THE IMPARTIAL OBSERVER
Matters of the moment
Demythologization and Denial of Rev. Jeremiah Wright
Hank Eso
Thursday, 1 May 2008
“Barack Obama said last month he couldn’t disown his former pastor.
Turns out he could –and did.
~ AP Wire Report
Three things happened to Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright this week. He personally demythologized his unknown persona. He stood accused to trying to torpedo Barack Obama’s presidential bid and finally, Obama publicly denied and disavowed him. Which of this is the greater sin? It all depends on which side of the street you stand on.
The histrionics of Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright is in the fabled words of Fleetwood Mac’s song, “Secondhand news.” The real news, as per an AP wire report, “Barack Obama said last month he couldn’t disown his former pastor. Turns out he could –and did.” This was quite predictable. Rev. Wright knew Obama far better than most of us and even better than Obama knew himself or his former pastor. Hence, in retrospect, it is hardly surprising that Wright said his former congregant had the tendency to make certain comments, only as politicians do. That is called being sleek or expedient.
Some claim that Rev. Wright has hurt Obama, but it is Obama’s betrayal or cut that is the cruelest and the deepest. Undoubtedly, he wants to be president so badly. But you can’t be president if you lack the balls, wimp-out, and buckle under partisan pressure. Indeed, when Obama said of Wright, that “based on his remarks yesterday, well, I may not know him well, as I thought,” he was being clever by half. After all, the same Obama had earlier on made the following remarks:
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely -- just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
Barack Obama is playing politics with his former pastor, far more that Rev. Wright is exploiting their relationship. But that’s beside the point; first, let us look at the man known as Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Even in his iconic moments, Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s oratory is not fugue to certain ears. But no one can begrudge the venerable reverend of an immense captivating skill and his gift of the gab. Nor can they strip him of his role as the erstwhile pastor for Barack Obama.
For America, Jeremiah Wright has become the discomforting looking-glass-self. Until now, Rev. Wright was almost an unknown, save for his YouTube moment; then came the revelation and self-demythologization, mostly on national television. But even his attempt to unmask himself, showing that he was real, not fake and that he believed in what he preached, irked many and forced Obama to say that he was “outraged and saddened” and that Rev. Wright had gone too far.
Indeed, those who missed Rev. Wright on the TV circuit recently missed a whole lot. He was light years away and very different from the character blurb many saw in the YouTube snippet. When Rev. Wright got the opportunity to bask in the klieg lights at the NAACP conference in Detroit and later, at the National Pres Club in Washington DC, he was in his elements and seized the moment. Almost as if a hybrid - a cross between Jerry McGuire and Rodney Dangerfield - Rev. Wright seemed to be endlessly screaming, “show us some respect,” “different is not deficient,” and “descriptive is not divisive.” His ultimate message seemed a clarion call of sorts, for America to save itself.
This week Rev. Wright also affirmed
the awesome power of television, which most of us seem to have forgotten.
Television, especially at primetime, is powerful. Live coverage, instant replay,
and cascading-split screen coverage are even more so. Those who are ready to
play in primetime can make the best of it, as Rev. Wright did. Unquestionably,
Rev. Wright has his fan club and detractors too. However, this is a serous
issue, which borders on separation of church and state or church and politics.
Therefore, we must confront issues, both in times of conflict and controversy,
just as we do in times of comfort and convenience. Absent that commitment, we
will arrive at the critical juncture when right or wrong matters little.
As we come to know and perhaps begin to understand Rev. Wright, there are some concrete and not so abstract facts worth mulling. Despite his gift of gab, he has never claimed being infallible. In the same vein, he does not expect his quiescent pundits to share his point of views, least of all agree with them. In addition, he does not buy into the notion that his different views are divisive, nor that he has become an albatross for Barack Obama.
Beyond his “GD America” seethe on YouTube, Rev. Wright has essentially exploited his bully pulpit and constitutional freedom of expression rights in voicing unpopular but nevertheless, relevant opinions on an array of issues. His method and views are understandably vexatious to many; yet, he has generated a debate - not unlike any other agent provocateur- that may compel people to look at several issues anew.
Before now, Rev. Wright was an enigma, much loved by his flock, and much detested by those who labeled but hardly knew him. However, he was always his own man: one among many, the few, the chosen, the fearless, the marine, and the pastor. Add to that, some would say, a rabble-rouser. He has also become an ingot in the Democratic Party presidential nomination contest. The Obama camp is beginning to loath him just as the Clinton camp and the republicans love him.
I am, however, yet to hear anyone say that the issues Rev. Wright continue to address are not salient or of concern to America and humanity, even if only for their reminder nuisance values. Yet, there are some unasked questions worth pondering. Is Rev. Wright totally out of his league and out of line? As someone once observed, “the nicest guy on earth got crucified for preaching peace and telling the truth,” how much less someone who many see as divisive, though he covets the niche of being descriptive.
More importantly, and apropos Rev. Wright, if those who dominate the bully pulpit can no longer pontificate and enunciate on critical national issues, we should be troubled. Beyond dogmatism and rhetoric, there comes a time to listen to what people outside the mainstream have to say. Minority or dissenting views are also representative of segments of the commonwealth.
