Question for the Rev: how come Asian kids do so well in Whitey's horrible object-oriented, left-brained schools?

Ahem. What about such African Americans as Condi Rice, Thomas Sowell, Colin Powell, Walter Williams, and even the Reverend Wright? How did they ever make it through our left brained educational system?

Or is this left brained, right brained distinction a reason for black schools, churches, and neighborhoods? Or just a reason for the Reverend to preach more of his dissatisfaction with Whitey?

Maybe the Reverend needs to get together with Bill Ayers and set up a whole new educational system for us. Left brained - over here. Right brained - over there.

They move in the dark old places of the world;   
Like mariners once healthy and clear-eyed,   
When their ship was holed could not admit ruin,   
 And the necessity of flight,   
 But chose instead to ride their cherished wreck   
 Down into darkness, and there, not quite to drown,   
 But ever to continue plying sails,   
 Against the midnight currents, moving from pit to pit   
 To lightless crag, in hopeless search   
 For some ascent to shore.   
And who, in their decayed, slow voyaging, do presently   
 Lose all desire for light, air, and living company.   
 From here their search is only for the deepest groves,   
Those farthest from the nigh-forgotten sun. . . .  

from: The Twelve Hours of the Night
- William Ashbless

They move in the dark old places of the world;   
Like mariners once healthy and clear-eyed,   
When their ship was holed could not admit ruin,   
 And the necessity of flight,   
 But chose instead to ride their cherished wreck   
 Down into darkness, and there, not quite to drown,   
 But ever to continue plying sails,   
 Against the midnight currents, moving from pit to pit   
 To lightless crag, in hopeless search   
 For some ascent to shore.   
And who, in their decayed, slow voyaging, do presently   
 Lose all desire for light, air, and living company.   
 From here their search is only for the deepest groves,   
Those farthest from the nigh-forgotten sun. . . .  

from: The Twelve Hours of the Night
- William Ashbless

A lot of far-left chattering class commentariat say that Rev. Wrong is part of the past, the debate is settled, let's move on, etc....

And yet this nutjob racist clown speaks utter nonsense trashing Italian-Americans, Jews [Farrakhan's buddy], the flag & PERSISTS on going on a media tour as though he's selliing a book. DUI-victim Moyers, NAACP Detroit & Dallas the SAME weekend, Nat Press Club tomorrow/today morning.

His right-brain/left-brain comments sound like some sort of Aryan Brotherhood description---but they would be put in jail or shot by the FBI!!!

And unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers is not repudiated. Obama goes on FoxNEWS Sunday & the ultra-left weenie-weasels throw tantrums.

Looks like a death-spiral approaching free-fall---Obama had better say he's sorry & that Wright is as crazy as 90% of Americans think he is.

Or bye, bye Oval Office.

I am not a Rev. Wright supporter of any kind. However, I think you misunderstand his comment. He is talking about learning styles and which part of the brain that learning style addresses. His mistake is to assume that all "European- Amercians" learn in one way and Blacks in another. Learing styles differ among individuals. I can see how one learing style can predominate a culture but that doesn't mean that all indiviudals in the culture have that same learnign style.

There are several problems with Wright's analysis. First, and most obvious, his presentation to (presumably) an overwhelmingly African-American audience is presented in left-brained fashion. The research he references is scholarly, cognitive-based research. In other words, Wright is referring to information derived and presented (by the original researchers) in a left-bained manner. If Wright is correct, how can his audience ever hope to learn what he is teaching?

Second, notice that Wright continually refers to written notes. This is most puzzling given that he suggests that his griot genetics make him right-brained with an uncanny ability to memorize.

Third, as a previous poster noted, while there are differences in learning styles, they are not so easily delineated as Wright and the research he references would suggest. In fact, I just took a learning styles test, along with about 40 other students. There was a fairly even mix of results, with some of the class (including myself) being more analytical in learning style, some of the class being having a more experiential learning style, and others still having a more creative learning style. Except for one of the instructors (who is an African-American), everyone in the class is Caucasian.

I also found Wright's mocking of President Kennedy's very north-eastern accent puzzling. He mocked Kennedy's pronunciation of the word 'ask', which Wright characterized as 'ee-isk'. Strangely missing from his analysis is something I've noticed for several years now - the oenchant among some younger African-Americans to pronounce the word 'ask' as 'aks', as in 'I aksed him a question'.

I'll guess Wright is a fine man. But he should stick to preaching.

He IS sticking to preaching.

But, it won't matter. White America will find any excuse whatsoever to NOT elect a black man to the White House. Wright handily provides that excuse.

Even tho it isn't Obama who says this stuff. Most Red Voters can't tell the difference anyway. Obama is DOA. Americans are the biggest bunch of babies ever. And mostly it's rightwing sites like this that keep us stuck in the same old political morass....attack viciosuly anyone who dares to try and change.

