Get Over It White People
"I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked, and rightly so, "What about Vietnam?" They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent." -Martin Luther KingThose preceding quotes say the same thing about the agony people of color feel when discussing the United States. So where's the difference? Would you call Martin Luther King Jr. divisive? Would you term his anger with his home "misplaced?"
"The government gives [black peoples] the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he is right!
"God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme." - Jeremiah Wright
No.
So why the anger at Jeremiah Wright for expressing the same sentiment, albeit with different words?
Two Black preachers, both Americans, both lovers of the nation of their birth, both disappointed in the inability of their nation to live up to her potential. Real talk: given the history of our nation, you cannot rightfully expect for any person of color to be completely sanguine and pleasant in referring to their feelings regarding the American Experiment.
OK, this is gonna hurt, white folks. Not all of you, but many of you (and some Black folks) need to GET OVER YOURSELVES!
Face it, this is the state of current political and social affairs in the black community. This is what many, if not most, of us feel about America, a mixed sense of pride and shame in the country we call home. We love and alternately hate what this nation stands for, because we occupy an interesting position in its history. And that has textured our opinions, and how we speak about the United States.
So Jeremiah Wright uttered some words, unpleasant to your ears. Sometimes, the truth is hard to hear.
And by the way, check your Old Testament scripture, where at many points the "damnation" of a people, tribe or nation was a common occurrence; damnation, and damning, in the sense of condemnation for behavior untoward for a great nation, a great people.
So if you don't like hearing such language, urge our government to live up to its potential. Urge our government to not just give lip-service to equality. Live up to its potential. Urge our government to cease support for despots and oppressors worldwide. Live up to its potential. Urge our government to demonstrate the "Judeo-Christian" ideals it claims to represent.
Live up to its potential.
Until then, you can expect to hear preachers of color deliver fiery sermons in the liberation theological tradition, and you can continue to expect to hear them condemn and warn this nation of the consequences God has for our nation, a nation claims to follow such lofty ideals based on the tenets expressed in all religions, fairness and most of all, love.
Bottom line, Jeremiah Wright and his truth-speaking is not your problem.
Our government is.
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This topic really got under my skin. The reaction from many White Americans just blows my mind and makes steam come out of my ears. Trust me, I'm a person with a world view who has friends from all walks of life, but I am floored by White people who don't get why Black Americans aren't about waving the flag and wearing lapel pins. Are you #$#%ing serious? I used to be able to listen to Joe Scarborough as the ONLY conservative pundit I could tolerate. I mean you have to know what the opposition is up to right? Anyway, when I heard him say that White people just don't want to deal with this, I'm like too fuckin' bad. 'Scuse my French. Do you think Black people wanted to deal with slavery, lynching, being denied equal status in this country, being made to sit in the back of the bus, being harassed, being dragged behind trucks, being denied employment? I could go on and on. The steam first started coming out of my ears when the criticisms started coming in about Michelle Obama's comments about being proud of America for the first time. You know what Michelle? I can freakin' dig it. Don't apologize for that. Then that pipsqueak Tucker Carlson is outraged that Blacks could believe that the U.S. government planted AIDS and drugs in the Black community. Has he never heard of the Tuskegee Experiment? It's not such a leap. People who are guilty of wrong doings, often don't want others to remind them of their transgressions. We'll sorry if it makes you squirm White America. Deal with it.