More on Barack Obama & Reverend Wright

1) The common question asked is "why didn't Obama leave the church after hearing such anti-American rants by Reverend Jeremiah Wright?"

Kathryn Lopez had an interesting explanation.

http://jewishworldreview.com/0308/lopez032408.php3

Obama's speech was in defense of a man he has known for two decades, a man he has made a part of his wife and children's lives, and a man he has made a part of his campaign. Wright is also a man who has said some pretty despicable things about America and about public servants. Obama explained that a YouTube video or two from an inflammatory sermon is not the measure of the man. He talked about Wright's military service and ministry to the poor and sick.

But Obama's story was incomplete. Nothing he said excuses the lack of judgment that is inherent in a man choosing to expose his children to angry, anti-American tirades and off-color rants. Had he gone one step further, however, he might have had me. He should have told us why Wright was an important man in his life — because he was the father figure Obama needed as a young man, and that is why he loves him above all else.

Obama told us that he is "the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas." He didn't go any further talking about his father. Instead, he threw his maternal grandmother under the media bus, saying that she had "once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and ... has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

He left me asking, "But what about the father? Why didn't he talk about his father's abandonment of him and his family, and how that made his later relationship with Wright all the more important in his life?" That, I suspect, is why Obama will never repudiate Wright. The fact is, Obama grew up without a father. And, I assume, Wright for him was a father figure. That may be how Wright got to be such an influence in his life. This would not have answered all concerns about Wright and Obama, but it would have presented a more compelling narrative and, more importantly, he could have delivered an important cultural message about the impact the absence of male role models has on a child.

2) Many right-wing conservatives have complained that "Obama threw his white grandmother under the bus" when Obama have mentioned that his white grandmother expressed fears of black men and was prone to stereotypical thinking!

Throwing her under the bus?

If you were a bi-racial kid who hears a relative express negative feelings about your other half , that's gotta sting! That's not something a normal person can shake off easily! It's like being told "1/2 of you is $#!+" That's not victimhood to be traumatized by that! That's normal human reaction, and anyone who doesn't understand that, doesn't understand basic psychology!

3) Right-wing conservatives love to mention that Obama's white grandmother mentioned being harassed by a black man, and claimed that "it was rational for her to be scared of passing by a black man"

Excuse me? What about a black, brown or yellow person being harrassed by a group of young white men? How do you think their mind will react the next time they walk by another group of young white men? Exactly the same way Obama's white grandma reacted when passing by a random black man! Yet, the conservative correctness crowd get mad at paragraphs like this!

Some white conservatives who makes excuses for "white grandmas being scared of a random young black man" would go beserk hearing about a "non-white grandma being scared of a random young white man".

Now, this is how a rational person is suppossed to react when passing by someone who looks like a person who bullied him/her!

"Calm down, he/she might look like that bully, but he/she isn't that bully, so let's calm down! It's not that person's fault he/she looks like that bully who harrased me"

That's how a rational person supposed to react! Yet, that's considered fighting words by the conservative correctness crowd, and all other racial supremacists!