All Comments (42)

America's "original sin" is the murder of the native peoples of this land and the theft of the land.

The America's "original sin" is the murder of the native peoples of this land and the theft of the land.

"Of course, any time you Christians want to fix your own problems and not worry about the vast progress many Americans are making on interfaith issues, I'll thank you for *that.* "

And what makes you think that I am a Christian? Is that how you get your exercise? By jumping to conclusions?

" Arif:

Eboo should fix Muslim problems and not worry about the vast progress Americans are making on race issues. I wish Muslims would stop discriminating against each other and other religions as well. "

*Mr. Patel* *is* an American.

Got no particular use for his brand of religion, but I'm proud to call him one, too.

Of course, any time you Christians want to fix your own problems and not worry about the vast progress many Americans are making on interfaith issues, I'll thank you for *that.*

The word 'race' means ignorance of those who do not know what they are talking about.

Race as a biological phenomenon does not exist. There are no clear cut boundaries that can demarcate one so-called race from other races. Phenomena like skin color, color or shape of the head or stature are polygenic in nature. They overlap between the so-called races. Hence there are no clear cut boundaries that can seperate different races from one another.

That said, 'race' and racism are social realities. People often confuse between race, culture, religion, and linguistic differences creating innumerable identities.

Humans often show their ethnocentrism towards people of other identities. Racism is hatred of other identities based on ignorance.

Are there people here posting their excessive, compulsive behavioral disorders by focusing on posting against one religion--Islam?

I have no idea what you mean by America's only indigenous expressions, unless you mean to discount Native Americans, and the last three hundred some odd years of art, poetry, literature, etc.

Obama is not like Baldwin who was not like King who, God knows, was not like Hughes. For the love of God, please do not put him in the same sentence with Douglass and Tubman.

Rhetoric is fine. Sophistry is not. Douglass was no sophist. Tubman was not out for glory, not motivated by ego.

Baldwin suffered more in his life than Obama could ever imagine. Obama is no MLK, but the benificiary of MLK. Hughes found his black universality, his, that is, through hard, hard work, struggle, brilliant gifts. It was not, for him, part of a presidential bid.

I think that the challenge that Obama really put before the nation last week is to what degree will people ,generally, allow themselves to be manipulated by a slick con man with a sonorous voice.No one really cares what turned Wright into a racist ( and paranoid) demagogue - although one suspects that ignorance had a great deal to do with it. The more salient point is that Obama, who clambered for CBS to fire a minor talk show host for being loose with his tongue, sat in the pews of this man's church, with his family, for years, listening to him spew racist, anti-Semitism and paranoid delusions and was, in addition, quite prepared to have him around his campaign. The campaign ,he says, that will"unify" and be post-racial.One could take Obama's bromides about race and tolerance more seriously if he had started his discussion of racism with his pastor who could have used the advice more than most.
Far from being a serious participant in such a discussion Obama is a cynical charlatan.

Eboo should fix Muslim problems and not worry about the vast progress Americans are making on race issues. I wish Muslims would stop discriminating against each other and other religions as well.

On the other hand Obama has problems with his race; he is half white and clearly sides with the blacks no matter how harsh comments were made by his pastor. Those are harsh and crude comments by a pastor, I cannot stand anyone who believes that 9/11 was an inside job or that American disserves what Muslims did on that day and how they celebrated.

What if? What if it turns out that John McCain attended a KKK church and had great friends with one of their priests? Would he still be able to run for Commander in Chief?

I for one hope Obama (change my arse) looses and will vote Republican.

The church is not racist. Wright is not racist. What he said was more than true but how and when he said it is the problem. Everything Wright said was absolutely true. I wouldn't have said it like he said it but so be it. If he had said it more eloquently with dialogue and outside of his own church doors. It would have been OK>

Have we forgotten that Wright was invited and came as a guest to the White House while MR. BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON WERE IN OFFICE. He was honored by MR CLINTON. SO obviously they don't see anything wrong with him. ANd he has been preaching like that for the 35 years he has been a preacher. ANd also note that Obama hasn't left the church because REV. Wright has RETIRED as the Pastor of that Church and it was already in the making before any of this NONSENSE came about.

