Davey D, Hip Hop historian, journalist and political pundit, speaks to Real News Network interviewer, Paul Jay, about the media “firestorm” surrounding Barack Obama’s pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. He notes that no one representing his views and experience is invited to sit at the network round tables so it’s no wonder that the flames continue to burn when ideologues such as Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity are stoking the embers.
Other names deserve to be included in that list.
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell also takes the media to task, a media that continues to replay the Rev. Wright video snippets, and introduce them as anti-American and racist.
As it is, the political warfare has thrust Wright, a man with a charismatic leadership style, a big-hearted nature, and grass-roots organizing skills, into an undeserved spotlight.
Yes, undeserved.
Where was that spotlight when Wright, whose church was no less Afro-centric than it is now, led Trinity to be among the first in the nation to take the fight against South Africa’s former racist government to the streets?
Where was that spotlight when Wright took a small but devout membership and grew it to an estimated 8 ,000 members that include some of the most respected citizens in Chicago?
Where was that spotlight when Wright launched one of the earliest responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the black community right here in Chicago?
Where were we?
We were nowhere to be found.
Updated 21 March: Meet The (White) Man Who Inspired Wright’s Controversial Sermon