Rev. Jeremiah Wright Stresses Racial Equality In Speech



By C. Raymond Hidalgo
Writer/Reporter
Tell Us Detroit



In one of his first widely publicized appearances since coming under fire from the media for controversial past sermons, Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright energized and moved a crowd of over 10,000 people at the COBO center in Detroit to applause and laughter as the keynote speaker for an NAACP Fundraiser dinner on Sunday.

Many were anticipating a response to recent accusations that he used derisive language against America and held beliefs radical enough that his connection to Barack Obama as his ex-pastor would affect the presidential candidate’s campaign. But instead, Wright hardly touched upon these issues and talked about something greater than his own problems: striving for racial equality.

Sunday night, he demonstrated that he was a man of God trying to call his fellow man to action rather than a man bent on skewing people’s political and social views for his personal ends, as portrayed by the media.

At a gathering of Detroit business and political leaders earlier this month, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson called Wright “one of the most divisive people I’ve ever heard speak.”

Last week, Detroit political analyst Sam Riddle called Wright’s sermons “polarizing.”

Wright responded during his speech by saying “I’m sorry that my sermons are polarizing and divisive, but I’m not here to address an analyst’s opinion or a county executive’s point of view. I’m here to address your 2008 theme, “A Change is Going to Come.”

And his proposed change was for people to be tolerant of those who are different. “Different does not mean deficient. Wright said. “It means different.”

Wright, with animated humor, compared Michigan and Michigan State marching bands to Florida A&M and Grambling State marching bands, compared African-American ebonics to regional U.S. accents, and compared classical music 4/4 time to African music among other examples to illustrate his point.


“We just do it different and some haters can’t get their heads around that,” Wright said.

Wright moved on to say that only a unified effort would be successful.

“Many of us tonight are committed to changing how we see others as different,” Wright said. “Many of us are committed to changing the way we treat each other…
It’s going to take people of all faiths including the nation of Islam but we can do it, it’s going to take people of all races but we can do it, it’s going to take Republicans and Democrats but we can do it.”

For a man who is anti-white and unpatriotic to comment on the need for unprejudiced recognition of diversity is contradictory, yet Wright has been labeled as such.

In March, ABC News uncovered some of Wright’s sermons. Naturally, the more controversial clips were excerpted from the sermons. One of them featured Wright saying “America’s chickens, have come home to roost,” suggesting that America was responsible for 9/11. What ABC News didn’t show was the whole thought behind the phrase. Wright attributes the quote to Edward Peck, a former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and follows it up by saying:

A white ambassador said that y’all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said the people we have wounded don’t have the military capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them. And we need to come to grips with that

He then went on to describe his experience upon seeing the World Trade Center attacks unfold and thinking about his family. It comes down to violence begetting violence, a fundamental teaching of the church. Terse clips of “America’s chickens have come home to roost,” offered by the media have no way of conveying Wright’s full socio-political commentary. The “God Damn America” clip as well as other snippets of Wright’s sermons were taken out of context as well.

Even so, Sunday night, Wright took to the stage faced the cameras, the reporters, and the huge crowd, and freely spoke his mind.

The Detroit Branch NAACP is the organization’s largest branch. It holds monthly general membership meetings, which are free and open to the public. For more information please call 313-871-2087 or visit www.detroitnaacp.org