Jeremiah Wright Can Preach To Me Any Day Of The Week

Way back in March I promised a commentary on the Rev. Wright scandal. Here it is, three months later, but with tons of quotes. The below text was originally part of my rant against Dr. James Dobson, but I realized it was extraneous and distracting.

Rev. Wright angrily exclaiming, "Hillary ain't never been called a n*gger!" did not offend me. It shouldn't offend you, either, as it is the TRUTH. Open your eyes: Hillary is a very, VERY white woman. Her roots are not working class, nor did she have to overcome adversity to get to where she is today. All she had to do was marry a guy who became governor, then later President. And when he got a fatty to slob his knob and - oops - he lied about it (I believe the legalese term for that is "Obstruction of Justice"), all she had to do was stay with the guy to bolster her image among women as strong and independent.

The n-word, which I still have a problem saying or even typing beyond a euphemistic idiom (n-word, n*gger), should not be offensive in that context. For one, a black man is saying it. More importantly, he is using it to make a point. I doubt many people have ever told Hillary Clinton, "You can't do this because you're a woman." I doubt she has ever been discriminated against. A black girl in my 6th grade class was referred to with that heinous word by one of the less intelligent members of our community. The boy was suspended for it, and when the girl told me what he had called her, I apologized on behalf of my entire race.

Her response? "It's fine, I've been called that before."

Sounds like this can be a regularly occurring insult, one thrown their way for NO reason other than the color of their skin. That running joke of the n-word being "their" word, that is, African-Americans can say it, but other races cannot, is rendered completely unfunny by this notion.

When Rev. Wright said any of the following comments...
+ "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and The Pentagon, and we never batted an eye... and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
+ "[The United States] government lied about their belief that all men were created equal. The truth is they believed that all white men were created equal. The truth is they did not even believe that white women were created equal, in creation nor civilization. The government had to pass an amendment to the Constitution to get white women the vote. Then the government had to pass an equal rights amendment to get equal protection under the law for women. The government still thinks a woman has no rights over her own body, and between Uncle Clarence [Thomas], who sexually harassed Anita Hill, and a closeted Klan court, that is a throwback to the 19th century, handpicked by Daddy Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, between Clarence and that stacked court, they are about to undo Roe vs. Wade, just like they are about to un-do affirmative action. The government lied in its founding documents and the government is still lying today. Governments lie."
+ "The government lied about the Gulf of Tonkin. They wanted that resolution to get us in the Vietnam War. Governments lie. The government lied about Nelson Mandela and our CIA helped put him in prison and keep him there for 27 years. The South African government lied on Nelson Mandela. Governments lie."
+ "The government lied about the Tuskegee experiment. They purposely infected African American men with syphilis. Governments lie. The government lied about bombing Cambodia and Richard Nixon stood in front of the camera, ‘Let me make myself perfectly clear…’ Governments lie. The government lied about the drugs for arms Contra scheme orchestrated by Oliver North, and then the government pardoned all the perpetrators so they could get better jobs in the government. Governments lie.... The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. Governments lie. The government lied about a connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein and a connection between 9.11.01 and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Governments lie."
+ "The government lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq being a threat to the United States peace. And guess what else? If they don’t find them some weapons of mass destruction, they gonna do just like the LAPD, and plant the some weapons of mass destruction. Governments lie."
+ "And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on reservations. When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in internment prison camps. When it came to treating her citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains, the government put them on slave quarters, put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton field, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of their racist bastions of higher education and locked them into positions of hopelessness and helplessness...The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, not God Bless America. God damn America — that's in the Bible — for killing innocent people. God damn America, as long as she pretends to act like she is God, and she is supreme. The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of African descent."
...I didn't bat an eye!

The allegations he makes I agree with, and other things he says are nothing more than historic FACT. I'm well aware the truth can hurt, but goddammit, people! If pieces of shit like James Dobson can hold a PhD. and act as a demagogue to hordes of check-mailing sheep, sputtering forth rhetoric that suggests HE knows what is best for America, that HE knows what is best for gays, that HE knows what is best for women's reproductive rights, and that HE knows the one and true interpretation of the Bible, then Rev. Jeremiah Wright also possesses the inalienable right - NOT PRIVILEGE - to say whatever he wants, let alone the right to speak the truth.

Alex