America Is Purple

Bravo once again to Jon Stewart! Out of all the political talk-shows, pundit-popping panels, and even Keith Olberman’s program (which I’ve grown to love in recent weeks), no one but Jon actually understood what Reverend Jeremiah Wright was saying this weekend. They were too busy looking for the next salacious sound-bite to listen to what the good reverend was actually talking about (Obama is [just] a politician? Oh my god! Rev. Wright just threw Obama under the bus! Let’s completely ignore that lack of a [just] and the fact that this is certainly not what he meant.) What he was saying is black and white are different. Neither is inherently better than the other, we’re just different. We white people get uncomfortable with preachers who are too fiery. For black Christians, fiery preaching is the norm. And what reverend Wright was saying in those sermons that yielded the sound-bites that have been circulating for the last several months was actually correct. God will curse (damn) America if America continues to oppress others and foster injustice. (If any of you think that America has never oppressed anyone, cause after all we’re the land of the free, you need a harsh history lesson.) But at any rate, cheers to the Daily Show for calling the media on this manufactured controversy. Reverend Wright is not some mill-stone around Obama’s neck, or at least would not be if the media would focus their attention for even a moment on anything but the snippets of statements that can be spun negatively or misconstrued.

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