The mainstream press has been rashly accusing Wright of being unpatriotic and insisting that Obama renounce him. The sad thing is that Obama took the bait and has thus officially sold out.
He has turned his back on his past in order to move forward in his political career. I am disappointed in him (and I didn’t even expect that much from him in the first place!) but of course, it’s the press that deserves most of the blame. They are trying to white-wash Obama because even as white-friendly as his persona already is, he’s still too Black for them. He must be made to completely divorce himself from his Black roots, and he must do it in a public way, as if he were washing his sins away in front of ‘America’.
The really good article I’ve seen on this whole controversy is The Wright Question on theroot.com. In it, Jimi Izrael defends Wright’s freedom of speech. More importantly, the right of historically oppressed communities to speak their truth is upheld. Here’s a small excerpt from that article:
… where can we go to speak our mind without having to answer to The Man? There is this very colonial motif of having to filter black free voices through aExactly my thoughts. As the above article says, we need a place where “[aren’t] any white folks around needing an interpretation or demanding an explanation”. In fact, I think they have some explaining to do to us.
sieve of white ignorance and paranoia. What you say—and what other black people in your vicinity say!—has to be state-sanctioned and approved by people who have no idea what you are talking about, and you'd be a fool to explain it to them.
"Negro Tour-Guide" is an under-paid position with lots of work, but no benefits.
Of course, the best part of the article is being introduced to the term “Negro Tour-Guide”. I know I’ve been there before, having to explain to Whites the history, culture, cuisine, or anything else that intrigues them about my ethnicity. Anybody else been there and have any exmaples to share? Or any thoughts on the Wright/Obama controversy?
What do you think of Wright's thoughts?
Was Obama right in speaking out against him?
What is more problematic here- the ignorant White media or Obama's bowing down to them?
Have you ever felt yourself an [insert-ethnicity-here]Tour -Guide?
Another good blog from root.com here.
