There it is again

“If Barack gets past the primary, he might have to publicly distance himself from me,” Mr. Wright said with a shrug.

“I said it to Barack personally, and he said yeah, that might have to happen.”

NY Times: A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith

... Mr. Obama was entranced by Mr. Wright, whose sermons fused analysis of the Bible with outrage at what he saw as the racism of everything from daily life in Chicago to American foreign policy. Mr. Obama had never met a minister who made pilgrimages to Africa, welcomed women leaders and gay members and crooned Teddy Pendergrass rhythm and blues from the pulpit. Mr. Wright was making Trinity [United Church of Christ] a social force, initiating day care, drug counseling, legal aid and tutoring. He was also interested in the world beyond his own; in 1984, he traveled to Cuba to teach Christians about the value of nonviolent protest and to Libya to visit Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, along with the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Mr. Wright said his visits implied no endorsement of their views.

Also noteworthy:

Mr. Obama’s ties to Trinity have become more complicated than those simply of proud congregation and favorite son. Since Mr. Obama announced his candidacy, the church has received threatening phone calls. On blogs and cable news shows, conservative critics have called it separatist and antiwhite.

Congregants respond by saying critics are misreading the church’s tenets, that it is a warm and accepting community and is not hostile to whites. But Mr. Wright’s political statements may be more controversial than his theological ones. He has said that Zionism has an element of “white racism.” (For its part, the Anti-Defamation League says it has no evidence of any anti-Semitism by Mr. Wright.)

And this:

On the Sunday after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Mr. Wright said the attacks were a consequence of violent American policies. Four years later he wrote that the attacks had proved that

“people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West went on its merry way of ignoring Black concerns.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the Trinity church website, Mr. Wright reassures us that

"African-centered thought, unlike Eurocentrism, does not assume superiority and look at everyone else as being inferior."

Whewf, I feel much better now, don't you?

But of course not so much better that I would go on my "merry way." G-d forbid. I certainly wouldn't want to align myself with the "Great White West." Would I? Isn't being Eurocentric bad? Should I have been black? If I can't be black, what should I do or be? I'm so confused.

I mean, I'm glad Wright doesn't think America attacked herself on 9/11, but on the other hand, if 9/11 was indeed a reminder of the presence of "people of color" in the world, or a warning to the "Great White West" not to ignore "Black concerns" ...

What's a White Jew to do?

Vote for Obama?

Will that make it all better?

Because he's Black?

Because he grew up in Hawaii?

Because his stepgrandmother is a devoted Muslim?

Sarah Hussein Obama of Kenya, Barack [Hussein] Obama’s step-grandmother, is a lifelong Muslim. “I am a strong believer of the Islamic faith,” she says. Photo / Evelyn Hockstein for The New York Times.

{sigh}

Comments

[Joanne]

I know I'm missing something here, but who is the guy in the photo reading the NY Times weekend section?

[Yael]

It's Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger, publisher of the Times. Sorry about that; I've run this picture so many times that I wrongly assumed everyone was as familiar with it as I am.