Hmm... change.... let's see:

US out the UN, UN out of the US, that'd be change.
Abolish the income tax, that'd be change.
Stop foreign aid to dictatorships, that'd be change.
End LBJ's Great Society, that'd be change.
Abolish federal subsidies for corporations, artists, farmers, that'd be change.
Abolish NATO now that the Warsaw Pact is gone, that'd be change.
Abolish the departments of education & energy, that'd be change.

Obama's not politically impotent. He's a senator. Show me some change he accomplished. I don't want more of the same:

more taxes
more spending
more government programs
more money for the worthless government departments
more spying & surveillance
more regulation.

tehag

How soon until Rev Wright calls for the extermination of the Jews?

REV. WRIGHT AND THE BRAIN DEVIDE

I listened to Rev. Wright’s televised NAACP speech and while I reminded myself of the forum he gave it in I honestly can’t see how this can possibly help Obama in his quest for the Presidency. While I agree that different is not deficient his nationally televised remarks will only further polarize the electorate as they are carefully examined by a much wider audience. I know many black pastors and churches who do not espouse these things. It is becoming increasingly clearer that this comes from his theological framework of liberation theology which always pits one class against another. I am still scratching both sides of my brain after hearing his remarks about “eurocentric white children” learning from the left side of the brain and “afrocentric black children” learning from the right side of the brain and that the educational failure in the black community was related to an educational establishment which teaches to the left side. While he obviously is an intelligent man having been educated in a predominantly white upper class high school in Philadelphia he needs to revisit Plessy v Ferguson and Brown v Board of Education because different not deficient sounds a whole lot like separate but equal to me. These remarks taken to their logical conclusions would call for a teaching environment where blacks could be educated using a methodology that teaches to the right side of the brain while whites could be educated using the existing methodology that teaches to the left side of the brain. (sic) Rev. Wright is doing great damage to the numerous advancements and contributions made by many African Americans. This is what happens when you put ethnicity or race above faith. He ought to re-read Galatians 3:27-28. While not ignoring America’s national sin of slavery and “racism” race itself is really an illusion because at the biological level all human beings are the same. When will we understand that anyone who has been born in America or has become a naturalized citizen is an American period. Certainly more has to be done to improve our entire educational system and address the underlying socio-economic conditions of many poor Black, Hispanic and White children that interferes with their education and accounts for an increasing dropout rate but Wrights remarks when analyzed in the next few days will be seen to have contributed very little.

REV. WRIGHT AND THE BRAIN DEVIDE

I listened to Rev. Wright’s televised NAACP speech and while I reminded myself of the forum he gave it in I honestly can’t see how this can possibly help Obama in his quest for the Presidency. While I agree that different is not deficient his nationally televised remarks will only further polarize the electorate as they are carefully examined by a much wider audience. I know many black pastors and churches who do not espouse these things. It is becoming increasingly clearer that this comes from his theological framework of liberation theology which always pits one class against another. I am still scratching both sides of my brain after hearing his remarks about “eurocentric white children” learning from the left side of the brain and “afrocentric black children” learning from the right side of the brain and that the educational failure in the black community was related to an educational establishment which teaches to the left side. While he obviously is an intelligent man having been educated in a predominantly white upper class high school in Philadelphia he needs to revisit Plessy v Ferguson and Brown v Board of Education because different not deficient sounds a whole lot like separate but equal to me. These remarks taken to their logical conclusions would call for a teaching environment where blacks could be educated using a methodology that teaches to the right side of the brain while whites could be educated using the existing methodology that teaches to the left side of the brain. (sic) Rev. Wright is doing great damage to the numerous advancements and contributions made by many African Americans. This is what happens when you put ethnicity or race above faith. He ought to re-read Galatians 3:27-28. While not ignoring America’s national sin of slavery and “racism” race itself is really an illusion because at the biological level all human beings are the same. When will we understand that anyone who has been born in America or has become a naturalized citizen is an American period. Certainly more has to be done to improve our entire educational system and address the underlying socio-economic conditions of many poor Black, Hispanic and White children that interferes with their education and accounts for an increasing dropout rate but Wrights remarks when analyzed in the next few days will be seen to have contributed very little.

After listening to him last night and now this a.m., I have to conclude that Mr. Wright is NOT a fine man. He is a racist, self-serving, ignorant heretic. And anyone who could sit and listen to him for 20 years is suspect as well.
Also, AMEN, tehag.

timpundit

And so the discussion goes, where it stops we always knows. You want to change to what? My guess is socialism. Gee, I'm so sorry. I don't want it. The Nazi's, Soviets, Cubans, Rouge, and Chicoms have proved to me that it is not the system I'd like in this country.

If I don't vote for Obama it doesn't mean I would never vote for a black person. Which part of your brain will absorb that? Wait, don't tell me. Your left, right?

Bullshit...

Nice post on The Reverend's lecture about the differences between Black and white.

I think it is wonderful that the NAACP and the National Press Club have given this man such a large audience.

I also think it is wonderful to watch CNN's news anchor's attempt to rationalize and explain the deep meaning in the Reverend’s lecture and dissuade Americans from the thought that this man is a bigot and race hustler.

I hope the Reverend maintains his high profile appearances during the general election and that media apologists keep making excuses.

