Can Obama disprove his guilt by association?

    Barack Obama burst on the national scene four years ago during the Democratic National Convention. His personal history and vision on race was fresh and appealing to millions in America.
    That’s pretty much where he’s been and what he’s represented until six weeks or so ago when viral videos of Rev. Jeremiah Wright themselves burst on the national scene. Obama responded to the “shocking, stunning” words of his former pastor by giving one of the most profound speeches ever given on race in America. Even most of the detractors of the Democratic Party frontrunner praised the brilliance of his speech but then….they argued, he needed to do more.
    Obama needed to not only denounce what the man said, he needed to denounce the man. A few days ago, after Rev. Wright came out of his self-imposed public exile and elaborated on his “stunning and shocking” words, Obama did just that.
    Well, as it turns out, that’s still not enough for Obama’s detractors. They want him to explain why he stayed in Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ for so long. Why Rev. Wright remained his pastor for so long. In effect, they want him to prove the unneccesary.
    When my post, Wright Here, Wright Now, went up on the ebonyjet.com website, there were plenty of comments. One from a reader who identified himself as Andy Shep—after several exchanges between him and me—concludes, “Mainstream America is not going to embrace the anger that Wright has made visible. If they feel that in his heart Obama resents them, or would appoint people to higher office who resent them, they will not vote for him.”
    Our ebonyjet back and forth is below.  But first, I’d like to present a Vimeo video entitled, White People, Get Over Yourselves. In the viral video, Dan Charnas, a young white man, says, “In America, black people have always endured white peoples’ negative, prejudiced opinions about them.”
    Charnas later says, “America is run by an undereducated, white majority. Black people have just had to deal with it.”
    Check out the video, and then read the prevailing mainstream America opinion as it appeared on ebonyjet.com.

White People, Get Over Yourselves from Dantrification on Vimeo.

Andy Shep says:
anyone who believes that AIDS was invented by the government to kill black men hates people who look like me. It is not in my best interests to vote for someone who hates me. There are those of you who know better and have stayed silent, because of that men like Wright don't even know how inflammatory they are. You can believe all white men to be racists and murderers and you can become president, I don't think you can do both. Obama has not denounced Wright enough.
05.01.08 at 10:20 PM

Monroe Anderson says:
AndyShep: The bar seems to keep moving on Obama's denunciation of Rev. Wright. What would be enough? Have you any suggestions? Or, would God Damn Rev. Wright satisfy you?
05.02.08 at 3:03 PM

Any Shep says:
Obama's problem is the timing of his comments distancing himself from Wright seem to coincide with bad polling data. White people see it as a political move. An eloquent speech that addressed what Wright said, why Wright may have said it, and why he was wrong could turn the negative into a positive. There is White resentment over Black anger if he addresses it he can win by a landslide. Many still believe he privately agrees with Wright, including Wright, and he's known him for 20 years.
05.02.08 at 7:43 PM

Monroe Anderson says:
Any Shep, let me see if I understand this correctly. Whites resent it that blacks are angry because, after all these years, there is still racial discrimination, economic inequity and white privilege in America?
05.02.08 at 8:27 PM

Andy Shep says:
Wright is just a product of anger, and because of his anger he can't move forward and won't let anyone else move forward either. Wright was not angry alone. Mainstream America is not going to embrace the anger that Wright has made visible. If they feel that in his heart Obama resents them, or would appoint people to higher office who resent them, they will not vote for him. You can live in the problem or live in the solution.

    I invite you to comment on what Dan Charnas, Andy Shep or I had to say right here on this blog or comment on the ebonyjet.website on my exchange with Shep.