Posted by
Roxanna M. on Thursday, March 20, 2008 5:44:52 PM
For years now, we've been told that only white people are racist. We are told that we have "white guilt" because of what our ancestors did to people of color. Stuff and nonsense! Everyone has within him or herself the ability to be racist.
Nowhere has this truth been more evident than in the rantings of Jeremiah Wright that have recently come to light. It would be difficult to find more hateful rhetoric than what we have seen and heard from him. The Black Liberation Theology that he embraces refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer and we had better kill him. Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.
In simple terms, this is racist. This is hate speech. This is disgraceful. This is inflammatory and serves only to cause the racial strife to which blacks claim they are victims. Don't create a problem, or contribute to it, then whine about the consequences.
Obama cannot claim to want to heal the racial divisions of this country while at the same time countenancing the actions of a man who gleefully continues to stir the pot. In his recent speech to try and distance himself from Mr. Wright, without really distancing himself or apologizing for what has been said, Obama said: "In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds."
I'm getting really tired of the black community saying that the white community has to do all the work towards racial healing. Respect is a two-way street. Don't pray for the destruction of the "white enemy" and then expect white people to like you. And, by the way, a lot of what ails the black community does just exist in their minds. Not everything that happens to you is an act of racism. Maybe the reason no one likes you is because you're obnoxious, and obnoxious comes in all colors.
In the enduringly eloquent "I Have A Dream" speech, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., said: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
A colorblind society has not happened, and it's not going to happen as long as we have purveyors of hate, and the people who enable them.