Obama, the Rev. Wright and the legacy of Emmett Till

The recent uproar about Barack Obama’s former pastor has pushed a very explosive issue into the presidential campaign. The issue of our country’s history with regard to race is one that Sen. Obama literally embodies in his physical being as well as various political stances he has taken.

I’m responding to the attacks that he has endured because of the statements made by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama has pointed out the failures our nation has made in trying to live up to the words in the Declaration of Independence that state that "all men are created equal." I am mentioning these events to give a more complete background to the Rev. Wright’s comments from his pulpit.

From his perspective, America is not always able to deliver on some very important issues, and the effect on him over time is to become enraged and at times to overreact. The wonderful thing about life in America is that we can address and remedy even the worst of problems when the collective will of our nation comes into play. The civil rights movement would never have achieved what it did if this were not true. That potential gives us the hope that Sen. Obama so articulately identifies as the force that can bring us together to effect positive change. I, for one, hope that people will unite and work together to make sure that the unfortunate events of the past do not kill the positive potential of our future. Together we can make the dreams of the Founding Fathers a reality for all Americans.

An example of this situation can be seen in the mess that developed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck. Racist policies that were in place in the 1920s and '30s caused a hugely disproportionate share of grief to fall on the shoulders of the black residents of New Orleans. The decision to build homes in an area that is 12 to 15 feet below sea level, immediately adjacent to a lake and also located on a shoreline that sees hurricanes every hurricane season, could only be seen as wishful thinking. This disaster was bound to happen whenever a hurricane hit the coastline somewhere near New Orleans. A direct hit wasn’t even needed to inflict damage.

The incompetence and unpreparedness of the authorities who were supposed to do something about the disaster were seen by blacks as racism pure and simple. But actually the folks at FEMA were trying to straighten out a situation created by racist policies put in place 80 or 90 years ago. Again and again these situations rear up and bite us all and create more bitterness and distrust between different sectors of Americans.

The Rev. Wright suggested in one of his sermons that AIDS was intentionally allowed to infect people because it would probably do most of its damage in the black community. White Americans see this viewpoint as racist paranoia. But black Americans remember the Tuskegee experiment, when black men who had syphilis were left untreated intentionally so the progress of the disease could be studied by government doctors. This actually happened, and its memory has caused a collective distrust of doctors in the black community for which white Americans cannot see any rational basis. Again we are stuck with dealing with the evil deeds that were done before many of us were born.

Many of those situations were created by the response of the people of the old Confederacy who used the law to attempt to permanently ensure that blacks would never be able to achieve equal treatment in any of the Southern states. The failure of Reconstruction to secure the human and civil rights of black Americans is the real problem at the root of the lingering racial tension in America. Southern citizens wanted to make sure that no black person could rise up from the poverty and ignorance that had been imposed on them from the days of slavery. Violence was a key component in enforcing the Jim Crow laws. Between 1889 and 1918, 2,522 blacks were lynched in America, and nothing was done about it. I can remember [ed note: warning, gruesome]  the picture of Emmitt Till, who was murdered in 1955. There was a trial of those accused of the killing, but an all-white jury acquitted the accused in very short order.

The people of Mississippi were very defiant in stating how sure they were that the accused would be found "innocent," which was what happened. Soon after the verdict came in, the murderer sold an article to Look magazine that gave the details of the kidnapping, torture and death of Emmitt Till. The white people of Mississippi had nothing to say at that point, and the rest of America seemed to shrug off the results as a quaint episode of Southern life. Contrast that scenario with the response to the murder of Nicole Simpson. When you do that you will get a sense of why black Americans are so paranoid about the actual reality of equal protection under the law. Just last week the Supreme Court threw out the conviction of a black man who lost his case in court because the prosecutor succeeded in his plan to eliminate all blacks from the jury. The O.J. trial was mentioned during the time the case was in front of the jury.

