It’s very sad to see that, in an argument as heated as this, no one is really listening to what anyone else is saying.
Most of you are clinging so tightly to your own ideologies that you will not listen to the other side. So this all boils down to a shouting match.
No one is saying that America’s racist past is worse than the Holocaust, or that slavery was worse. At the very least, though, you can see (if you open your eyes), how the two examples are comparable. Not the same — not equal — but comparable.
As a white Christian woman, I feel (and this is just my opinion) that having a proper appreciation for the wrongs felt by black Americans can never go amiss. I will never physically walk in their shoes, but I can try to imagine what it would feel like to have that kind of past (and to know that your very recent ancestors were so recently dehumanized). I have the same sensibilities for Jews, as well.
The “get over it” attitude doesn’t solve anything, just as the hatred spewed by Rev. Wright doesn’t solve anything. But this whole Rev. Wright debacle has at least shown that one thing is very clear: America ISN’T over it. I’m not over it. And we shouldn’t forget, ever, the wrongs that were done in the past. To forget them is to invite them to happen again. We shouldn’t forget the Holocaust. We shouldn’t forget, or gloss over, the wrongs committed against black Americans in the past.
And please, can we stop with this pissing contest of who sounds more educated/intelligent? Resorting to the lowest common denominator with comments like “read a book” and “overeducated ignoramus” makes us all look like puffed up idiots.
