Eric~

After looking at Barack Obama, I’ve been recently asking myself why he has so many supporters after looking at his beliefs, his associations, and the comments and claims that he has recently made and have concerns about him.

I’ll address the issue of Reverend Wright and his association with Barack Obama first. Reverend Wright has been in the news recently because of his comments regarding America and race. During a sermon, he said that America was run by rich white Americans that didn’t have the black people in mind, that white people gave blacks AIDS, and that we shouldn’t be shouting ‘God Bless America’ but rather “God Da*m America!” I understand that you shouldn’t judge somebody solely because they know somebody who is radical in their beliefs, which Reverend Wright is. However Barack Obama has called Wright his ‘mentor’. Now, a mentor is somebody who teaches you and guides you. This makes me wonder what Wright is teaching Barack Obama. Does Obama now believe that the white man is oppressing the African American community and that white people gave blacks AIDS on purpose? If this is the influence that Wright has had on Obama, then I do not want him to be president.

Let’s say that Wright never mentored or talked politics with Obama (although I strongly doubt it) and talked strictly religion. His religions teachings are that of the Black Liberation Theology, which is that the African American community should reject and kill ANY God that doesn’t teach that the Black Man is superior. All men are created equal; Barack Obama has quoted this line many times, and it is indeed true. But what Reverend Wright teaches is not this, and Barack Obama has listened to this for 20 years. Reverend Wright is an extremist and racist against whites. I do not want my president to have been taught by somebody like Wright. I am also confused as to why Barack Obama stayed with Wright and his church when he heard these radical ideas for twenty years. The only explanation I can think of is that Obama may agree with Wrights teachings of Black Liberation Theology.

I also do not like his wife. Barack Obama’s wife has said that this is the first time in her adult life that she is proud to be an American. So she is only proud of America because her husband has a chance to be President? Although I understand that the First Lady does not have political power, I do not want a first lady who is not proud of her country.

Here is the purpose of this post; I am afraid that Barack Obama, because of the influence Reverend Wright has had on Obama, is racist against white America. Please enlighten me if I am Ignorant on a subject or disagree with my post. I am an independent at the moment, and I wanted to get the views of Obama’s supporters on this issue.

Curious George

Well, since nobody else answered, I figured I'd chime in. I'm not really an Obama supporter per se, but of the candidates remaining in this race, I much prefer him to any of the alternatives.

I can't tell you how much of a non-issue this is for me. My grandfather was my "mentor." He taught me to read, to write, he taught me math, he taught me about responsibility... really, he taught me about life. He also hated black people. He used to routinely make racist jokes, even in my presence, when I was very young. I grew up hearing these kinds of things AND looking up to my grandfather and respecting his advice. Yet, I am not a racist. Barack Obama, a man who is half white, and who was raised by his white mother and white grandparents, met Jeremiah Wright when he was already a grown, intelligent, successful, independent, college educated man. I highly doubt he became racist against the very community that he came from based upon a relationship he had with Wright. The fact is, you can value the guidance of someone without subscribing to everything they say.

Regardless, I think all it takes is to objectively look at the guy and listen to him when he talks to see and hear that he is far from being racist.

I can't really help you with that one. If you don't like her you don't like her. As far that comment she made, it was a bad choice of words. If you've listened to anything she's said since then she clarified that she was talking about Americans' involvement in the political process relative to previous years and not trying to make a general statement. She further clarified her position by saying that she is proud to be an American.

I don't think you have anything to fear. As I said before, the man is half white and was raised by white people in a white community. The idea that he's some closet racist against half of his family and the majority of his country because a friend of his said some random stupid **** is really unfounded, IMO. In the end though, you'll have to come to terms with that on your own. If you just plain don't like the guy or you're generally close-minded towards him because you're hung up on some other candidate that didn't make it to the final show, you're probably not going to change your mind. If you're objective about it, I think it's easy to see that he's far from being any kind of racist.

John1234

The Wright issue is definitely a worthy issue of discussion.
I do not deny that even I, as an Obama supporter, have some small concerns about it.

I can offer you some points to consider, but I can not eliminate your concern.

-The majority of blacks do believe that the white man gave them aids.
They also believe the white man gave them crack cocaine.
If you doubt this then go out and ask some uneducated blacks about it.
This being the case, it should not be surprising to hear it coming from a Black Preacher.
Obama graduated head of his class from Harvard. There is no danger of Obama believing these type things.

