This is the political news page for Black Men In America.com.  We want our site visitors to be informed about national politics as well as politics in their local areas. 

Thanks to our partnership with the Homeland Colors correspondent Brandon Whitney and MSNBC Political Network, you have access to the most up-to-date information about the 2008 political election including profiles on the candidates and their views.

Click here to read the commentary of Brandon Whitney.

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Brandon Whitney is the creator of Homelandcolors.blogspot.com a blog that focuses on issues that affect the African American community. He is also a frequent guest on News and Notes’ Blogger Roundtable. Brandon has political experience as an Outreach Director for the Democratic party and is passionate about being a positive force in his community regarding African American issues.  He is also a frequent guest on News and Notes’ Blogger Roundtable. You can read more of Brandon's work at Homeland Colors.

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Mugabe The Dog: Despots in Revolutionaries Clothing

Africa has a problem. The problem is the result of colonialism but cannot be placed completely at the feet of Western Europe. Robert Mugabe, the dictator of Zimbabwe, fought the colonialist and freed the country from the deprivations of the west. He then took their place by oppressing his people in their stead. Zimbabwe, once the second strongest economy in Africa, is now a place of starvation, inflation, and military oppression.

African countries are failing to condemn Mugabe. They are doing so for numerous reasons. Some of this is because nations that surround Zimbabwe are themselves run by strong men who refuse to give up power. The main reason however is that leaders are hesitant to condemn someone who was once seen as a hero. All nations in Africa have had movements that worked to shake off colonial oppression and Mugabe was at the forefront of his, but all revolutionaries do not have the best interest of their nations at heart. Some fight because they want freedom for all and some fight for power. When a wolf hides in the clothing of a shepherd he must be driven away. Mugabe is a wolf who is destroying his country.

The world has failed Zimbabwe by refusing to take real action against him. Africans have failed Zimbabwe and this is perhaps the worst part of the situation. Africans are the only people who can change Africa. The west cannot fix the spiritual malady that has caused men like Mugabe to hold onto power until they become octogenarians. Until recently, Mugabe was still treated as a man of respect by African leaders who knew better. If Africa is to become a continent of significance, it will require African people to require hire standards of their leaders and of themselves.

 

 

 

Dunkin Donuts Promotes Terrorists?

Sometimes you have to call a spade a spade. Michelle Malkin, a right wing commenter, complained that a scarf that Rachel Ray wore on a Dunkin Dounuts commercial looked like the type of scarf a terrorist would wear. Dunkin Donuts pulled the add. This story needs publicity because it shows how far we have allowed fools waving flags to lead our country in the wrong direction.

There is nothing wrong with being proud of one's heritage and background. In fact pride in ones people is often necessary when one comes from difficult circumstances. I also understand that when one is of an ethnic group other than the dominant one, how one can go to great lengths to conform. But the insanity of minorities who use the most ignorant and racist logic to push forward an agenda bereft of substance is astounding.

Malkin made a statement that a few years ago would have gone unnoticed because the left were political cowards during Bush's power consolidation. Companies like Dunkin Donuts that allow themselves to be pushed around by the ignorant also allow the destruction of our nations freedoms. People like you and I who say nothing as the Malkins, Coulters, and Limbaugh's of the world tear our country apart and urinate on what our flag stands for while wearing said flag on their shirts let this happen. Malkin's statement is a symptom of the disease of inaction. Hopefully the cure is not short in coming.

 

The 50/50 Rule 

Half of where you end up in life is based on your environment.  The opportunities that are presented to you are going to be a big factor in how successful you are.  For African Americans this has meant that oppressive governments and racism have put us at a disadvantage.  The other half of where one ends up in life is dependent on one's own actions.  We are the captains of our own fate.  That being the case, an Obama presidency or a change in the leadership in the NAACP will have an impact on Africa America, but it will be individuals in the community that determine their own, and their peoples, success. 

Political officials are not as important, or unimportant, as we make them.  Too often we pretend that the government is either an all encompassing force that rules every aspect of our lives, or an unimportant outlier that can be completely ignored.  If African Americans are to succeed, it will be because individuals begin to understand their duty to the whole and make choices in their everyday lives that will benefit themselves and others.  It means that African Americans who complain the loudest must be the ones who vote the most often.  It means that African Americans who wish young people would vote must actively seek them out and sell them on voting in language that they understand.  It means that we must save money to protect ourselves from economic emergencies and invest in African American financial and educational institutions. 

