WHAT JEREMIAH WRIGHT AND RUSH LIMBAUGH QUOTES
REVEAL TO AMERICA REGARDING RACE
Jeremiah Wright and Rush Limbaugh quotes regarding race were used in efforts to thwart a presidential campaign and the purchase of an NFL team. Responses to the Wright and Limbaugh quotes reveal the fact that Blacks and Whites are miles apart with regard to racial understanding. Blacks and Whites often live in the same neighborhoods, work on the same jobs, sometimes go to the same churches and schools, and their children play on the same teams- we really don’t know, understand or fully appreciate each other beyond a surface level. Therefore, we need to get together in an organized and orchestrated fashion and seriously talk about the pink elephant in the room-race.
When Blacks have a discussion about race, usually there are no Whites present, so an important perspective is missing and the reverse is also true. Consequently, when the discussion spills over to our television sets and newspapers surrounding some major incident such as the recent presidential campaign and Limbaugh’s attempted NFL purchase bid, we discover that Blacks and Whites are often miles apart when it comes to agreeing on the legitimacy of racist statements or incidents. We vicariously talk to each other through quotes and sound bites, but not with each other in honest and sincere dialogue.
The recent highly publicized Limbaugh quotes surrounding his failed NFL purchase bid and the Wright quotes surrounding Obama’s presidential campaign, demonstrate that racial quotes can be damaging, divisive and detrimental to effective communication. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hanity used Rev. Wright’s words toward an effort to convince the American public that they should not elect Barack Obama as president. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson used Limbaugh’s words to convince the NFL that Limbaugh should not be allowed to be an owner of an NFL team. What do the Wright and Limbaugh incidents have in common?
Wright and Limbaugh are not viewed as racist, extremist or polarizing figures in their communities and among their constituencies, but obviously, they are viewed in this manner among outsiders. Limbaugh and Wright supporters believe that their quotes were exploited, taken out of context, unfairly politicized, or if they were allowed to explain themselves to an objective audience their comments would not be viewed as offensive.
In Limbaugh’s and Wright’s worlds their remarks would be rationale, reasonable, justifiable, factual and non-racist. Anybody who would think otherwise would simply be mistaken. The problem is Limbaugh and Wright, live, function and communicate in different worlds that are miles apart. Therefore, if America is to avoid a race war, Wright and Limbaugh’s two worlds must come together and dialogue.
Perhaps, out of their shared pain, Limbaugh and Wright can host or spawn a series of dialogues across the country under the banner, RACIAL REASONING AND HEALING IN THE AGE OF OBAMA. Both men know what it’s like to be fairly or unfairly quoted or misquoted, depending upon one’s politics, perspectives or process reasoning. Obviously, an open, honest conversation about race is perhaps the most difficult conversation to hold, but it is one that America desperately needs to have. Black people and White people are still to distant from one another. We need to come together and dialogue. “Come, let us reason, together.”
October 15, 2009 at 8:03 pm
It seems to me that all the negative vibes this blowhard (Rush Hudson Limbaugh A.KA. Jeff Christie) has been spewing over these many years has come back to blow back on his face (A classic “Blow Back”). He always tries to give off the airs that he can have anything he wants but as we all witness those with more money and influence tossed him aside like sack of potatoes and the ultimate insult was that it was done in public (money don’t buy you everything butterball).
Now of course he blames everyone else (Michael J. Fox, Perez Hilton, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Sonia Sotomayor, Hillary Clinton, Olympia Snowe, ESPN, NFL, the media, basically people of color, women and gays) when of course all you have to do is listen to his show and plainly hear his daily prejudices filled sermons. So NFL, I salute you decision, job well done. And to the whaling cry baby perched on his self made pedestal, quit your whining it was your own fault. Don’t we all feel better?
October 16, 2009 at 10:27 am
There is a difference . . . Rev. Wright’s comments are on video/audio . . . Rush Limbaugh’s comments have not been produced . . .
What a shame.
October 27, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Brother Dwight – Excellent point you make. Among the races there is very little listening to one another. We tend to behave as reactionaries, talking about and past one another without ever really listening and considering matters from the perspective of those who are different than us. The media “sound bite” culture of partisan argumentation is not helping. Keep beating this drum of reasoned dialogue – it is most needed! Blessings, Robby
October 29, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Bro. Robby Partain,
Thanks for visiting. The church needs to lead this racial dialogue from a biblical perspective. But that means that the Black and White churches would have to dialogue and we still haven’t learned to do that very well. Could it be that the world has not adequately dealt with this problem because the church has not either?
October 28, 2009 at 7:15 am
[…] and a former president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. This column is adapted from a post that originally appeared Oct. 15 on his blog, New Blog for a Pneuma […]
November 24, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I would love to see Black and White churches and individual Christians dialogue about race and the divisions it causes in the Church. Maybe you could make suggestions on your blog about how to do that.
December 1, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Bishop,
I see you’re still on the road to racial reconciliation. LOVE THAT. However, most whites and blacks don’t have any real relationships with the others not their color. Real relationships now.
The only way to have a REAL discussion is for people to have real relationships. Otherwise, we will just keep saying the right things without any life change.
Limbaugh and Wright? LOL because they are both out there in space. I don’t think either one of those guys is interested in anything different.
Thanks for allowing me to be at the table.