Comments on: Is Jeremiah Wright Working for John McCain?: A Non-Poetry Post

By: Michael Robbins

Michael Robbins — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:21:54 +0000

“Refusing to be silenced by whites” isn’t the same as “holding a press conference & saying certifiably nutty things” — &, I’m sorry, I missed the part where the “whites” are conspiring to keep Wright quiet (quite a few of those “whites” are gleefully abetting his every senile public utterance).
The question is hardly whether Wright has a right to speak: it’s whether he’s stupid enough not to realize how much damage he’s doing to Obama. There are discrete problems here: one, it’s absurd that Obama’s being held responsible for what his idiot pastor says — Obama clearly doesn’t believe the nonsense that comes out of Wright’s mouth every time he opens it; two, the political reality is, alas, that Obama’s image is tarnished by Wright’s speeches, & Wright should be savvy enough to realize that — if he is that savvy, the only possible conclusion is that Wright doesn’t care whether Obama wins the nomination.
That said — & recognizing, again, that, like Obama’s innocuous remarks on rural voters & his passing association with the liberal academic Bill Ayers, what his pastor says is wholly unrelated to his qualifications as presidential nominee — to suggest that the U.S. government created AIDS to destroy the black community is not “uncomfortably dangerous or politically unpalatable.” It’s lunatic bullshit.
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By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:22:30 +0000

Wright has a lot to answer for? He’s a black man who refuses to be silenced by whites–those who have the privilege of dissenting without being called angry or un-American. I, like many Obama supporters, understand and respect Wright’s decision to have his say no matter how uncomfortably dangerous or politically unpalatable it may be.
If McCain wins, maybe all those who fear that a man like Obama could associate with a “jerk” like Wright will begin to fear what black people have always seen as most frightening in America: white arrogance.
Wright, too, is America…and America gets what it deserves.
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By: elle

elle — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:41:07 +0000

At first, I thought all of the above (Daisy’s comments) about Jeremiah Wright. But
then I thought maybe Jeremiah is taking one for the *team* in the African-American
slave tradition of Br’er Rabbit.
Since Obama initially refused to denounce Wright, and essentially left the fire burning,
maybe Wright decided to put on a show (and lawd knows he did) to force Obama into an
outright (ain’t never sitting in the front pew again) denouncement, thereby, invalidating
the slanderous ad campaign the republicans have planned for Obama in North Carolina
and the national campaign, if he’s able to wrestle the nomination away from Hillary,
using Wright as the whip to beat Obama with.
This trickster move, if it is one, also serves to hush Hillary on the subject. Jeremiah Wright
may turn out to be a modern day Br’er Rabbit. Yep, that’s how I’m going to look at it.
African proverb: “It’s trouble that makes the monkey chew on hot peppers.”
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By: J.E. Stone

J.E. Stone — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:33:54 +0000

Per your apology about not mixing politics and poetry: you might be interested in the Ross Gay/Ken Prufer exchange in the letters section of the new APR. They do both comment on and resist a true intertwining of politics and poetry. I almost missed my metro stop on my way to work this morning.
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By: Michael Robbins

Michael Robbins — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:58:28 +0000

Hillary Clinton has far more to answer for if McCain wins the election.
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