I hope Mr. Obama keeps dissembling about his relationship to the Reverend. The simple fact is that Mr. Obama took his children to this man’s church and, if the story hadn't broke nationally, they would still be attending.

What does it all mean?

Forty state blow out victory for McCain!

Doug Santo
Pasadena, CA

There are so many things wrong with what he did in his speech that I don't know where to start and am not sure I can cover them all.

1. The theories of biological differences in learning, linguistics, and music are bogus. They have never been verified by real researchers or scientists.

2. Europeans did not use the diatonic scale with major and minor primarily until after Bach. Music before Bach was modal -- different scales with different relationships between notes. Furthermore, even after Bach, modal music is still written and frequently found in folk music. Just listen to Bulgarian dances or Hungarian religious music or Greek singing and it will be obvious.

3. The pentatonic scale is hardly exclusive to Africa. Ask Cantor Nate Lam or any learned Jewish music authority about the three main modes used in Jewish liturgical music.

4. As for rhythms, there is plenty of music influenced by African tradition that is in four/four with the first and third beats emphasized -- jazz is full of them. Likewise, although most music in the European tradition is in four/four, three/four (waltz), or six/eight, there is plenty that is in different time signatures. Again. look to the folk music of the middle ages throughout Europe -- Michael Praetorius, a 16th Century German -- catalogued lots of it, and most was neither in four/four nor in the major/minor diatonic that Wright referred to. Plus, what would Wright make of such as Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg, all of whom were modern European composers? And if you want to hear things that violate all the supposed conventions Wright referred to, listen to parts of Wagner or Mahler.

5. Wright completely confused the linguistic principles with differences in dialect. Listen carefully to his speech and you will see what I mean.

6. Furthermore, while Noam Chomsky (referring to his pioneering work in linguistics not his political garbage) was pretty convincing in postulating an innate grammar imbedded in the brain, virtually everybody agrees that learning any specific language is environmental and not biological.

7. The idea that Africans have a different brain organization from Europeans is so dangerous that I'm shocked Wright didn't grasp the implications of his assertions. If Africans have a different brain organization, then it would be hopeless to attempt to educate them in math, science, engineering, and so forth -- all those things that require left brain skills. If Africans have a different brain organization, putting them into integrated schools is a disservice to them (because we are teaching them with wrong methods and expectations) and to the non-Africans who will be cheated out of proper attention because time is being wasted on a biologically futile quest to Europeanize African brains.

8. If his ideas are taken seriously, this means a two tier or at best a two track education system.

9. I strongly believe, and I think the scientific evidence is there to back it up, that there is more left/right brain difference within groups of children than there is between groups of children.

10. Wright basically asserted that there is inborn biological difference between those of European stock and those of African stock that culture and education cannot overcome. I believe that biology is important. I believe that culture -- deep culture -- is important. I believe that education is important. The balance among these elements is even more important. But the consequences of the view that there are innate biological differences that trump culture and education is very dangerous. I do not believe a civil society democratically constituted can withstand such a view. Democracy as we know it in America, that goes beyond mere plebiscite and extends to freedom of speech, of association, to reliable contracts, fair courts, rule of law, and the notion that no one should, on the basis of biological characteristics alone, be excluded from full citizenship rights, cannot withstand the notion that there are innate biological differences between races that trump our common culture and our universal standards of education.

TimPundit:

Why are you lashing out at America and conservatives?

It is you leftist who are about to nominate a racist whackjob simply because you like the color of his skin?

It is a simply amazing to comtemplate that so many leftists could fall for Obama's pretty speeches without looking at what the candidate actually believed, what with all the superior "intelligence" you people are always droning about? You are stuck with him stop the whining?

Will you learn any lesson? I doubt it, you will blame it on racist conservatives and continue on your demented way. Conservatives, you see really look at a persons accomplishments, not skin, that is how President Bush could have minority persons of real accomplishments like Condi and Colin serve such important roles in his administration and his father could nominate Justice Thomas to the Supreme Court, while the Clinton adminstration was populated by lilly white Ivy League stiffs.

This Just In

Perhaps,

Rev. Wright was planted by the white man to destroy Obama's chances of winning this election

This isn't Wright's first left brain / right brain speech.

http://learfield.typepad.com/radioiowa/2008/01/obamas-minister.html

Another interesting bit from that link is on the subject of religion and politics. In the Bill Moyers interview, Wright said:

Radio Iowa reported on Wright's January speech at Simpson College thus:

It's worth reading the whole thing.

Man, does this prick love himself or what?

Right on the money, Stephen Marmer:

7. The idea that Africans have a different brain organization from Europeans is so dangerous that I'm shocked Wright didn't grasp the implications of his assertions. If Africans have a different brain organization, then it would be hopeless to attempt to educate them in math, science, engineering, and so forth -- all those things that require left brain skills. If Africans have a different brain organization, putting them into integrated schools is a disservice to them (because we are teaching them with wrong methods and expectations) and to the non-Africans who will be cheated out of proper attention because time is being wasted on a biologically futile quest to Europeanize African brains.

