J Walking

J Walking

Wallis on race

posted by David Kuo | 10:19am Tuesday March 18, 2008

Jim Wallis is all over this:

There is a deep well of both frustration and anger in the African American community in the U.S. And those feelings are borne of the concrete experience of real oppression, discrimination, and blocked opportunities that most of America’s white citizens take for granted. African Americans across the spectrum of income and success will speak personally to those feelings of frustration and anger, when white people are willing to listen. But usually we are not. In 2008, to still not comprehend or seek to understand the reality of black frustration and anger is to be in a state of white denial which, very sadly, is where many white Americans are.
The black church pulpit has historically been a place of prophetic truth-telling about the realities that black people experience in their own country. Indeed, the black church has often been the only place where such truths are ever told. And, black preachers have had the pastoral task of nurturing the spirits of people who feel beaten down week after week. Strong and prophetic words from black church pulpits are often a source of comfort and affirmation for black congregations. The truth is that many white Americans would indeed feel uncomfortable with the rhetoric of many black preachers from many black churches all across the country.
But if you look beyond the grainy black and white clips of the dashiki clad Rev. Wright and the angry black male voice (all designed to provoke stereotypes and fear), and actually listen to what the words are saying about the U.S. being run by “rich white people” while blacks have cabs speeding by them, and about the U.S.’s misdeeds around the world, it’s hard to disagree with many of the facts presented. It’s rather the angry tone of Wright’s comments that provides the offense and the controversy.



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Comments read comments(13)
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canucklehead

posted March 18, 2008 at 11:37 am


Is it too much to expect during this season of the year when Christians purportedly commemorate God’s coming into this world to walk in our shoes that we WASPS’s make an effort to walk a few miles in the shoes of black Americans?



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Thinker

posted March 18, 2008 at 11:43 am


Just heard Obama’s speech on race – I hope we are worthy of such a speech.



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Pete Ahlstrom

posted March 18, 2008 at 11:53 am


I find myself both sympathetic to, and disturbed by, Wright’s comments. Sympathetic, because there are real, long-lasting problems to which we’ve developed a real talent for “looking the other way.” But disturbed, because the excerpt I saw seems to divide the US into “poor blacks” and “rich whites.” Neither Wright (nor several recent Presidents)seem to realize that lots of poor-to-middle-class whites exist too, and that they face many of the same severe problems the blacks in their churches do.



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Chuck Steele

posted March 18, 2008 at 12:15 pm


Just more of Wallis pandering for Obama. Why can’t he just be like other sane people and condemn the remarks. Oh, I almost forgot, he just wants the left wing to control America.



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Alicia

posted March 18, 2008 at 6:58 pm


I find it so incredibly offensive that Wallis feels he is qualified to “explain black rage” to us insensitive white people. Allow the possibility that many of the people who are upset about Jeremiah Wright and Trinity Church actually have some understanding (in spite of being white) of the anger in the black community.
We might have understanding and empathy, and at the same time believe that anger or even rage do not excuse adopting a set of paranoid- delusional conspiracy theories and racist ideologies. Demagogues such as Wright have always been good at channeling the rage of their followers by employing scapegoating and mythmaking about “the others,” whether those others are Jews, Muslims, African-Americans, White Devils, or the Bourgeoise.



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threeeighteenoheight

posted March 18, 2008 at 9:43 pm


I heard Obama’s political speech too. He is becoming a seasoned politician. Blacks are racists in far larger numbers than whites. For whatever reason, that is just the way it is. Jim Wallis would do better continuing his assault on the Christian Church and stay where he is most comfortable. That being in his deceptive mode of selling the Humanist Manifesto spelled with “red letters.” Anyone following the New Testament witness isn’t going to listen to Wallis on anything but raising taxes to fund his progressive political agenda. And only then to vote against Democrat candidates he supports.



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Lj

posted March 19, 2008 at 11:57 am


Jim Wallis did a great job explaining the plight of blacks,and he is not a puppet for the GOP. Christians who are bound to the GOP,has no real knowledge of God. Politics are their god. President Obama is going to do a great job. All this liberal and left wing talk is as old as Rush Limbaugh. America is ready to vote for Obama and move forword. Wallis is a true born-again christian who is not part of a party cult. Continue the good work Jim and Jay. It”s time to move ahead to a new day in Christ.



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Lj

posted March 19, 2008 at 12:01 pm


Pete those excerpt was aired to deceive you and others. Obama care about the poor in all races. He will make a great President. The day for old politics is over.



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Lj

posted March 19, 2008 at 12:28 pm


Blacks are not racist when they discuss the evils of today’s racism. They talk aboutg a plight that should not exist today. They are angery at a system that is unfair to some citizens and partial to others. Black churches express the unjustice in a “christian nation”. Racists are those who hold other down in their strides for progress.



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BrianF

posted March 19, 2008 at 5:33 pm


Since we are so keen on discussing race related matters, I’ll put my opinion of Jim Wallis bluntly. He is a white Uncle Tom. A figure from a group the left despises, evangelicals, that they trot out to flack for them. The left doesn’t care one whit for Jim Wallis or his faith in Christ, they only care that he can be used as a cudgel against the people of faith they hate.



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Alicia

posted March 19, 2008 at 6:37 pm


I suggest reading Michael Gerson’s column about Obama’s speech on the Editorial Page of today’s Washington Post.



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Larry Parker

posted March 21, 2008 at 8:45 pm


As I think E.J. Dionne pointed out in the WaPo, MLK was MUCH more strident — one could even argue (reverse) racist — in his language in African-American churches than he was in public appearances.



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Luzviminda

posted March 22, 2008 at 11:42 am


First time I have read your work. I am glad that Senator Obama opened this wound again. Unfortunately, racism is here to stay. Where resources are limited, like animals, it becomes a survival of the fittest. Individualism is lost, envy, greed results. Mr. Obama cannot be a soothsayer, especially comparing his white grandmother’s fear of color to the Reverend’s hate history. He should have just focused on his own experience, but he could not, because he did not have any, or if he had he was too busy being ambitious to be a President, it has border into grandiosity. This in itself is a turning point for him as a colored man in our society.



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