The Speech Heard 'Round the World

Finally, Sen. Barack Obama has addressed race in his campaign and guess what, folks still aren't happy. Surprised? Don't be. I learned a long time ago that you can never please everybody so there is no need to try. Obama made several very valid points about race and some of the relationships that he has had that transcend race and go beyond the surface dressing that the rest of the world sees. Here's the Mar. 18 speech in its entirety: Since the beginning of this race, Obama has maintained that this election is not based on race, but on the issues. Well it seems that Obama's counterparts have made the main issue race and some have even gone so far as to say he's living in a fantasy world. Now that some of his now former pastor's comments made in church services have surfaced and doomed to live on in perpetuity on YouTube, some people are starting to question whether or not Obama and the pastor, Jeremiah A. Wright are in fact prejudice. Here's the sound bite: Never mind the more than 400 years of systematic racism that's been allowed to thrive in this country. Never mind that church is still the only place where you will be able to catch black folks in a group that transcends generational and socio-economic boundaries. Never mind the fact that Obama is bi-racial. Pay attention to the fact that people who do not understand the black church are now condemning it. Pay attention only to the fact that white Americans say black people should just "get over it" because it is the fault of our white ancestors. Only pay attention to the fact that we must fear, belittle and condemn what we don't know. "Why are you saying all this, Smarty?" Well I'm glad you asked. I'm saying this because in the beginning of this race, Obama was a Muslim masquerading as a Christian to get elected. Now that it has been "discovered" that he is a Christian, he's not the "kind" of Christian that is acceptable in America. I say to all of those critics and people, make up your mind. Either you want him to be a Christian or you don't. They used to say he wasn't black enough or he was too black. Again, I say, make up your mind! Here's a newsflash for you, a lot of black preachers, shoot, I'll go out on a limb and say the majority of black preachers have at some point addressed their congregation in a manner that relates closely to this whether about race, sexual orientation or gender specific topics. Don't believe me? Take in a church service at a predominantly black church after a major issue that affects the black community. I personally guarantee that the subject/sermon or what have you will be something similar to that one. The only thing wrong with that speech was the fact that he brought politics into the pulpit, other than that, more power to him. Church has always and forever been the core meeting place for people of color. There are no country clubs, no neighborhood committees or anything that resembles that outside of the church. I don't think Wright's speech was hate speech at all, add to that the fact that all we get is a freakin' sound bite so we don't know the context of his words. When people like Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and the whole Fox News team take words and twist them or take them out of context to mean what they want them to mean. Don't believe me, check out how she listens defensively and totally takes it all out of context: I'm not saying that people aren't entitled to their opinions but when people make these opinions with little or no information they are wrong. She strikes me as the type of person who has lived in a shell thinking that the world is good for her entire life and that America is always right. It bothers me that she is making a snap judgement about a pastor and all of his congregation and every sermon the man has ever preached based on the snippet of a sermon that she's heard and what people have told her. She, along with her cohorts, needs to attend a black church and I don't mean one of those dead churches without a whole lot going on. I mean one of those COGIC churches full of those "tongue-talking, sanctified, Holy Ghost-filled and fire-Baptised" kind of churches where those folks have been through some things. She needs to spend time in these black communities where racism is alive and well and where black folks still can't get ahead regardless of what they do. I don't understand how she equates the pastor telling his congregation that America is run by "rich, white men" to racist ideology. She acts like the man stood up in the pulpit and said, "Kill Whitey!" The man has stopped going to the church, denounced, rejected and renounced the preachers words. He said he doesn't agree with those statements and the pastor has recused himself from the campaign. Can we please move on now and get on with the business of electing a president?