White Americans could not consider the reality of police brutality against blacks. It took the Rodney King incident to start any real change in attitudes on that subject. If Rodney King had tried to accuse the cops who beat him of brutality, he would have gotten nowhere. He was, after all, a large black man with a criminal record who was undoubtedly breaking the law. No white jurors would consider taking his word over the testimony of the cops. The only thing that changed the situation was an undeniable videotape that proved to anyone with any common sense that the beating was way beyond a routine traffic stop. It doesn’t surprise black Americans that DNA testing has uncovered dozens of unjustly convicted black prisoners. The faulty eyewitness testimony that figured so prominently in the conviction of these men is another symptom of racial divide. White jurors are too often comfortable with doubtful testimony if the accused is black. Prosecutors can make their careers by keeping those dangerous black thugs off the streets. Justice falls by the wayside in far too many cases.

Undoubtedly, black Americans have had the worst time of any ethnic group in trying to benefit from that concept. The vitriol in the Rev. Wright’s words is a direct result of what he sees when he reviews how that has played out throughout the history of this country. This is not to say that there has been no progress made in those situations, but sadly that progress has been too often slow and grudgingly acquired. Because of the nature of the problems, which in many cases were started in the 19th century, Americans in this day and age have to pay for issues that they didn’t cause and shouldn’t have to fix. But nonetheless we are stuck with the tab.

Photos, from top: Sen. Obama and Rev. Wright; credit: Trinity United Church of Christ and Associated Press. Emmitt Till and his mother, Mamie Bradley; credit: Chicago Tribune.

Comments

[Jon K.]

One cannot effectively move forward if one is always looking backwards.

[Blake]

Kareem,

I am so glad that you summed this up so well. I am Black and tried to explain the comments from Rev. Wright to my co-workers and they could not understand. I am going to forward this on to them. Lots of (younger, 40 and under) White Americans feel as if they have grown up in a post-racist America and cannot understand why Black people are angry and mistrusting of the government and the justice system. I feel that your thoughts on the issue explains not only the root of the problem but the continued problems that exist.

[Susan]

@JonK

Those who don't know their past are doomed to repeat it.

[rdpeyton]

Kareem, I appreciate your perspective on this, and I'm not going to suggest it's incorrect or invalid by any means. But you're way, way off on New Orleans. The areas hardest hit by the flood that resulted from the failures of the levees were populated by both black and white people. There was no disproportionate flooding, and moreover, Gentilly, one of the predominately black neighborhoods that flooded badly, was almost all white 50 years ago.

The response to the flooding was where racism came into play, and it was probably more about party politics and @ss-covering than anything else.

I like Senator Obama, and I think he'd probably be a good president. Having grown up in the South, I'm not under the impression that racism is dead, or that it's not a problem. I understand that the institutional racism of the last 300 years can't be overcome completely within a few scant generations.

That said, some of the things that Pastor Wright said are simply wrong, and need to be confronted directly. It's the same thing I said when certain right-wing Evangelical pastors made the news in the aftermath of the attacks on 9/11/01. I think Senator Obama did an admirable job in his speech on the issue, but I wish he'd been more specific, and identified the things that Pastor Wright said with which he disagreed.

Because while I can understand the lingering resentment and anger from a legacy of slavery and the utter failure of reconstruction, I don't understand why some folks believe that the US government introduced crack cocaine into the black community. I don't understand why some folks think the government is behind AIDS, or why some of my very neighbors believe that a flood-wall was blown up in order to drown the lower 9th.

These are the things that I wish we could address directly, and in the spirit of Senator Obama's speech.

[Leigh Cohn]

As a white American, albeit one who has taught in inner city high schools, I appreciate your putting a historical perspective on this. Blacks and whites alike--not to mention other races, religious groups, and ethnicities--need to confront injustice and inequality. Electing Obama would sure help in that regard!

[Abogada Adelante]

Kareem,
"God Forgive America" is a bumper sticker given to me by my sons' grandfather, though intended for Iraq, it is suitable here! It is difficult to look at the photo of Emmitt Till's hanging without feeling overwhelmed. Numerous historical accounts suppport your position. Senator Bacon from Macon, Georgia who donated his estate for a public park so long as Blacks were excluded is only one example.Racial profiling supports the excessive incarceration of our Nation's youth creating a huge disadvantage for these individuals to succeed. Sentencing disparities insures a longer sentence. Much of it victimless crimes that are easily alleviated with education, a living wage,job security and sports programs. It is upon every person of every class, race, ethnicity and gender to ensure that the constitutional
guarantees and the pursuit of happiness is equally applied. It is understood that education, job security and a living wage is increasingly difficult for most Americans to obatain. Payday lending, credit cards and student loan debts the size of mortgages are the norm. Hitory tells us that the continuing disparities will not be alleviated by the present administration. That an incompent was appointed to head FEMA, an agency unknowingly slipped under Homeland Security, a fear mongering law enforcemnt conglomerate that has yet to succeed in many of its assigned duties should be of concern to all.

