HOMEWORK: Obama and the Rev. Wright

"Part of my job is to see if I can help push the country into a different place with a new set of understandings." -- Barack Obama

I pray that you hang in here with me, but from time to time I require that you stretch yourself. Here are some things you should familiarize yourself with as you prepare to discuss -- intelligently! -- race, presidential politics, religion, etc.


This is Obama talking to the Chicago Tribune on 3/14 about his relationship to his former pastor, the now-retired but still much loved Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and his fundamental disagreement with the vision of 21st centtury United States that Rev. Wright has:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-080314-obama-audiogallery,0,3649641.audiogallery

Excerpt: "There is a generational shift that is taking place....I represent a different generation with a different set of life experiences and see race relations in different terms than he does."


This is from EUR Gospel (3/17 Headline: Obama Denounces and Dumps Rev. Wright)

http://webmail.aol.com/35304/aol/en-us/Lite/MsgRead.aspx?folder=New%20Mail&uid=1.20462559&seq=18&searchIn=none&searchQuery=&start=0


Here’s what journalists are saying, as compiled by my colleague Richard Prince:
http://www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince/080319_prince/

Hearing Obama

Perhaps it was a fitting sign of things to come as the sound system at Philly's Constitution Center had a few snags. So Barack Obama's speech was delayed for 30-40 minutes Tuesday. You could imagine the technicians asking, "Can you hear me now?" And, indeed, that is the question I have for the nation after I heard Obama's remarkable speech on race in America.

From many of the pundits -- the usual mouthpieces on network TV and on cable -- it is evident that they did not hear what they were not prepared to hear, even as they replayed snippets from Obama's speech. Many kept asking why he put race out there. He did not. Others did and he responded brilliantly. Many asked if he went far enough in distancing himself from his longtime, now retired, pastor. And then they proceeded to display their ignorance of the complicated nature of Black Christianity in the U.S. and how foreign any Black worship service is to them, no matter the denomination, the geography, the history. Many asked if race will hound Obama for the rest of the campaign. Only they -- the hounding media -- can answer that.

Some people heard. They got it. This is not just about denouncing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. This is not just about walking a tightrope between Black and White. This is about the new world he envisions and challenges us to join him in creating.

I'll have more to say on this later, but for now I invite you to see -- and hear -- Obama by going to his website:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hisownwords

Via National Public Radio (NPR), you can find audio and a transcript:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88473796