Obviously the old truism is still correct: a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. Reverend Wright is becoming a bigger and bigger embarrassment

I keep wondering what manner of preacher is this? He is absolutely off the charts and obviously doesn't understand boundaries or his own self-evident limitations. His attempt to make this situation out to be an attack on the black church is absurd.

If I were Obama I would be very afraid. This pastor's wacky and racist ideas, spoken with such passion and specifically delivered so that all the world will see, signal the end of Obama's presidential hopes.

The pastor reads from a prepared speech and quotes scholarly works in support of findings that blacks are "rightbrained" and white people are "left brained". He then argues that schools are oriented towards "left brained" teaching and therefore make it difficult for blacks to succeed.

Wow! There are so many things wrong with this.

If I were a black person I would therefore rule out being a scientist, computer geek, engineer or being able to keep my chequebook balanced.

And lastly, where does Obama fit in? His mother was white and his father African.

Hey, timpundit, it's not that we're against change, nor are we necessarily against electing a black person to the presidency. But I refuse to vote for a black person, or white person, for that matter, who opposes everything that I stand for. I stand for democracy, free speech, diversity of ideas rather than diversity of skin color, a strong military, seeing the war on terrorism (to include Iraq) through to victory, low taxes, smaller government, and individual responsibility. A vote for Obama would be a vote against all of these.

As I said, I'm not against change, but I'm 100% against the "change" that Obama promises, which is nothing but warmed-over socialism that has been proven to fail in every place it's been tried.

We know that Obama isn't saying the crap that Wright says. But Obama sat in his church for 25 years without objecting to it. That means to me one of two things: 1) he supports it, or 2) he's too dumb to know just how sick and twisted Wright's views are. Either one completely disqualifies Obama from the Presidency in my view.

Did anyone expect anything different from Rev. Wronggg. No, No, No I didn't.

I do not vote for Socialists! I do not need an "excuse" to not vote for an INEXPERIENCED, SOCIALISTIC, RACE-BAITING candidate for President but iowan15 needs an excuse, "White America" to blame for Obama's own deficiencies in political associates as well as not appealing, based on political views and political speech, to a broader range of potential voters. So, blame "White America" for Obama's overall lack of political appeal to those of us that are tired of more taxes, less representation, lack of Govt. accountability, politicians playing the blame game, lack of Govt. responsiblity, more "Politically Correct" nope "Socially Correct" lingo all at our expense.

Socialism is a creeping evil that takes away the individual and places it into a social class. The individual no longer has a voice but the social class speaks for the individual. That is why you hear Rev. Wronggg and Obama make blanket statements about what a class of people think or say.

Can anyone tell me when the "White America" meetings are? Are they Tuesday nights or have they been moved to Thursdays? I really need to know because individual thought is just too scary for me!

Wow! I have never seen so much incomprehension in one place. A website for neo-neanderthals. I think its great! Please stay inside and keep talking to each other.

If I were a "black" person who busted my ass to get my college degree and/or a "successful" career, I'd be highly insulted by Wright's assertions.

Any successful (Oprah, you listening) black person in America is either an uncle tom (sexist term) or thinking with the wrong side of their brain?

Someone please tell us this guy isn't the new spokesman for Black Americans. Or is it African-Americans? Or is it Blacks (since they don't want to be part of racist America). No offense intended, just can't keep up with the terminology.

Looking forward to the day when we are all Americans with equal rights. Apparently we are not even close to that.

Teachers: stop teaching your Ethnoeuropean values. It's killing your students. Especially those in Detroit and Chicago. At least the ones that choose to stay in school.

If blacks think with their left brain and whites with their right brain, what about mixtures, like Wright (and Obama). Do they not think at all. Is this why Wright says such stupid things, and why all Obama can say is Hope and Change?

After listening to Wright yesterday and today, I went out of my way to get the man's sermons in their totality.

Based on my understanding I've decided that this man is sane and rational. Contrary to the opinion I had about him and the questions about Obama's connections to him, I have decided that NEVER AGAIN shall I let some pseudo-intellectuals define my understanding of people and events.

Wright's sermons "in their totality" between Sunday and Monday?

Wherever did you find them? I'm sure we would all like to know.

Is Rev Wright a whiteman? I compared the man to Obama and cannot understand why folks keep calling Wright an African-American. That looks like he is white.

Thank you, Steven Marmer. That is worth printing:

(Posted by: Stephen Marmer at April 28, 2008 7:22 AM)

'10. Wright basically asserted that there is inborn biological difference between those of European stock and those of African stock that culture and education cannot overcome. I believe that biology is important. I believe that culture -- deep culture -- is important. I believe that education is important. The balance among these elements is even more important. But the consequences of the view that there are innate biological differences that trump culture and education is very dangerous. I do not believe a civil society democratically constituted can withstand such a view. Democracy as we know it in America, that goes beyond mere plebiscite and extends to freedom of speech, of association, to reliable contracts, fair courts, rule of law, and the notion that no one should, on the basis of biological characteristics alone, be excluded from full citizenship rights, cannot withstand the notion that there are innate biological differences between races that trump our common culture and our universal standards of education.'

