This poster could never know what it might be like to grow up as a black man in America. He could also never understand being on the receiving end of a national hatred that would allow generations of people of his own heritage to be held in either bondage or forced subjugation and poverty, second class citizenship and subject to brutal retaliation leading to death for merely looking at a pretty girl.
Even today there exists a only a sheen of civility over the dislike of others not similar to our own in appearance and creed. It is a thin sheen that is not quite opaque, more of a thick translucence, penetrable only upon close and sincere examination. The hushed whisper of a joke in poor taste, or the coded words of neighborhoods and such that only pretend to be civil.
It is not only about race but also class. One can empathise with a man who might sit in another's church and listen to a message of both love and an not yet forgotten loathing of a recent past full of humiliation and murder against ones own heritage.
It is not enough to say "I know how you feel" because this poster does not. Though in a similar if not so extreme sense this poster shares a certain discrimination towards ones past. Having overcome many obstacles and prejudices himself with regards to monetary class, social class and a very rural upbringing this poster found it often very difficult to navigate the terrain of the comfortable, the privileged and respected blue collar classes.
Looking at a black man of some privilege sitting in a church where another black man is preaching a mixed message of both love and a not yet forgiven anger towards a system that has treated him so badly perhaps there is a reconcilable method to describe why a man would not walk completely away from such a speaker.
Using the experiences of this writer one can see his own past friendships and relationships where people with ordinarily good character and intent took a stand based on past experiences that were not in keeping with his own. A bad joke told with regards to the lives of those one matured with, or upon visiting ones old home listening to a conversation based upon a misunderstanding of cultures. Often this poster has found himself quietly listening to old friends disparage about others for things he knew to no longer be true, or to speakers who dismiss the former for reasons they know nothing about. But because this poster has known these people for most of his life and shared many joys and sorrows, births and deaths, marriages and divorce this poster remained silent.
How, this poster has often wondered, can he make things right, show these otherwise very decent people that this one particular view is not an accurate one? Certainly not by walking away, not by alienating and disparaging them. No, the best way is by embracing them and then leading by example.
Having never been cast under the national spotlight, never taking the risk of seeking higher office this poster has the luxury of disagreeing with people he holds close to his heart, some of whom he disagrees very strongly with regards to political and religious views yet remains close and even spending time and occasionaly sitting in church with them.
This poster can visualize sitting in Obama's pew, understanding a mans words while disagreeing with them. Knowing the messages of hope are separate from the angry words based on a life's experience of humiliation and discrimination. Its possible to understand how a good man can want to stay after hearing words he may find disagreeable. Words from a man who is otherwise working to make life better in a world where things are often very unjust and very unkind.
Obama may have been forced to distance himself from a man he considers a friend because of the political bile and sound track attacks that have become this nations political discourse. Some will distort such a relationship and will use it to sew seeds of hate regardless of the actions either man now takes. But it is more telling of the character of those who would use these angry words to create more anger than it is of the two men actually being discussed.
