So I wrote this long drawn out post a few weeks ago, attempting to refute Hitch's insinuation that Michelle Obama had induced Barack into joining Trinity. But commenter Rhondacoca offers a much shorter version for why Hitchens is off his rocker:
Obama met Wright in 1985. He didn't met Michelle untill 1988. They got married in 1990.
Thanks for the shout out. Yea Obama first met Wright in 1985. Wright warned him about the church's radical reputation. However Obama decided to become a member anyway in 1988. Therefore, before he met Michelle, he knew Wright and then made a decision to join the church. It is in his memoir "Dreams of My Father". There was something about Wright that attracted him regardless of the radical reputation. I guess that he did not realize at that time that he would one day be running for president in a country where his choice of church and pastor would become such an issue.
I am familiar with Wright and regardless of everything that people have said, I like the man.
I have never seen such laziness in my life. The inability for people to look up the fact that the man was prominent before Obama. He was syndicated on TV-One, he was awarded by various organizations and institutions, he was considered by Essence magazine to be one of the top black ministers in this country and the list goes on. Many notable people know him. He had been invited to the White House. He has been a speaker at various colleges and universities. After 36 years of ministry, community involvement and activism, the man had his entire life and career destroyed in the matter of sound bytes. Sound bytes that most Americans are too ignorant to be able to decipher. People still don't understand the power of our corporate media's hegemonic manipulation. They refuse to go look up the facts and discover the truth on their own. So white liberals like Hitchens, who feel that they have some authority over black political thought and discourse try and apply their narrow minded perspective to a much more complex situation. In their minds, they cannot imagine the mulatto Obama being so "afrocentric". They cannot imagine the benevolent and “safe” Obama being associated with such overt blackness or "radicalism" (quote on quote) so they must come up with preposterous reasons behind the two’s association. “It’s just got to be that black wife of his”, they think. Michelle the "angry black women" who isn't proud of her country and wrote a thesis about being black-is what they are thinking. It has to be her whose corrupting Obama. Black women often occupy that accusatory space in many situations. Obama was attracted to Wright and Wright’s church that he took from 80 members to 8,000 members. Obama made the conscience decision to join the church and stay in the church for 20 years. He chose to associate with Wright for 23 years. If only he looked up his facts and actually read Obama's books...he wouldn't have embarrassed himself in this fashion.
I enjoy this. Everyone is becoming more and more transparent I guess=)
Here's a piece no one cared about. Meh, whatever, probably the most enjoyable article I did during my stint at TIME. Premiered a month before I got laid-off. The nail in the coffin? Ya think?
Here's me going after Al. I didn't so much have a problem with him, as I had a problem with media acting like this dude was the go-to guy for everything black.
This was my first real story at time. I was writing for the Business section, a real change of direction for me. At any rate, it's about Wal-Mart's attempts to colonize the inner-city. As much as I enjoyed this piece, I mostly enjoyed going out to Chicago, which is a beautiful, beautiful city.
This a piece I did about the cops just outside our nation capitol, in Prince George's County, a few years back. I wanted to offer a counter to the dumb, conventional wisdom that if you paint your police force black, you could eradicate police brutality. In fact, Prince George's--one of the richest, blackest counties in the country--also had one of the most brutal police force's in the country.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Joining Bill Kristol league of lazy journalists. Sad for Hitchens as it always wasn't so for him.
Well, what little credibility had with me is totally gone. The man is dead to me!
Thanks for the shout out. Yea Obama first met Wright in 1985. Wright warned him about the church's radical reputation. However Obama decided to become a member anyway in 1988. Therefore, before he met Michelle, he knew Wright and then made a decision to join the church. It is in his memoir "Dreams of My Father". There was something about Wright that attracted him regardless of the radical reputation. I guess that he did not realize at that time that he would one day be running for president in a country where his choice of church and pastor would become such an issue.
I am familiar with Wright and regardless of everything that people have said, I like the man.
I have never seen such laziness in my life. The inability for people to look up the fact that the man was prominent before Obama. He was syndicated on TV-One, he was awarded by various organizations and institutions, he was considered by Essence magazine to be one of the top black ministers in this country and the list goes on. Many notable people know him. He had been invited to the White House. He has been a speaker at various colleges and universities. After 36 years of ministry, community involvement and activism, the man had his entire life and career destroyed in the matter of sound bytes. Sound bytes that most Americans are too ignorant to be able to decipher. People still don't understand the power of our corporate media's hegemonic manipulation. They refuse to go look up the facts and discover the truth on their own. So white liberals like Hitchens, who feel that they have some authority over black political thought and discourse try and apply their narrow minded perspective to a much more complex situation. In their minds, they cannot imagine the mulatto Obama being so "afrocentric". They cannot imagine the benevolent and “safe” Obama being associated with such overt blackness or "radicalism" (quote on quote) so they must come up with preposterous reasons behind the two’s association. “It’s just got to be that black wife of his”, they think. Michelle the "angry black women" who isn't proud of her country and wrote a thesis about being black-is what they are thinking. It has to be her whose corrupting Obama. Black women often occupy that accusatory space in many situations. Obama was attracted to Wright and Wright’s church that he took from 80 members to 8,000 members. Obama made the conscience decision to join the church and stay in the church for 20 years. He chose to associate with Wright for 23 years. If only he looked up his facts and actually read Obama's books...he wouldn't have embarrassed himself in this fashion.
I enjoy this. Everyone is becoming more and more transparent I guess=)