Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr: Racist or Proud to Be Black

America celebrates Independence Day (July 4) knowing full well that a large part of America's history (slavery) did not include freedom of slaves. America also has slaveowners, rapists, and criminals on the face of our money. However, instead of focusing on glorifying criminals by putting up a statue of them and creating holidays to honor these presidents, American mainstream media feels the need to pick on Reverend Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ and Barack Obama for being a part of this church. It amazes me that the media is attacking Reverend Wright for speaking his opinion in a church.

Africans were pulled from their homeland, stripped of their language, their culture, their history, and made to feel inferior for over four centuries. While slavery is supposedly over, although it is still happening in Africa, let's not forget that Jim Crow laws and other forms of segregation were in effect from 1877 to the 1950s. The Brown vs Board of Education case was being disputed in 1954. Segregation was supposedly outlawed 50 some odd years ago. These people went on to have children and that type of beating down could easily be handed down to the next generation. When Blacks were given the opportunity to make it in their segregated neighborhoods such as Tulsa, Oklahoma in Black Wall Street, law offices, businesses, and elite homes were burned and bombed. The elite as well as common folk were forced into prisons for fighting to defend their own land after some Blacks tried to protect a young man who a white mob tried to lynch after the young man, who accidentally bumped into a white woman, was accused of raping her. This was in 1921. This was not centuries ago. Matter of fact, this wasn't even a full century ago. There are people alive today who lived through situations like that and received no form of reparations for such things.

America can even go a step further and point to the Leesburg Stockade in Americus, Georgia (1963) who are still alive. These are the grandparents and parents that Black folks of today were raised by. The unemployment rate is sky high. One out of every hundred Black men is being put in jail, mainly because crack is receiving a harsher sentence than cocaine when they are both drugs that Black people are not smuggling into America. When segregation is supposedly illegal, America found yet another way to divide people: expressways. Lower income housing, such as Cabrini Green, is being torn down to put up businesses, and the people who lived in these homes are given minimal funds to find another place to live but given the option to stay if they paid hundreds more dollars than they could afford to in the first place. Gentrification continuously erodes this country, but yet again, American mainstream news chooses to pick on Reverend Wright, and has the audacity to call him racist.

Where does the racist part come in? Because he used the word "damn" or was it "goddamn America?" His full statement was that the government "wants us to sing God Bless America" despite treating Black people like second class citizens. "No, no, no," Mr. Wright said. "God damn America." Now which is worse? Owning slaves, raping women, or using the word god damn? Is Reverend Jeremiah Wright being accused of not being a superb reverend because he allegedly said shit in a sermon about the ten essential facts about the United States: "Fact number one: We've got more black men in prison than there are in college. Fact number two: Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run! We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means. And. And. And God has got to be sick of this shit." Now when did Reverend Wright allegedly using an expletive word suddenly fly out of his mouth and into Barack Obama's? If that's the case, then everything the bishop and reverend said as I grew up (in another church, not Trinity) must be what I stand for now, right? Nope. I'm agnostic. However, I've been to Trinity on several occasions and, even with my own religious beliefs, I appreciated Reverend Wright's sermons. Reverend Wright definitely follows the motto of being "unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian," coined by his predecessor Reverend Dr. Reuben Sheares. Why is it when Black people have finally been able to accept and be proud of their heritage and culture, they are deemed racist? When did freedom of speech become illegal?

And while American mainstream media speaks about Barack Obama being a member of an allegedly racist church like Trinity United Church of Christ, why don't they bring up all of the services that Trinity United Church of Christ brings, such as:

· Active seniors and friends meeting regularly for outings for inspiration and recreation

· Adopt-a-Student Ministry that reaches out to college students who are away from home to assure them that they belong to God and have a church home that cares about them even when they're away

· Africa Ministry that promotes, educates, and advocates issues of Africans in Africa and the Diaspora with opportunities in education, travel, fellowship, economic development, missionary work, financial support, and health education

· Athletes for Christ that promotes physical fitness through sports

· Can-Cer-Vive promoting seminars and workshops for Cancer survivors

· Career development providing information on job fairs, training, and information to help out the unemployed

· Church School for Saturday morning Bible instructions for pre-schoolers to adults

· Counseling Ministry for Masters Degree Holders in counseling or related professions have the opportunity to advise other Church members in individual, family, group, or grief matters

· Dance Ministry to teach modern dance, ballet, and interpretive dance to children, youth, men, and women, in addition to being taught about their African roots of dance in worship and another way to stay physically fit like Athletes for Christ

· HIV/AIDS Ministry to support, educate, and train for individuals, families, and friends impacted by this disease (Note: Approximately 70% of new HIV/AIDS patients are African American women)

· Legal counseling to support Christian attorneys and other legal professionals and provide legal help for the Trinity community

· Prison Ministry with weekly visits to provide support to prisoners for training programs and to have someone to talk to

· Sign Language Interpreters Ministry providing training to those who want to communicate with the hearing impaired and help the handicapped fully participate in Bible study and other religious activites

There are a slew of other Ministries that Trinity participates in. Has it ever

crossed anyone's mind that that could be the reason that Barack Obama was a dedicated member of Trinity United Church of Christ and to Reverend Jeremiah Wright for approximately two decades? Could it be that Barack Obama appreciated how Trinity United Church of Christ's Black Value System spoke to Obama's African descent? Is it wrong to believe in the following Black Value System?

1. Commitment to God

2. Commitment to the Black community

3. Commitment to the Black family

4. Dedication to the pursuit of education

5. Dedication to the pursuit of excellence

6. Adherence to the Black work ethic

7. Commitment to self-discipline and self-respect

8. Disavowal of the pursuit of middleclassness

9. Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the Black community

10. Pledge to allocate regularly, a portion of personal resources for strengthening and supporting Black institutions

11. Pledge allegiance to all Black leadership who espouse and embrace the Black Value System

12. Personal commitment to embracement of the Black Value System

What part of that is wrong? Committing to improve and support Black Americans? Is the threat of Blacks finally being able to have the opportunity to support themselves without fear of being punished, to gain their culture back, and to develop self-confidence in their skin color and differences in society wrong, or is mainstream society scared that what Black slaves lost are what African Americans are determined to get back? Why can't Barack Obama be proud of being Black and supporting the upliftment of Black America the same way that people drive by with American flags clipped to their cars, taped to their windows, and decorated on their shirts? Why can't Black Americans celebrate Black History Month by acknowledging the Black inventors, writers, political activists, and so forth that the Board of Education stubbornly refuses to put in required standardized tests and literature outside of February?

In the song "I'm Proud To Be an American," the lyrics say, "I'm proud to be an American/Where at least I know I'm free/And I won't forget the men who died/Who gave that right to me." In Trinity United Baptist Church, Reverend Jeremiah Wright preaches the same. Reverend Wright will not forget the slaves who died to give him freedom, such as Harriet Tubman. He will not forget about people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass, and Rosa Parks. And why should he, or Barack Obama, or I, for that matter? If not for our own ancestors and millions of other Blacks who were involuntarily attacked and imprisoned through the Middle Passage and fought against such a heinous crime of American society, Blacks would not be free today. I am unashamedly Black as well along with Trinity's 6,000+ members, and even as a potential president, Barack Obama should be as well.