Barack Obama and Racial Scar Tissue

This morning as I drove to work, I had the pleasure of listening to an inspirational spot on the radio by a nationally renown local minister, David Chadwick, who said that "[to hope or despair is a choice]" and he also said that "[we have the freedom to decide if we are going to have hope or despair]".

Around noon, I had the displeasure of listening to the caustic and calculating Rush Limbaugh trying to marginalize Barack Obama by saying that Obama after his speech about race relations in America, formerly had "[wanted to transcend race, but is now the candidate of race]".  I also listened to his tag line which boasted, "Rush Limbaugh, the man who runs America" and felt that a more accurate and honest tag line would have been, Rush Limbaugh, the man who wants to run America into the ground.

Then, this afternoon in Charlotte I got the opportunity to attend A Town Hall Meeting with Barack Obama.  During his well known stump speech about changing America, Obama talked about the need to "[get past divisions based on race and religion]" and he acknowledged that "the status quo will resist change". And he also said that change will not be easy, but will "have to happen from the bottom up". It will have to happen from the bottom up, meaning we the people have to be the catalysts for change. Obama also made another interesting observation that it will take the young folks getting more involved to make that revolutionary transformation.

Why the young people?  I think it's because with the older folks, there exists too much racial scar tissue.  I get amused when I hear people ask, "How could Rev. Wright say the things he said and not be anti-American and why didn't Obama leave the congregation?"  Well, give Mike Huckabee credit for acknowledging that America hasn't always been good to Black Americans and there is some residual scar tissue from old wounds that incidentally, some ultra conservative talk show hosts and overly-ambitious politicians often intentionally pour salt in.  To answer the second question, parishioners are able to extract the Word of God from the messenger and Barack probably would have left the congregation if he like so many others had harbored a long existing desire to be president. His decision to stay would say that he didn't and supports his claim that he "[hasn't been thinking about running for president since kindergarten]".

Now Barack Obama has America talking about race and Rev. Wright having people wonder whether he is anti-American because of his use of inflammatory language during some of his sermons. Well, I think that Rev. Wright can love his country even if he on occasion reveals his scar tissue.  It's very similar to the ability to love a person, but hate their behavior. And if we can be honest with ourselves, a lot of us have relations like that in our backgrounds.

When I had just begun seventh grade, my family packed up and moved away from a welfare state with the hope of finding better living conditions.  I left behind segregated schools, restrooms, water fountains and movie theaters where black people were required to sit in the balcony in order to view a movie. I was enrolled in a mostly white school and my opinion of White people had been formed from news reports on TV about White people bombing churches with little Black kids inside or wielding baseball bats against Black children trying to go to school.  Throw in the lynchings, cross burnings, police brutality, water hoses, and unfair judicial system and I had all the information I needed.

My teachers and classmates were all White and the school was located in a White neighborhood. My homeroom, math and art teachers treated me kindly, but my music teacher was harsh and had the class serenade me with a rendition of "Mammy's Little Baby Loves Shortening Bread". My young classmates were mostly cordial or friendly and I wrestled or "fought" with some of the guys everyday on the playground.  My new found friends also introduced me to my first draw on a cigarette that I quickly decided wasn't for me. 

One day at lunch time, my playmates and I ventured off the schoolyard to a little neighborhood restaurant and snack bar to get something to eat. This wasn't our first time.  But one particular day the owner came over to us and said "son I ain't got nothing against you, but some of my customers don't want you eating in the same room; you can stay but you can eat in the back".  I was stunned, hurt, and angry and didn't fully understand what was happening.  It was the seventh grade.  But the thing that happened next had an even bigger affect on my life than the misguided efforts of some adults. 

Ted and Nick, my two little White friends whom I wrestled with everyday on the playground stood up in contempt and said "Let's leave, we don't have to stay here". Now, that incident  occurred a very long ago and I still have scar tissue.  But I will never forget Ted and Nick and even now I have nothing but love, respect, and appreciation in my heart for what they did for me. And they were just kids like me.  If I was a preacher, my sermon would be "they meant it for evil, but God meant it for good".  So if I was talking about that experience and someone was to make a sound bite where I made mention of the White men in that restaurant, taken out of context, that portion probably would be very unflattering.  But that's not the message or the lesson.

The message is that in spite of the bad thing that occurred, I thank God for the good thing that occurred.  It taught me at an early age that all White people weren't bad.  It also educated me in a way that when I returned to my circle I could say to other Black people, that in spite of the way that some White people treated us, evil is tied to an individual and not to a race of people. That is also the message that God teaches.  So now when people continue to cast dispersion on Barack Obama with indignation about how could he have attended Trinity United for twenty years, I say it's because the accompanying message was love your neighbor as God has loved you, even those who spitefully use you.

Taking an objective viewpoint, I think that this was the message that Obama extracted from the sermons preached at his church. He has not exhibited the behavior of someone who has been corrupted by a message of hate, but rather of someone who has chosen to challenge us to turn from our sometimes tainted past and aspire for real change absent of racial, religious or political divisions.  When I finally paid attention, I discovered that Obama communicated a vision of hope that I never thought could be experienced in my lifetime.  Now evil and deception has reared its ugly head. But, like Pastor Chadwick said this morning on the radio, "[hope or despair...we have the freedom to decide]" which outcome to pursue.