Posted by
Rich on Sunday, March 30, 2008 11:45:38 AM
Tom Tryon of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune goes out on a limb and bravely talks about discussing race in America in his column, "If we are confined to corners, we can't build on racial progress".
Tom
talks about demographics and census figures. One interesting thing Tom
points out is that the "Census shows 81 percent of Americans as white,
13 percent as black and 4 percent as Asian. But the Census also shows
that 14 percent of Americans identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino,
regardless of race -- the fastest-growing group."
What Tom may
have discovered is Hispanics self-identify as white. Hispanics don't
identify themselves in terms of ethnicity but rather origin. They view
themselves as part of the whole cloth of America.
What we and
most Americans found troubling about the sermons of Dr. Jeremiah A.
Wright, Jr. was his emphasis on blackness, his Afrocentric church
doctrine and anti-American rhetoric. Dr. Wright for over 35 years has
been preaching segregation, hate and sedition to his congregation. He
has been rewarded by his community, his state and the nation for doing
so.
What is most troubling about the political speech of Senator
Obama is his statement, "I can no more disown him [Dr. Wright] than I
can disown the black community."
Many Americans see Dr. Wright,
and Senator Obama's failure to disown him, promoting a belief system
that says blacks must be "confined to a corner" in order to be viable.
Being black trumps all else, including being American.
To have
meaning in their lives blacks must hate "whitey" and "white America"
and damn America according to Pastor Wright. Dr. Wright preaches the "we are owed" doctrine of black power.
What
is more disturbing is the recent glowing support of Dr. Wright from
Reverend John H. Thomas, General Minister and President, United Church
of Christ, Reverend Michael Pfleger of the Saint Sabina church of
Chicago, Senator Obama, political pundits, the media and some leaders
in the black community.
Dr. Wright preached racial segregation
and sedition. The same segregation, racial slurs and hate speech that
Tom rightly points out came from Southern Democrats such as former
Governor and Democratic Presidential candidate George Wallace.
Recently
we had a comment posted on this blog saying that there are two Martin
Luther King, Jr. Day celebrations in Newtown. One for "whitey" and one
for the blacks. This is segregation of the most heinous sort on a day
that is supposed to celebrate racial equality.
We fully agree
with Tom when he ends his column with, "If we ignore our common
challenges, if we fail to embrace our common beliefs, religious and
secular, we will simply remain in the corners we define by race, afraid
and unable to bridge our differences."
The operative words are
"common beliefs". What beliefs we have in common defines us as
American. History has shown that for a multi-ethnic nation to survive
it must have a strong common belief system that trumps race.
Americans
rightly are shocked, afraid and angry when they hear black separatist
rants. The black community must denounce not only the rhetoric of Dr.
Wright but the man himself and those of a similar ilk, who Senator
Obama describes as being in a "time warp".
We agree with Tom, some in our community need to get out of their corner and meet the majority of us in the middle of the room.