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Inconvenient truths about race relations in America
CHRIS BURNS
Monday, March 31, 2008
Two weeks ago, Barack Obama gave what is still being dubbed the most profound speech on race relations in the United States.
Obama's speech came in response to attempts by mainstream American media, huge segments of white America and, to a lesser extent, pockets of African Americans, to link him to a few offensive comments from his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Contrary to expectations, Obama condemned the remarks, but refused to throw Wright "under the bus".
I have always maintained that context is essential in evaluating the spoken word, whether they are Rev Wright's or someone else's. As I listened to some of Rev Wright's sermons and read the transcript of the one the American media have been using to impugn his reputation (as they find Barack Obama guilty by association), I came to the conclusion that "the greatest ignorance is to reject something you know nothing about".
As someone who likes the authoritarian structure of Anglicanism, I avoided attending low church for years, because I understood neither the rationale behind its worship structure nor its wide latitude in matters of discipline and faith. Only after a few visits, was I able to understand the significance of the ecclesiastical reformation that influences much of the liberation inherent in the order of service and other practices. Evidently, mainstream America needs to start visiting black churches to get an understanding of the historical connections between black oppression and liberation theology.
They will come to realise why the negro spiritual, Deep in my heart, I do believe, I'll overcome some day, has such great emotional appeal to African Americans.
As poignant as Wright's comments may appear, they bear inconvenient truths about racism and the cruel aftermaths of some US foreign policies. So, while we honour the 4,000 US soldiers killed in Iraq, we should also acknowledge the collateral damage to innocent Iraqis. According to a Washington Post article in October 2006, "American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimate 655,000 more people died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred."
America is a great country, but it is also a society of amazing contradictions. As it purports itself to be the paragon of virtue and the arbiter of universal equality, large segments of its population know nothing else but injustice and malignant bigotry. It's ironic that some would take no exceptions to anti-Semitic speech from theologians like John Hagee and Pat Robertson, or offensive racial utterances from conservative talk-show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh. Yet, they would crucify Rev Wright.
It is typical of some to pretend that blacks are sub-human. However, to paraphrase Shylock's words from The Merchant of Venice: "Hath not black people hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Hath they not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as Caucasians? If you prick them, do they not bleed?" Of course, the family of the late James Byrd Jr of Jasper, Texas, would answer in the affirmative. Lest we forget, some white supremacists tied Byrd to their pickup truck and dragged him to his death.
It's never okay for one to invite destruction upon one's country, but we cannot pretend our troubles away or behave as if Wright's comments are unusual. The media have a responsibility to provide historical context for the anger and the frustration evidenced in Wright's sermon.
According to the 1860 US census, the black slave population in the United States was four million. This was 84 years after the Declaration of Independence in 1776 when Thomas Jefferson declared: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." Nearly 4,000 blacks were lynched between 1880 and 1930. And, without trivialising the cruelty that black men suffered, they were also punished for being prodigiously endowed. In other words, they were hanged for being "well-hung".
Even though Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, between 1880 and the1960s, a majority of American states enforced segregation through "Jim Crow" laws. In Florida, for example, marriages between a white person and a Negro or between a white person and a person of Negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive were prohibited.
While not justifying Rev Wright's comments on the HIV conspiracy, it is not far-fetched to believe that the comments were amplifications of the anger emanating from the 1930s, when 399 men signed up with the US Public Health Service, as it conducted a study on syphilis.
The men were never told they had syphilis. They were told they had "bad blood" and were denied access to treatment, even after penicillin came into use in 1947. By the time the study was exposed in 1972, 28 men had died of syphilis, 100 others died of related complications.
According to a 2006 Associated Press article, the US Census Bureau reported "broad racial disparities". White households had incomes that were two-thirds higher than blacks. White adults were also more likely than blacks to have college degrees and to own their own homes and were less likely to live in poverty.Three-quarters of white households owned their homes in 2005, compared to 46 per cent of black households. Median income for white households was US$50,622 in 2005. It was US$30,939 for black households.
It's clear that these racial issues were never fully resolved. Martin Luther King Jr was forced to echo, "I have a dream," in the late 1960s - a dream that prematurely ended his life in 1968. Though significant progress has been made to achieve a more just and equitable society, there are lingering racial problems in America. Don't get me wrong, I'll continue to pray for God to bless America, as I do for Jamaica, but there are inconvenient truths that must be told.
burnscg@aol.com
CHRIS BURNS
Monday, March 31, 2008
Two weeks ago, Barack Obama gave what is still being dubbed the most profound speech on race relations in the United States.
Obama's speech came in response to attempts by mainstream American media, huge segments of white America and, to a lesser extent, pockets of African Americans, to link him to a few offensive comments from his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Contrary to expectations, Obama condemned the remarks, but refused to throw Wright "under the bus".
I have always maintained that context is essential in evaluating the spoken word, whether they are Rev Wright's or someone else's. As I listened to some of Rev Wright's sermons and read the transcript of the one the American media have been using to impugn his reputation (as they find Barack Obama guilty by association), I came to the conclusion that "the greatest ignorance is to reject something you know nothing about".
As someone who likes the authoritarian structure of Anglicanism, I avoided attending low church for years, because I understood neither the rationale behind its worship structure nor its wide latitude in matters of discipline and faith. Only after a few visits, was I able to understand the significance of the ecclesiastical reformation that influences much of the liberation inherent in the order of service and other practices. Evidently, mainstream America needs to start visiting black churches to get an understanding of the historical connections between black oppression and liberation theology.
They will come to realise why the negro spiritual, Deep in my heart, I do believe, I'll overcome some day, has such great emotional appeal to African Americans.
As poignant as Wright's comments may appear, they bear inconvenient truths about racism and the cruel aftermaths of some US foreign policies. So, while we honour the 4,000 US soldiers killed in Iraq, we should also acknowledge the collateral damage to innocent Iraqis. According to a Washington Post article in October 2006, "American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimate 655,000 more people died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred."
America is a great country, but it is also a society of amazing contradictions. As it purports itself to be the paragon of virtue and the arbiter of universal equality, large segments of its population know nothing else but injustice and malignant bigotry. It's ironic that some would take no exceptions to anti-Semitic speech from theologians like John Hagee and Pat Robertson, or offensive racial utterances from conservative talk-show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh. Yet, they would crucify Rev Wright.
It is typical of some to pretend that blacks are sub-human. However, to paraphrase Shylock's words from The Merchant of Venice: "Hath not black people hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Hath they not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as Caucasians? If you prick them, do they not bleed?" Of course, the family of the late James Byrd Jr of Jasper, Texas, would answer in the affirmative. Lest we forget, some white supremacists tied Byrd to their pickup truck and dragged him to his death.
It's never okay for one to invite destruction upon one's country, but we cannot pretend our troubles away or behave as if Wright's comments are unusual. The media have a responsibility to provide historical context for the anger and the frustration evidenced in Wright's sermon.
According to the 1860 US census, the black slave population in the United States was four million. This was 84 years after the Declaration of Independence in 1776 when Thomas Jefferson declared: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." Nearly 4,000 blacks were lynched between 1880 and 1930. And, without trivialising the cruelty that black men suffered, they were also punished for being prodigiously endowed. In other words, they were hanged for being "well-hung".
Even though Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, between 1880 and the1960s, a majority of American states enforced segregation through "Jim Crow" laws. In Florida, for example, marriages between a white person and a Negro or between a white person and a person of Negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive were prohibited.
While not justifying Rev Wright's comments on the HIV conspiracy, it is not far-fetched to believe that the comments were amplifications of the anger emanating from the 1930s, when 399 men signed up with the US Public Health Service, as it conducted a study on syphilis.
The men were never told they had syphilis. They were told they had "bad blood" and were denied access to treatment, even after penicillin came into use in 1947. By the time the study was exposed in 1972, 28 men had died of syphilis, 100 others died of related complications.
According to a 2006 Associated Press article, the US Census Bureau reported "broad racial disparities". White households had incomes that were two-thirds higher than blacks. White adults were also more likely than blacks to have college degrees and to own their own homes and were less likely to live in poverty.Three-quarters of white households owned their homes in 2005, compared to 46 per cent of black households. Median income for white households was US$50,622 in 2005. It was US$30,939 for black households.
It's clear that these racial issues were never fully resolved. Martin Luther King Jr was forced to echo, "I have a dream," in the late 1960s - a dream that prematurely ended his life in 1968. Though significant progress has been made to achieve a more just and equitable society, there are lingering racial problems in America. Don't get me wrong, I'll continue to pray for God to bless America, as I do for Jamaica, but there are inconvenient truths that must be told.
burnscg@aol.com