Opinion

Pastor's rhetoric is just as bitter as U.S. race history But don't tar Obama with the Rev. Wright's words

And there it is. ... The 800-pound gorilla that is racial strife finally slings its poo against the political wall. Let me just say this: To me, the comments made by Sen. Barack Obama's spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are pretty innocuous. I say that knowing that they are offensive to white people, but the question has to be raised — why?

Wright said that Sen. Hillary Clinton does not know what it is like to be a black man in an America run by rich white people. She doesn't. If the bone of contention is that America is not run by rich white people, I will have to humbly but unequivocally disagree and ask you to see the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. Omit the entertainers and athletes. Just how many people of color are left?

According to Forbes, all you have is Oprah Winfrey at No. 165 and, based on the earlier caveat, she is disqualified because she is an entertainer. So of the 399 richest people in America, 98 percent are white. So where was Rev. Wright wrong?

Wright also offered some conspiracy theories about how the U.S. government has wronged people of color in the past. I do not believe that the government engineered AIDS, but it did engineer the Tuskegee experiments in which young African-American men infected with syphilis were denied treatment for study. This was conducted from 1932 to 1972, well-documented and acknowledged by the U.S. government. I am sure Wright remembers this and many other racial injustices in his lifetime.

In fact, let's go over the past 100 years of the United States' "stellar" race/citizen relations: Japanese interment camps, American Indian reservations, Jim Crow laws, lynchings, late women's suffrage, the immigration debate, the proposed anti-gay marriage amendment, voter irregularities of the 2000 election, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans ...

I hate to break it to Americans, but women and people of color can be a bit paranoid when it comes to actions of the U.S. government. As are, at times, white Americans. White conservatives, especially, get angry. Commentators Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter have jobs — and huge audiences — for a reason.

Let's face facts. Put the proverbial cards on the table.

A lot of people of color are angry. Ask the African-American who is profiled by the cops, the Hispanic who is automatically seen as an illegal immigrant, the Asian person who is stereotyped, the American Indian whose ancestors suffered genocidal forced relocations, or the American of Middle Eastern descent who is profiled as a terrorist.

I have been very fortunate. I spent my formative years in the suburbs of southwest Houston. I went to a racially mixed school. I had friends from all over the world, of all shades and colors. I have worked to carry myself with respect, heeding my father, who told me, When you are out, you represent all black people. I worked hard on my appearance, to speak without any discernible accent, to educate myself at one of Texas' best universities (Go Tech!), to carry myself with the pride and dignity of an American.

All this, only to be asked by a white patron where the toilet paper is when shopping at a local supermarket. All this, only to be stopped by police for DWB (driving while black) and asked what I am doing in this neighborhood. To have a knife pulled on me for talking to a white girl.

Now Obama, who I am sure has worked just as hard to be affable, professional and acceptable in America, is suffering the fate that many before him have and unfortunately many afterward will. As a person of color, he not only has to be good, he has to be the best. And if you are not the best, America will view you as just another — well, you insert the appropriate racial or gender slur.

It seems the main reason the Rev. Wright is in trouble is that he shouted, "God damn America!" from the pulpit. Funny, because when Americans debate gay marriage or abortion, white preachers all over the country say, "God will damn America!" Didn't Jerry Falwell blame "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America" for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks?

I guess if you damn America in the name of pro-life and heterosexual marriage you are OK, but if you do it based on government-sanctioned racial injustice, you are wrong. To quote [black comedian] Chris Rock, I suppose "it's all right, if it's all white!"

Take Sen. John McCain, who said point blank to reporters, "I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live." I can't necessarily blame him for feeling that way. If I had been placed in inhuman conditions for six years and had my arms pulled out of socket so often I couldn't lift them above my head, I would hate my captors. too. The problem is the language: "gooks." It is a derogatory term that equates to the dreaded "N-word." Now some of the same people that championed that line from McCain are offended by Wright's diatribe and tarring Obama with the fallout? I guess in America, guilt by association is more damning than actually doing or saying something yourself.

Let's not forget, however, that America is a country and not a deity. We have freedom of speech and religion.

People need to remember that and get over the idea that America is a pristine land of no wrong. This is a great country, but what good is it if you can't criticize it?

Burns is a senior marketing coordinator at the Houston Chronicle.