Josh posted this afternoon about a video of a sermon given by Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of Barack Obama's church in Chicago. I agree with the crux of Josh's post, but I had a very different reaction to watching the video itself.

Is it just me? Jesus, but we white people seem to have thin skins! I just cannot for the life of me understand what anyone would find offensive in Rev. Wright's sermon.  Maybe the supposition that Hillary Clinton, as a white female person, has never suffered discrimination of any kind? That's about the only thing I can find in his sermon that I disagree with.

Was it his use of the "n-word"? But that was a form of reported speech, or rather the opposite, a report of speech that never happened: "Hillary ain't never been called a n*****."

That's a fact. And it is so highly probable as to be a virtual certainty that Barack Obama *has* been called the n-word in his lifetime.

So what is it that's so offensive in his sermon?  Why is the MSM getting away with labeling Rev. Wright's church "a black radical church"? Is it radical to say that there is racism in America?  If that causes offense, then let me say that I am offended to hear someone deny that there is racism in America. The United Church of Christ is considered to be a mainstream denomination by almost any measure.  The words that Rev. Wright used are used in black society all the time.  And by many whites as well.

In his TPM post, Josh called the sermon "racially charged." Sure, OK. But so what? How can truths about race be told in a non-"racially charged" manner?

And Josh wrote "we wouldn't be seeing this stuff now if it weren't for the fact that
this is the kind of campaign Hillary Clinton's campaign has decided to
wage -- often directly and at other times indirectly by not reining it
in in her supporters when it crops up on its own".  Leaving aside the question about whether it is any candidate's obligation to rein in his or her supporters in the first place (I think it is not), it is truly a shame that "we" wouldn't be seeing this stuff if she didn't conduct her campaign the way she does.  "We" *NEED* to see and hear this stuff.