Obama will be a great president.  But he can only change so much by himself.  Benjamin Jealous may be a great president of the NAACP but he will not be able to fix every problem that affects people of color.  People like Obama and Jealous have control of only half of what changes the world.  Individuals like you and I are responsible for the other half.  Improving the lives of African Americans is as simple as sending twenty-five dollars to an HBCU or investing in a mutual fund or IRA, preferably an African American one, or making sure your own financial house is in order so you can help others.  The 50/50 rule means you have to do what you can with what you have for your own good and for the good of your people. The failure or success of politicians is not an excuse for us to slack on our part in the progress of our people.

 

Hillary the Well Poisoner

All is fair in love and war and what is politics but warfare. However, there are certain actions that a person can take that are seen as unacceptable even in combat. In politics, especially when both candidates are in the same party, there are rules that one follows. There are things that one just doesn't do because it ruins things for all parties involved. Hillary is breaking those rules. One of the worst things you can do in a desert society is poison a well because everybody is dependent on this scarce source of water. Hillary is poisoning the Democratic well and it can have devastating consequences.

The nomination fight is over. Hillary cannot win mathematically. All of the ways to victory for her in the nomination mean defeat for the Democrats in November. She can only win by corrupting the process. That is why many are confused as to the reason she would continue to stay in the race. Had the tactics she used been more honorable, many would have understood her staying in until she had negotiated an advantage from Obama. But considering the damage that she has already done to the party it is now believed that she may be waiting in order to get the opportunity to run in 2012.

The Democratic Party is in real danger of ruining their advantage in November. Hillary, who at one time was a standard bearer for the Democratic Party, has become a millstone around the neck of progressives.  Let's hope she remembers the goal of becoming president is not to achieve glory for oneself but to improve the lives of everyday people and steps aside for the inevitable nominee.

 

Obama's The Nominee

There is basically no way for Hillary Clinton to win the nomination.  It's a wrap.  So at this point, whether Hillary admits this fact or not, it is time to focus on the general election. Hillary has been good for Obama because she has thrown everything that the Rovian Republicans would have thrown at him.  This has allowed Obama to show that he could survive any amount of sludge pushed in his direction.  Ladies and gentleman we may be looking at the first African American president, and quite possibly if his message of transformation holds steady, the most influential president of this quarter century. 

Much has been said about Obama as the first African American president.  That in and of itself would be a great accomplishment, but we also have to look at what he is.  Obama is a break with the past.  He is a new type of leader.  Obama is a part of the Joshua generation in the African American community and the multicultural generation of the United States.  Racism and injustice will still exist when he becomes president, but the institutional bigotry that has been such a burden for African Americans, women, and all minorities may finally be in its death throes.   

Obama brings a great deal of hope and will mean a lot hard work in our nation.   He brings hope to the world, and I say this without exaggeration, because the remaining superpower of earth has finally proven that one does not have to be of western European descent to be a person of consequence.  This has meaning not just in America, but in Asia, South America, and Africa as well.  We are embarking on a time in history that shows who your parents are is less important than who you are.  The content of your character matters more than who you pray to, what you look like, and whether you chromosome is X or Y.  Perhaps the birth defect that Rice called slavery, the cleft pallet that has made it difficult for the United States to speak our ideals of freedom clearly, has been corrected.  I think I speak for many African Americans, women, and other minorities when I say that for the first time in my life, I really feel proud of my country.

 

 

Obama Breaks With Pastor-What Else Could He Do?

I got a chance to watch Rev. Wright at the press club and listen to what he had to say. He was smart, articulate, and funny, I even laughed out loud a few times. I have to admit that the reporters were trying to go for the jugular and he was having nothing of it. I also noticed that he was "showing out". There were people in the audience who obviously supported him and they "hyped" him up a bit. Wright proved he was not a push over and that he would not allow the media to paint him into a corner. That's all fine and dandy, but it won't get a Democratic president elected.

The preacher is an important part of the African American community. I'm a fourth generation preacher's kid so I understand that ministers tend to be good people who want the best and who are also as human as you and I. Anyone in Wright's position would want to defend their name so I believe I can see where he is coming from. The only thing is, as good as the African American preacher is in our community, they can't push legislation through congress and they cannot veto bad bills.

