SecretMethod70

Please don't take this the wrong way, because it's nothing against you, but sometimes I feel like the American south in its attitude toward its history of racial problems is a lot like Germany and its difficulty with its own Nazi history.

(yeah yeah, I know, Godwin's law, bear with me)

The Germans generally don't deal with their past head on. They're very apologetic about it, to be sure, but they also try to shove it away into a little box that they've locked and hidden in an ubersecret location. They go so far as to stifle speech and expression, making the nazi symbol illegal.

I often feel like the American south has a similar attitude toward racial issues. "Yes, we had slavery, we're sorry, let's move on." "How dare you, Mr. Black Man, acknowledge our history of oppression and, worse yet, be angry about it. It's in the past!"

Obama had a valid point when he described how white people feel resentment and feel like they're being punished for something they never did. It's something we need to face head on. And I think the inclination for the American south to want to pretend like everything is all better is in many ways related to this.

John Stuart Mill made a point in On Liberty (I'm sorry, I can't cite it specifically) that we need to allow even offensive viewpoints to be discussed. It is only by airing these things out in the open that we can learn - and continually remember - why they are bad. Germany is now having a bit of a resurgance of neo-Naziism. Stifling discussion of their Nazi history hasn't seemed to work out so well for them in terms of eradicating the sentiments that led to it.

What I see from many people - and not just in the American south, but it is certainly a common sentiment there - is an inclination to take Rev. Wright's statements and shove them away. Pretend they're fringe. Ignore them. They want Obama to denounce Rev. Wright and shove him into a fringe corner where we can happily move on from the comments and pretend they never happened and pretend they're meaningless and the rantings of some crazed lunatic who hates America. They want to move on as if these kinds of things aren't expressed all the time, in black congregations across America, and more importantly in black homes across America.

Obama's challenge to us in his "race speech" was that we should face that fact. Rev. Wright is not some fringe lunatic. Whether you like what he says or not, he is expressing a common sentiment. And, you know, he may not be entirely correct, but he's not entirely wrong either. And expecting Obama to denounce the person of Rev. Wright...a lot of white people, due to our own willful ignorance, don't realize just what kind of rejection that would involve. For Obama to hold Rev. Wright's views against Rev. Wright the man...he might as well withdraw his involvement with the urban black community. Because the only way Obama is not going to form close connections with people who may have some views like that which Obama may strongly disagree with is for him not to be involved in Chicago's south side black community at all.

To give you an idea how widespread this is, and how much Rev. Wright is not some anamoly: the first time I heard the theory that the U.S. government was behind HIV was as a kid in elementary school, in a relatively nice Chicago suburb. I'm walking home from school, and there's this man who is also walking down the street I'm going down - I don't remember what he looked like or where he came from, maybe he was even a school janitor or something, I don't know - and he proceeds to tell me about how the US government was behind AIDS in an attempt to wipe out black people. I wasn't inclined to believe him, but of course I was a white kid who grew up in a nice, safe suburb and went to a private Catholic school and I had probably just learned about how Columbus was an awesome guy who found America with no mention of the fact our American history started from the very beginning with treating the Native Americans like shit. If I had been a black kid, growing up on the south side of Chicago (or any number of other places), going to school in a place where we weren't given all the tools we needed to be successful, surrounded by gangs, feeling like joining the gang was my only choice because I was certainly not going to make it in a world where people don't care about me because I'm both black and poor, and having people look at me suspiciously whenever I'm walking down the street, I'm pretty sure I would have believed him.

People with views like Rev. Wright can't be tucked away into a corner and ignored. People who are going to be involved in communities like those on the south side of Chicago can't do so without befriending such people. And, it's a funny thing about being friends with someone, you often don't agree with them - sometimes very strongly even - but you're still friends with them. You still find ways to learn from them, and have that person enrich your life.

It is said that if we don't understand why Obama's association with Rev. Wright is a problem, then we never will. It can equally be said that if you don't understand what it's like to grow up as a black man in the south, or a black man on the south side of Chicago, and in poverty, then you never will. It can equally be said that if you don't understand what it takes and the kinds of people you come across when you're trying to make a difference in places like the south side of Chicago, then you never will. And, as Obama pointed out, it can also equally be said that if you don't understand what it's like to be a hard working white man who raises his kid to be a good student, only to be told that your kid didn't get into the college he wants because the spot was given to a different kid on the basis he was black, then you never will.

Let's stop trying to understand, and just start listening. Don't try to shove Rev. Wright off to the side and ignore his comments, don't expect Obama to do the same. What Obama has demonstrated, both in his association with Rev. Wright and in his speech, is that he is willing to associate and listen to everyone, in the interest of learning and growing. And he's not willing to shut someone out just because he doesn't like what they have to say.

That is the kind of man I want as my president.

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"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling