Jamelle Bouie: Rev. Jeremiah Wright Had A Point When He Said “God Damn America”

Jamelle is one of my favorite leftwing writers:

“The myth of Barack Obama usually begins with his speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and for good reason—it was the speech that jump-started his political career, putting the then–state senator on the fast track to national office. But it wasn’t the speech that made him president. That speech was delivered at a moment of crisis. His former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was in the middle of a media firestorm over a sermon he had given in 2003 in the wake of the Iraq invasion. “No, no, no. Not God bless America,” thunders Wright in the now-infamous video. “God Damn America!”

Had this just been the case of a controversial preacher, Obama might have survived by ignoring it—treating it as a distraction from “the issues.” But Wright was more than controversial; he was black. And he was speaking in a black religious and political tradition that condemns America for its treatment of black and brown people, for the genocide of natives and the enslavement of Africans, for internment and displacement. In Wright’s eyes, America was sinful, and until it atoned for those sins, God would deny His blessings. Not God Bless America. God Damn America! …

Obama rejected Wright’s vision with a speech that saved his campaign and made him president. Given our present circumstances, it’s clear he could have used a little of Wright’s insight. Obama saw his candidacy and ultimately his presidency as part of the story of American progress. But governments change, the pastor said. Things can and will get worse, our ever-perfecting union be damned.”

He’s always a reliable source of lulz.

According to the Lügenpresse, I’m an ‘extremist’, but the black power clique – Jamelle Bouie, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Michael Eric Dyson – are ‘mainstream’. It’s strange because from my perspective these people are far more race-obsessed than I am. I write about race and identity, but it isn’t the only thing I write about. I’m basically a moderate compared to the extreme shit that they say at Slate and The Atlantic. All I really do here is say things that are true, but politically incorrect, like the fact that black people now run Selma, but have utterly destroyed it after 50 years of the Voting Rights Act.

You don’t see me saying things like, “you should feel guilty because of your blackness” or “blackness itself is evil” or “you should be paying a White tax because you owe us something.” I acknowledge that racial differences exist, but I don’t condemn blacks for taking pride in their racial identity. I mean, if you read this guy as often as I do, you know that deep down Jamelle wants to raise his fist in the air and belly out a BLACK POWER, BLACK POWER, BLACK POWER! He won’t be satisfied with anything short of that.

I think he is a very angry individual. He’s certainly far more angry than I am.

Note: Of course Jamelle doesn’t give Sen. Jeff Sessions any credit for walking over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma with John Lewis. As we all know, Republicans are racist reactionaries! They’ve privatized racism!