Now that the controversy over Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s former pastor, has died down we can put his remarks in perspective. We’ll start with the fact that I taught African-American History for several years at the East Moline Correctional Center. While I was there, I found that the kind of conspiracy theories that the Rev. Wright buys into were commonplace amongst the inmates.
Rev. Wright has alleged that “the government” is not to be trusted since it (in particular, the CIA) has set up, or at least facilitated, the widespread use of cocaine in black sections of town; and, has also brought AIDS to those black sections. Many of my African-American students at the Correctional Center believed those accusations were true.
Thus, they and he are cognizant of some truly awful things that our government has done in the past such as insuring that certain black men contracted syphilis for medical experimentation purposes without their knowledge or consent. They argue that with a record like that then one should not trust our government in its relationship with blacks.
I heard more than this. Many felt, for example, that the 1964 Civil Rights Act would be allowed to slip into oblivion.
Much of the white community found out about these views for the first time from the media endlessly playing selected portions of Rev. Wright’s sermons. They were shocked and disturbed and immediately thought of him as unpatriotic and wondered how Barack Obama could have allowed himself to be associated with someone who made those accusations. Their views are understandable since few knew of these conspiracy theories until recently or of what the U.S. government had done to blacks.
It seems that Rev. Wright and the inmates I dealt with did not believe that the U.S. had progressed beyond its reprehensible past. They are wrong, but one could certainly appreciate where they were coming from given our past. I would hope that these inmates and Rev. Wright would see the film American Gangster. That film was based on a true story and the movie makes it clear that a black criminal entrepreneur set up much of the illegal drug trade, not the CIA.
Further, drugs could only be a problem if many were willing to purchase them. Few have had a gun pointed to their head requiring them to use such drugs. Peer pressure—yes; but not the CIA. This is also true for the widespread spread of AIDS. For example, Washington, D.C. has an AIDS rate that rivals some of the worst areas in Africa. Is the government to blame for that?
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