Pastor Jeremiah Wright Controversy “Quotes”
Conservative talking head Sean Hannity was the first to expose Barack Obama’s preacher, Jeremiah Wright, for his controversial and racist rants he has made during sermons, on the church’s website, and in his writings.
Wright married Barack and his wife Michelle. He baptizes Barack’s two daughters and has been Obama’s pastor for more than twenty years. He is even credited in Barack’s book, The Audacity of Hope, and the title actually came from one of Wright’s sermons.
I have tried to gather and compile some of the more inflammatory remarks from Wright below. If I have missed any of his most outrageous rants then please feel free to drop a comment with it below.
All Quotes Attributed to Pastor Jeremiah Wright
“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye.”
“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” (Sep 2001)
“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” (2003)
“In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01. White America and the western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.” (magazine article)
“Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!…We [in the U.S.] believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.” (sermon)
“Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary would never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person.”
“Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain’t! Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty.” (sermon)
“The Israelis have illegally occupied Palestinian territories for over 40 years now. Divestment has now hit the table again as a strategy to wake the business community and wake up Americans concerning the injustice and the racism under which the Palestinians have lived because of Zionism.”
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Fox news can sell intelligent people any crap they put together. We are about to lose our very a.s.s.es in the economy and more lives in Iraq and you waste time with this bull. Really sad.
THE MAN IN RIGHT. EVERYTHING HE SAID IS TRUE. I GUESS THE TRUTH HURTS.
Shut up Anna, for that comment your not entitled to an opinion.
This man’s comments are as offensive as they are ignorant. There is no way that a man of God can claim to preach such blasphemy with a clean conscience. And the fact that Obama has sat in this man’s Congregation for twenty years only proves that he hoards racist and anti-American sentiments. Indecisive white voters who were previously fed up with Hillary and fled to Obama for refuge will once more be set to flight, and they will fly to Senator John McCain.
Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s hatred has cost Obama this election.
Well, you are only partially right “P*SSED”. This indeed is bull - coming from the mouth of the man Barack looks to for “spiritual guidance”. This is the man who has shaped Obama’s morality and spirituality for many years. Barack spent an hour defending him to the nation!
Bottom line here: Barack & Hillary are both SOCIALISTS. America has spent how many decades and lives opposing Socialism around the world… now we want to elect one to the highest office in the land?!
You want to reward the Gub’ment with MORE of your taxes for getting us 9 trillion + in debt?
Look at welfare - a wreck. Look at socialized education - a wreck. Now you want to put them in charge of your health care?
Why do you live here if things are so horrible for you? I will pay for you to leave.
Well I think both of the commenters above are ignorant. The author of this post didn’t waste time with this “bull”. He pointed out a truth. Had it have been Hillary’s white pastor who made inflammatory comments aimed at blacks, it would have been the end of her campaign. It amazes me how (some) blacks spew hatred against whites, when everyone needs to just shut the F up about it. As long as we dwell on race, as long as blacks treat themselves as victims, and as long as hatred is coming from BOTH sides, there will never be peace and equality. At this point - at this day in age - it is just as much (again, I stress SOME) African Americans’ fault that racism is still an issue, as it is the fault of the ignorant, white trash racist redneck. The racism in our country today isn’t one-sided any more, and Reverend Jeremiah Wright is living proof.
“Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!…We [in the U.S.] believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.� (sermon)
You think that rock bottom prices at WalMart don’t come from exploiting other races? Racism has moved offshore and it is indeed how this country is still run. Setting aside the white supremacy/black inferiority issues, we (the United States) all are complicit in exploiting third world countries. Let’s at least be honest for once and recognize this truth. You can argue that third world peoples are better off having jobs. So let’s make sure they get (our) minimum wage. International trade would grind to a halt if all people were treated equally as they should be.
Obama attends Muslim schools, admits abusing cocaine, and puts someone like this on his advisory comittee? When you know how to give a great speech, its scary how blinded people become… Sad is that people beleive him, when in reality he is only telling people what they want to hear despite having no intention of following through (See his NAFTA memo to Cananda, or his own staff admitting we won’t be able to get troups out in a year)…
What is the fuss? Most newspapers have refused to print these quotes, as if what Rev. Wright is saying were that outrageous. You left out the quote about HIV possibly being a CIA plot to take over subsaharan Africa that got a little out of hand (or did it). We know that race-based weapons are part of current “defense” reasearch right today.