Your stirring phrasing reminds me of Abraham Lincoln, in fact. Well done.

Best regards, Peter Warner.

RR

NEVER AGAIN! I think you've been indoctrinated by some pseudo-bullshit Professor Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, or Angela Davis.

Until you guys take over and suspend the first amendment, can we agree to disagree here in "public". The man is moving into a million $$$ mansion.

He's a charlatan.
He's a race baiter.
He's an excuser and an enabler.

And he was Obama's pastor for too many years. You guys are making Hillary almost look like a pro-American moderate.

JD,

Keep your presumptions to yourself. McCain is my candidate thus far. Because I harbor views different from your own does not mean I'm liberal.

Most of my previous take on Wright came from people who are not of the same ilk like those you mentioned.

I still do not share the same view I had before which is still common in here. After reading some and listening to the man, I'm sorry its a stretch to sustain the conclusions and accusations that you make.

I think Rev. Wright might benefit from standing in front of a mirror and practicing the phrase: "Oopsy Daisy!" I know it helped me.

Chris Rock did the "white people do this, while black people do that" routine long ago, and much better than this fellow.

Oh, and Southern Boy, please brush up on your grammar before deigning to lecture us "neo-neaderthals."

According to the recently aired, black-produced PBS series, "African American Lives", DNA tests reveal that extremely few African Americans have the vaunted native American ancestry ("Indian blood") that makes them look different from natives of sub-Saharan Africa. Instead, as Chris Rock and others found out to their shock & dismay, the DNA says "European", not "native North American", however heavily pigmented many African Americans may be. And as long as we're on the subject of color/pigmentation, left- or right-brained, you have to be pointy-headed to look at the, uh, REVEREND Wright himself and not say "cafe au lait," with light on the cafe & heavy on the lait and NOT the opposite, no matter what his status as a man of God to, by, and for black people only (whites need not apply.)

Rev. Wright seems to be making an argument for a segregated school system. I think this may be what he really wants.

RR

Please forgive me if I jumped to any false conclusions about your comment. I'm just sick and tired of the divide and conquer mentality taking place.

From Booker T. Washington:

"There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs-partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs."

Does anyone know if Booker qualifies as an Uncle Tom?

Like so many others, I listened to Jeremiah Wright today.

I fail to see how his remarks are in any way different than those of Bell Curve authors Hernstein and Murray.

Indeed, his remarks gave those authors real credibility.

Sooo, how the hell did Mrs. Obama manage to get through the public school system, the same system she recently claimed was so great (using herself as an example)?

"Europeans have 7 tones, Africans have 5"

Funny, I've been using at least 12 for years (sometimes I'm a semi-tone out of key, but not on purpose), I guess I might be half European and half-African and use both, like Obama does.

If black people are right-brained and white people (Caucasian-American? are left-brained, then black people are genetically unable to "act white". I get it!

All this right brain left brain stuff has got me thinking about how it applies to Obama given that he is half black and half white. How will we ever figure which half of each he ended up with? What if he has black left brain and a white right brain? This is just so confusing.. I'll bet, if Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder was still around, that he and Jeremiah Wright together would have passed as having a whole brain.

My preferred term for Rev. Wright:

"Toxic clown."

Um...I believe this left-brain, right-brain stuff was already tried.

Remember separate but equal facilities, etc?

"...the notion that no one should, on the basis of biological characteristics alone, be excluded from full citizenship rights, cannot withstand the notion that there are innate biological differences between races that trump our common culture and our universal standards of education."

I hesitate, but only briefly, to mention the National Basketball Association. Here we see a quite definite preponderance of a single race, a preponderance driven by objective biological factors alone, which neither culture nor education can overcome.

I hesitate even more briefly to mention the phenomenon called "rap music." And still more briefly to mention the racial balance of symphony orchestras.

I hesitate not at all to note the great differences in intensity and style of worship, despite commonality of doctrine, that predominate among the races.

Like it or not, there are characteristic tendencies that correlate with race. Some are expressed in the action of our bodies; others are expressed in our depth of religious feeling, or our intellectual and entrepreneurial predilections, or our social and familial attachments, or our aesthetic preferences. I find the demand that these should be effaced from consideration offensive. I find the notion that to concede that there are racially correlated tendencies is to create an argument for two or more tiers of citizenship to be the most malevolent imaginable non sequitur.

Citizenship has a threshold which one must meet to function adequately as a citizen, but that's a far cry from the claim that if we're to have a unitary conception of citizenship and the associated rights, we must insist, in defiance of all the observable facts, that we're all alike in every imaginable way.

It's CALLED...

Racial SEGREGATION

I have a lot of trouble with the right-brained, left-brained/difference issues in any case. Very few people are 100% "white" or "black" and even then, it is loony beyond comprehension to say that all people of the same or similar skin color have specific wiring (Russians, Irish, Icelandics, Poles, Romanians, Germans - the same? Come on.) If his statements are accurate, anyone who is even slightly mixed race is either hopelessly confused in their thought processes because left- and right-brained thinking are at war in their minds, or they are more advanced than unirace types who are limited to only a single side of their brain for conscious thought.

