Is Reverend Jeremiah Wright a Relic of the Black Militant Epoch?
By
Sherman N. Miller
As I watched the disquieting videos of
the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr., retired Pastor Chicago’s Trinity
United Church of Christ, his caustic rhetoric sounded like something
from so-called militant black leaders in the late 1960s and 1970s. This
caustic speechifying appeared to be directed at making White America
feel guilt and shame for yesteryear’s enslavement and total humiliation
of Black Americans. More caustic the language was the more freedom that
it suggested because such language might have gotten a black labeled as
an uppity N----- and lynched in yesteryear.
Senator Barack Obama was a child
during the heyday of Reverend Wright’s caustic language. This caustic
language may be music to the ears of some first generation blacks of the
civil rights epoch for it suggests some black dignity in the economic
mainstream.
Obama was raised by white family
members using the White American mindset that may not have included a
daily dose of a defrocking of the slave mentality that Wright’s messages
attempts to signify. Furthermore, Obama’s white mother was a real social
activist, so she was a role model for him to emulate in doing public
service. Hence, Obama naturally thinks in a mainstream mindset that has
some civil rights era blacks questioning whether he is black enough. The
black community appears to have written off these civil rights era
relics because Obama has captured the black vote intact.
A closer look at the Wright videos
showed that his church was full. This meant that Reverend Wright’s
message was resonating with his congregation because these people got up
on Sunday morning to attend service. My late mother played the piano for
black churches during my youth, so I recall two things these churches
had in abundance: passionate preachers and good choirs. It was not
uncommon to hear some one say that preacher can really preach.
The high spiritedness of the Black
Protestant Church service may be difficult for many mainstream whites to
appreciate who may be accustomed to more ritualistic services. On the
other hand, you may find inner city white churches’ struggling to get
new members as the Angel of Death empties their pews while black
churches may thrive in these same neighborhoods.
In January 2008 at a celebration of
the birthday of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Christ Our
King Catholic Church in Wilmington, DE, it was interesting to see a
Catholic priest morph from a stodgy ritualistic speaker into a
passionate preacher that brought an emotional experience to the
attendees. The attendees were
about half black and white.
As I listened closely to Father
Michael Carrier’s message, I heard him speak positively of Malcolm X.
I asked why he made positive
comments on Malcolm X. He replied that Malcolm X name was on the list of
names from which he had to work. If he had said something positive about
Minister Louis Farrakhan would people have walked out? I do not think
they would have because I attended a COK activity where a Muslim
minister spoke to a receptive audience.
If you take a hard look at life in
inner city Black America, it is wrought with crime, murder, and
incarceration. There are roughly one million black people in jail today.
It is no longer yesteryear killing styles where whites were lynching
blacks. Today, it is blacks murdering blacks. If Farrakhan can prevent
the lamenting of black mothers on the evening news from their sons
getting murdered over foolish gang activity, then it is tomfoolery to
attempt to not pay respect to his good deeds.
Explain to me how Rush Limbaugh can
encourage Republicans to vote in the Democratic Party Ohio and Texas
primaries for Senator Hillary Clinton to keep the Democrats from
choosing a Presidential standard bearer yet the media was ballyhooing
Clinton’s comeback without critically examining the Limbaugh factor on
the same stage? It appears that the national media is now a de facto
instrument that Rush Limbaugh is exploiting to dictate that the Obama
and Clinton race will stay close. Limbaugh is wise enough to know that
the media must beat the bushes looking for obtuse issues to ballyhoo,
since the key positional differences between Obama and Clinton are he is
the symbolic messenger of a new direction and hope.
Today, the US economy is teetering on
a major downturn with people losing their homes and jobs, so the nation
urgently needs a new vision. Perhaps,
Senator Barack Obama’s major asset is he comes from a humble beginning
where he can empathize with the plight of America’s poor instead of
being wealthy where he only shows sympathy for the financially strapped
Americans.
