G
Gandalf Grey
Guest
Hannity, Clinton, Obama, Rev. Wright and "Racism 101"
By Walter C. Uhler
Created Mar 28 2008 - 9:25am
Part One: "Not God Bless America. God Damn America"
What are we to make of FOX NEWS hate-monger, Sean Hannity? Years after he
gave Neo-Nazi Hal Turner a secret guest call-in number to WABC -- in order
to assure that his calls could always get on his radio show -- Hannity
recently "broke" a story about the inflammatory rhetoric occasionally used
by Barack Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (Quote from Hannity:
"I broke this story.")
And, now, a desperate Hillary Clinton is piling on. Not only has she said
that Jeremiah Wright "would not have been my pastor," she also mistakenly
compared Rev. Wright's statements with those of Don Imus -- which is
something nobody familiar the moral asymmetries in racism would ever do.
But, first, to Mr. Hannity's ties to Mr. Turner. It was Turner, you'll
recall, who said on the air that, except for the graciousness of white
people, "black people would still be swinging on trees in Africa." In fact,
Mr. Turner, were it not for the black people originating in Africa, the
earth would have no white people. Moreover, bipedalism preceded white skin
by millions of years. "Swinging on trees," indeed!
We wouldn't be addressing Turner's racist rants, however, had Hannity not
exhibited traits of a recidivist racist by taking seemingly inflammatory
comments by Rev. Wright out of context in order to smear Senator Obama. In
fact (as I'll demonstrate below), only by pulling Rev. Wright's comments out
of context, could Mr. Hannity issue his insidious warning: If Barack Obama
"agreed with Wright.that would mean a racist and an anti-Semite would be
president of the United States."
Hannity's recidivist racism goes back at least as far as March 1, 2007, when
he interviewed Rev. Wright and took great pains to paint Wright's Trinity
Unity Church of Christ as a black separatist church. Here's Hannity's line
of argument: "Commitment to the black community, commitment to the black
family, adherence to the black work ethic. It goes on, pledge, you know,
acquired skills available to the black community, strengthening and
supporting black institutions, pledging allegiance to all black leadership
who have embraced the black value system, personal commitment to the
embracement of the black value system."
"Now Reverend," Hannity continued, "if every time we said black, if there
was a church and those words were white, wouldn't we call that church
racist?"
In fact, the correct answer is: "Yes, we would." And then, of course, we'd
explain why it would be racist for whites, but not racist for blacks.
Unfortunately, Rev. Wright's answer lacked clarity: "We don't have to say
the word 'white.' We just have to live in white America, the United States
of white America."
Fortunately, a clue about why the answer would be, "Yes, we would," can be
found in professor Lawrence Blum's book, "I'm Not a Racist, But." The Moral
Quandary of Race. On page 63, professor Blum writes about his encounters
with white students who, like Hannity, ask "why it is regarded as legitimate
for students of color to have their own organizations and activities, but
not them."
In every instance, Blum reminds them: "Within a white-dominated institution,
white students do not need special support for their identity. They are much
less likely to experience objectionable stereotyping and racial
discrimination." [p. 63]
Such impeccable logic, Mr. Hannity, also holds for white churches in
white-dominated America.
However, why so many whites feel the need to raise such a question is,
itself, an interesting question. And two students of racial attitudes appear
to have the answer: "In contrast to much of the literature focusing on
whites, African Americans' racial attitudes and policy preferences seem to
be driven more by their in-group bias than out-group animus." [Vincent L.
Hutchings and Nicholas A. Valentino "The Centrality of Race in American
Politics," p. 395] "Black's history of slavery and discrimination has
encouraged them to evaluate policies [and, presumably, give sermons about
them] based on their perceived impact on the racial group." [Ibid]
Thus, Mr. Hannity, it appears that you and many other whites have
misconstrued the "in-group bias" of Rev. Wright's church to be "out-group
animus." Could it be that "out-group animus" is the only racial attitude you
understand?
As most of us know, African-Americans suffered the abomination of slavery
for nearly 250 years. And, in order to justify that abomination,
slave-owning whites fabricated and spread the BIG LIE about the innate
inferiority of blacks. The BIG LIE even gained the support of respectable
scientists, such as the polygenist, Louis Agassiz. ("Indeed, the Nazis were
distinctly influenced by American racial thought." [Blum, p. 4]) But, more
significantly, "No respectable scientist challenged the idea of race and its
corollary, white supremacy, until the early decades of the twentieth
century." [Blum, p. 126]
Thus, blacks were widely viewed to be senseless brutes and often abused as
such, especially in the South. Consequently, nothing prohibited America's
slaves from being ruthlessly exploited to generate enormous excess wealth
for undeserving white Americans.