Serious discussion of this should be limited to psychos in padded rooms.

I think that the good Rev. Wright is neither right-brained nor left brained.

I think he's hare-brained.

I still like Marmer's comments the best.

Wright, as is his method, turns all of his invective into black and white (no pun intended). There is no gray.

Where there are observable racial differences between white, blacks, asians, etc., those differences are norms rather than absolutes. The right brain/left brain thing may exist in deviances from a norm, but all blacks are not right brain and all whites left brain as another commenter pointed out.

Rythym in Blacks is likely as much a deep cultural effect rather than racial. That is a style rather than a characterstic.

It is dangerous to extend behavior into racial terms... if that is so, how would America at large ever want a black leader. Look at black Africa. There isn't a succesful native democracy anywhere in sub-Sahara Africa that I know of. Is that the model the Reverend Wright wishes to use?

The Reverend Wright would serve his congregation better at endeavoring to find common ground rather dig a deep chasm between Black America and the general American culture.

Without presuming to guess at the possible political significance of right-left brain differences, I can say that if a reasonable facsimile of Rev. Wright were around my neighborhood, I might go listen and begin to take religion seriously for the first time in my 81 white years -- or at least enjoy the hour.

As Mr T put it, "Pity the poor fool!"

The really pragmatic difference between black and white is the difference created by the black family, usually single-parented, that results in an IQ deficit of around a half of a standard deviation in IQ. Strangely, this observation doesn't apply to black Africans, but only to African Americans... so it's hardly racial. It's clearly a cultural risk factor.

God, am I gonna get a whippin' for this! (See Armor's Maxmizing Intelligence.)

Wright is full of shite. He's essentially enabling low performance on the grounds that it's, somehow, "refreshing." Typical racism.

Wow, he is fantastically entertaining. This is clearly his moment in the spotlight.

Also good to know that there are two fundamental strands of earthly culture and civilization: black and white.

Very informative.

But yo, I got a "memonic" device: I'm going to think of a bell and hear the ringing of a bell every time I hear black sermonizing, because I remember how vilified the Bell Curve was but the Rev has confirmed what Murray wrote: black people are not "worse" - they're just "different". There are white tests and measures and black ones. Good to know.

Sounds vaguely like re-segregation is coming: For the sake of musical harmony and rhythmic coherency if nothing else! Its obviously the only way out. Whites and blacks will clearly never be able to function in the same polity. Both peoples might be taught to play the 2/4 or the 1/3, vice versa, at will, but the audience clapping says it all: they can't get on the same page.

April 28th is obviously Hillary Day by the way. Bill is laughing his bubba ass off. Now every word he said before the SC primary suddenly sounds spot on.

Sad day for the Democrats.

Do not pity the Democrats. There are a huge number of them that believe, really believe, that this is their shining moment and that people like Wright are the way, the truth, and the light.

Don't pity. Organize.

"White America will find any excuse whatsoever to NOT elect a black man to the White House. Wright handily provides that excuse."

timpundit's comments have me thinking that it may be the liberal mind which is right-brained and that this phenomenon may transcend skin color.

Of course, I can no more tell timpundit's skin color than he (or she) can read minds and understand what motivates people to be opposed to Barak Obama.

But this "reason" has been memorized, and the believers have been conditioned to recite it at the very mention of having objections to Obama's philosophy of the duties of government, which leads me to believe that those on the left (politically speaking, not mentally speaking) aren't as intelligent as they believe themselves to be.

But they got mad skilz and can clap to the beat.

I have yet to see any black people pack up and leave America for a country that would treat them better. Why do no black people go to Canada or Britain? Or how about South Africa, Kenya, or Liberia.

Oh, yes, Liberia. That was the last time they actually DID go back to Africa. Look at how well that turned out.

Until they pack up for a better place, I don't care what they say.

It is weird that Wright would say this, given that HE IS MORE WHITE THAN BLACK.

That black leaders in America can become millionaires through playing the victim card is remarkable enough. That a man who is not even with dark skin can do this without even being questioned is even more astounding.

As much as I detest Wright's views, he IS entertaining, I'll give him that..

timpundit, can your racist whining for a bit, and listen to your betters. Conservatives, if not necessarily the GOP have lots of well educated, literate and accomplished blacks among us that we admire and would enthusiastically support for the highest office. If you were honest (you're not), and literate (you're not), you'd either already know this or would be capable of an internet search to educate yourself to this obvious truth.

I'll not list them for you, mostly out of contempt. Besides, if your comment tells me anything it is that you are among the anti-intellectual riffraff which issues race-based insults to those blacks who learn the English language and score well on Whitey's left-brained, cognitive-based tests. They are just "acting white" in your world...aren't they? Uncle Toms? Oreos?

