Mar 13, 2008).
Rev.
Jeremiah Wright evidently exemplifies words of Jesus: “Prophets
are not without honor except in their own country.” (Matthew
13: 57). Wright was editorially hung rather than honored by mainstream
media. And reflecting their collective and myopic view about race,
most media closed debate to the status of race in America. MSNBC
reporter Alex Johnson’s story, captioned “Controversial
minister leaves Obama campaign,” began with, “Editor’s
note: The article includes language some readers may consider inappropriate”
[italics added]. The “inappropriate” language evidently
included: “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we
nuked far more than those thousands in New York and the Pentagon
and we never batted an eye.”
Apparently
more “inappropriate language” : “We have supported
state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans,
and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas
is brought right back into our own front yards. (Mar. 14, 2008.)
What
may be considered “inappropriate” here—and even
obscene—is not this prophet’s language describing the
crimes against humanity our government has committed and supported
in our name and with our complicity, but the crimes themselves.
Obviously, Rev. Wright’s offense is reminding us of America’s
sinfulness not its greatness. A prophetic reminder that, if heeded,
could lead to national introspection and confession and government-led
initiatives and reconciliation—qualities upon which depend
the fulfillment of “a more perfect union.”
A
prophet whose sermons were judged so “inflammatory”
that in an article Fox News cautioned readers, “Click here
to hear an audio clip of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. WARNING: Contains
offensive language.” The offensive language: “We’ve
got more black men in prison than there are in college. . . . Racism
is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how
this country is still run.” More “offensive language”:
“Fact number 3: America is still the number 1 killer in the
world. . . . We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women
and children. We put Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the
whole 27 years he was there.” Another “offensive”
fact: “We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the
Palestinians. And branding anyone who spoke out against it as being
anti-Semitic.” (“Obama’s Spiritual Mentor May
Put Church in Hot Water,” Mar. 12, 2008)
Rev.
Wright’s so-called “offensive language” runs through
his “ten facts,” another of which is: “We do not
care if poor black and brown children cannot read, and kill each
other senselessly. We abandoned the cities back in the 60’s
when the riots started; and it really doesn’t matter what
those natives do to each other. We gave up on them . . and poor
people who live in the projects.” He declared, “We still
put more money in the military than in medicine, more money in hate
than humanitarian concerns. Everybody,” he asserted, “does
not have access to healthcare . . . Listen up! If you are poor,
black and elderly, forget it.” Prophetic words about today’s
“separate and unequal” societies.
The
“offensive language” in Rev. Wright’s final fact:
“We are . . . selfish, arrogant . . .ignorant. We play at
church and don’t try to make the kingdom that Jesus talked
about a reality.” He roared at the end: “And! And! And!
In light of these ten facts, God has got to be sick of this shit.”
(“Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Message,” YouTube)
Rev.
Wright reveals that profanity is not a four-letter word but a lack
of caring that curses anyone’s dignity and human rights. He
makes clear that morality is not about proper language but about
people languishing—in America and in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Morality
is not about lip service but about lies. “The government lied
about a connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. And the
connections between 9/11/01 and ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom,’”
Rev. Wright declared. “The government lied about weapons of
mass destruction in Iraq being a threat to US peace.” (“Barack
Obama Pastor Jeremiah Wright is anti-American Racist, The O’Reilly
Factor, Fox News, aired on YouTube, Mar. 13, 2008).
What
a commentary! The radically different reactions of mainstream media
to a president’s lies and a prophet’s truths! And Michelle’s
as well! Mrs. Obama was criticized by media for daring honesty:
“For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country.”
(“Michelle Obama Takes Heat for Saying She’s ‘Proud
of My Country’ for the First Time,” by FoxNews.com,
Feb. 18, 2008)
Rev.
Wright is “anti-American”? On the contrary! Dr.
James Jennings, Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and
Planning at Tufts University, writes,
“The
criticisms leveled at Rev. Wright were attacks on democracy. Discourse
about race, or about the injustices of America, are now considered
unpatriotic in some circles. This is a way of prohibiting broad
discourse and debate. Sadly,” Jennings says, “it is
the media that feed this real injustice and keep the general public
ignorant to the fact that such discussion can only help to strengthen
society. Much of this probably has to do with the fact that many
in the media are not even aware of the nation’s racial history,
and certainly don’t reflect C. W. Mills’ ‘sociological
imagination,’ in the sense of understanding the connections
between politics, wealth, and struggles on behalf of democracy
throughout U.S. history.” (personal e-mail, Apr. 12, 2008)
“Hate
speech?” No! No! No! Hate speech is a Christian televangelist
telling everyone that he and she are going to “burn in hell
forever” if they do not accept Jesus Christ as their Lord
and Savior. “Hate speech” is televangelist Rod Parsley,
“hailed as a spiritual advisor” by Senator John McCain,
“call[ing] upon Christians to wage a ‘war’ against
the ‘false religion’ of Islam with the aim of destroying
it.” (“McCain’s Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam,”
by David Corn, Mother Jones, Mar. 12, 2008) “Hate speech”
is found in a full-page New York Times ad, sponsored by the World
Evangelical Alliance and signed by 44 evangelical Christian leaders:
it begins with,
“As
evangelical Christians, we want to express our genuine friendship
and love for the Jewish people.” And its bottom line: “It
is out of our profound respect for Jewish people that we seek
to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them, and encourage
others to do the same, for we believe that salvation is only found
in Jesus, the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the World.”