We also know that a lot of the drug trade is part of a CIA off-budget business operation to earn funds (much of it Ghetto funds) to support supposedly “higher” activities.
Also, experts on demolitions etc. tell us that 911 like the Kennedy assassination was largely a “false flag” operation supported by short sales which earned Osama bin Laden’s people $150 million for their trouble, and also earned comparable amounts for others like the Israelis who were in the know. (Congress never outlawed short selling after that. Can anyone doubt why?) (The extra explosives were planted in the World Trade Center buildings 1, 2, and 7 etc.)
Again I say, “What’s the fuss about Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. What about the un-Rev. The Man Sr.?”
I should hope that Americans - of all colors - can see the danger in these types of comments…and from a pulpit? from a leader? All they do is stir up hate and dissention.
Whether you are black or white, you have to remember that slavery was before any of our times. We must forget it and move on. (and remember too that not all whites had black slaves…most immigrants to America were dirt poor, and worked in the fields of the now-Northern states, or in sweat shops in the northern cities.) And blacks and whites of today can be/do/go wherever they want. I remember coming to the south in 1958 and finding that blacks and whites could not drink out of the same public fountain, and a white had to “hold it’ even though there was a black restroom nearby…and of course, visa versa. It was not that way in the midwest…All colors could eat at restaurants, and live in the suburbs if they wanted to. But all that is history…What happens between two neighbors - one white and one black - TODAY is what matters. WE MUST FORGET THE PAST THAT WE DIDN’T SEE AND WORK ON WHAT WE DO SEE. TODAY. NOW. We all need to listen more to Oprah, and read her suggested book by Tolle.
These types of comments/leaders breed hate and dissention…not love and acceptance. The past is over. Let’s live for today and improve America. Listening to a leader like that for 20 years - and having your children hear him - only breeds hate.
Chris wrote: “There is no way that a man of God can claim to preach such blasphemy with a clean conscience.” Try reading some of the OT prophets again — you might be shocked at the parallels.
Joel was right to ask, “You think that rock bottom prices at WalMart don’t come from exploiting other races?” The same goes for most other big chains that sell clothing in the Western world; it’s not uniquely a WalMart issue.
From time to time, we all need to take a look at ourselves, individuals and whole nations alike, and I suggest (as a Brit, with a fondness for America) that this is such a moment for the USA. You don’t have to subscribe 110% to everything a man says in order to use his remarks as a spur.
Acts of extreme violence, like (say) nuking Japanese cities, sometimes seem in all honesty to be necessary and unavoidable. I suggest the later problem for societies comes when, instead of acknowledging that such things were actually horrible, the ‘least worst option’, an expression of deep human failing and profoundly to be regretted, people fall into the way of thinking they were simply Right, with a capital R.
The British Empire not infrequently made the mistake of assuming that God would automatically and wholeheartedly validate everything it did, and I wonder if the USA is not the latest world power to fall into this trap. Ancient Israel did, and that’s why, like them, we (all) need people like Rev. Wright to goad us into self-examination.
i think it will all work obama and hillary will be friends
wal mart rocks
screw you george
K-Mart Essentials is way better
You know what george does wall mart have a film trade in section i think not!
does it have self check out no!
K MART FTW
does kmart have eye glass specialists or about every thing wal mart bagels bagels bagels ftw
Wouldn’t it be nice if the remarks of others were equally scrutinized …
Quotes by Jerry Falwell:
“AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexualsâ€?
“After the September 11 attacks Falwell said, “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.”
“[Homosexuals are] brute beasts…part of a vile and satanic system [that] will be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven.â€?
Why was this not BIG NEWS when these statements were made?
Reverend Wright has sed some silly stuff, that’s a fact. Stuff about CIA inventing AIDS fer example and some of his observations on the physiological differences between white folk and black folk as well. That sed, the social justice gospel he preaches is a damn sight more Christian and just and moral than the unsupportable trash that comes of the mouths of rightwingnut Talibaptist and evDEVILicals. People like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Rod Parsley, Doug Coe and his Christian Mafia and far too many many others.
Of course they are white and allegedly upstanding Christians and thus will never be pilloried in the media the way Rev. Wright has been.
Too bad, they deserve censure fer their anti-Christian, and quite frankly dangerous, opinions.
When they say things like American tolerance of Gays caused Katrina or praying for the assassination of a foreign leader they are indicating their profound lack of understanding of the essential message of Jesus and sthus hould not be allowed to called themselves Christians at all, in fact.
