III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 95second book, The Audacity of Hope, and the theme for his keynote address at the Democratic
National Convention in 2004 come from Wright’s sermons. “If you want to understand where
Barack gets his feeling and rhetoric from,” says the Rev. Jim Wallis, a leader of the religious left,
“just look at Jeremiah Wright.”’ (Wallace Wood, Rolling Stone) Indeed.
JEREMIAH WRIGHT’S GREATEST HITS
Wright was a racist provocateur operating in the orbit of the Ford Foundation and other counter-
insurgency institutions. He was a guardian of a social order dominated by financiers and bankers.
But he did this with radical black nationalist or Afrocentric cover, which guaranteed support from
guilt-ridden white liberals. Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. became the Pastor of Trinity United
Church of Christ (TUCC) on March 1, 1972. The church motto is “Unashamedly Black and
Unapologetically Christian,” which was a phrase coined by his predecessor, the Reverend Dr.
Reuben Sheares, and was officially adopted by Wright. Trinity goes on to say: “Our roots in the
Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people,
and remain ‘true to our native land,’ the mother continent, the cradle of civilization.... “Trinity has
a non-negotiable commitment to Africa, is committed to the historical education of African people
in diaspora and committed to liberation, restoration, and economic parity.” Some have seen here a
claim to Afrocentric racial superiority, which could only be grounded in irrationalist mysticism.
Trinity United Church of Christ claims to be founded upon the “Black Value System,” written
by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee chaired by Vallmer Jordan in 1981. Trinity supports
the following 12 precepts and covenantal statements. These Black Ethics, Trinity says, must be
taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered.
They must reflect on the following concepts:
- Commitment to God
- Commitment to the Black Community
- Commitment to the Black Family
- Dedication to the Pursuit of Education
- Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence
- Adherence to the Black Work Ethic
- Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect
- Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness”
- Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the Black
Community - Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and
Supporting Black Institutions - Pledge allegiance to all Black leadership who espouse and embrace the Black Value System
- Personal commitment to embracement of the Black Value System.
Wright was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He did not attend the largely black high school
in his neighborhood, but instead took an exam which he passed to be able to attend an elite city-
wide high school which was largely white. This is an instance of Wright’s failure to practice the
racial solidarity which he preaches when his own advantage is concretely at stake. Morton A. Klein,
the president of the Zionist Organization of America, happened to have attended the same public