I haven't paid a lot of attention to the Rev. White stuff, in part because I've been tuning out the election coverage.
But everything I've heard him say has made me think that he's just about the only person who could ever get me back inside a church again.
Amen, Reverend White.
Amen, Laura!
He was brilliant with Moyers.
BTW, thanks for the mention of NMIF.
One of the frustrations of having only six minutes for each segment means it's sometimes hard to get under the surface of stuff. In fact, we had to drop the part about what happened to that NMSU prof because we flat out didn't have enough time.
Also, that was not a flier from Sandia. It was a lab wide e-mail from the HR department, which complicated things markedly, as some saw that as approval of the "charge" coming from Sandia itself.
And I agree with you. In my experience watching white people (man, that was funny as hell to type), you have no prayer whatsoever putting them on their heels on their moral standing first. It just does not work.
I've watched in horror as way too many in the business of changing hearts and minds do this, usually out of outsized ego. They have fallen in love with the feel of the hammer vs. the goal...which takes finesse. Your not going to unravel a lifetime of unrecognized privilage and such.
We forget that we're comfortable in that environment for a lot of microscopic sized reasons many just aren't even close to. You gotta lead 'em to the waters edge, not shove their heads into it. It doesn't work. Unless you get a cheap thrill from the backlash, which too many in this business do for whatever reason.
Using that kind of stark race/morality challenge with undergrads in a setting of learning, wanting to challenge themselves, etc. is one thing. Dropping the hammer on some unsuspecting lab geek poking along their merry way is another thing altogether.
I agree the show was an excellent one. As Gene said, the only problem was that the topic really could have filled another whole hour and kept me right there in front of the tube.
I still don't get what Wright is saying that's so shocking. The TV heads are in manic mode but they never really cite any specific statements in context that they're upset about. They just seem to be pulling the responses out of their arses, which also is not in any way shocking I guess. It sure is depressing thought.
Ugh! Did anyone else just listen to the piece on NPR about Rev. White?
The whole thing was unbearably annoying, but what ticked me off most of all was that the NPR commentator said "the night before Martin Luther King died."
Um...how about more accurately, "the night before he was murdered"? Saying that "he died" makes it sound like he just expired peacefully in his sleep or died of old age or illness.
I realize this might be an irrational thing to be worked up about about this morning, but by acting like MLK "died" rather than was murdered--killed in an act of violence because of his ideas--the NPR commentators distort history. And, in my mind, further muddle issues of race in the United States.
I don't really understand the uproar about Wright either. Out of all the media's big controversial clips from him, the only one that isn't demonstrably and undeniably true is the idea that the government invented HIV.
Even if Wright *were* some kind of raving lunatic I'm aghast that people are somehow turning against Obama for it- where is the outrage about Hillary's (seriously) nutjob conservative prayer circle or McCain's cozying up to people who claim that the 9/11 attacks were a result of homosexual relationships?
The long and short of it is that people who are looking for a reason to not like Obama besides his skin color are latching on to this Wright nonsense.
And double-ugh on me for misspelling the good man's name, Reverend Wright. Just goes to show how checked out I've been on the election coverage the past month.
....or could it just be that there's just too damned much deification of Obama?
In the full context...and I'm thinking of the now infamous 9/11 sermon ...no, they are not that outrageous.
And he made much headway with Moyers. I found myself quite compelled with his marriage of the church tradition, the role of the pastor, biblical history tied to modern times and such. It really worked for me.
Alas, he has unraveled it with that National Press Club deal. And now Obama has taken the wheel of the bus and driven forward and back over him today.
He had too. It's a shame really. A crying shame. Wright had me completely in his corner after the Moyers deal, but his new position that the media/everyone is 'attacking the black church,' is a false charge.
I listened to white pundit after white pundit defend the sanctity and the necessary nature of the black church.
I hear Sean Hannity is on his horse, but so what. That's one lunatic. I suppose Limbaugh is in it too, but again, that's two lunatics. It does not add up to a hailstorm of criticism of the black church.
I have my suspicions. Wright clearly has no feel for Obama's plight/position in this. it pains me to have to now agree with white pundits who think this is all about Wright's ego.
That really pisses me off...
Oh! And the revelation that Wright and Hillary prayed together during Monica absolutely cracked me up. You just can't script this stuff.
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