Letters to the Editor
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The Audacity of Truth
I found Pastor Wright's comment's distasteful and his embrace of Louis Farrakhan abhorrent. That said, trying to belittle the anger of black Americans is not only misguided, it is wrong. The worst evil the world has faced was the Nazis in World War II. Black soldiers fought and gave their lives but were not allowed to stay in the same barracks with white soldiers and were treated like third-class citizens at best. Yet, when they died, their blood was no different from their white counterparts'. They returned home to water fountains they were not allowed to drink from, restaurants they were not allowed to eat in, and had to sit in the back of the bus.
The Tuskegee episode had the American government using blacks as experimental guinea pigs. While I, too, find accusations of the government manufacturing the HIV virus to murder blacks outrageous, any black American that was taught about the Tuskegee disgrace has reason to doubt their government. Voter suppression of blacks was rampant and even as recently as the 2000 election for President there were allegations of attempts to turn away black voters. The entire world saw black bodies floating down the flooded streets of New Orleans as the federal government stood by and did nothing while the Black neighborhoods of New Orleans were destroyed. Today, in 2008, black men are still stopped at random by policemen for the sole reason they are black. A black man trying to catch a taxi in most major cities in America has a less than 50 percent chance the taxi will stop for him.
Yes, I abhor what Reverend Wright says. I am white and I am Jewish, but I still can understand his anger and the anger and doubts of most black Americans. We can criticize him all we want for hating us, but history shows his animosity is most definitely not make believe. There were wrongs that were righted and wrongs and injustice that still must be righted, but we do our country a great disservice by dismissing everything the man said as ranting and raving. We cannot move forward if we cannot understand our past, and we must embrace one another as equals and treat one another as we would like others to treat us.