(“THE GOSPEL AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE: AN EVANGELICAL STATEMENT,”
Mar. 28, 2008) “Separate and unequal” societies of
a white-controlled hierarchy operating a double standard.
Since
children are America’s future, we do well to be strongly reminded
that many of them, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, are stuck in the
past—in “separate and unequal” societies. In a
Milwaukee Journal editorial, Richard M. Lerner, Director of the
Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University,
writes that “America is still separate and unequal 40 years
after Kerner.” He states that “structural racism, social
factors that persist in dividing our nation on the basis of race,
is a ubiquitous part of the American landscape,” and especially
evident among “minority youth, who have made only limited
progress since the March 1968 Kerner Commission report.” Lerner
says, “The disparities paint a stunning portrait of inequality,”
and cites them:
*
In Wisconsin, a 2006 report from the Office of Juvenile Justice
indicated that custody rates (per 100,000 youth) for Hispanics
were more than six times greater, and for black youth were more
than nine times greater than was the case for white youth. Nationally,
black youth are referred to juvenile justice courts at a rate
twice their proportion in the population.
* Black and Latino newborns in the United States today are 300%
more likely to grow up in poverty than are white newborns. Poverty
is a major basis of other facets of structural racism—affecting
health, education, employment and ultimately feelings of hope
for the future.
* The mortality rate for infants born to black mothers is more
than twice as high as corresponding mortality rates for infants
born to white mothers. If they live, black youth receive fewer
primary care or mental health services than their white peers.
Dr.
Lerner’s response to well-funded, so-called “neo-conservatives”
whose mission is to market a “colorblind” society that
does violence to reality: “We cannot deny the data or try
to explain the facts away by claiming they reflect the outcomes
of personal or cultural shortcomings.”
A
member of the Eisenhower Foundation’s Advisory Board, he writes,
“In its 40-year update of Kerner,” the Milton S. Eisenhower
Foundation found “that America earns a D+ in progress on race,
poverty, crime and inequality. Nowhere,” he says, “is
that finding made more evident than in the status of minority youth.”
Taking a page from Rev. Wright’s sermons, Lerner declares,
“Today’s political challenge is to speak forthrightly
[italics added] about racial inequality and to no longer accept
racial injustice. We must demand that our presidential candidates
address racial disparities in the lives of our children and explain
how they will create a socially just nation for all of America’s
youth.” He then ends with a prophetic warning: “ ‘Liberty
and justice for all’ must not remain [italics added] empty
words for our nation’s children of color (Feb. 29, 2008. See
also, “What We Can Do Together,” A Forty Year Update
of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Preliminary
Findings, The Eisenhower Foundation, March 2008).
In
his “Introduction” to the Kerner Commission’s
1968 report, New York Times journalist Tom Wicker wrote prophetic
words that apply today: the findings of the report “can only
be a beginning because, patently, until the fact of white racism
is admitted, it cannot conceivably be expunged.” (Report of
National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.)
Standing
outside her and Rev. Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ,
a young black woman responded, “No, I wouldn’t call
it radical. I’d call it being black in America.” (“Obama’s
Pastor: God Damn America—U.S. to Blame for 9/11, ABC News,
aired on YouTube, Mar. 14, 2008)
It
is not about being “radical” but about voicing reality.
It is not about being “inflammatory” but about being
oppressed. Not about being “incendiary” but about being
incisive. Not “outrageous” but enraged. Not “anti-American”
but pro-human. Not “hate speech” but love. Not “vitriolic”
but prophetic. It is about the continuation of “separate and
unequal” societies. Societies that call for acknowledgement
and action.
Rev.
William E. Alberts, Ph.D. is a hospital chaplain, and a
diplomate in the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy.
Both a Unitarian Universalist and a United Methodist minister, he
has written research reports, essays and articles on racism, war,
politics and religion. He can be reached at william.alberts@bmc.org.
Notes
Two
research reports by the author are related to this article. One
is Taking the ism Out of “Race” in the 21st Century:
A Study of the Print Media’s Coverage of President Clinton’s
National Dialogue on Race, Sage race relations abstracts, May 2002—with
the full version of Taking the “ism” Out of Racism in
the 21st Century . . . published by The William Monroe Trotter Institute,
University of Massachusetts, Boston, Winter 2002. Yvonne Gomes-Santos
contact person at yvonne.gomes-santos@umb.edu.
The
other: Mainstream Media as Guardian of Racial Hierarchy: A Study
of the Threat Posed by Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Million
Man March, published by The William Monroe Trotter Institute, 1995.
Appreciation
is expressed to Dr. James Jennings, Professor of Urban and Environmental
Policy and Planning at Tufts University, for his invaluable contribution
to Rev. Alberts’ understanding of America’s white-controlled
hierarchy of access to political and economic power. Dr. Jennings
was Director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute and provided
editorial guidance for Rev. Alberts’ research reports.
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