That Thing Jeremiah Wright Said About AIDS

It seems that many Americans think that since Jeremiah Wright made factually incorrect statements about AIDS, then everything else that he said is factually incorrect also. He should not be so easily dismissed. The things he is talking about have been ignored for too long.

Over at Sufficient Scruples Kevin T. Keith has written a very interesting and enlightening article entitled Obama and Black Distrust of the Health Professions. Mr. Keith gives very reasoned, articulate, factual background to the African-American perception of health care in the United States. I wonder how many of the Americans that were so quick to dismiss Rev. Wright as a lunatic are aware of the history of black America that Mr. Keith brings to our attention. I knew some, but not all of the information contained in his article. This is a long article, but well worth your time. It helps give the statements made by Jeremiah Wright a context that is missing from most of the other “reporting” that’s been done on this topic.

I have posted elsewhere on my reaction to Obama’s speech on race, and conservative reactions to it. But yesterday’s column by Michael Gerson of the Washington Post moves me to comment here specifically on the provocative remarks about AIDS that have been quoted in this controversy, and their implications for the larger questions that must be faced by this country.

As most people will be aware, the right wing has been Swift-boating Barack Obama for the past few weeks over controversial statements made at various times over several decades by the pastor of the black Baptist church Obama attends in Chicago.

Read the rest here.