The bigger loss?

Why is it that white people love to share their stories with the world of how they traveled to any one of dozens of sub-Saharan African nations and experienced what it is like to live with black people? Why cannot white people - especially you, white America - live here in our country, with those of us who are distant cousins of those still in Africa today? Why can you not do what Barack Obama did: move from a mostly white world to the Southside of Chicago, IL or to any side of Flint, MI or to East St. Louis or to what's left of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans or to South/Central LA or to the People's Republic of Brooklyn or to Overtown (nee Colored Town) in Miami, FL or to Northeast Philly or to Southeast Washington, DC?

Why can you not live with us (as Barack Obama did) and get to know us (as Barack Obama did) and perhaps even come to love us (as Barack Obama did)?

Or, must you forever treat your own countrymen as though we are outsiders in our own nation, our experiences unknown to you (and apparently unknowable) - no matter how many of us fight and die in your wars. Or no matter even if we manage to survive them and come home - as Rev. Wright did - only to find out that our fellow countrymen (especially those who deemed it beneath them to make the sacrifices that he made) still see us as less than them.

Still a "non-person" after 200+ years.

Would that be enough to make you say, "God damn America"?

Or would you - after 60+ years of being told by your own nation that though you fought for it (and saw your friends die for it) you were still not "good enough" to receive the same unconditional love that she demands from you - still give that same love, knowing that in the end it would go unrequited?

How dare you judge Rev. Wright?

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