[lee beckom]

Teach, Kareema. Good comments.
Thanks. Lee B

[Jim]

Obama's speech sealed the deal for me.

Anyone who could speak so eloquently about race in America deserves a chance to improve America.

Of course the situation is complicated, and even though Obama summarized it in clear language, the complexity is such that of course many people do not grasp it.

Or, some do not want to grasp it. They wish to see things only in (unfortunate pun here) black or white, as that is the only way their brains can process the world around them. (Conjecture away about the sizes of their brains: pea, or grape-sized?)

The situation is too nuanced that the speech flies over these people's brains. Their brains aching, they then turn to YouTube and watch what others want them to watch, in 20 second bites.

They think YouTube is free speech, yet they don't realize it's just free-for-all propaganda for anyone who can convert video files and upload to YouTube.

Kareem's analysis is brilliant. Thank you. It is too bad too many Americans cannot sit still for 45 minutes and listen to the whole Obama speech. This is unfortunately the biggest impediment to Obama's message of unity and understanding.

[rashad]

Very well stated. I remember being younger, and watching Eyes on the Prize with my father, and the story of Emmitt Till, and particularly the picture, never left my mind.

[Pat]

Obama threw his grandma under the bus in front of the whole world. The consciousness behind that act is cold, scary and unforgivable.

[Jon R.]

Forgiveness is a virtue, and moving forward is the only way to achieve progress. But we should always look back, and we should NEVER forget. To do so is to invite the same things to happen again.

[Dwight]

Kareem,

Your regret that we are the ones left with the tab is fine writing.

You being Kareem, with 25 plus years of dedication on the court in the national limelight, perhaps your words can carry.

In the spirit of dialogue, I would point out that what those who oppose the talk of race seem to need to see and hear, every time, is:
a) black leaders support for black self help
b) statements that hip hop culture is self-defeating
c) recognition of US leadership in democracy and market economy has made US blacks the richest major population of African descent, outpacing Africa, the Carribean, and Latin America

My sense is that the Americans you need to win to unite will be much more open if you hit these themes.

America's silent majority will be much, much more open to accepting that justifiable anger is there when they see that the observer is not just hitting the convenient facts to denigrate White Americans, but also those facts that celebrate White Americans.

Rush and Jesse enrich themselves on the caricature of ---almost always -- pointing out the other races flaws.

If we are to move beyond them, become more perfect, we need to have the human decency to proactively laud each others positives, and then the integrity to state our honest desires for continued change.

White partialists seek to point broad thinking whites as driven by guilt. To simplistic. I'd like to think I am driven by the integrit, of trying to work from an honest accounting of postives and negatives in any human situation.

I do find that the conservatives are right, that modern blacks relative wealth compared to the world scene, and access to American democracy, is worth celebrating and remembering. Hip hop would be fine if, like George Carlin's comedy, it were just restricted to the practioner it enriches. It is a fine and provocative art form; it is a horrible basis for broader culture and human development.

We can and should acknowledge these things.

[Aminah Yaquin Carroll]

As slaamu aleikum Bro. Terrific article. i am middleaged white woman 9former community organizer NYC) and agree with everything you wrote

[Fidel]

Excellent article Kareem.

What people need to realize is that the reverand said what many say in barber shops around the country, and its been said since I remember being in barber shops. When "we" get together and feel comfortable in our surroundings, we signify. The reverand was signifying. He was not attempting to start a riot or a race war. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson made disparaging remarks about American citizens and policies after 9/11, yet you do not see there soundbites on Hannity and Colmes.

If Americans allow the words of others to effect who they vote for and trust, then we will never progress. Not to say that Obama is the "savior" but he is a gleam of hope.

People often try to bring down discussion about race because they think everything became equal in 1965. All one has to do is look at inner city schools and see that nothing is equal. People may be able to use the same restrooms and drink from the same fountains, but when grade school begins, they are swimming in different waters.

