The Mighty Favog, who's a friend, a bit older than I am, and a fellow south Louisianian, sees Jeremiah Wright's anger and Barack Obama's speech through the penitential lens of his own experience. Powerful stuff, especially on Holy Saturday.
"I am why the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is so angry," Favog writes. "I also am why it's such a tragedy that Barack Obama's friend and former pastor has let his anger -- and he does have every good reason to be damned angry -- define him.:
Here he explains:
Having been born into a racist family in a segregated state, I was indoctrinated into America's original sin from my first moments of awareness. I did about the worst thing you could do to an African-American man -- at least, the worst thing short of murder or extreme physical violence -- by the time I was 4 years old.I remember that I was sick, and that the doctor had called in a prescription to Andrew's Rexall Drugs. In the mid-1960s, drugstores still delivered. And we all know who the "delivery boys" were, at least in the segregated South.
SOON ENOUGH, there was a knock at the door. Back then, our house had no air conditioning. On that warm day, all the windows were wide open, and there was little fear that someone was going to burst through the screen door to rob, rape and kill you.
So the delivery man heard well when I ran toward the kitchen, yelling at the top of my lungs.
"Mama, the drugstore n***er's here!"
I think my mother had decency enough to be embarrassed as the man took her money and handed over the prescription as he muttered, "I'm not a n***er." I wonder what that poor man must have felt -- what a man old enough to be my father felt -- when this little white boy was blithely, naturally as he breathed in the air, running around the house announcing the presence of the fill-in-the-blank "n***er."
What does it do to a man to be so cavalierly dehumanized even by a small child? What does it do to a small child to so cavalierly dehumanize a man he ought to be calling "sir"? At least in a more rightly ordered society.
Really, read the whole thing. "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." (Romans 7:18)
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
Only other thought-had Colin Powell, a real American hero, nonhack, nonpol, who happened to be black, run and won in 1996 or 2000, we would in fact be passed all this.
No we wouldn't. Powell was not a "good conservative"--he supports both affirmative action and abortion-rights--who would have been pilloried by his own party as some sort of Rev. Wright, the moment he acknowledged and spoke to racism that exists and continues to exist.
Powell is a powerful figure, be we wouldn't be "passed all this." Even Obama wouldn't be able to accomplish that. He may move us forward, but we aren't going to be over it. I mean, just look at the posts here. So much racial anger and anxiety, pretending all the "sins" are in the past.
This is only one of several topics lately where some posters refer to a concept of "sin" that strikes me as a bit odd. It seems, according to Zaccheus if I understand him correctly, that one can be forgiven for the sin of racism by just confessing to God and getting his stamp of approval. All further consequences to the victims of one's previous bad actions then become their own fault. In my memories of a Catholic childhood, it was always emphasized that if my sins harmed others, part of my penance must be to attempt to make restitution for that harm.
I note that on the ewtn website, requirements for a good confession include, Did I perform the penance I was given in my last confession? Did I make reparation for any injury to others? Have I been sincere in my efforts to lead a better life in keeping with the Gospel? So it seems this is still in effect.
Imagine that my ancestors, though fraud and force, deprived another family of their property and thereby became well-to-do. My conscience starts to bother me, so I go to confession and receive absolution for my sin of receiving and retaining stolen goods. I then stroll down to the trailer park where the descendants of my grandparents' victims are living in poverty. "Hi, I've confessed to the sin of keeping all your money," I announce. "So I'd like you to forgive me and agree that any further suffering you endure is entirely your own fault. I'd like you to agree that I won't have to listen to any more of your whining. And hurry up about it, please. I'm on my way to a golf outing at my country club."
I doubt that any sane confessor would agree that I was in the right. Moreover, it seems to me--without imprimatur this time--that a part of real repentance is an attitude of humility and a desire to place the injured party's needs above one's own this time around. I can't be truly sorry for hurting someone, while turning around five minutes later and reading them a harsh lecture on how they have a bad attitude toward me and they need to shape up and get over their pain right now. That would make them suspect that my "repentance" had more to do with wanting to feel justified than with wanting to set right the harm done to others.