It is an awesome article about the American melting pot. Definitely people like Barack does not come to life very often. A passionate person, a symbol of Black and White America, a straight talker, he is the pride of America. I only ask American not to let his vision die; by supporting him together we can bring America to its harmony. Together we can bring a life without fear, let’s not divide the country or divide the world. Leave those nasty politics behind and work together for a better world.

insightful generous-spirited and wise comments you made in this piece, as you so often do. appreciate your sharing your kind spirit and fine intellect on people and poltics process and policy conroversy and cooperation

Georgiason, dude, "illegitimacy?" Well, at least you're honest about your racism. Anyway, thanks for the minority report. I highly suggest you actually go read some Baldwin, if it can do any good--hearts that are hardened are not open to the Word.

Thank you once again Eboo for an insightful piece. It always amazes me how alien many find these borderlands, where what we don't know--even fear a bit--still changes us; the Others are half of our identity and I guess we make of it what we will.

Mr. Patel

Will you please tell why you keep supporting the Islamic apartheid in Mecca and Medina where non-Muslims are not allowed?

If you do not support this apartheid then could you promise us all that you will boycott the hajj until the apartheid is ended and Christians are allowed to build churches, Jews synagogues in Mecca and Medina?

I wonder the suggestion to face the race issue directly now will do anything good for America in general and for Obama campaign in particular. By delving forever into the ugly past, you make no progress, albeit for the goodness sake of the discussion. After all, the difference between the so-called "races", if you bother to study scientifically, i snot that much. As Dr Craig Venter pointed out, race is not actually a scientific construct. The prejudice against the blacks in the US has been diminished in recent years. Many success stories credited to the black folks are well known. At the end of the day, only some black leaders( J Jackson and the likes) with political ambition will continue to explore this decades old illness. Bill Crosby has been critical of his own folks for lacks of focus on education to advance on the economic echelons. To re-visit the race issue only put America one step backward. Until the time when the US blacks look beyond the victim card played by so many political figures and, the stagnation and division will continue between these two groups. Mr Obama is better off stop talking on this issue.

Rhetoric without experience means nothing. Obama was a privileged kid who grew up essentially a white kid. He has never had a "Black" experience like Baldwin. He has proven that he is not a transcender that can cross racial lines. He has aligned himself with a radical church and reverend and told us that he can not separate himself from it. That alone should tell one that he is not a change agent. Please stop with the comparisons with great leaders, Obama is neither...

Let's see now. It is revealed that a black preacher, over some period of time, has been delivering sermons full of outrageous comments and accusations about America and Americans. He got away with it because only a tiny minority, mostly his own followers, was aware of his lies and demagoguery. Then one of his church members runs for president, and as a result, the black preacher's lies and demagoguery are revealed to the country as a whole. Sort of like sunlight suddenly bursting upon a night-dwelling, blood-sucking vampire.

Where does this revelation lead for the candidate and for people, like Mr. Patel? Why, the fact that a black preacher, in the name of Jesus, has been delivering sermons full of lies and demagoguery and the fact that his church members apparently shout "Hallelujah!" while he's doing it, means that the rest of us need a national dialogue about race! Someone does not need to tell that black preacher to shut his mouth. Much less should he be fired forthwith for grossly distorting Jesus' message and lying about his country. No, siree. What all this means is that white Americans are still all a bunch of racist bigots who need to engage in a one-sided dialogue about race in America, whose outcome is already pre-determined: those white need to give up their racist bigotry and listen to the enlightened voices of blacks like Rev. Wright.

And in the Washington Post's On Faith, forum, James Baldwin is resurrected as one of the gods we need to pay more attention to.

Well, pardon me. What major piece of the puzzle am I missing here? Is this the same America that fired Don Imus for muttering three words that blacks found offensive? Is this the same country where blacks have made great strides over the past 40 years or so since James Baldwin wrote his creed? Is this the same country that cannot control its own borders because millions of non-white Hispanics want to live and work here? The same country into which pretty well the whole rest of the world’s population wants to flee and out of which no one wants to leave?

My congratulations to Mr. Patel for joining that growing list of commentators who have unintentionally become a Saturday Night Live parody of themselves.

Blacks constitute 13.5 percent of the U.S. population. Let us assume, conservatively, that at least 8 percent of black Americans can be counted a success. They have an education, a job, a car, own or rent at least a middle class residence. You know, blacks like Oprah Winfrey, Vernon Jordan, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Bill Cosby, any number of black athletes, rap artists, and movie stars, federal and state bureaucrats, etc., etc.

