The Racial Divide and Wright

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28 Apr 2008 11:20 pm

A reader offers an interesting point:

I am a late 40's "white guy" from the Philadelphia area. Starting in the early 70's I began listening to the black preachers on the high UHF channels at odd hours of the night. There was something about the way they ALL spoke that I found intriguing - even before I knew the meaning of the word. There was always a high level of defiant bravado with outlandish accusations thrown in for good measure. This was expected by the followers -- as if by getting away with "the talk" was synonymous with some kind of mystic power. For me it was like chewing aluminum foil when you have a tooth ache - you kind of liked it ... But why?

As I got older other hobbies took over from my late night listening -- but I would always pause for a few minutes when I clicked past a station carrying some preacher.

All of this homework was not lost on me later in life when I glimpsed Reverend Al, Jessie, or even Julian Bond on C-span -- good old Reverend Ike would come to mind. As a progressive gay white man I cringe when I hear some of these preachers and "leaders" -- it even happened a few weeks ago listening to a Tavis Smiley forum.

Andrew, the problem is that this kind of speech is so common in parts of the black community that it does not shock the followers.

I was talking to two friends when the Wright story surfaced a few weeks ago -- one white, one black -- one for Hillary, one for Obama. I made the point that maybe this will bring to the front this hateful speech so we can stamp it out - exposing it for what it is. My white friend had no idea what I was talking about -- he never listened to the old UHF or to be honest current black radio. My black friend dismissed it as just "the way some speak in the black church."

The idiom is different; and the standards of evidence are different; and the context is different. Obama has lived in both worlds, which makes him different as well. Somehow, he has to bridge those worlds right now. God knows how. But that's what he has taken on with this candidacy; and we'll see if he has it in him. I think he does; I think we all do. But Jeremiah Wright just made it all a lot more difficult.

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