Saturday, May 10, 2008

Reverend Wright is a Racial Issue - and Rightly So

One interesting thing about the mainstream "conservative" treatment of the Reverend Wright controversy is the fact that most of the Wright critics downplay, dismiss, or deny the racial component of this.

There is often a sort of disclaimer to say that "it's not the color of his skin, but the things he said," or the statement (true enough) that they would do the same thing with a white pastor who said the same things.

What does not get mentioned too often, though, is the fact that there is indeed a racial element, but that this element is totally legitimate.

A lot of people, when seeing what Reverend Wright says, think "is this what he believes?" And then they think "do most blacks agree with him?" When they realize that a large number of black people do indeed view the U.S. as a country that is defined primarily by its racism, a lot of htem wonder "do we really want a black person as President if he believes this way?"

And that is a perfectly legitimate question, as "racist" as it may seem.

As Steve Sailer has pointed out, it is not Wright so much as Obama's own radicalism in the past that is at issue here. Wright is just a revealer of Obama's (former?) radicalism rather than the real issue per se.

That is all.

No comments: