If you deny there's a context within which his words make sense, you may be missing the ability to empathize with a valid experience.
I do deny there is such a context!
In so denying I do not raise my voice to an hysterical volume in a pulpit before families and children.
I deny any valid context to the manner and the wording of the thoughts expressed by a highly educated man in a position of extreme importance seen as one of the top ten black leaders in America.
Wright said what he said in a particular way for a reason which has little to do with his own personal experience. He personally has transcended any poverty and prejudice and exclusionary history of bigotry by whites by rising to the pinnacle of his profession as a powerful leader. This vitiates his argument from square one. Wright is honored, feted, celebrated and sought out. Is this IN SPITE of his achievement IN AMERICA?? Or, is it because he lived and educated and rose to power IN AMERICA?
He found a door to enter and go through marked OPPORTUNITY and turned it into gold. Now, he wants to slam it in the faces of the little children who sit in the pews with their parents on Sunday and declare that golden door of opportunity to be a Bio-Hazard!
With Wright's credentials and education he could be living in a better country than a damnable one--couldn't he? Of course--but, there isn't one.
Listening to Wright's condemnation of America is like listening to a thankless child curse their own mother to her face!
No context can ameliorate his intentional grand-standing.
Oprah left his church because of his radical hate-mongering, I hear. If this is true, it makes me wonder what Obama saw there that, in his own judgement, made it a non-issue.
If you want my own crackpot theory, here it is.
Obama was not raised as a bona fide "black experience" child by a black parent. He was not. He was reared more as a traditional white child. I think Obama needed street credibility as a "genuine" black person and not an "oreo". So, he chose the toughest church (philosophy and rhetoric-wise) he could find. Once he attained the street "cred" he needed, it was time to move on and distance himself from the touchy aspects of Wright's coarse speech.
Oh...and by the way...
If Obama's mother was white and his father was black...
Just how is it Obama is only a "black man"?
Isn't he as white as he is black?
He has chosen his identity through his associations on purpose. In this case, it calls into question his personal judgement.