Wright tells NAACP audience: 'A change is going to come'


The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the controversial Chicago minister and former pastor to Sen. Barack Obama, drew a thunderous round of applause tonight at the NAACP's Freedom Fund dinner when he praised the organization for its 99 years of battling discrimination and racial injustice.


The event, sponsored by the Detroit chapter of the NAACP, the oldest chapter in the nation, drew an estimated 12,000 people to Cobo Hall to hear Wright's remarks. The crowd stood and gave Wright a loud and sustained round of applause as he took the podium.

His first order of business was to sing the praises of the NAACP for its civil rights work over nearly a century. Much of that work, he said, was done in cooperation with the nation's black churches -- so much so that they were "seemingly joined at the hip" in their battles against racial injustice, he said.

“The NAACP has an incomparable record. It has the longest list of achievements in the history of this country as being the undisputed champion in the fight against discrimination," he said.

"Throughout its 99-year history, the NAACP has been built by people of all races, all nationalities and all faiths on one primary premise, which is that all men and women are created equal. The nation’s oldest civil rights organization has changed America’s history.”

Wright moved quickly to address the controversy surrounding him.

Some say that “just my appearance in Detroit will be polarizing," he said. "I’m not here for political reasons. I’m not a politician. Many of corporate owned media have made it seem that I’m running for the Oval Office. I’ve been running for Jesus for a long, long time.

“I’m sorry your local political analysts are saying that I'm polarizing and my sermons are divisive. I’m not here to address an analyst’s opinion. I stand here as one representative of African-American church tradition, believing that a change is going to come.”

Wright, who is retiring as pastor of the 6,000-member Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, followed the dinner’s theme of “A Change is Gonna Come,” giving a humorous mini-lecture about the difference in style and linguistics between African Americans and whites.

“A change is coming because we no longer see others as being deficient," he said.

The crowd cheered when he acted out the differences between white marching bands and black ones.

“One is not abnormal and one normal — it’s just different,” he said, explaining the difference between black and white church traditions.

“I come from a tradition, where we give God the glory, and we give the devil the blues,” he said.

Amid the humor, however, he took a moment to respond to Republican Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who called Wright “divisive” during an April 18 forum attended by the leaders of Detroit and Wayne, Macomb and Oakland counties. He referred to Patterson only by his title, not by name.

"I am not one of the most divisive," Wright said. "Tell him the word is descriptive."

Wright was the perfect person to invite to the group’s 53rd annual Freedom Fund dinner, chapter officials said before the dinner.

"We’ve had a history of inviting the most profound … leaders of our nation," said the Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit group. "We look for the best, and the hottest brother in America right now, other than Barack Obama, is Jeremiah Wright."

Snippets of Wright’s sermons, which some have interpreted as anti-American and anti-white, have been played on a nearly constant loop on cable news networks since they first aired last month.

"And we knew that the looping was looping out the truth," Anthony said.

The furor caused by the comments prompted a major speech on race by Obama.


The choice of Wright as the dinner’s keynote speaker today also will provide an opportunity for all of America to get a better understanding of the African-American church, Anthony said.


"We wanted to reposition and speak for the churches: white churches, black churches," Anthony said during a press conference before the dinner today. "We must not allow anyone to dictate what can come from the pulpit of African-American churches."


Many were eager to see Wright at the event.


http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/NEWS01/80427047/1001/NEWS

The main message: Different is not Deficient!

Did Rev Wright deliver or polarize Obama's chance of being the next president of United States of America?

Racism is still very much alive in America, even though some fools think otherwise.

@RichyBlack,

Racism is still very much alive in America, even though some fools think otherwise.

Racism is alive and well in America no doubt. However, I have personally been more racially discriminated against by Blacks than Whites. And in my opinion, Blacks are more racist than Whites.

REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT, TRINITY UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST: I'm a pastor. We speak to two different audiences. And he (Obama) says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they're two different worlds.

I do what I do. He (Obama) does what politicians do. So that's what happened in Philadelphia where he (Obama) had to respond to the sound bytes, he (Obama) responded as a politician.

I admire all the incredible accomplishments of Rev Wright, I even adore his last night NAACP speech; but I'm not sure if I'm feeling his latest speech that was held today.
I think that if this man is truly for the effective fight for the freedom of blacks in America, he needs to quickly stay quiet and remain in his corner. There is perfect timing for everything and this is absolutely not the time for Mary go round speeches.
He's indirectly killing Obama's chance to win this election.

The pastor is really killing his chance.

Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday he was outraged and appalled by the latest comments from his former pastor, who asserted that criticism of his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church and the U.S. government was responsible for the creation of the AIDS virus.


The presidential candidate is seeking to tamp down the growing fury over Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his incendiary remarks that threaten to undermine his campaign.

"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday," Obama told reporters at a news conference.

After weeks of staying out of the public eye while critics lambasted his sermons, Wright made three public appearances in four days to defend himself. The former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago has been combative, providing colorful commentary and feeding the story Obama had hoped was dying down.

"This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright," Wright told the Washington media Monday. "It has nothing to do with Senator Obama. It is an attack on the black church launched by people who know nothing about the African-American religious tradition."

Obama told reporters Tuesday that Wright's comments do not accurately portray the perspective of the black church.

"The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago," Obama said of the man who married him.

Wright criticized the U.S. government as imperialist and stood by his suggestion that the United States invented the HIV virus as a means of genocide against minorities. "Based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything," he said.

Obama said he heard that Wright had given "a performance" and when he watched tapes, he realized that it more than just a case of the former pastor defending himself.

"What became clear to me was that he was presenting a world view that contradicts what I am and what I stand for," Obama said.

In a highly publicized speech last month, Obama sharply condemned Wright's remarks. But he did not leave the church or repudiate the minister himself, who he said was like a family member.

On Tuesday, Obama sought to distance himself further from Wright.

"I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia explaining that he's done enormous good. , But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS. , There are no excuses. They offended me. They rightly offend all Americans and they should be denounced."

Wright recently retired from the church. He became an issue in Obama's presidential bid when videos circulated of Wright condemning the U.S. government for allegedly racist and genocidal acts. In the videos, some several years old, Wright called on God to "damn America." He also said the government created the AIDS virus to destroy "people of color."

Obama said he didn't vet his pastor before deciding to seek the presidency. He said he was particularly distressed that the furor has been a distraction to the purpose of a campaign.