...the national civil rights pulpit is largely occupied by second-rate shakedown artists who hope to franchise "race talk" into a fat living for themselves. Far from preaching truth and brotherhood, they trade in cheap slander and paranoia and in venomous dislike of other minorities.
-Obama is no [Martin] King
Is there any real support for a generalization like this? Is this as pervasive as suggested? Are things changing, far more than recognized? Given other considerations, is it really a critical factor, or just another way to make a redline political issue?
Is Hitchen's sense that there is an extra betrayal from Wright because of his fancy church-owned home, a sort-of double-standard for "civil rights pulpits" based on his assessment of King's ministry? Is the "Mormon pulpit" less risible for Hitchens?
Is "race-talk" (apart from the species peddled by Farrakhan) somehow worse in his mind than ignoring "race-talk"? In other words, is he saying that there ought to be no race-talk or that there is a right way to do it, and Wright is not it (nor meeks, nor Sharpton)?