[Fidel]

"One cannot effectively move forward if one is always looking backwards."

Posted by: Jon K.

Jon,

If one does not know their history, then they are doomed to repeat it. See: the history of Japan in the early 20th century prior to WWII and current foriegn policy towards China.

[Rodney Hurst]

Great article! Very incisive. Your analysis is on point.

[Tully Moxness]

Quite a few commentators black and white had been waiting for Senator Obama to really "say something" throughout his campaign. Well he said something all right. In one of the greatest speeches given by a political candidate since Abraham Lincoln he won the hearts and minds of anyone black or white who could sit still for 45 minutes, as Jim commented above. I can only add to what Jim put so well by saying that this country will deserve what it gets as it has for the last two terms if they are unwilling to say as Senator Obama put it ' Not this time".

[lakerfaze]

Kareem you basically said everything I wanted to say and didn't know how to express it without coming off "Too Black, Too Strong." So many times we find ourselves walking the thin line of being black in America and in the same breath totally misunderstood. Our comments are taking out of context so often and misconstrude throught the media. We need a voice, no voices that are again not afraid to take a stand.

Thank you so very much for taking the time to address this issue and handling it so well.

[jfx]

Well written and thoughtful. No easy answers, but a shared understanding of the past is a better starting place than a your-wrong vs my-wrong argument about history. How to move forward? As you noted, the past already happened and is beyond our control, but we certainly can impact the future. Unfortunately, actionable proposals are hard to identify and implement. Obama's focus on the future is part of his appeal to many young voters, who have limited direct experience with the past. His (and everyone's) challenge is to convert that inspiring poetry into the prose of action. For understanding a problem is not the same as solving it.

[Rocky]

At least there's no disputing that Obama is Christian now.

I am continually amazed at the things conservatives bring up to slander their opposition.

They served one up for Obama, and he hit it out of the park with his speech last week. Yet it doesn't seem to be getting through their thick heads. i.e. 'typical White person'.

I can't tell you how much it'll hurt if McCain wins this thing. I mean, half of this country voted twice for George Bush, swayed by what Bill Richardson eloquently called, "gutter politics" yesterday.

Great post Kareem. The picture of Emmitt Till is horrendous, it really puts things into perspective. Especially when you compare the reaction with the Nicole and OJ Simpson ordeal. That post should be in the newspaper for everyone to see.

[Tully Moxness]

Jon K,

I love your work on the LakersBlog, but you did Kareem a disservice by essentially responding to his lengthy, well-reasoned post with a one line aphorism that doesn't even fit as a criticism. I agree that it is a mistake to allow the past to become an albatross around your neck, but you must not ever forget the sins, failures and outright blunders that have taken place. To say that to forget the past dooms one to repeat it is almost a cliche by now, but you cannot discount the importance of an accurate understanding of the lessons history teaches us.

As a person of latin descent, I see the effect that cultural issues from 50 years ago still have on my family members who live in East LA. The breakdown in family structures caused by rapid and distant immigration lead to their replacement by gangs, both on the street and in prison. I don't excuse the mistakes made by my brothers and cousins, but that doesn't mean I can't analyze the underlying issues that brought those mistakes about.

I would suggest that anyone who has allowed the media coverage of Rev. Wright's comments to sway their opinions should actually watch as many of his full sermons as possible. The 'chickens coming home to roost' comment? It was in the context of Malcolm X's controversial comments in the aftermath of the JFK assassination, ones that ultimately caused his final break with Elijah Muhammad. Before dismissing him as a crank or demagogue, listen to what he has to say without hearing it in a packaged soundbite designed to elicit an emotional response. You may find your opinion has changed about him.

This is a great country, but it is far from perfect; we achieved much of our length and breadth by swimming in a sea of blood, one that flowed from the backs of enslaved Africans, from the bodies of the Mexicans who we brutally fought in the name of Manifest Destiny and from the destruction of entire nations of indigenous people who we consistently gave hollow promises to that more often than not were broken before the ink dried on the treaties we signed. I have Japanese-American friends who grew up without fathers and brothers, because they committed suicide after losing their homes, businesses and honor after being sent to internment camps for sharing a homeland with whom we were at war; did you ever wonder why we never created the same camps for German-Americans and Italian-Americans? I don't hate our country for committing these sins, but I swell up with anger when a person ignorant of these historical sins calls me un-American for trying to take an honest accounting of them.