I suspect that many people, who disagree with the views espoused by Rev. Wright, already considered him unpatriotic. However, one swallow does not make a summer. How does one go from being a young marine, who stood ready to fight in defense of the ideals of the nation, to the extreme of being recidivist, merely for pointing out what he sees as the ills of the society?
It would not be a hard sell for some to buy the conspiracy theory that Republicans or the Clinton camp is using Rev. Wright to derail Obama’s candidacy. Such claim it is bunkum, given that Obama and Wright are on the same mission – to bring change – but through different routes. It is also unlikely that Rev. Wright would even abet any deception of that nature. But this much is known and must be accepted: Rev. Wright has seen, known, and experienced far too much in life than Barack Obama for him to be a turncoat at this critical juncture.
Before Rev. Al Sharpton mellowed and became a constructive political interlocutor, his role was to say what many mainstream black politicians or black public officials wanted said, but dare not utter publicly. Like Obama, I do not share all of Rev. Wright’s views, but some, if not most of his utterances, are galling hard truths that many still refuse or would rather not confront. It would be a gross mistake to attempt to silence or discredit the likes of Jeremiah Wright. Doing so, risks formalizing America’s growing disposition as a bastion with convenient amnesia, mundane mindset, and selective memory of tangible or discomforting realities.
The contributions and gains from the likes of Rev. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Rev. Jerry Farwell, Pat Robertson, even if considered inconsequential, helped to shape contemporary debate and governance in America. Such gains would not have been possible had these individuals not spoken up on vexatious national issues. Moreover, beyond playing politics, organized religion ranks with government, in bringing about and sustaining social change, justice, and amity. And all it takes is one voice in the wilderness; one voice, no matter how controversial.
The various adjectives used by pundits to qualify Rev. Wright speak to the public perception of the man, but cannot subjugate the core social, political, and racial issues that he has been addressing. If it takes “highfalutin academic trope with salty street talks” to get the message across to the national audience, so be it. When some suggest that by speaking up, Rev. Wright is hurting Obama, or as Bob Herbert did in his op-ed of 29 April 2008 in The New York Times, that he seeks, “Not to praise Obama, but to bury him,” I shudder. What does Rev. Wright stand to gain by rubbishing or destroying Obama?
For good or bad, but certainly for political ends, Rev. Wright’s role has been miscast, misunderstood. and misinterpreted. He is not on a mission to “bring about constructive discussion about race and reconciliation in the US.” Rather, he is about the renewal of the waning and ambivalent awareness of the increasing chasm in “a profoundly inequitable society” and the fact that diversity, which ought to be the strength of America, is no longer being accorded its rightful consideration.
In an election year, Rev. Wright is clearly not high on personalities but on issues that affect voters, including the most shocking and controversial. If all he has done were to sensitize or force people – voters and candidates alike – to focus on irritating and elusive issues, his yeoman’s chore and mission would have been accomplished. His voice may be singular, but it does in fact, represent a plurality of opinion, including those of disenfranchised poor, undocumented aliens and immigrants, and perennially struggling minorities.
As I see it, Rev. Wright’s entire ministerial and political repertoire, both in their intent and outlook, are benign and not meant to cause mischief. However, an election year tends to throw up a potpourri of personalities, banalities, and ideas, which strategists strive to exploit to the hilt. For those on the other side of the Obama camp, Rev. Wright may be God-sent, but that fact does not and should not detract from his awakening zingers, aimed at those who have become politically indolent and insensitive to grassroots issues.
When the dust settles and Barack Obama finds that he has lost the political race and an erstwhile mentor, I hope that he will have the decency not to blame Rev. Wright, whom like Simon Peter, he has already denied before the cockcrow and new political dawn. I hope too that he will be man enough and politically savvy enough to accept his role in allowing his opponents to bait him with Rev. Wright. By responding to their every call to declare his stand or to repudiate Rev. Wright, he proved early, that he was malleable, could not take the heat and was exceedingly susceptible to pressure. Such credentials are not the traits of someone poised to be a strong president.
It should be clear that Obama has all along played his opponent’s game and showed his hand too easily. The clamor about Rev. Wright is therefore not exactly about him as much as it is about underscoring Obama’s inadequacies and unfitness to be president. In the final analysis, anyone who is willing to pander and unwilling to defend a citizen’s constitutional right to free speech, even if his views are grating and divisive, is perhaps not worth being considered for the world’s top political post.
Whatever is the case, we now know what Rev. Wright stands for. We have met him up close and personal. He has defined and demythologized himself. That is more than we can say for Barack Obama, given his politically convenient and politically correct waffling. While we may not like all that Rev. Wright says, or stand for, what does it cost, to be loved or despised but left alone?
With neither anger nor partiality, until next time, keep the law, stay impartial, and observe closely.
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Hank Eso is a columnist for Kwenu.com. His commentaries on Nigerian politics and global issues have appeared in The New Times (Lagos), African Profile International (New York), The Nigerian And Africa Abroad (New York), African Market News (New Jersey), Gamji.com and Nigeriavillagesquare.com
© Hank Eso, Thursday, 1 May 2008
Email: hankeso@aol.com