But we, the non-racist right, use a different standard for elective office than melanin content: we consider the issues facing the country and judge our candidates on their positions on those issues, as well as their experience, character and fitness for office. And, using these standards, Obambi appears singularly unfit for office, being a socialist informed by Marxist ideology, an inexperienced lightweight, a liar, and one who associates with domestic terrorists (Ayers) and race hustlers (Wright, Meeks and Pfleger).

The question is: why do 90%+ of liberal Democrat blacks support him, when his positions are nearly identical to Clinton's? Race much, Tim?

"Europeans have 7 tones, Africans have 5"

Complete bullshit. There is no more European instrument than the Great Highland Bagpipe:

It plays an octave of even steps with a single lower note and drones in the 'A' tonic and stong overtones in A, C and E of the chanter scale.

You could argue, if you were a racist nutter, that Europeans have a mixolydian scale from the Greek progenitors of Western Culture. From Wikipedia (mixolydian entry):

"In Greek theory, the Mixolydian is the Hypolydian mode inverted: a descending scale of a whole tone followed by two inverted Lydian tetrachords (each being two whole tones followed by a semitone descending). This is the equivalent of playing all the 'white notes' of a piano from B to B, or B C D (E) | E F G A | B. This happens to be theoretically the same as Hyperdorian mode, but Mixolydian seems to have been the preferred name."

See!? See?! It's all the 'white' notes! It's a tetrachord of 7 notes!

F'in morons....

However, it is used frequently in African music and African-American jazz.

From wikipedia, "pentatonic" entry:

"A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five pitches per octave in contrast to an heptatonic (seven note) scale such as the major scale. Pentatonic scales are very common and are found all over the world, including but not limited to Celtic folk music, West African music, African-American spirituals, American blues music and rock music, Sami joik singing, children's songs, the clarinet music of Epirus in northwest Greece and Southern Albania, the tuning of the Ethiopian krar and the Indonesian gamelan, the melodies of Japanese and Chinese folk music, the Afro-Caribbean tradition, Polish highlanders from the Tatra Mountains, and Western Classical composers such as French composer Claude Debussy."

See?! See?! West African music!

That is all you see if you are race-obessed....

Of course the Western Classical composers stole it from its rightful African inventors! (see how easy this is?)

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

There are obviously average quantitative differences between races on many measures, from melanin levels to frizziness of hair. Why, then, would you assume that there are no such differences, quantitatively or qualitatively, when it comes to the brain. Nor is the recognition of average difference incompatible with the American order -- great Americans from Thomas Jefferson to Theodore Roosevelt to Steve Martin (remember the scene in The Jerk when he first hears music he can relate to, despite being born a 'poor black child'?

This is simple stuff. Wright was (maybe still is) a mechanism for Obama. Always remember the political scene that Obama grew up in (not that he is matured yet, but you get the idea). He started his career in one of the most far left areas of the country. He assessed the environment in Illinois / Chicago and tried to fit the mold. He aligned himself with the "poor blacks" and other area specific social ideals in order to play off of the voters in said areas. In other words, he tried to be like them in order to fit in and gain the popularity he needed in order to rise to his goals. Not to say that I don't think he is a real Christian, I hope he is underneath it all... if nothing more than for his own sake and to teach his children the same. Wrights church and teaching were part of this grand plan the helped him to fit in, and now he is paying for it. This latest bigotry being spewed by Wright isn't helping things at all for Obama who associated with these basic ideals for over 20 years and is now trying to shed them in the name of aligning with moderate America.
Now, he is faced with a national game board and those old rules don't apply everywhere. He is realizing he cannot fit in with conservatives or even moderates. Every time he tries a John Kerry, people catch him changing his color against the background and he is realizing the hard realities of the albatross he picked up years ago by selling himself to those ideals. I firmly believe that with 99% of America, color has nothing to do with what is going on here and the leftists are trying to make it that way in spite of this fact. Someone earlier mentioned some of the Bush appointments and he was correct. Clarence Thomas is a fine example of what a real American is about and I wish more "typical white people" who "cling to their guns" were like him.
Wrights latest turmoil here is one of the most ridiculous examples of just how obvious it is that his teachings are the absolute reason racism is still smoldering. It's not the KKK of the past, they are dead... it's the Farrakhan's, Wrights and Sharptons of this country who are stuck so far in the past mindset who are keeping it alive and volatile, for without racism, they all become irrelevant.

You are what you eat !

G.I.G.O. Garbage In = Garbage Out

After twenty years ??? NO Garbage ?

David Axwlrod is an 'Organ Grinder' ..hopeing Obama will return with a full cup....because of 'White Guilt'

So is professional wrestling left brain or right brain?

This is so hard! I guess I should go to church more often.

The Democratic Party has tolerated (?fostered?) black racism for decades because of the simple fact that they benefited from it. Their lack of principle is coming back to haunt them, finally. Their unwillingness to confront this issue has allowed it to grow into the monster that it has become. I can tell you with certainty that the Rev. Wright represents only the tip of an iceberg. His opinions are surprisingly common in the black community. Nobody rebuts them because nobody wants to be called a racist-- because the political Left has made it impossible to have a sensible discussion about race. It's a Faustian bargain that the Left has made.