But even worse than such antebellum suffering and exploitation was the
totalitarian system of racism that gripped the South for nearly another
century. Called Jim Crow, it was a system of segregation, continued economic
exploitation, KKK ascendance, lynch mob terrorism and racial cleansings
"that emptied entire counties" of black residents.
For example, during 1912 in Forsyth County, Georgia, "more than a thousand
people - 97 percent of the county's black population - were driven out over
a period of about two months. They owned 1,900 acres of farmland, nearly all
of which they were forced to sell or abandon. The county's five black
churches were burned." [Elliot Jaspin, Buried in the Bitter Waters: The
Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America, p. 4]. Such racial cleansings
occurred repeatedly from the period of Reconstruction up to the 1920s.
Thus, as you can see Mr. Hannity, even this brief introduction to "Racism
101" -- which has yet to address the Cracker-inspired Affirmative Action for
whites and "symbolic racism" that would prevail in America during the second
half of the twentieth century -- would provide solid justification for Rev.
Wright's words: "God Damn America."
Moreover, were Americans to watch the actual sermon containing Rev. Wright's
seemingly unpatriotic and inflammatory words, they would find that he was
contrasting the unwavering love and justice of God against the immorality of
governments - governments from the days of the Roman Empire to the
present-day United States of America. What Christian would dispute that?
Thus, Rev. Wright talked about the injustices suffered by African-American
slaves prior to Abraham Lincoln. Then, he added: "But I stop by to tell you
tonight that governments change."
Rev. Wright then contrasted the good U.S governments of Harry Truman and
Bill Clinton with the poor government of George W. Bush, but only to deliver
his main point: "Where governments change, God doesn't change."
At that point, Rev. Wright asked his congregation to turn to Malachi 3:6,
which reads: "For I am the Lord, and I change not." He then proceeded to
interpret that passage as follows: "God was against slavery on yesterday,
and God, who does not change, is still against slavery today. God was a God
of love yesterday, and God who does not change is still a God of love today.
God was a God of justice on yesterday, and God who does not change, is still
a God of justice today."
Noting, "governments fail," Rev. Wright then proclaimed the failures of the
Roman, British, Russian, Japanese and German empires -- before returning his
attention to America's failures:
"And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her
citizens of Indian [Native American] descent, she failed. She put them on
reservations."
"When it came to putting her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she
failed. She put them in internment prison camps."
"When it came to putting the 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 fields. Put them in inferior
schools. Put them in substandard housing. Put them in scientific
experiments. Put them in the lower 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. Naw, naw, naw. Not
God Bless America. God Damn America! That's in the Bible. For killing
innocent people. God Damn America for treating us citizens as less than
human. God Damn America as long as she tries 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."
So, Mr. Hannity, does Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermon sound more reasonable to
you, now that you've read Part One of my "Racism 101," and now that you've
read his words in context?
I must confess that I doubt God gives a damn about the fate of any country.
But most Christians, including the Christians in Rev. Wright's church and
all of America's Christian Zionists, believe God does. In fact, many
Christians believe that God will damn America if it fails to defend Israel.
Thus, applying these widespread Christian beliefs, I fail to see what's so
objectionable about Rev. Wright's sermon?
That being the case, I suggest, Mr. Hannity, that you dispense with your
hate mongering against Rev. Wright and, by extension, Senator Obama.
And you, Senator Clinton, should know better than to equate Rev. Wright's
comments with those of Don Imus. I suggest you read Lawrence Blum's book,
I'm Not a Racist, But., especially his thoughts about the "moral asymmetries
in racism."
Although Blum discusses four specific moral asymmetries, you would be well
advised to memorize the following: "Some forms of racism are central and
paradigmatic, others are secondary. The former have defined for us what
racism is. They are tied to the rationale.for the intense moral opprobrium
carried by the term 'racism.' That rationale involved oppression, hatred,
and discrimination against people of color, and most especially blacks and
Native Americans, by whites, not the reverse. Everything else being equal,
greater moral opprobrium rightly attaches to racism by whites against people
of color than the reverse. This is the most important moral asymmetry in
racism." [pp. 43-44]
Finally, Senator Obama, you need to dispense with your politically motivated
distancing from Rev, Wright's forthright condemnation of American racism.
Instead, recall the wise words of Mark Twain: "Patriotism is supporting your
country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." Or, better
yet, consider that, just days prior to his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. called his mother to tell her that his next sermon would be
titled: "Why America May Go to Hell."
Finally, before the three of you persist in your respective hate-mongering,
racial triangulation and political retreat, consider the immortal words that
Thomas Jefferson wrote about the morally debilitating impact of slavery:
"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their
only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these
liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his
wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that
his justice cannot sleep for ever . . .."