That leaves, maybe, 5 percent or less of the population of the United States that is still suffering from the lingering legacy of slavery and segregation. Or suffering current discrimination. Now someone please tell me: why do we need a national dialogue focused on this relatively insignificant number of Americans? Or more particularly, why is this small minority supposed to go to the head of the line of Americans who need help or special attention? As compared to, for example, those Americans who lack health insurance and, therefore, lack adequate health care? Particularly, the children in that category? Or the Americans who are not being educated to the fullest extent of their abilities because they can’t afford it? Or because their elementary and high schools are underfunded? Or Americans suffering from Alzheimers? Or the Americans attempting to care for parents with Alzheimers? Or the older Americans whose jobs have been shipped overseas? Who’ve worked hard all their lives only to see their pensions disappear? Why do we need a national dialogue about that less than 5 percent of the population, as opposed to a dialogue about our crumbling infrastructure? Or about the tsunami of a financial crisis we are about to face because the U.S. Government has made financial commitments to Social Security and Medicare recipients that it will be unable to meet?

But if we are to have a national dialogue about race, here are my choices for the top two priority items that go to the head of the list of topics to be discussed—and if they are not there, I will refuse to participate:

1. The illegitimacy rate in the black population.
2. The amazing success of black females in recent years, and the massive a growing gap bewteen black females and black males on all the indexes that measure success.

Well said, Sir, well said.

Sunni discrimination versus Shiites has been going on for centuries and is a major flaw of Islam. Time for the Muslims to clean up their act!!!!

Poor Logic. If Obama really meant his words during his speach he would have left his racist church. The public rantings of Hate and ethno centristism of Obama's pastor really does differ from the personal and private whispers of his grandmother. The speech bombed.

Sometimes I wonder about the value of considering posting something online...after reading through the comments it appears as though half of the people are reasonable and commenting upon this profound essay dealing with a difficult subject and the other half are people who would begin a sentence with, "I'm not a racist but...". All in all, a thoughtful essay that makes all of us who have lived on the south side acknowledge that we know where he is coming from.

What a wonderful essay! Take care and God bless.

This is an interesting article and I found the references to James Baldwin particularly interesting since I am a great fan of his work. However, I think that Obama's challenge is really his challenge. Most of us in America have moved past the '60s militant rhetoric of his church and perhaps if he ventured out to other churches more he would know this. Right now, race is not our most important issue, it is the economy and the war in Iraq, both of which affect all Americans, of all races and ethnicities.

Re: Jim Crow

As bad as the Jim Crow laws were they are a stroll in th park compared with the "Dhimmi Laws" that the successive Muslim Caliphs had subjected the non-Muslims(Dhimmi) living among them. Eboo needs to put out that clarification before talking about the others' sins.
"GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY CIVIL RIGHTS LAW JOURNAL (2008, forthcoming) Like blacks in the American South during the Jim Crow era, the Dhimmi had to cower and simper before their persecutors. A British observer in nineteenth-century Morocco recounted:
I have, on more than one occasion, seen a Moorish boy about ten years of age step up to a Jew in the street, and, having stopped him, kick, and slap him in the face, without his venturing to lift a hand and defend himself. Should he dare to do so, his hand would be cut off, as being raised against one of the true believers. The poor man was obliged to content himself with crying out, addressing his little persecutor at the same time by the title of sidi, or master, and supplicating him to let him pass. As to the unfortunate Jew boys, they make their appearance with fear and trembling where any Moorish children may chance to be playing, being considered as fair game, much in the same light as a dog, and are sure to be well thumped and pelted. "Excerpt from
http://www.davekopel.com/Religion/Dhimmitude-and-Disarmament.pdf
Comparison between Jim Crow laws and Dhimmi Laws.
http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/comp/cw25minoritylaws.htm
Omar Pact:
http://www.bible.ca/islam/islam-kills-pact-of-umar.htm

The only thing good about bad actions is that they can be purified. Repent!

Original Sin? Really? Don't you know what the Original Sin was? Good and Bad instead of All Good

Racism is fundamental to dualistic consciousness. Us and Them. Self and Other. It so ingrained that it happens almost Naturally.

If you id with a race then you are the one that is the ground for all racism. no race no racism. same same

But racism white or black, German or Jew, Islam/Christian v. Jew, not just an American Thing.

Equality that's American from the get go. Takes work but that's America.

"As Baldwin wrote at the end of The Fire Next Time: “If we – and now I mean the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks, who must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of the others – do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world.”

That is, in essence, the challenge that Barack Obama threw down to the nation last week."

Bull. He made a political contrived speech to get himself out his association with a racist.

Does anyone think that Obama would have "thrown down the challenge" if he hadn't gotten into trouble with Wright? Give me a break.

