Trying to remove information from the Internet is like trying to remove pee from a swimming pool.

There's been a lot of talk about Reverend Wright recently, and there's been a lot of mudslinging back and forth on both sides.  I think, however, something has been missed, here.  We've all assumed that the media's perception of Wright's sermons and Wright himself have been correct, that he is some sort of militant black supremacist.  We've all assumed this based on absolutely nothing.  No one has actually quoted the man, and I doubt we've all seen or read his controversial words in context.

Hillary Clinton's pastor, the Reverend Dean Snyder, knows Reverend Wright personally, and had this to say about him:

"The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is an outstanding church leader whom I have heard speak a number of times. He has served for decades as a profound voice for justice and inclusion in our society. He has been a vocal critic of the racism, sexism, and homophobia which still tarnish the American dream.

"To evaluate his dynamic ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the African-American church, which has been the spiritual refuge of a people that has suffered from discrimination, disadvantage, and violence. Dr. Wright, a member of an integrated denomination, has been an agent of racial reconciliation while proclaiming perceptions and truths uncomfortable for some white people to hear.

"Those of us who are white Americans would do well to listen carefully to Dr. Wright rather than to use a few of his quotes to polarize. This is a critical time in America's history as we seek to repent of our racism. No matter which candidates prevail, let us use this time to listen again to one another and not to distort one another's truth."

I think it's interesting to point out that Trinity Church of Christ is an integrated church.  Though mostly black, there are white congregation members.  Does it seem reasonable to think that white people would go to a church where the black pastor was overtly racist?  If Reverend Wright is just as racist as a preacher who is a KKK member, why would the targets of his alleged attacks sit there and take it every Sunday?  To believe that would mean that we should find black people in white supremacist churches!

Keep in mind too that the media wasn't up-in-arms about racism.  It was his seemingly anti-american sentiments that caused all the trouble.  That too is up to debate, as this site has posted larger portions of his sermons containing the "offending" language.

What about things that Revered Wright himself has said?

"The African-centered point of view does not assume superiority, nor does it assume separatism. It assumes Africans speaking for themselves as subjects in history, not objects in history."

Let's compare that statement to a sermon excerpt:

"And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on reservations. When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in internment prison camps. When it came to treating her citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains, the government put them on slave quarters, put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton field, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of their racist bastions of higher education and locked them into positions of hopelessness and helplessness."

Those are all facts, not racism.  Notice he never once uses the word "white."  On the contrary to what some people are saying, those that are calling Wright racist are victims of white guilt.  Nowhere does he accuse white people of causing these social ills, but the government.  White guilt is what adds that assumption, even though it clearly isn't there.  Moving right along to the actual controversial quote...

The government gives them drugs [referring to the Iran-Contra Affair], built bigger prisons, passes a three strike law, and then wants us to sing God bless America. No, no, no, not God bless America, God damn America, that's in the Bible, for killing innocent people. God damn America, for treating her citizens as less than human. God damn America, as long as she pretends to act like she is God, and she is supreme. The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of African descent."

Again, not a single mention of white people.  He puts the blame solely on the government where it belongs.  Nothing he says is factually incorrect.  Here were are calling a man racist merely for pointing out the (factual) instances of governmental oppression against blacks.  We're so overly-sensitive that we fill in the blanks, saying that when Wright refers to the government, he really means white people.  Balderdash! 

The claims that Reverend Wright is a racist is a lie, a fabrication cooked up by the media and their slicing-and-dicing of his words.  That's what Obama was trying to tell us.  Obama didn't overlook Wright's racism for 20 years, he recognized that there wasn't any racism there to begin with.