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Obama Must Explain Wright's Influence

Posted by Mhu Cao on Friday, March 07, 2008 9:05:07 PM
Obama must explain Rev. Wright's influence on his views of race, religion, and unity in this country.

Who is this Rev. Wright?  Why is such an inquiry relevant?

Obama belongs to the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Its pastor, Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. is Obama's spiritual mentor (in Obama's words).
 
Wright preaches using a black separationist philosophy based on "black liberation theology." What does this mean?
 
Wasn't Wright the one who converted Obama to Christianity?  Surely, after 20 years, Wright has made some impact on Obama.  If not, was Obama really attending church to find spiritual inspiration, or did he attend just because it was fun to go?
 
In 2007, TUCC and Wright presented Farrakhan with a Lifetime Achievement Award, praising his "integrity and honesty" as as one of the giants of the African-American religious experience in the 20th and 21st centuries.
 
What does it take to be recognized for a Lifetime Achievement Award by Wright and TUCC?  Wouldn't the selection of the awardee give substantial insight into the views, values, and beliefs of the awarding spiritual organization and its spiritual leader? 

Farrakhan is the leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI). (NOI is *not* a Muslim sect or a branch of Islam, but a socio-political organization borrowing the word Islam to achieve its ends.  Some Muslims refer to the NOI teachings as "Farrakhanism."  The "soldiers" of the NOI are known as the Fruits of Islam). 

Farrakhan's occasional good deeds for the community notwithstanding, he is a raving bigot who *openly* advocates the outright destruction of America. 

Farrakhan is rabidly anti-white, anti-Asian, anti-Hispanic, anti-Jew, anti-Christian (of flavors he dislikes), and homophobic.

Farrakhan has made hate speeches and lectures for over three decades, targeting Jews ("bloodsuckers"), whites ("blue-eyed devils" and the "anti-Christ"), America, and homosexuals.

Farrakhan believes that Jews control the government, the media, and some black organizations. Women are expected to remain in the background, serving their men.
 
So, this is the kind of "man" who deserves a Lifetime Achievement Award from Wright and Obama's church. Certainly, it would be reasonable to make some logical inferences. 

Not guilt by association as much as grounds for pointed questions to be asked, of Obama, if not Wright.

What else does Rev. Wright advocate? Slavery reparations.

The following is available on the Internet via the included links:

============================================
 
Reparations for Blacks, a ‘mission of God’

The Reverend Jim Wallis has called racism America’s greatest sin before God. That sin is exacerbated by the fact that America has never repented for the sin she committed against hundreds of millions of Africans in chattel slavery.  “To admit to that sin, to confess that mistake and to apologize for a wrong for which there is no justification is not something that anyone with a racist mind would ever consider as a possibility,” says The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Senior Pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ, of Chicago.
 
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of presidential candidate, Barak Obama, will be the keynote speaker at the 20th Anniversary Gala of the National Conference of Blacks for Reparations in America (N ‘COBRA) on Thursday, June 21 2007,  7:00PM at 3801 Market Street.   “The biblical principle of true repentance is that the offended party is given compensation to make up for that which has been stolen from them, the losses they have been inflicted upon them and their families,” said Rev. Wright in a written statement to N’COBRA.

===================================

Note how Wright advertises himself as "pastor of presidential candidate, Barak Obama."  Not bad self-promotion there, Reverend.

So what do we understand about Wright?

Both Wright and Farrakhan are ardent black separationists.
Both Wright and Farrakhan are ardent slavery reparations advocates.
 
This isn't guilt by association as much as "birds of a feather, fly together." With Farrakhan and Wright, it isn't guilt by association as much as association of the guilty.

At least, Wright has *not* been anti-Semitic, as far as I could see. 

It is not enough that Obama "distances" himself from Wright's Lifetime Achievement Award comments, considering that, for 20 years, Obama called Wright his spiritual mentor.  Is Obama going to renounce 20 years of Wright's separatism, too?
 
Is it not enough that Obama gives a wink-and-nod "rejection" of Farrakhan, considering that Farrakhan himself acknowledged that Obama's rejection was a necessary inconvenience.  Farrakhan and Wright go way back.  How far back does Obama go, too?
 
These are legitimate questions for a Presidential candidate.

Obama must provide clear, unambiguous explanations of his views on racial divide, particularly how 20 years of Rev. Wright's black separationist sermons have influenced his views. 

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The Race Issue Was Bound To Get Out Of Hand Anyway ...