What a wonderful piece. I think the true issue today is for all of us to embrace being Americans. And to willingly address where we are as a nation and where we seek to be. Thank you for your article.

As an evangelical I've never embraced the doctrine of original sin, but I think it does offer a useful for explaining the role of in American history and our society today. None of us who have grown up in America has escaped the influence of in our make-up and none of us ever fully leaves it behind. Probably every human culture shares this failing to some extent and in some form; we just have our own particular version.

I always cringe when I hear someone say, "I'm not a racist." It seems that people usually make that claim in order to deny the in what they are going to say next. The denial simply demonstrates that we don't understand very well. I suggest that overcoming begins with two steps: recognizing and acknowledging it in ourselves and forgiving it in others. For those who read the Christian scriptures, the first chapter of the first epistle of John, verses 8 to 10, is the source for my thinking.

We'll know we're making progress when we start seeing as a common ground for meeting each other rather than as a battleground for fighting each other.

So, uh, Bloomingdale, are you disputing Jays data? Have you ever hired people for a government only to be asked later how many were black? (I have, and a friend of mine answered 'no' because he was taken aback by the question and didn't realize that one of his hires was, actually, black.)

So, other than feeling pity for Jay because he said what he said, do you have data or experience to the contrary?

Really, Jay? Seriously?

I realize you don't want to hear this, but you are voicing EXACTLY the kind of anger and resentment Obama talked about in his speach last week, "A More Perfect Union." It's worth a listen.

I'm not as angry as you are, so your comments are pretty difficult to read. But Obama was correct in pointing out that the first step in addressing racism in America is not to simply call people out for behaving inappropriately, but to try to understand and talk about the reasons why they feel the anger that they do. That's hard for both parties. But that is also how we heal.

So Jay, I won't call you names. I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, and say there are probably real and good reasons for you to be angry. But I think it would be fair for you to give Wright the benefit of the doubt and admit that he has legitimate reasons to feel the kind of anger that led him to speak the way he did. THAT is how we begin a civilized discussion.

As a human being, I just have to respond to:

"Isn't it peculiar that while Obama was raised by his single white mother, and presumably she shaped his values and view of the world, he chooses to write a book about the father who abandoned him at age 2? The more I learn about this man, the less there is to love."

No, actually. That's not peculiar at all. It is a life-long struggle for the child of an absent parent to come to terms with what it means to be missing a parent - to understand how to reconcile half of your genetic composition with the reality of an individual whom you both adore and hate, miss and fear. So you "love" Obama less because he is no more human than any of us - a man trying to learn what it means to be the son of an absent father. Gosh, I wish I had the wisdom of judgement that you do.

I know you too want to associate and linger in Obama's victimhood. The truth is something else - more akin to this passge from Pat Buchanan's essay:

"First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.

Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks — with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas — to advance black applicants over white applicants.

Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.

We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?

Barack talks about new “ladders of opportunity” for blacks.

Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for “deserving” white kids.

Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America’s fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?

Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?

We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.

Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago."

I can't believe the nuts that are allowed to post. There should be some boundaries. Anyway, I enjoyed your whole piece and premise. It would be nice if our presidential campaigns could be made of such stuff. "Dreams of My Father" is one of the great and undercommented features of Decision 2008. Penned well-prior to the Obama '08, its inherent intelligence and truly human story impressed me deeply and sold me on Obama not as candidate, but as a man. It would help for more of the above bozos to read it than whatever junk it is they are feeding on and obviously buying.

This was a great article. I applaud you standing. I suggest every American school to go through one of James Baldwin's essays and compare this to Barrack's speech.

Janet, the reason that Sen. Obama wrote that book about his father is that his father was kind of this amorphous, exotic person that he had never met. Obama's mother, who was quite extraordinary in her own right, was always there for him no matter what. She was an anthropologist who studied women's issues in Indonesia. When she returned to the States, she worked for USAID and then a micro-credit company. She apparently was a very cool person.

However, if you'd read the book, it deals more with race issues and a person of mixed heritage finding his place in the world, and visiting his father's village in Kenya. If you'd even looked up the Wikipedia entry on the book, you'd have known that. Then again, it's much easier to get your opinions from Fox News.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_from_My_Father

I cannot now believe Barack's vision of hope and change is anything more than political gabble. Now I can see why so little progress is made between the races. These churches and this hate speech is OK for adults but Wright and numerous other ministers are allowed to infect the children and keep the hate flowing to the next generation. Certainly Barack could see that little children were exposed to the Wright vision. I now believe that Barack doesn"t stand for hope or change as these sermons are just "dance and feel-good" rap music for the congregation. Barack willingly saw that the children were exposed yet did nothing for 20 years to insulate even his own kids from this awful noise.

