The other night I was digesting bits of TV news when I came across an interview with Pastor Wright of Obama fame. I carefully listened to what he had to say. The mild mannered grandfatherly man with a twinkle in his eye explained that the media was out to get him and that he was taken out of context and misinterpreted.
In the interest of full disclosure, I will state for the record that I am not an Obama "backer". I have not joined the adoring throngs who squirm with Beatles like hysteria at every pronouncement he makes. I did think him an interesting candidate early on until I heard him attempt to take on some issues. Then it became clear: Great speaker, obvious dilettante. Now, it can be fairly argued that the current occupant of the White House is no great thinker either. But then at least he lacks the persuasion and seduction skills to convince the nation to follow him blindly. I am not so sure about this gentleman, and so I fear of what he may "accomplish".
However, this is not about Mr. Obama. This is about Mr Wright (or as I would prefer to call him Mr Wronhg). For he represents the most pernicious sort of a demagogue: A pseudo intellectual one. Worse yet, he does it under the cloak of religion.
So Mr. Wronhg asked us not to listen to text taken out of context. He laughed off the snippets published by the media and demanded that we examine what he said within full context of his sermons. I did as he asked. I went to Youtube and watched the entire sermons that were published. What it made clear to me that finally the chicks ARE coming home to roost. These chickens are products of decades of failed public education, dilapidated cultural structures of modern family life, and outdated religious dogma. A potent mix. If even a minority of his listeners were sufficiently educated (or even simply curious enough) to challenge his "facts" he would be ignored as any illiterate hack or laughed off the podium. Yet not only is he worshiped by his clueless followers, he now gets a national podium from which he can preach.
So when he speaks of a white man oppressing and terrorizing the native Americans, he ignores the savage laws of warfare and slavery by which these primitive people lived prior to white man's arrival. They killed each other as part of the normal daily tribal struggle among them. It doesn't justify what the white man did to them, but it does put it into perspective. The main bulk of white man's killing was done inadvertently, by new diseases. Not via scalp removal as was custom among these gentle, loving, folks. Mr. Wright ignores the entire history of human kind which over and over "oppressed" the native people by new, better equipped arrivals. What the white man did in America was not any worse (and in many ways was a lot better) than was perpetrated by "oppressors" of the past. Even a cursory reading of the history would make that clear.
But he really gets it wrong when it comes to slavery. if you were to listen to Mr Wronhg, you would think that the white man invented slavery and then rounded up free blacks from Africa and brought them to America. Here again, the facts point the other way. Slavery was rampant in Africa well before the arrival of the white man. In fact, it continues today under its various guises. No serious scholar disputes the fact that majority of slaves brought to America were captured and enslaved by other tribes in Africa. They were then sold to slave trading companies for shipping overseas. Prior to the existence of this ugly trade, the slaves were kept by the winning tribe or simply killed. Which fate was worse? I am not sure. But to heap the entire scorn of slavery onto a white man is a disgusting, racist lie.
And so it goes, HIV as white man's tool of oppression, 9/11 as reasonable payback,etc. etc. etc. Racist, unfounded lies fed to the audience too ignorant to know any better and not curious enough to ask any questions. What I don't understand is this: Where are the scholars, the people who know better? Is the fact that this man is black and that political correctness is the rule of the land has completely silenced any opposition?
Mr. Wronhg is right in one thing. The "outrage" generated by his pronouncements was misplaced. They were taken out of context. So the quality of that outrage was not any better then the quality of his pronouncements. In fact, cloaked into intellectually sounding sermons, his ignorance was hidden and the opposition's (which was based on snippets out of context) ignorance was on display. But why no erudite, educated people too on the FULL context, the "facts"? Is it possible that even in the era of Internet and instant access to facts, such bigot would be allowed to perpetrate his lies without challenge? Once again, the king has no clothes.
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