Posted by Mhu Cao on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 3:15:54 PM

The race issue was bound to get out of hand anyway.  It doesn't matter who threw the mud, or who threw it first.

There are two components to the race issue in this election cycle:
     *    Black vs. everyone else
     *    Black vs. brown

On the black vs. everyone else aspect, many blacks voice outrage over actual, symbolic, or perceived victimization by whites, in general, by Jews, by Asians, by "corporate Amerika," by descendants of slave owners, by Uncle Toms, and by nearly anyone else handy enough to be formed into a convenient oppressor.  The culprit(s) for their hardships come from outside parasites, bloodsuckers, and evildoers.

This is the Gospel of separatists such as Louis Farrakhan, the New Black Panther Party, and more subtly, of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's spiritual mentor.  One carrot being dangled by these ardent separatists is the whispered promise of slavery reparations.  Obama will make things "right."
 
When it comes to black vs. everyone else, the churches, mosques, and radio shows become focal points of political inspiration that exhort the faithful to vote for "their" candidate, because their "time has come."  This mentality only serves to guarantee a sense of being robbed, should their candidate not prevail in the general election.

On the black v. brown aspect, many black voice outrage at the influx of undocumented hispanics into their regions, who are creating fierce competition for increasingly scarce public resources -- health care, welfare, education, community programs, and the like. 

Many blacks realize that the jobs taken by the brown man are not jobs that "Americans won't take," but jobs they used to have.  The leaders who chanted that mantra are viewed by some as selling out the black folk (again).  At least some of those entry jobs were a start for ex-cons, those straightening out their lives, or others getting a fresh start.   

Increasingly, many unskilled or semi-skilled jobs require workers to speak Spanish, so they are able to communicate with their co-workers or their supervisors, as well as patients, customers, or clients.  For some jobs, high school drop out Spanish speakers can find work, while high school graduates struggle to find work.  Finding work this way results in a perverse incentive for Latinos to drop out of high school, and in a penalty for black students who worked successfully toward graduation.

Some Latinos voice disgust with the blacks who challenge their ascendancy, countering that blacks have not shown the motivation to work that brown workers do.  After all, they reason, that is why the bulk of undocumented workers flock to the USA -- in search of jobs.  Regardless, in each community, there are stereotypes building of the other, which will only serve to deepen strife.
 
Black-brown violence is increasing steadily.  Organized transnational latino gangs, like MS-13, are displacing the "mom and pop" or neighborhood-based black drug sellers and racketeers.  The effects on the local underground economy can be profound. 

Also, these gangs operate out of pure hate as much as they do a profit motive.  The racial hate and turf wars are at the core of random killings in the other's communities, as is happening in LA and other large metropolitan areas.  The victims are usually innocents, walking home, to school, or to the store.

While few from either community are involved in the gang or criminal activities, the horrific and senseless murders of good, creative relatives, friends, and neighbors serves to build an explosive tension between the black and the brown.

The current community leaders seem powerless to slow or stop the random murders, or to join the communities.  Obama has become the instrument of promise that these leaders wave to their constituents as the cure for their communities' ills. 
To be sure, there is no monolithic "black" or "brown" community, just as none exist for "white," "red," or "yellow" communities. 

Even so, Obama's candidacy has galvanized the disparate black groups into voting for him, even if it means turning away from the Clintons, and leaving national security up to whistling past the graveyard.  After all, the War Against Terrorism and the War for Iraq are the white man's wars. 

Up until now, brown voters have not made a significant impact, as a voting bloc, on the Democratic race.

It seems that black is voting and brown is leaving town. 

Whether this black/brown trend will reverse in Texas remains to be seen. 

Whether Hillary Clinton can draw together enough of a "rainbow coalition" to prevail in Ohio will be known by this time tomorrow.  My money is that Pennsylvania will be a resounding triumph for Obama, unless he grossly stumbles over the next month.  I'm also guessing that Obama will create a larger schism between the races.

If Hillary Clinton suffers significant losses in the campaigns ahead, many Democratic voters of all races -- who can't subscribe to the smoke, mirrors, and empty hope of Obama -- will be in search of a candidate who can at least reach out to them and seek to settle their concerns.

To win in November, Republicans at every level ought to pay attention to these details, to consider what assets their candidates have that are important to these disaffected Democrats, and to persuade them that their vote ought not be directed to an ideology of false hope but to candidate who have proven track records of getting things done, even if imperfectly. 
 
Your thoughts and comments are welcomed.
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