Sin isn't just a black mark on one's scorecard with God. Repairing the sin of racism involves the life of the community, not just individual personal feelings of vindication and innocence.
In my memories of a Catholic childhood, it was always emphasized that if my sins harmed others, part of my penance must be to attempt to make restitution for that harm.
First, restitution of this sort is a two-way street. The aggrieved party has some obligations as well. They can't use past sins of others to cover for their failings. They also need to accept some limit to that restitution, which, once made, should be the end of the story. None of these rules have been respected by black "leaders".
Second, exactly how much "restitution" will be enough? When can we put this thing to bed? How much welfare programs, special history months, consciousness raising and affirmative action are we still going to have to endure? Spell out the limits in quantifiable terms, and these terms cannot depend on what blacks do (i.e., become physicists in the same proportion per capita as Koreans, or some other silly subjective standard). Give me numbers in terms of years and dollars. Anyone unwilling to do this simply isn't worth listening to.
That's exactly right, Derek. There seems to be no balancing among a lot of the people here, and a lot of cultural liberals generally, between "Blame Whitey" and "Expect better from underachievers." It's all "Blame Whitey." Always and forever. No balance.
And by the way, the reason I detest perpetual White guilt isn't the minor irritatation it causes me. It's the enablement of Black self-destruction that I hate. This is a subset of our society in absolute free fall -- especially the men.
This is personal for me. I mentored a kid of color for 10 years through the Big Brothers program. Took him every Sunday afternoon for 500 Sundays. Watched him gradually morph from a wide-eyed 9-year-old who loved Pokemon and action figures into a gangsta-rap badass determined to turn his life into, for lack of more evocative shorthand, a Fitty Cent video.
Speaking of which, whenever I hear liberal politicians talk about throwing more money into failing city schools, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Money can't fix culture, and the problem IS cultural: The worst thing a teenage Black boy wants to be accused of is "acting White." The best thing he can be called by his peers is a pimp. "Acting white" is code for reading, studying, doing schoolwork, respecting elders, etc. Being a pimp is code for drinking, drugging and having your way with ho's. Sorry to be blunt, but as I say, I saw this develop in a kid firsthand. It's heartbreaking. It has to stop, and it won't until blacks do their part to pick themselves up while whites continue to bend over backwards to help them.
Zaccheus, I see the same things you do, and perhaps my anecdotal collection of data is more extensive than yours: I've lived in Philadelphia for most of the last 33 years, and my wife has been a teacher in the public schools here for 35 years. She and I have seen the same progression you saw in your Brother many times.
We've also seen a much greater proportion of wide-eyed 9-year-olds become serious students, with average abilities and quite happy to go to the state-resident-discount local colleges and community colleges. Most of them are making $9 to $12 per hour, and couldn't afford to have one child even if the spouse also worked. We see them every week, walking by and recognizing their teacher from 10 or more years ago.
I'm with you in shouting down the blame everyone but the one in the mirror nonsense. I admire and honor you for your personal effort. However, until the discussion of endemic and entrenched systems of privilege is had, and actual balancing examined, too many of those kids will see the thousand-dollar rolls of cash, bling and fancy cars and say: gee, that looks a lot easier than 45-hour work weeks with 2+ hours of commuting per day on top of it. Of course it's an irrational view, of course it shows ignorance of any long-term perspective. But you haven't seen the heart of the problem until you've sat around your dining room table with neighbors whose children are dead from drug overdoses and gunshots, whose grandchildren are crack babies, and whose property taxes just jumped 3000% while the rich white man with connections got his reduced, or whose rent is going to go up by 50% or more with little to no prospect of finding a livable-condition house to move to.
I apologize for the passionate hyperbole. But I promise you, it is not all that far off the mark.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.