Almost 500 years since the first African was brought to the land mass that we now call the United States of America how is it possible that we are still this misunderstood?
Hopefully, this will be my last writing on anything related to Jeremiah Wright, but the latest iteration of outrage has caused, in me, a mental-nausea that must be purged.
In full-disclosure, I’m an African-American male. And, without trying to boast, my good characteristics (or at least lies that have been told to me about my good characteristics) can be listed as follows:
-I am fairly intelligent as a consequence of being well educated
-I am a caring person as a result of having good parents
-I am a good husband as a result of having a good wife
-I am a good father as a result of having good kids
-I am a pretty good athlete as a result of having good genes
-I can be pretty funny, if you enjoy deadpan humor mixed with a heaping side of irony
-I am very honest and loyal
-I am a hard worker
Now that’s a pretty decent list, and would put me on the fast track to saint-hood except for the fact that I can be occasionally moody, unmotivated and pessimistic...and there’s undoubtedly more, but this piece is not intended as group-therapy.
Altogether, this makes me nothing more, nor less, than human. Chock-full of both potential and foibles while struggling everyday to make sense of it all, just like the other 6.5 billion residents of the planet, that aren’t struggling for day to day subsistence.
Now, that the table has been set, I’ll return to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. What has irked me so much about the recent coverage, has been the echo-chamber in the media that repeatedly calls into question this man’s patriotism, by association cynically calls into question the patriotism of Barack Obama, and by generalization calls into question the patriotism of the many African-Americans in this country that attend a church, or meeting, or organization that in anyway expresses a criticism of the United States.
...How dare you?
Despite, 350 years of slavery, another 100 years of legalized oppression and another 40 years of unequal treatment, WE the UNPATRIOTIC, African-Americans have:
-Tilled your fields
-Watched your children
-Built your railroads
-Built your Capitol
-Entertain you with our significant contributions to the arts
-Improved your lives with our significant contributions to the sciences
-Fattened your wallets with our significant contributions to the economy
-Filled your Olympic Teams with our significant contributions to sports and athletics
-Improved your society by forcing you to try and live up to the words set forth in your founding documents
And have made innumerable other contributions to the growth and prosperity of a country that so many of those who’ve never visited anywhere else call: "The Greatest Country in the World."
But, arguably, the most patriotic contribution to this country that we’ve made has been that we’ve fought in every single war, that our, periodically, irresponsible government has sought to wage. We have fought in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Gulf War I and Gulf War II and a gaggle of other "conflicts" that didn’t have the decency to get large enough to be labeled wars. Frankly, we've spilled a lot of blood for a country that has given us much, but has also done so much to to keep us from being full participants in their "Great Experiment."
We’ve done all of this simply because we were given the opportunity to fight alongside our fellow citizens and be called Americans. Sometimes, these were opportunities that gained through the protesting, poking and prodding of the American conscience, but in all cases were opportunities that were cherished. We’ve done all of this with the promise of nothing other than an opportunity to be woven in the fabric of this country rather than be seen as outsiders that remain here only due to ancestral misfortune. We’ve done all of this without resorting to mass violence because we’ve believed that all we need to do is keep our heads down, work hard and like any other immigrant culture, slowly take our rightful place.
Yet, it takes only a few words from a well-intentioned but anachronistic, fire-brand of a preacher to undo all that we’ve accomplished. A preacher, who by the way, spent his life trying to uplift underserved people of all colors and who’s unconventional, but earnest, message of hope has probably kept many of his parishioners from violently reacting to the frustrations of their everyday lives -- and the 500 years of contributions to this society are rendered moot.
I’m not surprised that there are a few that believe that African-Americans harbor some latent hatred towards America. I am, however, deeply saddened, that those most privileged among us in education and opportunity have allowed this conversation to devolve into the same "Us vs. Them" discussions we’ve been having for the past 500 years. I’m talking about those people whose privilege affords them the time to pay attention to the news, to research these topics and to REPORT on these subjects. Those same people who’ve allowed the narrative for this controversy to conveniently ignore how African-American men and women have stepped forward in support of this country whenever it has been requested, irrespective of the open wounds that still festered in our collective psyches, and that any attempt to call into question their patriotism is a cynical abuse of the bully pulpit. Those privileged people, with their acquiescence, have let the jaded, political opportunists amongst us to bastardize what it means to be an American.
We’re "African-Americans" and as a collective group, we love this country despite all of its faults. I embrace my life as an African-American because it’s the life I know, I’m proud of it and wouldn’t change a thing about my life experiences. But like every minority group, there’s a small part of me that wishes that "American" was the only title needed to describe me, regardless of my skin color or cultural background. This whole controversy over Reverend Wright has served to remind me of how much of an "other" I truly am. Maybe that’s why Reverend Wright said, "Goddamn America!" -- for offering the promise of so much, but not only failing to deliver, but at times, even mocking those who ask that she fulfill her promises. And as such, I’d be inclined to agree with him.
...How dare you?