Whenever Americans discuss the issue of race, there are always ghosts in the room with us\u2014the ghosts of racial sins and racial hurts from our shared and tragic past.
\nRace has always been the serpent in the American Eden, the birth defect in our historic genetic code.
\nSenator Obama\u2019s speech earlier this week used one of my favorite quotes from William Faulkner: \u201cThe past isn\u2019t dead and buried. In fact, it isn\u2019t even past,\u201d to make this point. Living in Mississippi, Faulkner understood the \u201cGhosts of Mississippi\u201d always present in the room and part of every racial interaction. And that\u2019s true of not just Mississippi, but the entire nation as well.
\nThat is precisely why so many people have invested so much hope in Senator Obama\u2014a candidate who is \u201cblack,\u201d but not the black candidate\u2014a man who has empathy for the hurt of all sides of our American racial tragedies.
\nWhat other American politician who is African-American could, or would, have the courage to articulate the frustrations of working-class whites as Sen. Obama did in his speech. Senator Obama acknowledged with empathy those millions of white Americans who:<\/p>\n
\u201cdon\u2019t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race\u201d and when such Americans \u201chear that an African-American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they\u2019re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
When Senator Obama acknowledges and understands such feelings, he is performing a healing act for the entire nation. Also, there is no question Senator Obama \u201cfeels the pain\u201d of those generations of African-Americans who have been victims of extreme prejudice and destructive discrimination.
\nSenator Obama is absolutely right that we need to have a productive and constructive conversation about the past, the present and the future of race in this country. That is the only pathway toward the post-racial future which many hope Senator Obama represents\u2014a country in which people truly will \u201cnot be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.\u201d
\nWe must talk about these things honestly, openly, and with great intentionality. I am reminded of a scene in Walk the Line, the 2006 film biography of John and June Cash. He asks her to marry him, and she reminds him of the obstacles in their path:
\nJune: \u201cWell how\u2019s it gonna work, John? Where we gonna live? What about my girls? What about your girls? What about your parents, John? Your daddy won\u2019t even look at me.\u201d
\nJohn: \u201cJune, that stuff will just work itself out.\u201d
\nJune: \u201cNo, it does not work itself out! People work it out for you and you think it works itself out.\u201d
\nWe, as Americans, must work these things out. If we don\u2019t, others with less hopeful and constructive agendas will work them out for us in less healing and far more hurtful ways.
\nAnd in working these things out on our journey to a post-racial future, Rev. Jeremiah Wright\u2019s hateful, hurtful statements must be recognized as echoes of the ghosts of the past that we must overcome in order to go where the vast majority of our nation, \u201cred, yellow, black and white\u201d and every combination in between earnestly desires to go.
\nThat\u2019s the dream that can truly dispel the ghosts forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whenever Americans discuss the issue of race, there are always ghosts in the room with us\u2014the ghosts of racial sins and racial hurts from our shared and tragic past. Race has always been the serpent in the American Eden, the birth defect in our historic genetic code. Senator Obama\u2019s speech earlier this week used one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Rev. Wright, Senator Obama and the Ghosts in the Room - Casting Stones<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/rev-wright-senator-obama-and-t.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rev. Wright, Senator Obama and the Ghosts in the Room - Casting Stones\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whenever Americans discuss the issue of race, there are always ghosts in the room with us\u2014the ghosts of racial sins and racial hurts from our shared and tragic past. Race has always been the serpent in the American Eden, the birth defect in our historic genetic code. Senator Obama\u2019s speech earlier this week used one…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/rev-wright-senator-obama-and-t.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casting Stones\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-21T10:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Richard Land\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rev. Wright, Senator Obama and the Ghosts in the Room - Casting Stones","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/rev-wright-senator-obama-and-t.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rev. Wright, Senator Obama and the Ghosts in the Room - Casting Stones","og_description":"Whenever Americans discuss the issue of race, there are always ghosts in the room with us\u2014the ghosts of racial sins and racial hurts from our shared and tragic past. Race has always been the serpent in the American Eden, the birth defect in our historic genetic code. Senator Obama\u2019s speech earlier this week used one…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/rev-wright-senator-obama-and-t.html","og_site_name":"Casting Stones","article_published_time":"2008-03-21T10:00:00+00:00","author":"Dr. Richard Land","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/rev-wright-senator-obama-and-t.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/rev-wright-senator-obama-and-t.html","name":"Rev. Wright, Senator Obama and the Ghosts in the Room - Casting Stones","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-03-21T10:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-03-21T10:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/#\/schema\/person\/14f4e150e7d01410b8826256299d6429"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/rev-wright-senator-obama-and-t.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/rev-wright-senator-obama-and-t.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/rev-wright-senator-obama-and-t.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rev. Wright, Senator Obama and the Ghosts in the Room"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/","name":"Casting Stones","description":"Casting Stones","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/#\/schema\/person\/14f4e150e7d01410b8826256299d6429","name":"Dr. Richard Land","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/cbf\/cbf3406d76f8380ee6c84afe3132fdebx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/cbf\/cbf3406d76f8380ee6c84afe3132fdebx96.jpg","caption":"Dr. Richard Land"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/author\/jmartin"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}