Thursday in the NY Times, Nicholas Kristof wrote an Op-Ed entitled the exact same as this piece here that I am about to deliver to you. I plan on taking issue with his editorial for multiple reasons. This op-ed in the NY Times was not a surprise, in fact, it was expected. Kristof tries to point out that white America does not understand Black America so therefore we do not understand Rev. Wright’s speech.

Nicholas, I’m sorry, but if you are saying that it’s a ‘black thing’ and that we don’t understand ‘black things’ you are way off base. I understood when I heard Wright talk aggressively about blaming white America for everything that goes wrong in the country. He is claiming to be a victim of white and government persecution, yet he has, it seems, a successful life with a very large church with a large ‘following’. He isn’t exactly broke either. So apparently this victim mentality is as pointless as his speeches.

Kristof continues, “Mr. Wright has indeed made some outrageous statements. But he should be judged as well by his actions — including a vigorous effort to address poverty, ill health, injustice and AIDS in his ministry. Mr. Wright has been frightfully wrong on many topics, but he was right on poverty, civil rights and compassion for AIDS victims.”

Outrageous statements? You could say that. Wright has blamed the US government for spreading AIDS in this country. He also claims that the government is responsible for selling crack cocaine to lower income black areas in the country. So, how exactly, Nicholas, do you come to the conclusion that Wright is working hard for these issues when all he does is take the victim mentality. Kristof mentions a man who goes to Wright’s church saying that his message is really about “Hope”. Hope for what? Hope to blame everybody but yourself for the behavior of certain aspects of society? If Wright was the correct man of God then he would not just be critical of the government and privileged, he would be critical of the people who are using drugs, having children out of wedlock and committing crimes. Last I checked it wasn’t just black people who do those things but whites, Hispanics and even Asians too. His work has concentrated on the wrong thing. He could also take a page out of Bill Cosby’s playbook and discuss responsibility instead of victim-mentality.

“All of this demonstrates that a national dialogue on race is painful, awkward and essential. And that dialogue needs to focus not on clips from old sermons by Mr. Wright but on far more urgent challenges — for example, that about half of black males do not graduate from high school with their class.”

Right you are there Nicholas, but every time a white person tries to have a dialogue about these issues they get cast down as a racist. One cannot have a discussion if one believes anything he is going to say is wrong and is going to offend the other party in the discussion. The other person is already expecting something offensive to come out when its not meant to be that way. Where as the people who were offended by Wright’s sermons get looked at like they have no business getting so upset and crying foul. Well, look at the big picture. It’s a double edged sword. I think people are tired of hearing about people who are always feeling sorry for themselves and blaming others for their situation. As a pastor, why not address that issue and uplift those who are downtrodden instead of giving them more reason to be miserable? Just a suggestion.

“Gail Collins is off today”. – Good for her, then maybe she didn’t read that horrible Op-Ed.
But you can if you want here : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/opinion/20kristof.html?bl&ex=1206158400&en=0d1e9305b145f292&ei=5087%0A