-After I heard the Wright stuff, I went and watched all of Wrights sermons that I could find on the net to try and understand what was wrong with the guy. Most of his sermons are quite normal for a black church and focus on Religion and not politics.

-For the "God Damn America" sermon... let me ask you this, "Do you understand what his point was?"
I know i did not at first.
Wright's point is revealed as he enters into this part of his sermon and without watching the "entire" thing, you could not possibly know what the heck the guy is trying to say.
And it just makes him look like a hate mongering moron.
At the start Wright talks about God and whether or not we all pray to the same God. (I do not remember exact quotes so these are my words)
He pointed out that the slaves who prayed, "God please help us gain our freedom" and the slave masters who prayed, "God please help our slaves produce a good harvest" could not possibly be praying to the same God.
And if you really think about that, he might be right. The bible does teach us that there will be masses of people who worship false religion who think that they are worshiping the Christian God Jehovah.
Wright expanded further on this line of thought by listing American atrocities such as the Indians and etc until he wound it up by referencing "God Bless America".
When he concluded it with "God Damn America" it was for emphasis of the fact that America has done some pretty terrible things in the name of god.
Wright was not asking God to Damn America nor was he telling his audience to desire God to damn America.
He was making a outrageous statement to place emphasis on a specific point.
But because the outline of this point is expressed about 5 minutes earlier in the speech, it does not get much media coverage.

I've seen some pretty wild things in some white evangelical churches.
Including people speaking in tongues and having convulsions on the floor.
(something that to me is indicative of demon worship)

I think that Wright is a bit crazy. And i think that he is unable to let go of the racism he has seen in his life, (as an older black man) which in todays times tends to make him the racist.
But I am able to understand his point and I do not see it as threatening or terrible. Just tasteless and without tact.

Most importantly though is that 99% of the preachers in this church give normal black church type sermons.
Almost every one is recorded and if there were others like the ones we see on TV, those would also be on TV.
Even if we had twice as many to look at, it would not move the number from 99% to 98% because there is a 20-30 year track record of normal sermons.
(Normal by black church standards)

With this being said though, it does still concern me some.
And that is why i take in all the information about both the candidates and listen to what they have to say on all the various issues.
McCain's "spiritual guide" actually advocates violence and is against both Jews and Catholics.
When both candidates have nutballs like these in their corners, the best thing to do is stop looking at the nutballs and look at the candidates.

This one you can just toss in the trash and forget about.
There is nothing here at all.
Within the same speech from Michelle Obama she places her words into the proper context in the next paragraph.
Her choice of words was poor, but her point was only lost to those that choose to cover their ears.
The Right Wing media has taken advantage of her poor choice of words.
She was simply trying to express how proud she is.
There is nothing wrong with what she said when placed in the proper context.
Its only wrong because the way it was worded made her open to those with malicious intent.
At least 1/2 of Obamas supporters are white.
During the general election it will be over 3/4's.
If this was an issue, Obama would already be a part of the past and forgotten.
Obama was battling the "Muslim" connection bull crap at the time he called Wright his mentor. It is likely he over compensated by referring to Wright as his mentor. But in either case, Wright is not quite as bad as the media made him out to be. I am not saying he is fine. But the majority of his stuff is about the black man and about god, not about politics and the white man.

A final point i will make is that if you look more deeply into the implications of what some of McCain's preachers have said, they are all much more serious issues. Wright could very well be labeled a radical or a racist but he is not preaching violence or hate. Whereas McCain's are.

This election is about much larger issues.
We are choosing between having many serious wars and a goal of a Global Empire vs trying to repair our relations with the world and taking care of our own citizens.
We are choosing between a new cold war and massive arms race with Russia vs a treaty with Russia.

Once the debates start, the serious issues on the table will overwhelm people's concerns with things like racial ministers.

obvious Child

Nothing in Eric's post means anything to me.

Obama's lack of a clear financial plan to put the US back in the black as well as a plan to make the country compeitive in the globalized economy is my biggest concern.

aps

I think what I am most disappointed about is the fact that if you are genuinely concerned about these issues, Eric, why you haven't conducted the necessary research to see how many of your concerns are pure hype. A search on Google would have answered some of your concerns.