They are to real spirituality wot FOX is to news.
Which is to say they are the antithesis.
Be Well.
Now truthfully, I believe that Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright is telling the truth and it is evident that the truth still hurts. First of all, racism does still exist. I have witnessed it first hand. Now I am not saying that it made me hurt or made me feel any different. People will be people and you can’t change them. He had a point on that one. Now another point, Hilary doesn’t know what it feels like to be one of us. She doesn’t know what it feels like to be ridiculed and harassed. If it was her pastor, how would the world react? Our country is controlled by rich white people. Our people are still trying to play catch up. We are still trying to get to where they are. So, so what if he made a comment about O’bama. If he didn’t say anything about it, mind your own business. Leave it alone. Everybody needs to move on and live their lives. This man has more than most of us because God believes in his work and God doesn’t make mistakes.
As an objective international spectator, with no political alliances, I can’t see how anyone can possibly defend Rev. Wright’s racism. It seems a majority of the black American community are preoccupied in denying the very existence of black racism.
Also, comments such as Ms Dee’s, regarding non-blacks not knowing ‘what it feels like to be ridiculed and harassed’ are absurd. As far as I can see, Hilary has been ridiculed quite a lot. Everyone gets ridiculed. What is important is that you do not dwell on the ridiculing and do not allow yourself to develop a ‘victim’ attitude/mindset.
Martin Luther King Jr was revolutionary as he was prepared to forget the past and move forward with a positive attitude, and move collectively with ALL Americans? Nelson Mandela was the same for South Africa. I suggest Mandela probably had a lot more to complain about than the likes of Ms Dee. Where are the new Martin Luther King Jrs, and the new Mandelas?
Rev. Wright is leading his followers to a huge step backward and my fear is Obama would eventually do the same.
Reverend Wright’s quotes are extremely offensive and in almost no way reflect the truth. Buying from sweatshops does not constitute exploiting foreign countries–it’s difficult to find evidence the workers there are actually worse off for the job. Do I support sweatshops? No. But I support it as better alternative to perhaps a worse life.
People look at Rev. Wright as if his hatred of whites is a hatred of racism, but it isn’t. He is content to blame the U.S. and whites on everything, race-related or not. This is, in fact, the ultimate example of racism in its highest form. He is so convinced everybody is out to get blacks, he even subscribes to the most absurd and offensive of conspiracy theories.
At the same time, this should NOT reflect in any way on Obama. Obama in no way supports Wright in any of his endevours or agrees with anything he says. Obama has actually spent more time than anybody denouncing Wright, so he ought to be LEAST blamed for having similar opinions.
Muslim? Are you kidding? He is not Muslim at all, never has been, does not grow up in a Muslim family, and has never done anything overtly Muslim. But it doesn’t MATTER. The real question we should be asking about this is “so what if he is?” Those who can’t deal with a Muslim president are no better than those who can’t deal with a woman or with a black man.
The man says nothing that isn’t true. The US’ sheep-like citizens are completely ignorant about all the evil shit that their government does; in Africa, in Central and South America and beyond. Then they are surprised when there is ‘blowback’ and a few pissed off people take retribution.
At the same time, Buchanan spews anti-gay, anti-women, anti-anything bullshit and no one says a thing. Hypocrites. Y’all deserve what ever you get.
Damn, Nellie, You had me until “We need to listen more to Oprah.”
You made alot of sense until that.
???
rev. wright didn’t say anything out of line. he jsut spoke the truth and whites can’t handle it. white americans have been murdering and pillaging for centuries on end- they brutalized and killed off the native indians, they owned africans as slaves and whipped and lynched them for centuries, they raped and murdered the vietnamese, and now, since the 80’s they have been murdering the arabs and muslims– do you know how many iraqi children have died of leukemia because bush continues to nuke them? due to radiation of bush’s nuking and leaving radioactive materials in people’s backyards, the leukemia rate has gone up 1700%! most of these people have not had electricity, running or clean water, ability to use their OWN oil, since the bombing in 1990! yes, this started WAY BEFORE 9/11. and people in america actually continue to support the bush atrocities, and turn a blind eye to it, and even re-elected bush! disgusting.
