Media Mix
Obama and the Jeremiah Wright Problem
2008-03-14
By Eric Easter

God forbid we should all have to distance ourselves from and disavow everyone close to us who we strongly disagreed with and who espoused alarming and stupid beliefs. If so, the vast majority of Americans would be friendless, childless, without neighbors and in the middle of divorce proceedings.

At some point, we have to allow for a certain measure of compartmentalization in our candidates. It’s human nature. Friends will talk and friend will offend, but up to a certain point of offense, there’s no logical reason to end a friendship. But the decision about which level of stupidity you can live which and what you can’t should not be the decision of anyone outside that circle of friends.

And doesn’t it generally show a greater lack of character to only surround yourself with those who agree with your views?

Which brings us the latest rounds of disavowals.

Ignoring the issue of why this is once again an issue, a large part of the Jeremiah Wright dustup is White America’s lack of understanding of Black religious tradition. Black preachers have an awesome responsibility. In the face of slavery, racism, lynchings, bloody marches, CointelPro and syphilis experiments, they have had to convince their congregations that not only does God still exist, but that God is also just.

And frankly, in order to make that theory fly you have to dramatically ratchet up the rhetoric on the forces of good and evil, both in delivery and substance. I mean, it’s pretty hard to let people walk away each Sunday with the impression that no matter how much you pay in taxes, how many of your sons dies in wars or how hard you work to raise a good family, there’s a group of people who will still hate you because your skin is darker. White people can’t be that stupid, right? Right?  There’s got to be some other reason.

Hence, conspiracy theories, devil analogies and hope in the heavenly karma that God will avenge in the end.

And aside from an inflammatory tone, what exactly did Wright say that was inaccurate? That Hillary Clinton has never been called a Black man? That at least a part of the reason for September 11 was that America’s chickens were coming home to roost? Inelegant, certainly. Divisive?  Perhaps. But disavowal material?

And had Geraldine Ferraro not continued to stick her foot in her mouth and in doing so all but confirm that the Clintons approved, Hillary should have been given a similar pass.

What smells so bad about the Jeremiah Wright flap, is that Obama has been asked both in this instance and the instance of Farrakhan to account for statements made years before he even announced as a candidate. In Farrakhan’s case, before Obama even lived in Chicago or graduated law school. Or more importantly, even knew Farrakhan personally.

The problem with that is that it gives no consideration whatsoever for the capability of growth. Must we now disavow stupidity retroactively?

Ferraro made her original statements back in the 80s as well. She just had the bad judgment to repeat it twenty years later. So much for growth

Still, It’s high time to call a truce in those whole dirty business of forcing people to distance themselves from the statements of others, especially those not paid or approved to speak for the campaigns.

And while it might lose them the very friends both are hesitant to disavow, it’s also time for both Clinton and Obama to do a conference call with everyone they know and tell them to shut the hell up from now until November.

Eric Easter is a chief of digital strategy for EbonyJet.com, and a former Democratic political strategist. Reach him at eeaster@ebony.com.