I don't find the two things comparable. I condemn the racism in the black community, but considering the problematic issues of equity in our society, I understand why some in the black community are angry, as the Reverend Wright was- and I especially understand if the man is older. Reverend Wright lived through segregation- he saw grown men spit on little black girls; he heard about the Emmet Till case; he saw huge groups of white men, women and children standing (and fighting) in the streets to keep their schools white (and their restaurants and hotels and bathrooms and drinking fountains...)
The white racist has no such excuse. They do not have a history of oppression, but rather a history as the oppressor.
An excuse doesn't make the racism any more likable for me, and I can't respect it, but given the history, it is certainly more understandable than many other forms of racism, and I have no doubt that Wright holds his racist feelings alone. I've never heard Obama utter anything similar, nor have I ever seen the right dig anything up on him. What they don't like is that he liked Mr. Wright's church- where it appears he did not hear any of the sermons the right finds so objectionable. I don't like churches in general, and I don't like Wright's either- but I understand they are important to people, and black or white, I find most people have prejudices and many are reinforced from their pulpit. So as long as Obama does not seem to ascribe to these prejudices- regardless which pulpit he gets them from- I don't really care what pew his ass graces in church.
I mean if people really care about religious influences they would have cared about Parsley:
huffingtonpost.com
But people only care about the one side of the debate they want to criticize.
I can honestly say I dislike both Wright's language and Parsley's- but at least Wright came from a race that was victimized systematically, within living memory. I'm not sure what Parsley's excuse is. |