Sen. Obama's speech was about challenging us that racism is a sin? So many TV commentators are in such a state of arousal over Sen. Obama that they aren't thinking clearly. Why so late with this "heart-felt" speech that we all need to hear? Odd that this speech only came about after public opinion condemned his association with this virulent spiritual mentor of his. The last thing Sen. Obama wants to be is the "race candidate" because he is intelligent enough to know that this is not the 1960's. It's America in the year 2008, and race relations are pretty darn good, all things considered. Only the Jesse Jacksons and the Jeremiah Wrights of the world feel otherwise, and the white liberal crowd likes to talk about race because it brings back long forgotten memories that they actually used to fight for causes that mattered.

As bad as the Jim Crow laws were they are a walk in th park compared with the 'Laws" that the Muslim Caliphates had subjected the non-Muslims(Dhimmi) living among them. Eboo needs to put out that clarification before talking about the others' sins.

"GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY CIVIL RIGHTS LAW JOURNAL (2008, forthcoming) Like blacks in the American South during the Jim Crow era, the dhimmi had to cower and simper before their persecutors. A British observer in nineteenth-century Morocco recounted:
I have, on more than one occasion, seen a Moorish boy about ten years of age step up to a Jew in the street, and, having stopped him, kick, and slap him in the face, without his venturing to lift a hand and defend himself. Should he dare to do so, his hand would be cut off, as being raised against one of the true believers. The poor man was obliged to content himself with crying out, addressing his little persecutor at the same time by the title of sidi, or master, and supplicating him to let him pass. As to the unfortunate Jew boys, they make their appearance with fear and trembling where any Moorish children may chance to be playing, being considered as fair game, much in the same light as a dog, and are sure to be well thumped and pelted."Excerpt from
http://www.davekopel.com/Religion/Dhimmitude-and-Disarmament.pdf

Comparison between Jim Crow laws and Dhimmi Laws as articulated by Omar Pact:
http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/comp/cw25minoritylaws.

Omar Pact:
http://www.bible.ca/islam/islam-kills-pact-of-umar.htm

I think this is extemely dangerous to examine the faith of any person who runs for public office. Every person is guaranteed the freedom worship as he/she want in the U.S. I worship in an evangelical church and a fellowship that includes executives, street people, crazy people, corporate raiders, politicians and every other kind of person. My God speaks to me through many people but I am not responsible for them and they are not responsible for me. No one including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Rush Limbaugh or the Washington Post has any business judging the words or the spiritual message of Jeremiah Wright. This is America. He has the right to say and think anything he wants. Judging him is none of your business and threatens the most fundamental right we have as citizens. Mind you own business. I am a conservative republican but I beleive in freedom. Leave this man alone, he can think and say whatever he wants.

"People who would align with racists 40 years ago are not actually crossing racial lines to bolster support for the new bigotry: religious bigotry."

should read

"People who would align with racists 40 years ago are NOW actually crossing racial lines to bolster support for the new bigotry: religious bigotry."

Count on me to inflict typoes in such a way as to turn my intended meaning upside down.

Racism may be America's original sin, but its currently trendy sin is religious bigotry.

People who would align with racists 40 years ago are not actually crossing racial lines to bolster support for the new bigotry: religious bigotry. And, surprisingly, the Religious Right isn't ashamed to exploit affirmative action to do it.

Want to create the impression that you're pro-Black? Simple. Seek out Uncle Toms like Clarence Thomas or Alan Keyes.

Want to appear pro-Hispanic? Simple. Seek out a Noriega like former Attorney General Gonzalez.

Want to appear pro-woman? Find yourself an anti-woman like Ann Coulter.

The far right wing knows better than most of us, that we will always be able to find traitors, turncoats and other assorted self-haters within any racial, gender, or ethnic group.

Choose, appoint, or nominate them, and you can carry out an anti-_____ agenda while appearing to welcome ______.

Isn't it peculiar that while Obama was raised by his single white mother, and presumably she shaped his values and view of the world, he chooses to write a book about the father who abandoned him at age 2? The more I learn about this man, the less there is to love.

Eboo, Eboo, Eboo,

You have a lot of nerve criticizing racism in the US as severely flawed Islam has been practicing racism for at least 1000 years as evidenced by the blood feud between Sunnis and Shiites.