this man is not a racist, he speaks the TRUTH, deny that america is run by white men…. any objections because if you do object then i don’t know what land you live in but america really is. Why is it that the largest majority of the prison population is black and latino, is it because black and latino people are inherently evil…. NO it’s because america does not want people of color in this white society. And my third and final question for you to ask you’re self is this have you ever seen a prodominantly white ghetto??? have you seen a white compton or white harlem? FUCK NO you know why because the rich white man wants to keep the black man poor and ignorant and all these things i have said are un-deniable facts and if you do think I’m wrong then you’re a fucking idiot and should spend some more time outside of you’re precious upper middle class all white suburbs
and if you would like to further discuss this topic with me then please email me at ryanh911@gmail.com
oh and if you find what reverend wright said was offensive go read jerry falwell or john hagee who endorsed mccain saying that hilter was doing a good thing by trying to speed up their return to israel and that the nation of islam was a violent jesus hating religion out to destroy america, the things this man says are much much much worse than anything reverend wright has ever uttered
What we need are more people like Ryan Harlow, who can see past the pathetic, blatant hypocrisy of white Protestants and evangelicals whining about what goes on in congregations outside their gated communities. Christianity in general, and evangelical denominations in particular espouse the very same hatred, intolerance, bigotry, and self-righteous judgmental animosity toward those with whom they disagree that we accuse Islamic fascists of.
Personally, I’d prefer a president with enough intelligence to reject the absurdity of religious faith outright, but I fear the majority of voting Americans are too mired in their blinkered medieval superstitions to ever embrace such a leader. If you’re prepared to vote against a candidate on the basis of what his Bible-thumping, loudmouth sunday school teacher said, then you deserve to have your children continue to bear the burdens of an unnecessary war, your jobs shipped oversees, your civil liberties trampled on, and your environment squandered for profit.
First of all, he spoke the truth, the Europeans, the Spaniards, came to the Americas, they were the ones killing off the Native Americans. There wasn’t even such a thing as “White America”.
Secondly, Ryan Harlow, if you actually wanted to be taken seriously as an intelligent human being, using profanity and jeers against whites isn’t really going to help you get your point across. The reason that there are so many Blacks and Latinos in the prison system is because people focus on their crimes being committed, which isn’t right at all, but not because they don’t want to be around them. There are just as many whites committing crimes as their are other races, so before you go and make assumptions, check your facts. And hello, isn’t there a big issue in the black community of “blacks killing blacks”? Is that the White mans fault? And white ghetto? You need to check your American history. White Europeans were shoved into different ghettos. Italians and the Irish weren’t even considered white, had no rights and were discriminated against. They did the jobs that no one wanted to do. They worked their asses off. Everyone had to make a contribution to get to where they are today.
THE TRUTH HURTS……WHAT ELSE IS NEW AMERICANS DON’T WANT TO KNOW ANY TRUTH OUTSIDE OF THERE BUBBLE UNTIL IT EXPLODES AND DOESN’T GO THERE WAY….HAHA! WAKE UP AMERICA AND LOOK INSIDE YOURSELVES THE TRUTH IS STARING YOU IF THE FACE EVERYDAY. YOU WON’T FIND IT IN YOUR BIBLES, CARS , DESIGNER CLOTHES, OR MC MANSIONS I GUESS GREED IS BLINDING….
A lot of people on that are leaving comments keep saying that as a country, we should forget what happened as far as slavery, and move on.
However, I highly disagree with this idea, and Martin Luther King, Jr. did not try and forget the past. It is because he remembered the past that he was able to accomplish what he did, because he knew what was morally right and what was wrong.
If we simply forget the past, how will we ever learn from it? The problem is that America continues to make mistakes, but does not learn from them. Its as if we have amnesia, and can’t remember all the things we did wrong.
Racism is still a very big issue here in the United States, but not just here. It is an issue all over the world. So instead of getting upset with someone who is obviously still very hurt by this institution, we as citizens should do our best to 1. Look at it from the perspectives of all people involved and 2. Create such value in our individual lives that we can say, honestly and to ourselves, that we have no succumbed to racism.
Truth. It’s generally somewhere in the middle. Wright has some valid observations couched in outrageous language. He also can be loco (AIDS conspiracy, etc.). Andy J. has it right about Wright, and also people thinking they are always Right; humans often operate within absolutes, but it’s important to step back and self-examine sometimes. Wright has inflamed the public. Now step back. What do you see?
I see blacks using race as an excuse.
I see blacks overcoming racism.
I see whites fighting progress.
I see whites embracing change.
I see people still believing in preposterous myths.
I see people engaged in critical thinking.
I want to see more of that. Critical thinking that is.
I see that as the only way to move forward. To get beyond the absolutes. The black and whites.
