The Literary Divide/Dr. Paul Barrows
     In a nationally televised speech as keynote speaker at the NAACP Annual Freedom Fund Convention in Detroit this past Sunday, Rev. Jeremiah Wright went
on the defensive against all of the attacks that he has had to endure since the controversy emerged several weeks ago. In a speech that contained elements of
scripture and references to some of the attacks that he has received from the media, Rev. Wright addressed the conference theme, “A change is going to come.”
He received a rousing applause from the more than 11,000 members  present. The overall message from his speech was “different does not mean deficient.”
To address these themes, Rev. Wright talked about the different experience that African Americans have had throughout their history in this country.  He said
some Americans came on the decks of the ships as free people while others were chained down in the hull as slaves. He talked about the different experience
that African Americans have had in terms of the role of the church.  He said the Black Church was created because African Americans were not allowed to
worship at White Churches.  He said that the Black Church has had a long tradition of fighting slavery, oppression and for advancing the causes for civil rights.
He emphasized the role of the NAACP in fighting closely with the Black Church in these various struggles.  He talked about the way that African Americans
worship in their churches, the way the message is delivered by the pastor contrasting with the more stoic and dispassionate style evident in many White
churches. He said, in the Black religious tradition, “we do it in a different way. We shout for the Lord in the sanctuary while we march in the streets for justice. We
praise the Lord while we give the Devil the blues.” He said that this difference sometimes has the effect of scaring or intimidating many who are not accustomed
to it or who don’t understand it. Rev. Wright talked about the fact that Americans speak different dialects of the English language. He quoted some of the famous
words by President Kennedy and talked about the accent associated with many who live in the Boston/New England area and with dialects associated with
Blacks in the U.S.  He quoted scholars who have done research positing that there are “African” and “European” or “left brain vs. right brain” cultural and
cognitive world views that shape how people learn formally in schooling, how they talk and express it in their music. With all of this, he emphasized over and
over with parable and metaphor and active expression, that these “differences” do not mean that Blacks are “deficient.” He said, furthermore, these differences
have been used to demean and oppress Black folks.  
    In his comments on Monday at the National Press Club on the eve of a conference of scholars and clergy on the Black Church, Rev. Wright did not back
down. He said that the recent attack was not an attack on him, it was an attack on the Black Church. He said that Black Americans must go from “marginalization
to transformation to reconciliation.”  To address those who said he was not patriotic, he mentioned that his goddaughter has just arrived to do military duty in Iraq
while those who have recently criticized him have used their elite status to avoid doing military duty for a war that was based on a lie. He said the prophetic
theology of the Black Church is a theology of liberation. He said his church was for the liberation of South Africa when the U.S. government supported the White
racist regime. He said his church was for the liberation of the Nicaragua peasants at a time when Oliver North was involved in the Iran/Contra Scandal.
In the question and answer session, he was asked questions about his words related to the 9/11 attacks, whether his sermons were unpatriotic, about Minister Louis
Farrakhan, Zionism and Judaism, his comments about “damning America”  and about what he said about that the U.S. Government possibly being complicit in
the spreading of HIV. With parable and quotes from scripture, acting out his explanations, he was feisty in his response to the reporters’ questions. He said that
none of this was about Obama, Clinton or McCain; he had to speak up because he had to defend an attack on the Black Church.  
What has happened to Rev. Wright was not an attack on the Black Church.  Everything that Rev. Wright has done with the NAACP speech and at the National
Press Club was all about Rev. Wright. He has selfishly sought to defend himself at Sen. Obama’s expense. He was the one who “threw Senator Obama and his
campaign under the bus” and he did so to promote his views and save his hide. In an emotional impromptu press conference on Tuesday afternoon in Winston
Salem, North Carolina, Obama was right to say that he was outraged with his performance at the National Press Club. It was also right for him to say that he was
offended and denounce Rev. Wright and separate himself from him once and for all. Hopefully he had done so before it was too late.       
To extend the shelf-life of this controversy, the Republican Committee in the state of North Carolina has said that they will continue to run the older clips from
Rev. Wright’s other sermons. They will, no doubt probably even develop some new ones from this most recent speech as well as comments from his remarks at
the National Press Club.  
    It is not clear how Sen. Hillary Clinton will react to this new speech and the interview at the National Press Club.  She is not expected to change her mind
about her comments that she made suggesting that you can choose your pastor but you cannot choose your family. She said based on his comments, Rev.
Wright would not be her pastor. While Sen. John McCain has been critical of Rev. Wright’s most recent comments, to his credit, has disavowed the use of the
Republican ads on Rev. Wright in North Carolina.  Sen. Clinton, given the desperate status of her campaign, has thus far neglected to do so. A recent survey
done by CNN indicated that 75 percent of Americans polled say that they have heard enough about the Rev. Wright controversy. Rev. Wright’s feisty tone and
the tough questions at the National Press Club may have been important and helpful for him, but they can serve no short or long-term good for Obama. I’m sure
the Obama campaign is saying enough already when it comes to Rev. Wright.  They know that every time Rev. Wright re-emerges in the national media, it can
only serve to the detriment of the Obama Campaign.            
Barack Obama ends relationship with
Rev. Jeremiah Wright