Discussing the history of this country is not a zero-sum game; we can forgive without forgetting. Senator Obama spoke about the complexity of the issue with a grace I've never heard from a major politician; he acknowledged that the problems or race and economics are too challenging to be solved in one election cycle. However, he also pointed out that we can move forward from our current state but to do that requires a healthy and honest discussion of the issues surrounding it. I hope he's the one who leads the discussion.

[Tully Moxness]

Jim,

Actually, YouTube is a pretty good example of the greatness and perils of free speech. You'll find the entire Obama speech there along with numerous cut and paste jobs designed to mislead people. It's the equivalent of one man standing on a street corner reading the entire Bible while another picks and chooses certain verses that suit his 'The End is Nigh' agenda. Free speech doesn't mean Good speech, although we couldn't have the latter without the former. It's up to the viewer of those YouTube clips to understand the context and who uploaded them, and sadly, a lot of people will not use their noggins to do so.

[Rod]

Thank you Kareem - as always a thoughtful and considered response to events and ideas that make this blog quite an important offering from the LA Times.

My great concern is that while some may think Rev. Wright's speech is somehow incidiary, that argument is really only an aspect of political correctness gone awry. Had Rev. Wright breached the allowable limits of 1st amendment free speech, that would be different.

I grew up in an activist, white suburban congregation in Pasadena (All Saints Episcopal) whose Rev. George Regas was and still is a strong opponent of war. His trials and tribulations of his outspoken ministry during the Vietnam War were often reported as anti-American and against the US soldiers who fought in that war. His own congregation, a mixture of conservatives and progressives debated these positions every Sunday in forums following services. In the last election, the church was targeted by the IRS for a sermon the retired Rev. Regas made about the choices in the 2004 election.

All of this speaks to political correctness run amok. How do we as Americans expect to engage in meaningful dialogue and the sharing of ideas that are prerequisite to making America better and stronger if we are caught up in debating the dialogue that speaks to feelings that exist in our culture and not the ideas we should be focused on?

I think Sen. Obama is doing his best to navigate this path because he recognizes it's importance. What continues to inspire me is that his message is resonating within our country. If it didn't, that would be a frightening indication that the purveyors of political correctness and personal morality were winning their battle against the true promise of America.

We need to continue active dialogue to support the formulation of thoughtful ideas and turn that into policy.

[Bert Kleinkauf]

Kareem,
You state with eloquence the black perspective. Thank you. Perspective leads to understanding. Understanding to empathy. It is a sad fact indeed that majorities seldom make an effort to understand minority perspectives.
Yet there’s more here than just the need to understand, to excuse Reverend Wright’s hyperbole. Lost in the uproar is Reverend Wright’s context, the justifiable condemnation of racial inequalities resulting from governmental policies. Lost is the correct linking of the 9/11 horror to America’s Middle East policies. Reverend Wright’s arguments have merit: America should be ashamed of racial injustice; America shouldn’t be surprised when its foreign policies foment anger, anger that spills onto our shores. The fact that most Americans choose not to see that merit is troubling indeed as understanding is essential to remedy.
Many argue that Reverend Wright is un-American, his comments an outrage. I suspect many exaggerate their concern, using it to justify their opposition to Barack Obama.
Rev. Jerry Falwell blamed feminists, gays and lesbians (and the A.C.L.U.) for 9/11. Rev. Pat Robertson blamed the Supreme Court. Their arguments are absurd. Nothing links their accused to the tragedy except for their personal bigotries and their belief that God thinks like they do. There is no defense for their positions. Yet where is the outrage when Republican politicians curry their endorsement.
I suspect Reverend Wright is a fine American, an American I would be proud to call my pastor, my friend. I suspect that he has been defamed by politics as usual. I reject the politics of fear. I reject veiled bigotry. We must learn from the past so we can better perfect the future. I’m more than ever ready to follow Barack Obama’s lead: yes, we can.
Bert Kleinkauf
(UCLA ’69)

[Ahmad]

Wow, nicely done