A similar dynamic exists regarding the media's relationship to the Democrats and the Left. The media never criticizes the Left, and as a result, charlatans, race scammers, and plain old creeps rise to levels of power that they never would if they were Republicans. Had he not been a darling of the media, Ted Kennedy's career would have been over in 1969 (and deservedly so!). The result is that the Dems get saddled with morally "flexible" creeps like the Clintons, and can't get rid of them. If Obama was a Republican, his insane past associations would have been a NYTimes expose in early 2007, and no one would even know his name by this point in the election.

I guess my over-arching point is this-- the willingness of many on the Democratic Left to sacrifice principle for expediency is their biggest Achilles' heel... and perhaps the best, most consistent hope for America.

The Democratic Party has tolerated (?fostered?) black racism for decades because of the simple fact that they benefited from it. Their lack of principle is coming back to haunt them, finally. Their unwillingness to confront this issue has allowed it to grow into the monster that it has become. I can tell you with certainty that the Rev. Wright represents only the tip of an iceberg. His opinions are surprisingly common in the black community. Nobody rebuts them because nobody wants to be called a racist-- because the political Left has made it impossible to have a sensible discussion about race. It's a Faustian bargain that the Left has made.

A similar dynamic exists regarding the media's relationship to the Democrats and the Left. The media never criticizes the Left, and as a result, charlatans, race scammers, and plain old creeps rise to levels of power that they never would if they were Republicans. Had he not been a darling of the media, Ted Kennedy's career would have been over in 1969 (and deservedly so!). The result is that the Dems get saddled with morally "flexible" creeps like the Clintons, and can't get rid of them. If Obama was a Republican, his insane past associations would have been a NYTimes expose in early 2007, and no one would even know his name by this point in the election.

I guess my over-arching point is this-- the willingness of many on the Democratic Left to sacrifice principle for expediency is their biggest Achilles' heel... and perhaps the best, most consistent hope for America.

I believe that Obama has great angst, and is struggling with his bi-racial identity. An obvious attempt at dismissing his white cultural upbringing in a black appearing body has taken him on a journey of exploration into his AFRICAN heritage.

You see, he does not possess a true African-American experience, and has not been able to connect with other blacks in this country who mostly have inherited their roots and white DNA from slave masters. Enter the reverend, a man who has helped him further his angst by populating his brain with afrocentric ideas. One must chastize the white grandmother who feared strange black men on the street, while accepting black racist directives from the reverend's pulpit. Obama's "whiteness" and "blackness" is the result of two people who married through attraction and free will, and even though his father abandoned him several years after his birth, his connection to Africa is in a straight line through his African father, not through America's legacy of slavery and oppression.

It may be that he will come full circle one day and accept who he truly is, WHITE as well as BLACK. Until that time arrives, he will not be honest with anyone, including himself. His left and right brains will both implode if he denies what and where he came from.

Jimmy the Greek and Brent Mussberger with canned for much less.

Wait they should have known better being left brainers.

This will come full circle and Obama will not be able disassociate himself from this overt hatred.

How long until Rev. Wright starts talking about "sun people" and "ice people"?

"White people drive like this".
"Black people drive like this".

Wright basically asserted that there is inborn biological difference between those of European stock and those of African stock that culture and education cannot overcome.

Wright basically asserted nothing of the kind. What you have written here is a flat-out lie. Rev. Wright stated, quite clearly and throughout this section of the speech, that he was talking about PEDAGOGICAL METHODS and LEARNING STYLES, *not* genetics or inborn biological differences.

I can only attribute such a flagrantly false statement as you have made here to malevolence and racism, unless you have a reading comprehension problem yourself.

Apples and rocks, Kathy. Quite trying to excuse this demented old racist. It won't work outside of, perhaps, his church filled to the brim with other demented racists.

You can quit with the quaint triangulation to PEDAGOGICAL METHODS and LEARNING STYLES. It fools nobody except, perhaps, fools.

I was looking up things for school and I came across this site. I am black, and the things the Rev said in my opinion are correct and then some things he went too far. Most people do not understand, but black people, white people, and Asians are different, I'm not sure about who is smarter and better than the other but I know that our bodies are different inside and out. No matter how much we try to be like one another we are not the same. If you do not believe me, you can research what he has said, because I find it odd that Bush has to say the Spanish and the Blacks grades got better because of the no child left behind grant, I find it odd that when they talk of the presidential race, it has to be between black and white, I find it odd that doctors are now saying that Blacks need different treatments than whites. If these weren't true Pantene wouldn’t have a shampoo made for black woman. We all have to face it one time or another, we are not the same. I do not believe in hating one another because of or differences, I am all for peace, once the oppressors put down arms and give hands in friendship, instead of spit on us from there high horse.

Also another comment that some may have heard and are weary of, when they refer to white people as devils they do not mean actual white people! They mean any one who has been taken from their original state of being/mind. So a black person can be a devil, they don't mean any one who is good and are trying to do right to and for the rest of the world.