Barack Obama's inauguration as the first African American
president of the United States has caused many commentators to
conclude that America has entered a postracial age. "The Preacher
and the Politician" argues otherwise, reminding us that, far from
inevitable, Obama's nomination was nearly derailed by his
relationship with Jeremiah Wright, the outspoken former pastor of
Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side of Chicago. The
media storm surrounding Wright's sermons, the historians Clarence
E. Walker and Gregory D. Smithers suggest, reveals that America's
fraught racial past is very much with us, only slightly less
obvious.
With meticulous research and insightful analysis, Walker and
Smithers take us back to the Democratic primary season of 2008,
viewing the controversy surrounding Wright in the context of
enduring religious, political, and racial dynamics in American
history. In the process they expose how the persistence of
institutional racism, and racial stereotypes, became a significant
hurdle for Obama in his quest for the presidency.
The authors situate Wright's preaching in African American
religious traditions dating back to the eighteenth century, but
they also place his sermons in a broader prophetic strain of
Protestantism that transcends racial categories. This latter
connection was consistently missed or ignored by pundits on the
right and the left who sought to paint the story in simplistic, and
racially defined, terms. Obama's connection with Wright gave rise
to criticism that, according to Walker and Smithers, sits squarely
in the American political tradition, where certain words are meant
to incite racial fear, in the case of Obama with charges that the
candidate was unpatriotic, a Marxist, a Black Nationalist, or a
Muslim.
Once Obama became the Democratic nominee, the day of his
election still saw ballot measures rejecting affirmative action and
undermining the civil rights of other groups. The Preacher and the
Politician is a concise and timely study that reminds us of the
need to continue to confront the legacy of racism even as we
celebrate advances in racial equality and opportunity.
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