Keep talking, keep listening: Rev. Wright, Obama and the growing pains of racial acceptance

[COMMENTARY] Before Sunday night, the NAACP Fight for Freedom Fund dinner organizers never got so many people of different backgrounds from all over the country, if not the world, to pay attention to what they had to say. Of course this has everything to do with Barack Obama and the fact that we are close to nominating him, a black man, to be president. The racial tension had to manifest itself in some way, and I feel that it’s interesting and unfortunate in some ways that it had to be through the African-American church because this is a political issue and not a religious one, among other reasons. This country has a long way to go in terms of racial and religious understanding or even admitting there’s a problem. Even talented, seasoned news reporters choke on words like “black” and “white” as they fumble for softer, more politically correct or vague alternatives. A prime example of this came after the Pennsylvania primary when the word “white” was substituted for terms like “rural” and “beer drinkers” and “hunters” and “the lunch bucket crowd” and so on.

The reason Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Sunday night speech was broadcast live or at all was because of the publicity surrounding the Wright/Obama fiasco. Many in this vast audience would have otherwise never been exposed to this facet of African-American culture: His speech was in African-American sermon tradition, identifying with a black audience. Before people start calling it offensive or saying that they don’t understand why Obama would go to his church, I think they should attend a black church service so that they can realize the cultural and personal context of this speech: The elevated tones, the animated gestures, the jokes, etc., that are usually normal in these churches are magnified because this is a man angered by his defamation in the news. Maybe then it would be easier to internalize the message that Wright was giving instead of perpetuating the very things he condemned in his speech.

Continued -The speech went something like this: There are big differences between African-American and European-American cultures concerning linguistics, religion, education, music, etc., but not deficiencies between them, and we can overcome our problems if we try. He spoke on topics that people of all backgrounds, including African-Americans, need to start paying more attention to. In many ways it was more educational than anything else.

What made this event good for the country is the same thing that will make it bad for Obama and for the country: People who know little about African-American culture are suddenly huddling around the TV or computer to watch a progressive keynote address for the National Association for the Advancement of colored People. These sheltered eyes and ears are now hanging on every word coming out of an progressive (and incensed) black pastor’s mouth, and some may be alarmed at the style of speech. That in mind, it’s not the ideal time for this demographic to tune in. To them this is new, different, even shocking and can easily be taken the wrong way, like the comedy of black comedian Dave Chapelle. The good part is that many people got a chance to learn a bit about African-American culture, and it will spur them to talk about it.
Cultural diversity in America has been around way longer than Wright has been running for Jesus (and he’s been running a long, long time, apparently), and it’s time we start talking about it. Ironically, if we started admitting, acknowledging and talking about what these differences are (the handshakes, the church services, the linguistic variances, the wardrobe, etc.), we’d see that we’re not so different after all. So this is the age-old lesson of acceptance. Hey, if we can’t learn it from Wright’s speech (which did have its prickly moments), maybe we should all tune back into “Sesame Street” instead of acting like a bunch of Dr. Seuss’ Sneetches with stars on thars.

I’ve attended lectures on MLK day and other events that address race and culture as passionately as Wright did on Sunday and perhaps even more diplomatically, but there was hardly anyone there from other cultures to listen. If only the media tuned into events like this when there was no primary, then maybe this speech wouldn’t be so shocking. If there were a speaker out there who could speak eloquently and educationally on white guilt, that would be great, too. Maybe a lesson we could take from this is that we should tune in more often to other cultural events, not just NAACP speeches with ties to a political candidate and a press following.

The silence is only hurting ourselves. Keep in mind, this is a country that has in just over a century gone from institutionalized slavery of Africans to being on the verge of nominating a black man to be president. This is a great moment in history.

Because of this we’re opening a dialogue that would otherwise have stayed closed — the can of worms on the back shelf that no one wants to open. All I can say is I hope there’s more productive conversation to come.

I think the dominant message we have to keep in mind through racial adversity, through all adversity actually, is what Wright reiterated in his speech: It’s messed up, but we can make it.