Damn! Damn! Damn!

I knew Reverend Wright's speech was going to be troublesome when every clip I watched was from the conservative government propaganda news channel. As I watched I found myself in complete internal conflict. For the first time, I felt like I could relate to what it must have felt like for black people to watch as Washington and DuBois or Dr. King and Malcolm X were pitted against one another. Having those historical debates as a vantage point I'm able to see that at the end of the day all that each of these individuals ever wanted was to help their people. Up to this point I could never understand why they couldn't just work together and not have the discussion about the advancement of the race in the public sphere. But as I watched Reverend Wright speaking to every possible media outlet I realized that the desire to be right and to win can be very powerful even if detrimental.

Apparently Rev. Wright didn't get the memo that every other "leader" is adhering to; be easy so Barack can get at least some semblance of a fair shake. A good friend of mine once said "if a person doesn't have a reason for doing something then they definitely don't have a good reason." That's what I was struggling to understand from Reverend Wright; why now and who was he reasserting his position with? Most reasonable people, who watched the sermons in their entirety came away thinking that the "controversy" was media generated and that whether you agreed with his delivery or not, you couldn't really dispute the historical accuracy of most of his statements. Even as he delivered his speech to the NAACP there was a great deal of audience participation and support so why did Reverend Wright feel the need to preach to the choir in front of a national audience? I respect my elders but I really wished as I watched every speech including the interview with Bill Moyers that when asked about Barack that the Reverend Wright would simply respond:

"Given Barack's background and life experiences he has a different perspective on the possibilities for all people in America."

He referred to a media agenda in his interview with Bill Moyers, so did he really think that he could change the minds of those who were trying to caricature him? Was he trying to? I'm not of the mindset that the reverend was out to hurt Barack but at what point do you realize that the media that is demonizing you can't then fairly represent you? That's just counter intuitive.