So what was so wrong about what Wright said?

[DianeK]

I watched Wright's speech before NAACP and I thought it was a good speech. The next morning when he spoke before the press club I heard only snippets but what I heard actually sounded like a toned down version of the speech he had given the night before.

He was asked to speak before NAACP and the press club and I imagine it is a great honor to be asked. Should he have turned them down? What exactly did people find to be offensive? I know some take exception to his calling Obama a politition but he is a politition so it must be more than that.

[Saturday]

1. Ask Obama, he didn't like it. nt

[bryant69]

8. Hillary said that Wright wouldn't be her pastor either.

I don't think either of them are big fans of Wright, although Clinton is doubtless grateful for the damage Wright is doing to Obama.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Demeter]

2. You Can't Tell the Truth in BushWorld--It's Against the Law

somebody's little criminal feelings might get hurt.

[maxsolomon]

3. he dared to suggest that 9/11 was Blowback.

and THAT IS OUTRAGEOUS! everyone knows that America is a beacon of truth & justice & our foreign policy has always served the interests of the planet before our own.

now stop making me question my government & my apathy & let me get back to Nascar & American Idol.

[dkf]

4. He believes the federal government created AIDS to kill black people.

And he intimated that Obama believes what Wright believes but can't say so because he is a politician. Saying that is simply wrong and shows that the Rev. is in a state of denial. Really, what right does the Rev have to make these assumptions and then to tell the world what Obama is supposedly thinking?

[L. Coyote]

12. This is the point at which most people think he has gone senile!

[Warpy]

5. He held up an unflattering mirror

and a lot of people didn't like what they saw. That was what was so offensive to so many people.

It's why Obama had to repudiate him publicly. Obama is trying to forge a coalition of all of us and can't afford to have anyone insulted, not even when it's justified.

I mean, come on people! I know folks just like the ones Wright was describing. Don't you?

We're all pretty funny some of the time. Some of the more unfortunate among us are funny all the time.

Wright just pointed that out.

If he hadn't found Jesus, he might have been one of the better stand up comics on the chitlin circuit.

[Betsy Ross]

6. While I didn't listen to more than a few sound bites

of this week's speech, I asked myself the same question when Rev. Wrights first made the news. He was not being tactful, but he did speak for a segment of the Black community. Most White folks don't want to be reminded that African-Americans are still subject to racism every day and that they do harbor anger. I thought Barack Obama's first speech after this story broke was a perfect response. I am sorry that Rev. Wright's additional comments forced Obama to denounce him unconditional this week.

[hisownpetard]

9. You have to listen to the entire speech. You have to hear the derision in his voice at the Press

Club, and see the spectacle of him actually putting on a show, strutting around,
becoming a parody of what he was supposed to be. And dripping animosity...

I had given him the benefit of the doubt, as did Obama, but at a certain point you have to stop and say, "Whoa, wait a minute.
This man's ego is out of control." He's holding on to the spotlight with both hands and doesn't care about the cost to any one else.

What a shame.

[IndianaJones]

7. some comments appalling according to Obama. nt.

[Mugu]

10. Nothing,

if you want McCain to be president.

[guardian]

11. So you agree with Rev Wright

that whites and African Americans have different brain structures and think differently (see excerpt 1 below)? Then by extension we should have segregated classrooms and perhaps entire schools for African Americans. Otherwise teaching one style to both groups results in one of the groups (either whites or African Americans) begin disenfranchised of their right to a full education and the ability to realize their potential.

I'm also curious to hear Rev Wright's insight as to how Asians or Hispanics think? Are their brains more like whites or blacks? Or do they think differently altogether? Or are they front brained and back brained instead of left/right brained? Should we have different classrooms, different teachers, different schools, different text books, different tests for every race and ethnicity? Or is it just African Americans that need separation? Do Japanese-American children and Korean-American children learn the same way or differently? What about Jewish children? What about mixed race people? How does Obama think? He is mixed race.

So you agree with Rev Wright that teaching reading and writing to African American children is meaningless (see excerpt 2)?

So you agree with Rev Wright that African Americans are different from everyone else? He kept repeating the theme that "different is not deficient." But his emphasis was on "different." Do you think African Americans require different standards than those of other races or ethnicity? Should that standard be higher or lower? After all, Rev. Wright says it is "different" so it by definition can't be the same.

So you agree with Rev Wright that African Americans shouldn't learn how to spell or speak proper English? We shouldn't bother to teach subject-verb agreement or conjugation to African American children? I guess they think "differently" and cannot be expected to understand the concept. So if an African American spells penicillin as "pinnxypiop" or as "morphine" that is okay if your physician is African American? Can African Americans learn another language like Chinese, French, or Russian? Or do they think/learn so differently they can't be expected to learn the grammar and syntax of a foreign language? Is there Black Italian and Black Arabic?

So we have Black English. Should we have Black Mathematics too? 2+2=7 is okay for African Americans? Should we have separate...I mean different...tests for African American CPAs?

If ANY of his speech were given by a white separatist to a meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of White People would that be "different, not deficient?"




--------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpt 1: "And we were coming up with more meaningless solutions like reading, writing and Ritalin. Dr. Hale's research led her to stop comparing African-American children with European-American children and she started comparing the pedagogical methodologies of African-American children to African children and European-American children to European children. And bingo, she discovered that the two different worlds have two different ways of learning. European and European-American children have a left brained cognitive object oriented learning style and the entire educational learning system in the United States of America. Back in the early '70s, when Dr. Hale did her research was based on left brained cognitive object oriented learning style. Let me help you with fifty cent words.

Left brain is logical and analytical. Object oriented means the student learns from an object. From the solitude of the cradle with objects being hung over his or her head to help them determine colors and shape to the solitude in a carol in a PhD program stuffed off somewhere in a corner in absolute quietness to absorb from the object. From a block to a book, an object. That is one way of learning, but it is only one way of learning.

African and African-American children have a different way of learning. They are right brained, subject oriented in their learning style. Right brain that means creative and intuitive. Subject oriented means they learn from a subject, not an object."

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpt 2: "And we were coming up with more meaningless solutions like reading, writing and Ritalin. Dr. Hale's research led her to stop comparing African-American children with European-American children and she started comparing the pedagogical methodologies of African-American children to African children and European-American children to European children."

[DianeK]

13. you assume too much..

I think it is entirely plausible that African American children and European children learn differently. I have two children ..same mother, same father, raised the same way...they learn differently. I think it is only positive to look at the different ways that people learn so that we may better accommodate those learning styles. Whether or not those differences are due to their race, environment, economic status, etc could be yet to be explored but I think it is a positive to at least look at it.

It is never meaningless to teach reading and writing and I didn't for one second take that message from the speech. What I did take from the speech is that because we may not understand how some children learn we are ever so quick to reach for that ritalin bottle and that is what causes so many problems within our educational environment.

And sheesh! I don't even know where you came up with the whole 'speak proper english' argument. In fact one of his most persuasive arguments was when he demonstrated to us how funny the Kennedy's speak. People speak colloquially everywhere and he made the point that when called upon he can go either way. We all do that!

I am not even sure that you and I heard the same speech but if we did we sure got a lot of different things from it. I heard a positive speech. I think it's a good thing to understand why our children are falling behind the rest of the world in education.