Obama needn't repudiate Wright

By KEN WIBECAN

March 30, 2008 04:00 am

— The current racial tornado threatening to overwhelm Barrack Obama's candidacy can be a good thing. A serious dialogue on race in America has been needed for decades, and if recent incidents calm down, we might get to that inclusive United States of America of which Obama speaks. Although he is 10 years younger than me, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, theologian, noted preacher and retiring pastor of Obama's church, is from my generation. I understand why he speaks as he does.
African American elders still recall with horror newspaper and magazine photos of dead people of color hanging from trees and burned beyond recognition. We were subjects of insults in movies and newspaper cartoons that were only funny to others. The myth of "separate but equal" rings in my ears as if it were yesterday. Then there was that all-Negro company in which I served during the Korean War, three years after President Harry Truman required the Army to be integrated.
During my early years, the only brown-skinned professional basketball players were the Harlem Globetrotters, and it wasn't until 1947 when major league baseball was integrated, 14 years before Obama was born. The senator has never seen a segregated ball game. I have. We old folks were young then and active participants in the fight for equality that took place while Barrack Obama was being conceived.
He grew up in a different world, one more inclusive made possible by the activism of persons including Jeremiah Wright, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, John Lewis and others of varied hues. Many who participated still bear scars from the battles and continue to vocalize their righteous indignation as does Dr. Wright. But for younger people of color to be forced to repudiate their elders because the elders still harbor resentment at past injustices is clear evidence of domination and oppression. It's like asking someone to kick grandpa out of the house because they don't like some things he says.
During the 1980s, my best friend, the Rev Louis Chase, a United Methodist minister, and I were part of a multi-racial discussion group that met regularly in Long Beach, Calif. Following one of Minister Louis Farrakhan's incendiary statements, Chase and I were asked by several members of the group to publicly repudiate Farrakhan's statements. We both refused because, when one is asked to repudiate another person's statements, there is a tacit assumption that you agree with them unless you say you don't. We found that concept offensive and still do. Obama need not apologize for any of Rev. Wright's statements, whether or not he was present at the sermons.
Obama is part of the new generation of Americans, more concerned with where we are going than where we have been -- and he wants to lead America there. He is not an optimist. The "audacity of hope" isn't stifled by the knowledge that most of the founding fathers of this country were slaveholders. Or that Independence Day for people of color is not July 4th, but Jan. 1, 1863, the day the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Separate realities must of necessity fit into a cohesive whole like pieces into a national jigsaw puzzle.
Obama's opponents and enemies should not hold his feet to the fire for comments made by others. In fact, all the candidates should stop such nonsense. Hillary is not responsible for Geraldine Ferraro's statements, McCain is not responsible for comments made by his supporters, and neither is Obama.
One of the freedoms we cherish most in this nation is freedom of speech. Those who expect a candidate to agree with everyone who supports him or her need to ask whether or not they would really like to live in a nation of automatons. Race will always be part of the American dialogue. It's up to the wiser of us to make sure that that discussion is constructive and doesn't get too unpleasant.