We have lived under one of the most incompetent presidents in our nation's history. We have the opportunity to elect a president that cares for the nation as a whole and also has an intimate connection to the African American community. It would not be reasonable to ask the Wright fall on his sword to protect the chance for electing Obama, but I do not think it is too much to ask that he remain silent until the primary has been decided. Winning the election should be our number one priority, and since he is a minister I understand why it may not be Rev. Wright's, but I do wish he would, for the sake of our people and our nation, step out of the limelight.

 

 

Is Barbara Reynolds Using Rev. Wright to Hamper Barack?

By Brandon Whitney

Reverend Wright spoke at the National Press Club recently in order to defend his record and apparently the African American church. Barack Obama has had a hard time since his pastor has come into the limelight due to the explosive nature of some of the preachers comments. Regardless as to the appropriateness of what Rev. Wright said and how he said it, Barack's bid for the presidency has been hampered by his statements. Strangely, the platform from which the pastor spoke on yesterday was made available to him by a Clinton supporter.

I've read Machiavelli's "The Prince" several times, so it is entirely possible that I am overreacting to what has taken place. However I don't think I am. I see a "a feint within a feint within a feint", subtle moves that could possibly hurt the chances of Barack using less than honest tactics rather than straight forward and honest campaigning. This is especially unfortunate given the racial dimension that this forces the campaign to take and the harm, especially in post Katrina America, to race relations.

Again, I cannot speak to the motives of Barbara Reynolds when she invited Rev. Wright to speak. Perhaps she wanted to allow Rev. Wright the opportunity to clear his name. But I will say it looks bad, and while looks can be deceiving sometimes things are exactly as they appear.

 

Sean Bell's Life Worth 3/5

Many in the African American community were not surprised at the verdict in the Sean Bell case. That is probably the biggest tragedy, the lack of surprise. In a nation that is rabidly defensive of its title as enlightened and egalitarian a founding population has nearly resigned itself to the fact that their lives are viewed as having a fraction, perhaps 3/5, of the value of those in the wider society.

Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, and Martin Anderson are the same story repackaged in the flesh of the newly dead. Young African American males live their lives the same as anyone else in the nation save in those frightening and apprehensive moments when an encounter with an enforcement officer could quite literally lead to death. There was no conviction in the Sean Bell case or the Anderson case, or in many other despicable shows of force by law enforcement. What causes this failure to convict those who use overwhelming force in civilian policing is the same thing that causes the media to ignore missing young Blacks. It is why poverty in the inner city is ignored but in the suburbs is seen as an epidemic. African American lives are not valued at the same level as White lives.

Rather than lament our fate, or curse the founders for their short sightedness in writing a constitution that did not free our forefathers. Rather than scream and yell at White people for not fully understanding the African American experience. What we must do as African Americans is realize that we have no one but ourselves to rely upon if we are to be successful and if we are protect our brothers and sisters from such horrible endings as Sean Bell. This is not a call for separatism but one for self reliance. Someday we will be fully human in everyone's eyes and social justice will really be a part of the nation we helped to build. Until then we must focus on empowering ourselves to the point that we can stand on our own because no one is going to reach out a hand to help us up.

To read more about political life according to Brandon click here to visit his column on the main Black Men In America.com web site.

 

Arizona May Ban Black Groups

State Rep. Russell K. Pearce of Arizona has recently put forth an amendment to the states constitution to ban race based groups stating "This bill basically says, 'You're here. Adopt American values,'" and 'If you want a different culture, then fine, go back to that culture,'.  I don't know what the representative want African Americans to do if they want to go back to their culture, perhaps go back to Mississippi, but I do know that his action is not atypical for a state representative who wants to earn his way onto Fox news.  What this amendment means for African Americans, who commonly refer to themselves as Black, is that an opportunity to really push discourse on race and culture forward has presented itself. 

The African American culture is as old, if not older, than the main stream American culture.  The separation of our culture from the rest of American culture did not come from malicious separatism on our part but by legalized segregation.  Today a great deal of pride where there was once shame existed in who we are and what we have overcome.  Our initial reaction to the representative's efforts is anger, but rather than blindly striking out at his ignorance it is important that we educate the rest of the country about who we are and why groups that support young African Americans are important. 

