Impact of racist comments on politics

Published On: 03/24/2008

A few semesters ago I wrote a column contrasting the treatment of Christianity and Islam in the popular media. Specifically the deferential treatment given to worshippers of Islam in such matters as pictures of the Prophet Mohammed while images sacred to Christianity are regularly defamed. The same standard should be applied to both and both should be treated equally. It was this column I thought about over the past week as I watched news coverage of Senator Barack Obama’s pastor Reverend Wright.

The news coverage showed excerpts from DVD’s, sold through Reverend Wright’s church, of previous sermons given by him. In these sermons, the reverend displays language which is racist and hateful. He suggests that the U.S. government is responsible for the AIDS virus and for selling drugs in inner cities, along with other controversial and outrageous statements.

Reverend Wright is a close friend of Senator Obama and has served in official capacities on his presidential campaign. Obama has attended the church where Reverend Wright was pastor for 18 years, yet when asked if he was aware of Reverend Wright’s controversial views, he said that he was not, and giving him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he is telling the truth. But giving the benefit of the doubt is not what has been done in the past.

In 2003 at a private party for Senator Strom Thurmond, Senator Trent Lott, while toasting Senator Thurmond, said that it would have been a good thing if Senator Thurmond had won the Republican nomination and the presidency long ago when he ran for it. Senator Thurmond, during that election over half a century ago, was running on a platform of strict segregation. These comments, made at a private party with an undeniable desire to compliment the guest of honor, were used as a basis to determine that Trent Lott was a racist and subsequently ruin his political career.
The connection between racism and Trent Lott’s behavior seemed tenuous, but the senator’s career was over nonetheless.

Senator Obama is now faced with the revelation that his close personal friend and advisor is a racist who seems to harbor a great deal of disdain, and perhaps hatred, for this country. Senator Obama has stated that he does not share and was not aware of these beliefs, and that may be true, but I think Trent Lott proclaimed many of the same sentiments. Over the years in this same situation, a person caught on the wrong side of a discussion concerning race was convicted first and asked questions later.

Any one who might support Senator Obama needs to ask themselves if they would be comfortable in a church where the pastor proclaimed our country the “U.S. KKK of A.” where the origin of the AIDS virus is attributed to the U.S. government and where America is described as a country that is run by “rich white people.” Senator Obama has been a member of this church for 18 years.

If Senator Obama was a Caucasian male attending a church that advocated some of the same inflammatory views that Reverend Wright espoused, I do not think he would be given the same sympathy and understanding. If I heard that a Caucasian candidate had been attending some sort of church which proclaimed the same hateful rhetoric as Reverend Wright, I would not need a news analyst to explain to me why this person was not a good candidate. I would not vote for a person, regardless of race, which was so strongly associated with this sort of institution.
Senator Obama is a charismatic leader, but I think his presidential candidacy shows a racial divisiveness which opens old wounds instead of healing them.