Jeremiah Wright, armchair quarterback

Reading an Economist piece on Jeremiah Wright, this bit caught my eye:

[At his] appearance at the National Press Club on April 28th...[Wright] surrounded himself with some of the most divisive figures in black America: Marion Barry, Washington's disgraced former mayor, Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party, Cornel West of Princeton University and a posse of security guards supplied by the Nation of Islam.

My first thought was: "Wait...a Christian preacher surrounding himself by Muslims?"

Obviously, the purpose of Wright's entourage was to make a gaudy show of African-American racial solidarity. That was also the purpose of his speech, which touched on the differing styles of white and black marching bands, cognitive differences between blacks and whites, the racism of white Christian churches, etc. It's unclear what purpose the speech could possibly have, besides indulging Wright's stated desire to "come across the room and fight back." Fight back against what? And for what possible gain?

As I see it, this was Wright's chest-thumping show of strength on behalf of the black community, which he sees as being insulted by the negative media attention focused on him recently. It was his way of saying "Look, we African-Americans are a strong and united group, a force to be reckoned with, and we won't tolerate your insults." Wright's repeated assertion that blacks and whites are fundamentally different was intended to notify whites that blacks should be respected as a group, not just as individuals.

And that idea, in my opinion, has wreaked havoc on the African-American community for decades. Wealthy or successful black intellectuals don't necessarily suffer from black separatism, but poor blacks certainly do. Black separatism prevents useful business connections from developing between the black and non-black communities. It harms poor black children's educational prospects by inspiring them to ignore white teachers. And it encourages a backlash of white racism that continues to shut African-Americans out of many well-paying jobs.

It always gets under my skin when I see comfortable elites urging the masses to "Rebel! Resist! Fight!" Nietzsche sitting in bed and telling the Germans to become a race of tough proud übermenschen. American professor Edward Said urging the Palestinians to impoverish themselves with an eternal intifada. William Kristol smugly challenging America to "support the troops" by keeping them in Iraq to die. Jeremiah Wright, with his $1.6M house, telling poor blacks that they'll never thrive in a "white" educational system that in fact offers them their best chance to escape poverty.

Group pride is a luxury that only the rich and well-educated can afford. For the mass of real people out there working hard for a house and a car and food for their children, these armchair quarterbacks bring only continued misery.