Working class Whites have a bad habit of letting demagogues rouse them against minorities, often harming their own interests.  It is important that we do not feed into this destructive cycle because it harms both Whites and African Americans.  Rather, what we must do is show how African American pride strengthens the United States and why it should not be confused with racial hatred and separatism.  For the more militant among us this may seem too conciliatory, for the assimilationists among us the dissolution of traditional African American organizations is a step in the right direction.  Between these two foolish extremes lies a path to the betterment of the African American people and humanity as a whole.  Pearce's silly amendment is an opportunity to enlighten the ignorant and move our people towards progress.

 

The Eternal Primary

What does this never-ending primary mean?  On the surface many might think it is the result of Hillary Clinton's inability to accept defeat.  After all she has proven that she is willing to drag the Democratic Party into the depths, and possibly within arms length of defeat, in order to win.  But acting as if Hillary is an aberration within the progressive ranks is not honest.  A failure to face facts and move on is a common malady on the left. 

There are a lot of Democrats in leadership who are out of touch.  The Republican contempt for the liberals of the coasts is not completely misplaced.  The Democratic Party has been led by people who have never had to figure out how to win a race in right leaning Kansas, Arizona, or Virginia.  Failure has been the result of this.  If the Democrats are to win, and then turn that win into something worthwhile, then a better understanding of people who don't agree with them on everything is necessary.  This cannot be a superficial hunting and fishing trip meant to patronize blue collar whites.  It has to be a real effort to understand and appreciate the problems of people in places that left and right coasters rarely go.

 

 

Surviving the Recession 

I remember speaking to my grandmother once and she said that when the depression hit, being poor farmers, her family could barely tell the difference.  It was a joke, but like most jokes it held a bit of truth.  Our ancestors were usually stuck on such a low level economically that there wasn't much further to fall.  The country is not yet in a depression, except technically for Michigan, but it is likely that we will notice the effects of an economic downturn in a more severe way than our ancestors because we have more to lose. 

Ideally we will, if the progressives are successful, live in a society that allows equal economic opportunity for all and prevents poverty from being a barrier to success.  Until that "great gettin up mornin" we have to be self sufficient and prepare ourselves for the worst while hoping for the best. 

Hard times, such as recessions, are opportunities.  Struggle breeds strength.  While we do not want to go through hard economic times the current economy will teach us to trim the fat.  Maybe you don't need to buy that high definition flat screen television.  Perhaps financing your education makes more sense than financing a new car.  Today might be a good day to start your child's, or in my case godchild's, education fund.  Rather than looking at the recession with dread, perhaps you should look at it as an opportunity to sharpen your economic survival skills.  In any case when things get bad it is good to look back on where we come from.  If our grandparents could survive a depression in a segregated south, we can surely survive a recession in a land with infinitely more opportunity despite the barriers of prejudice that still exist.

 

 

The Roots of the Mortgage Crisis

The mortgage crisis has had a tremendous effect on the country and the African American community.  Cities like Oakland, Detroit, and Baltimore are suffering as homes are foreclosed upon.  A combination of poor lending practices and a failure to regulate the lending industry have affected the economy of the United States and the rest of the world.  Fanatic deregulation has caused serious harm to the United States and the African American people. 

Capitalism is dependent on regulation.  A free market requires trust to function.  If people don't believe that the person who is selling them the product will actually deliver, they will not buy from them.  If they believe that those who sell them products are lying to them, they will not participate in the market.   As dishonest businesses flourish, honest ones find it difficult to compete and often find themselves subscribing to business philosophies that are harmful to the nation.  Regulation stops dishonest businesses from creating environments that harm both consumers and producers.

The philosophy, and some would say religion, of deregulation fails to recognize the symbiotic relationship between the government and the market as well as the differences between the myopic vision of capitalism held by the extreme right and the practical capitalist philosophy that led to the prosperity that the United States has enjoyed.  If the nation is to become a economic powerhouse with equal opportunity for all then the special interests that represent the mortgage industry and big business must be marginalized.

If you are worried about keeping your home because of unfair lending practices by mortgage companies, or if you just need to know what your rights are, contact <a href=" http://www.acornhousing.org/index.php"> Acorn Housing.</a> This is an organization that works to help people obtain and keep their homes.

 

 

The Fall Of Sharp James by Brandon Whitney

Frank Herbert once wrote that power attracts the corruptible.  Sharpe James, the former mayor of Newark is a key example of this.  He is currently facing federal corruption charges due to his misdealings in Newark.  Rather than work for the benefit of the downtrodden people of his city he worked to enrich himself and those who attached themselves to his system of patronage.  He, and leaders like him, are on their way out and a new era of productive leadership is beginning in the African American community.