Wasn't Thomas Jefferson suggesting that a just God would damn America?
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Walter C. Uhler
Created Mar 28 2008 - 9:25am
Part One: "Not God Bless America. God Damn America"
What are we to make of FOX NEWS hate-monger, Sean Hannity? Years after he
gave Neo-Nazi Hal Turner a secret guest call-in number to WABC -- in order
to assure that his calls could always get on his radio show -- Hannity
recently "broke" a story about the inflammatory rhetoric occasionally used
by Barack Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (Quote from Hannity:
"I broke this story.")
And, now, a desperate Hillary Clinton is piling on. Not only has she said
that Jeremiah Wright "would not have been my pastor," she also mistakenly
compared Rev. Wright's statements with those of Don Imus -- which is
something nobody familiar the moral asymmetries in racism would ever do.
But, first, to Mr. Hannity's ties to Mr. Turner. It was Turner, you'll
recall, who said on the air that, except for the graciousness of white
people, "black people would still be swinging on trees in Africa." In fact,
Mr. Turner, were it not for the black people originating in Africa, the
earth would have no white people. Moreover, bipedalism preceded white skin
by millions of years. "Swinging on trees," indeed!
We wouldn't be addressing Turner's racist rants, however, had Hannity not
exhibited traits of a recidivist racist by taking seemingly inflammatory
comments by Rev. Wright out of context in order to smear Senator Obama. In
fact (as I'll demonstrate below), only by pulling Rev. Wright's comments out
of context, could Mr. Hannity issue his insidious warning: If Barack Obama
"agreed with Wright.that would mean a racist and an anti-Semite would be
president of the United States."
Hannity's recidivist racism goes back at least as far as March 1, 2007, when
he interviewed Rev. Wright and took great pains to paint Wright's Trinity
Unity Church of Christ as a black separatist church. Here's Hannity's line
of argument: "Commitment to the black community, commitment to the black
family, adherence to the black work ethic. It goes on, pledge, you know,
acquired skills available to the black community, strengthening and
supporting black institutions, pledging allegiance to all black leadership
who have embraced the black value system, personal commitment to the
embracement of the black value system."
"Now Reverend," Hannity continued, "if every time we said black, if there
was a church and those words were white, wouldn't we call that church
racist?"
In fact, the correct answer is: "Yes, we would." And then, of course, we'd
explain why it would be racist for whites, but not racist for blacks.
Unfortunately, Rev. Wright's answer lacked clarity: "We don't have to say
the word 'white.' We just have to live in white America, the United States
of white America."
Fortunately, a clue about why the answer would be, "Yes, we would," can be
found in professor Lawrence Blum's book, "I'm Not a Racist, But." The Moral
Quandary of Race. On page 63, professor Blum writes about his encounters
with white students who, like Hannity, ask "why it is regarded as legitimate
for students of color to have their own organizations and activities, but
not them."
In every instance, Blum reminds them: "Within a white-dominated institution,
white students do not need special support for their identity. They are much
less likely to experience objectionable stereotyping and racial
discrimination." [p. 63]
Such impeccable logic, Mr. Hannity, also holds for white churches in
white-dominated America.
However, why so many whites feel the need to raise such a question is,
itself, an interesting question. And two students of racial attitudes appear
to have the answer: "In contrast to much of the literature focusing on
whites, African Americans' racial attitudes and policy preferences seem to
be driven more by their in-group bias than out-group animus." [Vincent L.
Hutchings and Nicholas A. Valentino "The Centrality of Race in American
Politics," p. 395] "Black's history of slavery and discrimination has
encouraged them to evaluate policies [and, presumably, give sermons about
them] based on their perceived impact on the racial group." [Ibid]
Thus, Mr. Hannity, it appears that you and many other whites have
misconstrued the "in-group bias" of Rev. Wright's church to be "out-group
animus." Could it be that "out-group animus" is the only racial attitude you
understand?
As most of us know, African-Americans suffered the abomination of slavery
for nearly 250 years. And, in order to justify that abomination,
slave-owning whites fabricated and spread the BIG LIE about the innate
inferiority of blacks. The BIG LIE even gained the support of respectable
scientists, such as the polygenist, Louis Agassiz. ("Indeed, the Nazis were
distinctly influenced by American racial thought." [Blum, p. 4]) But, more
significantly, "No respectable scientist challenged the idea of race and its
corollary, white supremacy, until the early decades of the twentieth
century." [Blum, p. 126]
Thus, blacks were widely viewed to be senseless brutes and often abused as
such, especially in the South. Consequently, nothing prohibited America's
slaves from being ruthlessly exploited to generate enormous excess wealth
for undeserving white Americans.
