Geraldine Ferraro, Geremiah Wrong

Barack Obama's pastor quits campaign after explosive 9/11 remarks Telegraph.co.uk The clips show Mr Obama's spiritual mentor railing against Hillary Clinton because of her race, comparing Mr Obama to Jesus and blaming America for the Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks. In one sermon he takes aim at former US president Bill Clinton's supposedly good relationship with the black community...... "Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain't! Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty," the clergyman boomed. ..... Geraldine Ferraro, a prominent Clinton supporter and 1984 vice-presidential candidate, had earlier asserted that Mr Obama was “only in this position” because of his skin colour. ....... a newspaper column in which Rev Wright was quoted telling audiences that they should sing “God Damn America” instead of “God Bless America”.

One wrong white woman, one wrong black man, both of them prominent, one having run for Vice President, another a pastor to a would be president. This is a perfect example of two wrongs not making a right.

Hillary is not responsible for what Ferraro said, Barack is not responsible for what Wright said. Neither Ferraro nor Wright will see the light any time soon, but both are out of the campaigns, and that is the best the two campaigns could hope for.

But let's get real. The sentiments these two expressed did not come from the moon. These sentiments pervade life in America, now they also need to be talked about in public life. Conversation is the best, most healing way to deal with the issues of race. Ferraro and Wright have given us an opportunity to discuss race openly. Race is the elephant in the room we too often ignore. I hope we also talk gender. But I hope we don't wait until some prominent Obama person says something so very clearly sexist.

I too was hoping this thing would be over on March 4. (Hillary Should Concede March 4) Instead it just keeps going on and on and on. I did not lose my temper, actually I am having fun. This can go on all the way to the convention, and I will be okay. But Ferraro and Wright blew off the top. They could not contain themselves. They lost their cool.

Ferraro is from a different generation. She probably thinks black people are poorer because they are lazy, stuff like that. I met people in Kentucky who talked of people living in the trees. That was their idea of foreign students.

Black America feels the frustrations. Black America has been wronged. History is testimony. Black America continues to be marginalized. There is concrete data on racial disparity. I felt the disenchantment as a Madhesi in Nepal. I have said after Nepal gets a new constitution that gives us Madhesis our own state, then, in that new Nepal, for the first time, we Madhesis can claim Nepal as our own country, a country that has never before really been ours. (Madhesi Movement Victory In Nepal) I can imagine blacks feeling the same way about America. We were born here, we live here, but this country is not fully ours. We are second class.

I hope we can capitalize on some of Wright's comments to stare focus on the concrete data on disparity.

There is legitimate anger in the black community in this country. That anger has to be vented. But that can only be the first step. Ultimately it has to be less about finger pointing, and more about dealing with the concrete data on disparity. That is why Barack talks little about race and talks mostly about education, health, jobs. But there is no avoiding race as a topic.

Ferraro and Wright are two Clinton and Obama fans who went overboard. We should forgive both.

Note To Ferraro

Barack is a white man. What do you mean? He was born half white. He was raised by his white mother and white grandparents.

In The News

Obama's Pastor No Longer Serving on Campaign, Spokesman Says Bloomberg

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