Guest Column
A Symphony in Black and White
By Joe Olvera
What I don’t understand about white people is the way they are in denial of the atrocities that some of them have committed against people of color. The campaign between Barack Obama, an African American, and Hillary Clinton, a white woman, is making history as the first time two people who are not white males are running serious campaigns for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
For some of us, who have always been neutral about racial issues, in fact, welcoming everyone into the fold, the bitter contest between the two combatants is forcing the racist elements in the United States to crawl out from behind the woodwork, where the cockroaches normally live.
Are we now supposed to forget those very same atrocities? Maybe the Reverend Wright is an extreme element – quite stupid, if you ask me - but what he is saying is factually correct. He just picked the wrong time to say it, although I’m positive he has been preaching thusly in his church, as, perhaps, other black preachers have done now for decades. Remember that during slavery, blacks were not allowed to worship and, in fact, it was against the law for a slave to learn to read and write. Doing so meant instant death.
But, see, blacks aren’t the only problem here. If only whites would accept the criticism and take it from there. But, no, they are denying that they ever committed any crimes against people of color.
Take Sean Hannity, as an example. His racist comments appear every night on cable news KFOX – the station that laughingly calls itself “fair and balanced.” What a joke. As if Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and all those other characters can ever truly be fair and balanced. Even Alan Colmes, who calls himself a Liberal, comes out so weak against Hannity that he’s almost a forgotten entity. Hannity gets all the air time, where he can spew his fear and hatred against people who are not like him.
Was Reverend Wright wrong in calling our nation the U.S. of KKK? Didn’t the KKK exist, and still does? Didn’t the KKK strike fear among African Americans, Jews, Mexicans, and other people of color - and even some white Americans - because of their extremist views? Even after slavery ostensibly ended in 1865, blacks still suffered for decades after that with Jim Crow Laws – laws that were created to keep blacks in their place, subservient to white people, despite the efforts of the Emancipation Proclamation to free them from tyranny and woeful abuse. Was this idiotic preacher correct in stating that the United States created the AIDS virus to kill African Americans, gays, and other people of color?
Was he Wright (excuse me, right) in saying that God should not “bless” America, but should, rather “damn” America? Is this preacher deliberately working to undermine Obama? Maybe he’s pissed off that he’s not the presidential nominee. Is that why he’s mad at Obama, or is he just mouthing the words that Obama can’t and shouldn’t mouth? Thanks to the Reverend (Wrong) Obama, who seemed a lock for the Democratic nomination, is now fighting for his political life and for his future.
The ridiculous man who calls himself a man of God is having such a detrimental effect on Obama’s campaign, that he should be sequestered and not allowed to see the light of day until after the general election. Because I don’t think this guy is finished. Even when Obama wins the nomination and runs in the general election against Republican John McCain, that Reverend (oh, so Wrong), will continue to shoot off his ridiculous mouth, thinking that he’s going to set everyone straight.
- While I believe that it’s good that white people are finally beginning to see that they’re not as innocent about past atrocities as they would like to be, I think Wright is vastly overreaching. The guy just doesn’t know when to shut up! I know about those atrocities and I certainly have written enough columns. Remember the Repatriation Act of 1930- wherein more than one million Mexicans, both legal and illegal were rounded up and shipped back to Mexico? Remember the lynching of blacks in the south and of Mexicans in Texas by the Texas Rangers? Remember the Japanese Internment Camps? Remember….remember….remember. I ‘member. Do you ‘member?
- Sin Fin
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- Joe Olvera’s new book information at: http://www.joeolverawrites.blogspot.com/
- Contact Joe Olvera at joeolvera2003@yahoo.com
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