The contiuing flap about Jeremiah Wright's relationship to Barack Obama is an example of legitimized public racism. Not
because attacks on Wright are, as he insists, attacks on the black church. No, the reason all of this is pure and simple racism
is that no white political candidate has ever been or is now being held accountable for what his or her pastor has said in
a sermon. The nature of his remarks is not the issue. That he and Obama are black is.
Based on the logic used against Obama, there should have been calls for John Kerry to leave the Catholic Church in
2004 because of the church's complicity in the pedophelic priest scandal. Yet no one suggested such a ridiculous thing precisely
because it would have sounded ridiculous. Yet the ridiculous has now become legitimate in criticism of Obama. Moroever,
John Hagee, whose endorsement John McCain actually sought, has views much more dangerous than what Wright has said. Has any
White reporter sought to make this an issue? Of course not. A white minister with radical views who is a supporter
of a white presientail candidate is not news worthy. But a black minister with radical views who is the pastor of a black
presidential candidate is.
This is a shameful scene in American politics. Liberal and conservative journalists alike, and I used the word "journalist"
loosely, do not believe they are guilty of racism, but that makes the point. It's not their criticism of Wright that is racist.
It is their insistence that Obama is acountable for what Wright says that is. That they cannot see it reveals how subtle and
deep racism is in this country. It is also part of the larger subtle racism showing up in the question of Obama's electability. You
don't have to be a rocket sicentist to see that this is about his being black. That racism would show
its ugly head in this campaign is, of course, not surprising. What is, though, is the news media's complicity in it.
I want to expect something better from the American news media, but it seems I should not. The signs all point
to genuine journalsim having all but disappeared in this country. It is a perilous development for our democracy.
