Posted by
PoliCzar on Thursday, March 20, 2008 5:06:23 PM
Today in the NY Times, Nicholas Kristof wrote an Op-Ed entitled the
exact same as this piece here that I am about to deliver to you. I plan
on taking issue with his editorial for multiple reasons. This op-ed in
the NY Times was not a surprise, in fact, it was expected. Kristof
tries to point out that white America does not understand Black America
so therefore we do not understand Rev. Wright’s speech.
Nicholas,
I’m sorry, but if you are saying that it’s a ‘black thing’ and that we
don’t understand ‘black things’ you are way off base. I understood when
I heard Wright talk aggressively about blaming white America for
everything that goes wrong in the country. He is claiming to be a
victim of white and government persecution, yet he has, it seems, a
successful life with a very large church with a large ‘following’. He
isn’t exactly broke either. So apparently this victim mentality is as
pointless as his speeches.
Kristof continues, “Mr. Wright has
indeed made some outrageous statements. But he should be judged as well
by his actions — including a vigorous effort to address poverty, ill
health, injustice and AIDS in his ministry. Mr. Wright has been
frightfully wrong on many topics, but he was right on poverty, civil
rights and compassion for AIDS victims.”
Outrageous statements?
You could say that. Wright has blamed the US government for spreading
AIDS in this country. He also claims that the government is responsible
for selling crack cocaine to lower income black areas in the country.
So, how exactly, Nicholas, do you come to the conclusion that Wright is
working hard for these issues when all he does is take the victim
mentality. Kristof mentions a man who goes to Wright’s church saying
that his message is really about “Hope”. Hope for what? Hope to blame
everybody but yourself for the behavior of certain aspects of society?
If Wright was the correct man of God then he would not just be critical
of the government and privileged, he would be critical of the people
who are using drugs, having children out of wedlock and committing
crimes. Last I checked it wasn’t just black people who do those things
but whites, Hispanics and even Asians too. His work has concentrated on
the wrong thing. He could also take a page out of Bill Cosby’s playbook
and discuss responsibility instead of victim-mentality.
“All of
this demonstrates that a national dialogue on race is painful, awkward
and essential. And that dialogue needs to focus not on clips from old
sermons by Mr. Wright but on far more urgent challenges — for example,
that about half of black males do not graduate from high school with
their class.”
Right you are there Nicholas, but every time a
white person tries to have a dialogue about these issues they get cast
down as a racist. One cannot have a discussion if one believes anything
he is going to say is wrong and is going to offend the other party in
the discussion. The other person is already expecting something
offensive to come out when its not meant to be that way. Where as the
people who were offended by Wright’s sermons get looked at like they
have no business getting so upset and crying foul. Well, look at the
big picture. It’s a double edged sword. I think people are tired of
hearing about people who are always feeling sorry for themselves and
blaming others for their situation. As a pastor, why not address that
issue and uplift those who are downtrodden instead of giving them more
reason to be miserable? Just a suggestion.
“Gail Collins is off today”. – Good for her, then maybe she didn’t read that horrible Op-Ed.
But
you can if you want here :
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/opinion/20kristof.html?bl&ex=1206158400&en=0d1e9305b145f292&ei=5087%0A