But even worse than such antebellum suffering and exploitation was the
totalitarian system of racism that gripped the South for nearly another
century. Called Jim Crow, it was a system of segregation, continued economic
exploitation, KKK ascendance, lynch mob terrorism and racial cleansings
"that emptied entire counties" of black residents.
For example, during 1912 in Forsyth County, Georgia, "more than a thousand
people - 97 percent of the county's black population - were driven out over
a period of about two months. They owned 1,900 acres of farmland, nearly all
of which they were forced to sell or abandon. The county's five black
churches were burned." [Elliot Jaspin, Buried in the Bitter Waters: The
Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America, p. 4]. Such racial cleansings
occurred repeatedly from the period of Reconstruction up to the 1920s.
Thus, as you can see Mr. Hannity, even this brief introduction to "Racism
101" -- which has yet to address the Cracker-inspired Affirmative Action for
whites and "symbolic racism" that would prevail in America during the second
half of the twentieth century -- would provide solid justification for Rev.
Wright's words: "God Damn America."
Moreover, were Americans to watch the actual sermon containing Rev. Wright's
seemingly unpatriotic and inflammatory words, they would find that he was
contrasting the unwavering love and justice of God against the immorality of
governments - governments from the days of the Roman Empire to the
present-day United States of America. What Christian would dispute that?
Thus, Rev. Wright talked about the injustices suffered by African-American
slaves prior to Abraham Lincoln. Then, he added: "But I stop by to tell you
tonight that governments change."
Rev. Wright then contrasted the good U.S governments of Harry Truman and
Bill Clinton with the poor government of George W. Bush, but only to deliver
his main point: "Where governments change, God doesn't change."
At that point, Rev. Wright asked his congregation to turn to Malachi 3:6,
which reads: "For I am the Lord, and I change not." He then proceeded to
interpret that passage as follows: "God was against slavery on yesterday,
and God, who does not change, is still against slavery today. God was a God
of love yesterday, and God who does not change is still a God of love today.
God was a God of justice on yesterday, and God who does not change, is still
a God of justice today."
Noting, "governments fail," Rev. Wright then proclaimed the failures of the
Roman, British, Russian, Japanese and German empires -- before returning his
attention to America's failures:
"And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her
citizens of Indian [Native American] descent, she failed. She put them on
reservations."
"When it came to putting her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she
failed. She put them in internment prison camps."
"When it came to putting the 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 fields. Put them in inferior
schools. Put them in substandard housing. Put them in scientific
experiments. Put them in the lower 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. Naw, naw, naw. Not
God Bless America. God Damn America! That's in the Bible. For killing
innocent people. God Damn America for treating us citizens as less than
human. God Damn America as long as she tries 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."
So, Mr. Hannity, does Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermon sound more reasonable to
you, now that you've read Part One of my "Racism 101," and now that you've
read his words in context?
I must confess that I doubt God gives a damn about the fate of any country.
But most Christians, including the Christians in Rev. Wright's church and
all of America's Christian Zionists, believe God does. In fact, many
Christians believe that God will damn America if it fails to defend Israel.
Thus, applying these widespread Christian beliefs, I fail to see what's so
objectionable about Rev. Wright's sermon?
That being the case, I suggest, Mr. Hannity, that you dispense with your
hate mongering against Rev. Wright and, by extension, Senator Obama.
And you, Senator Clinton, should know better than to equate Rev. Wright's
comments with those of Don Imus. I suggest you read Lawrence Blum's book,
I'm Not a Racist, But., especially his thoughts about the "moral asymmetries
in racism."
Although Blum discusses four specific moral asymmetries, you would be well
advised to memorize the following: "Some forms of racism are central and
paradigmatic, others are secondary. The former have defined for us what
racism is. They are tied to the rationale.for the intense moral opprobrium
carried by the term 'racism.' That rationale involved oppression, hatred,
and discrimination against people of color, and most especially blacks and
Native Americans, by whites, not the reverse. Everything else being equal,
greater moral opprobrium rightly attaches to racism by whites against people
of color than the reverse. This is the most important moral asymmetry in
racism." [pp. 43-44]
Finally, Senator Obama, you need to dispense with your politically motivated
distancing from Rev, Wright's forthright condemnation of American racism.
Instead, recall the wise words of Mark Twain: "Patriotism is supporting your
country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." Or, better
yet, consider that, just days prior to his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. called his mother to tell her that his next sermon would be
titled: "Why America May Go to Hell."
Finally, before the three of you persist in your respective hate-mongering,
racial triangulation and political retreat, consider the immortal words that
Thomas Jefferson wrote about the morally debilitating impact of slavery:
"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their
only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these
liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his
wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that
his justice cannot sleep for ever . . .."
Wasn't Thomas Jefferson suggesting that a just God would damn America?
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