Okay… I’ll see my way out for now. Be good to each other.
Mr. Wright is absolutely right. You White Trash has ruined the globe. Hope there comes a disease that wipes you all out
i’m with you, Jesus!
The irrepressible Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. is at it again, this time taking aim at Italians — expounding a two millenium grudge against the sons and daughters of Rome — and their (allegedly) breath-altering prediliction for scampi and pesto.
From the Wright-written eulogy for scholar Asa Hilliard in the Dec. 2007 edition of the Trumpet magazine: “(Jesus’) enemies had their opinion about Him… The Italians for the most part looked down their garlic noses at the Galileans.”
After calling Jesus’s crucifixion “a public lynching Italian style” executed in “Apartheid Rome,” he goes on to claim that white supremicists run the U.S. government:
“The government runs everything from the White House to the schoolhouse, from the Capitol to the Klan, white supremacy is clearly in charge, but Asa, like Jesus, refused to be defined by an oppressive government because Asa got his identity from an Omnipotent God.”
All this was written before his friend and former parishoner vaulted to the front of the Democratic pack — and before Obama denounced his previous comments on race, AIDS, etc.
– Glenn Thrush
Come on u guys im a white american and to be blatenly honest we have ruined the world from the past to our ever demising future. while we want to just forget slavery happened (i know i wouldnt mind) the slavery inflicted on black people was more brutal (physically and mentally) and lasted a hell of a lot longer than comparably any other, anybody with half a non biased brain can see the still lingering effects of not only slavery but the white way of thinking.we haved bombed raped pillaged judged imparted our western views on different societies that never asked for it we have filled our jails to and beyond the capacities with minorities while corporate and govermental crooks usually never see the inside of the court room. Jeremiah Wright actually didnt tell a host of falsehood but rather exposed what happens on their side of the fence. He did however say a couple of unproven theroies like the one about aids, which i personally understands why he said after doing a little research on the diseases origin and looking back at such biological warfare imparted on our own troops(who happened to be black) with the tuskeegee experiment. okay last point and i ‘ll quit boring u guys but it is amazing that we can call blacks being unhappy with the way things are or speaking up about moral and social ills as reverse racism, and who can blame them(blacks) if they dont like whites i probably wouldnt either. and i know we all tend to same the same thing weather its the i never ownwed any slaves speech or slavery happened so long ago why dont the get over it spill, both of which are understandable but when a black person who has legitamely been opressed (it still happens look at fox news or cops or anything on fox) sees whites enjoying today the fruits of slave labor that happened “so long ago” it has to infuriate as well as hurt how can you tell them just act as though it never happened. When they were released from slavery they still were not free they endured the black codes sharecropping the run of the mill racist white person and then the creation of the kkk. y were they so mad at blacks for, what was it really we were afraid of, i wonder?
How outrageous. Everyone know that what has happened in America is caused by the acceptance of gays and abortion. What has been done to people of color was just God’s will. Good thing you exposed this guy for lying about how racism exists in our government. America shouldn’t go to hell just for killing innocent people. That’s blasphemy. We don’t kill innocent people in our righteous and justified wars. That’s just non-sense.
Does that seem like a logical argument? It doesn’t to me.
I had a political philosophy professor in college who once said that everyone wants power; those who criticize those in power may hide under the mask of their choosing - calling for justice, etc - but what they really want is to have the power themselves. So my message to those of you foaming at the mouth at how evil white people are…
(1) You can’t fool all the people all the time - your so-called anger and frustration at what whites have done “to your people” is nothing more than jealousy that your race has not held the hands of power in this country. If given the chance, you would do to white people what you perceive them as doing to you. That’s human nature, buddy.
(2) If you are so ceaselessly miserable at the plight of being a black person in the U.S. why don’t you get the hell out? And find “thy self” back in Mother Africa? Of course not, because you know damn well what would await you if you went back there - poverty, AIDS. All Americans - black, white, green, purple who bitch about how bad they have it here know damn well they wouldn’t leave America if they had the chance.
Stop the whining people. There’s room enough for everybody in America and no one is any better or any guiltier than anyone else.
He might be a bit radical, heavy-handed and crude, but I pretty much agree with every one of his quotes here.
And everyone was making him out to be a psycho. Religion is a poison, but if it provides a forum for people like Wright to talk about politics, then maybe that’s just the unfortunate state of American society. There must be tons of Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.’s out there preaching on loftier claims.