The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and the Audacity of Truth
By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Saturday 22 March 2008
Over the past week or so, mainstream media have turned much of their attention
to the fiery sermons of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright. Dr. Wright is pastor to
Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) and his family. He was also, until recently,
pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ of Chicago.
Most of the discussion and commentary about Dr. Wright's sermons have come
from a predominantly white media. The points of discussion have centered on
what they consider to be the "vile, racist and un-American things"
said by Dr. Wright. Very few, if any, of the discussions have focused on the
historical basis and accuracy of what Dr. Wright actually said.
The major problem with the discussions is they have been largely one-sided.
The media have used the imagery of Dr. Wright, clad in African garb, shouting
in the cadence of an old-time fire and brimstone minister and playing to the
camera as a scare tactic. Has this become the "Willie Hortonization"
of Senator Barack Obama? The reporting and commentary on Dr. Wright's words
have been presented from the perspective of people who either have no appreciation
for the African-American historical experience or a personal agenda when it
comes to presenting these issues.
Dr. Wright is under attack for saying such things as "... the government
gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three strikes law, and
then wants us (African-Americans) to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no; not
'God Bless America,' God damn America ... for killing innocent people; God damn
America for treating its citizens as less than human...." These are very
strong words, delivered at what many are calling a possible turning point in
American history with regard to America's willingness to elect an African-American
candidate. While the mainstream media have found no merit in any of Dr. Wright's
statements, let's examine their merit from a historical basis.
When people read the Constitution, the supreme law of the United States, they
see the oldest governing constitution in the world. They see a great document
that has articulated the precepts of life, liberty and happiness that all in
this country try to follow. What is often overlooked are the parts of the Constitution
that laid the foundation for hundreds of years of slavery and oppression for
African-Americans; the constitutional framework for human beings to be treated
as less than human. It's these sections of the Constitution that America has
never truly atoned for and still refuses to make right.
Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution stated, "Representatives and
direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included
within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined
by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service
for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other
Persons." This was known as the Three-Fifths Compromise and laid the groundwork
for African slaves brought into America as forced labor to be defined as non-persons.
Article I, Section 9 allowed the importation of slaves to continue in America
for twenty-one years after ratification of the Constitution by declaring: "The
Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall
think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the
Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed
on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person." This section
only outlawed the importation of slaves once the domestic stock of slaves could
be replenished by natural birthrates and importation would no longer be needed;
again, treating its citizens as less than human.
Article IV, Section 2 stated, "No Person held to Service or Labour in
one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence
of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour,
But shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour
may be due." This was enforced by Congress on September 18, 1850, when
the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, allowing Southern states to reclaim slaves
that had escaped to the North.
The Three Fifths Compromise and the Fugitive Slave provisions were superseded
by constitutional amendments only after their damage to African-Americans had
been done and the benefit to America had been served.
It is very easy to wrap oneself in the history and glory that is America and
forget that from 1619 to 1868 (249 years) African-Americans suffered under the
brutality and oppression of government-supported chattel slavery. In 1857, as
Dred Scott, a slave, petitioned the US Supreme Court for his freedom, Chief
Justice Roger Taney wrote, "beings of an inferior order (African-Americans),
and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political
relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was
bound to respect."
Even after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865, the 14th Amendment
granted their citizenship, and the 15th Amendment grated them the right to vote,
from 1876 to 1965 (89 years) African-Americans continued to suffer under state-supported
Jim Crow oppression in America. This was codified in 1896 by another Supreme
Court decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the constitutionality
of racial segregation under the doctrine of separate but equal. These vestiges
of slavery and oppression still plague many sectors of the African-American
community, and the sense of white privilege they created continues to foster
a false sense of white entitlement.
This is just the historical background for Dr. Wright's comments. During his
lifetime he has dealt with segregated schools, separate and unequal education,
and discrimination in housing, employment and lending. He has witnessed civil
rights protesters beaten by the police, ravaged by dogs, brutalized by fire
hoses and COINTELPRO. Since his birth in 1941, an estimated 40 African-Americans
have been lynched in this country. He was 14 years old when Emmett Till was
brutally murdered and 23 years old when James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael
Schwerner were killed. Americans continue to deal with racial profiling, driving
while black, the disproportionate rate of incarceration of African-Americans,
the suspension of habeas corpus, warrantless wiretapping and other constitutional
violations.
