- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
As always, Joan Wash has posted a very thoughtful, balanced column. I largely agree with her about Obama's comparison of the Reverend's rants against the white race to his white grandmother's prejudices against African Americans. Not a good comparison. True, both react prejudiciously. But it seems to me that Rev. Wright is really hate-mongering and rabble rousing in his speech (even thought this may not be typical of his sermons)while is grandmother is not.
I am reacting somewhat personally. I have a mixed race background and was adopted by white parents. They loved me unreservedly, and I them; yet they seemed unaware of their racial prejudices and I cringed at some of their unthinking statements as I was growing up. Yet I would never compare these statements to the kind of statements Rev. Wright made. Did Obama have a "tin ear" in making this comparison. That doesn't seem the correct analysis. I think it's more that he needed to justify his continued ties to his former pastor. I don't criticize him for maintaining his connections, but I don't think his grandmother deserved to be lumped in with the Rev.