As Sharpe James was replaced by Corey Booker, or Al Wynn was replaced by Donna Edwards, so will other corrupt leaders be replaced by hard working and progressive young leaders.  Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will likely be replaced by a worthwhile leader because the hip hop generation of the African American community is beginning to take and hold political power.  They are no longer standing on the sidelines of the battle for progress but engaging.

What the fall of Sharpe James represents is the end of the post colonial era in the African American community and the beginning of self sufficiency and self determination.  It is not a moment to celebrate, as a life is being ruined, but it is a moment worthy of contemplation and remembrance.

 

 

Honest Politicians

The new governor of New York David Patterson is the first African American governor of the state and the first blind one in the nation.  These are great milestones.  He has also used cocaine and cheated on his wife.  The indiscretions are not necessarily shocking, a politician is only human after all and we all fall short of the glory.  What is shocking is how we found out.  Governor Patterson told us. 

Barack managed to avoid problems with his past drug use by being honest about it.  Millions read about his youth and some of the mistakes he made in his autobiography.  What makes Patterson unique is the timing.  Patterson was in office when he made public his past indiscretions, and it was not because he was caught red handed.  He volunteered it.  In a straight forward manner he disclosed something about his life that most of us, whether elected officials or not, would not share with anyone but our closest confidents. 

For decades, possibly centuries, we have complained about the lack of honest politicians.  Now we have one and we will see if we truly want what we pined for.  We may be in a new era where a politician's imperfections see daylight, not because of muckraking reporters but because he or she discloses them.  Perhaps we will be less discriminating in who we elect, less concerned with a squeaky clean image and more concerned with a politician's competence, sincerity, and the will to do what's right for the people.  How Patterson's confessions are received will indicate what kind of politician we as Americans really want.

 

President Kwame Kilpatrick

America is a different place than it was forty years ago.  A parent can tell his young African American children that they can be anything, even president of the United States and really mean it.  Kwame is a young African American politician.  He has charisma, is extremely well spoken, and connects emotionally with the people he leads.  He had the potential to go all the way if he had kept his nose clean.  Instead he has been indicted for perjury because he lied about sleeping with his married chief of staff. 

It is easy to be angry at Kwame for his foolish mistakes.  I'm sure a lot of people are.  But I feel mostly disappointment.  The child of a political dynasty, Kwame had connections; he could have gone very far in politics and generated policies that would have been beneficial to Detroit and to the nation.  He was the first of the young African American politicians to gain power and generated great excitement when he became mayor.  Unfortunately, despite his youth, he held onto the machine and entitlement politics and has hurt an already crippled city.  

Kwame Kilpatrick is an example of what happens when potential and ability are not tempered by humility and love for the people.  As we choose our politicians, our leaders, it is important that we look beyond the surface and really try and understand what motivates them.  Charisma is important, but character is as well.  Hopefully Detroit's next mayor will have both.

 

 

The Truth About Barack's Speech 

Most political pundits will examine Barack's speech with a great deal of cynicism.  They will act as if they know with great certainty how different demographics, Blue Collar White men or African American professional women, will react to Obama's words.  They know nothing.  What those who watched the speech witnessed on yesterday was something that many are unaccustomed to seeing in American politics, the pure and unspun truth.

Often it is argued that politicians are innately dishonest.  We pretend as if politicians are a different species of human who inflict themselves upon us.  This is not true.  Politicians come from our own cities and neighborhoods.  They are as diverse as any other group.  If we do not like the politicians who lead us, if we believe that they are unworthy of the positions that they hold, it is our own fault.  We have the power to choose who leads us and are responsible for our own choices both good and bad.  We act as if all the problems in our government are caused by some external but we are responsible.   In a democracy all wounds are self inflicted.

If the truth got politicians elected then the successful politician would be one who was honest.  In the last twenty years the truth has lead to political failure.  Obama's speech was his attempt to embrace the losing strategy of honesty.  It was an attempt to change our view of politics, race, and America.  In a democracy you get the government you deserve.  If we truly believe we deserve better as Americans, if we want honest politics and good government, then we will embrace his message.  If not we will continue to be stuck in the cyclical and cynical politics of distraction.  Either way we will get what we deserve in January of 2009. 

 

 

March 18, 2008 Barack Obama Speech on Race, Philadelphia, PA

PHILADELPHIA - "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters….And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild."

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pocket