Regarding Dr. Wright's comments about drugs and AIDS, let's not forget the
Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments. From 1932 to 1972, the US Public Health Service
(PHS) conducted an experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis.
These men, for the most part illiterate sharecroppers from one of the poorest
counties in Alabama, were never told what disease they were suffering from or
of its seriousness. In his May 16, 1997, apology, President Bill Clinton said:
"The United States government did something that was wrong - deeply, profoundly,
morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality
for all our citizens ... clearly racist."
With this historical understanding, it is not too far-fetched to think that
the US government could be involved in similar activity as it relates to AIDS.
What has been conspicuously absent from the discussions about Dr. Wright's
comments in mainstream media is any analysis of the validity of his comments
based upon his personal history and life experiences. It is very easy for white
commentators such as Bill O'Reilly to dismiss his sermons as racist diatribes,
since O'Reilly has no interest in trying to understand the plight of people
of color in America.
Dr. Wright has also said, "We have supported state terrorism against the
Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the
stuff we have done overseas is brought right back into our own front yard; America's
chickens are coming home to roost...." Well, let's examine the record.
The Arms Exports Control Act prohibits the president from furnishing military
aid to any country which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations
of internationally recognized human rights. In spite of all of the evidence
supporting claims of the Israeli government's human rights abuses of the Palestinian
people, for FY2005 the United States provided $2.22 billion in military aid.
This aid to Israel has a dramatic effect on Israel's policies towards the Palestinians.
It is the US funding that pays for the guns and ammunition, F-16 bombers and
Apache helicopters that are used to carry out Israel's occupation of Palestinian
land and people.
According to The Boston Globe, in 1984, just after Ronald Reagan's re-election,
Bishop Desmond Tutu referred to the Reagan administration's support for the
South African government as "Immoral, evil and totally un-Christian."
Reagan ignored the rising number of Americans who were calling for American
companies to stop doing business there. The president of so-called sunny optimism
attempted to blind Americans with his policy of "constructive engagement"
with the white minority regime in Pretoria. All constructive engagement did
was give the white minority more time to mow down the black majority in the
streets and keep dreamers of democracy, such as Nelson Mandela, behind bars.
History is replete with examples of the United States arranging to depose foreign
leaders. In 1909, President Taft ordered the overthrow of Nicaraguan President
Jose Santos Zelaya. According to Stephen Kinzer, "In Iran, Guatemala,
South Vietnam and Chile, diplomats and intelligence agents replaced generals
as the instruments of American intervention." More recent examples of US
intervention would be the invasion of Panama and the illegal invasion of Iraq.
Some may take issue with the earlier statement, "... the government gives
them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three strikes law, ..."
by asking, "is Rev. Wright accusing the US government of supplying drugs
to the black community?" This story has been well-documented in the 1996
San Jose Mercury News expose entitled "Dark Alliance: The CIA Complicity
in the Crack Epidemic."
I can understand people being uncomfortable with the comments made by the Rev.
Dr. Jeremiah Wright. White Americans have also been lied to, miseducated and
desensitized about the plight of African-Americans. With the help of the social
conservative agenda, many have developed a "deaf ear" when it comes
to issues regarding race. The truth, especially an ugly truth that forces Americans
to examine the precepts of America, "with liberty and justice for all,"
and compare them with the hypocrisy of the American reality can be troubling.
For far too long, Americans have been lulled into a false sense of security.
Americans have believed history as told by the oppressor and failed to understand
the reality of the oppressed.
Dr. Wright is not un-American. He embodies what America was founded upon, the
free exchange of ideas in the public space, speaking truth to power, challenging
America to be the best that it can be. The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright's views
might not reconcile with many Americans' perceptions of America, but they must
not be discarded as the ranting of an angry man. His statements were founded
in the historical truths that African-Americans have and continue to live through.
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Dr. Wilmer Leon is producer/host of the nationally broadcast call-in
talk radio program "On With Leon" on XM Satellite Radio Channel 169;
producer/host of the television program "Inside the Issues With Wilmer
Leon" and a teaching associate in the Department of Political Science at
Howard University in Washington, DC. Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email: wjl3us@yahoo.com.
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