Friday, March 21, 2008 3:34 PM CDT
COLUMN: Obama failed to answer why he wasn't aware of anti-US, racist sermons
By HARRY REYNOLDS, Editorial page editor
hreynolds@jg-tc.com
Barack Obama’s speech Tuesday seeking to douse the firestorm erupting from his minister’s racial and anti-American sermons was eloquent, but vacant.
Rather than address the central question as to why he didn’t object a whole lot sooner to the ranting of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama called for Americans to break the “racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years.”
Obama had the opportunity to help do just that during the course of the 20 years he has been a member of the huge Trinity United Church of Christ of Chicago.
But, Obama didn’t. Not until last week when the videotapes exposing Wright’s diatribes stunned the nation.
And only in recent days did Obama drop the reverend from a group of campaign spiritual advisors.
Wright presided over Obama’s wedding ceremony, baptized his children and preached to him for those two decades. Obama has called Wright his friend and mentor. Wright inspired the title of Obama’s book, “The Audacity of Hope.”
Obama said he joined the church because he was impressed by the pastor’s dedication to building the black community and his message of hope.
In defending/condemning Wright’s inflammatory sermons, Obama pointed out many blacks are still angry over injustices in America. He ventured the rationalization whites shouldn’t be surprised if that anger erupts in sermons.
“The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of the Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday mornings,” Obama observed.
Does this excuse Obama’s failing to reject the pastor’s attacks long before the videotapes were played on TV news networks? It may be a “truism” that Sunday is the most segregated hour.
So what? Is Obama claiming special dispensation for tolerating a racist, a mentor who damns America and whites? How can Obama do this on the heels of taking Hilary Clinton to task for not immediately distancing herself from a racial comment made by former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro?
Obama cannot justify his his end run around the pastor’s sermons with a “truism.”
This has little to do with Wright, who has been described as a theologian of the highest order, a man of intellect and deliberation.
This is the same man who only a few months ago delivered a sermon condemning “g-damn” America. The pastor has frequently attacked whites. In his December ramble, Wright castigated Hilary Clinton. She and husband, former President Bill Clinton, have long championed black causes.
On the heels of 9/11, Wright blamed the United States, saying the chickens had come home to roost. He has also claimed the U.S. knew Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked.
Wright has been engaging in the sort of rhetoric that does nothing to help break the “racial stalemate” but much to promote it.
This is not the voice or intellect of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This is not what Obama should have tolerated as a member of Wright’s church.
Obama’s assertions he was not in attendance at the time the videotapes were recorded may be true. And yet, it strains credibility that Obama was not present, over the course of 20 years’ membership, to hear Wright’s venom.
Even if Obama had been absent from all of the pastor’s tirades, still, he had to have been aware of them.
Let’s give Obama the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps, Wright prepared two sermons for each of his services — one for Obama and the other if Obama didn’t show up.
There is also the possibility Obama attended 20 years and — defying the odds — was absent from the pew on those occasions when Wright bannered bigotry, blatant racism and hatred of America — particularly white America.
In his speech Tuesday, Obama waved the race flag, but he did it much more subtly than Wright. Obama did it with the intent to divert the question from why he didn’t disassociate himself from Wright much earlier, to one of collective guilt for racism.
While abolishing racism — white, black, red, yellow and all shades between — is of towering importance, it cannot be accomplished in the face of denial.
Obama’s denial of having knowledge of Wright’s sermons does little to inspire confidence that he really gets it.
Another question evolves from the first. If it took Obama 20 years to learn about his pastor’s race-laced/America-hating sermons, how can we reasonably believe he wouldn’t be clueless as president?
Obama has been riding the wave of celebrity, carried by his oratory skills, charisma and his calls for change. He is not an ordinary politician, he claims, and I believe him.
The national recoil over Wright’s sermons and Obama’s attachment to the reverend remind me of the old adage that one shouldn’t throw stones if one lives in a glass house.
Obama skillfully avoided the question, but evasion is not an answer. And an answer, we need, not equivocation.
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objective79 wrote on Mar 21, 2008 4:17 PM:
As a journalist you are ethically required to vet an issue before passing judgment.
You and other media houses now have some explaining to do for foolishly jumping on the blind patriotism before reason bandwagon.
Fuller versions of Reverend Wright's sermon's are now availalbe on Youtube and what was shown the electorate was at best, character assasination.
You have all disgraced your profession. Rev Wright is a true patriot:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ
In a web 2.0 world, journalists have to be even more careful because we the readers have access to the all powerful internet. "