However, looking back on how this got started reveals a lot about double standard this country applies to people of color who talk about events of 9/11. The news media depicted Wright as a racial extremist and anti-American. During the last two weeks, the media flooded the airwaves with excerpts from sermons of the Rev. Wright.

One of the most controversial statements in this sermon was when he mentioned “chickens coming home to roost.” However, Rev. Wright was actually quoting Edward Peck, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan’s terrorism task force, who was speaking on FOX News.

I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday. Did anybody else see him or hear him? He was on Fox News. This is a white man, and he was upsetting the Fox News commentators to no end. He pointed out, (Did you see him, John?) — a white man — he pointed out — an ambassador — that what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Muhammad was in fact true; America’s chickens are coming home to roost.
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America’s chickens are coming home to roost. Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred, and terrorism begets terrorism.

A White ambassador said that, y’all, not a black militant. Not a Reverend who preaches about racism; an ambassador whose eyes are wide open, and whose trying to get us to wake up, and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said that the people we have wounded don’t have the military capability we have, but they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them, and we need to come to grips with that.

Let me stop my faith footnote right there, and ask you to think about that over the next few weeks if God grants us that many days. Turn back to your neighbor, and say, “Footnote is over.”

That’s what he told the congregation. However, instead of seeking the truth, Rev. Wright was met with the same fervor and damnation the media lauded on Ward Churchill, the tenured professor who was kicked out from the University of Colorado in July 2007 for alleged “research misconduct.”

George Orwell once wrote, “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” From all indications, the gatekeepers for big media in the United States don’t want people to hear what people like Rev. Wright or Churchill have to say.

The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general public. It is their function to inculcate individuals with the values and beliefs that are deemed acceptable to society. It is not surprising to see major media outlets seem far more interested in marginalizing Rev. Wright than allowing him a space for his own words. Media attacks on him are especially vitriolic with venomous misrepresentation.

Since Sept. 11, the distortions have been predictable: Although he’s an unequivocal opponent of terrorism in all its forms, Rev. Wright is portrayed as an apologist for terrorism. His life is now threaten and is forced to cancel upcoming appearance.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, presidential candidate Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor, canceled plans Wednesday to receive an award at a summit on black churches.
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Wright has also canceled plans to speak at three services in a Houston church Sunday. He canceled plans Tuesday to speak at a church in Tampa, Fla.
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The Rev. Marcus Cosby, pastor at Houston’s Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, told Houston television station KTRK and the Houston Chronicle that safety concerns had prompted Wright’s decision.

More troubling is how white and Republican voters forced Barack Obama to “distance” himself from his pastor of twenty years due to a few phrases; no context whatsoever has been offered or explored.

The media and other institutions form prisms through which ideas and information reach the public, according to Noam Chomsky. Those who care about freedom and democracy, about controlling their own lives, must discern how social realities are distorted by such prisms.

Click here to view the embedded video.

[Note: 5/04/07 - Unfortunately, [tag]YouTube[/tag] I mean [tag]Google[/tag] has decided to [tag]Censor[/tag] this video and has taken it down. That is OK I have another copy of it. I will put it back up, soon.]

According to the Union-Tribune, it was a case of “self-defense.”

Surveillance video of a deadly shooting last month of a would-be illegal migrant by a Border Patrol agent is prompting calls by the Mexican government for an investigation, although it shows the agent apparently firing in self-defense.

Self-defense from what? This type of behavior seems to be normal, recently Agent Nicholas Corbett was charged with first-degree murder of Francisco Dominguez-Rivera, of Puebla, Mexico, who was unarmed at the border in January. Corbett was also charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide. His excuse – he claimed he “feared for his life,” however, Corbett’s account didn’t match witness testimony or forensic evidence.

The present racial crisis in this country carries within it powerful destructive ingredients that may soon erupt into an uncontrollable explosion.

Update:
The autopsy report that was released today revealed that Acosta died from a single gunshot wound to the chest. According to recent reports, the incident occurred when Border Patrol encounter a group of individuals who allegedly began attacking them with rocks. I use the term a “group of individuals” because there is conflicting reports in the media on what actually occurred. According to Greg Gross of Union-Tribune:

The incident occurred during a violent encounter between agents and illegal border-crossers, about a mile west of the Calexico border crossing.

However, local NBC affiliate KYMA-TV reported:

Agents say a group of suspected smugglers began attacking them with large rocks.

Agents believe Gamez Acosta was one of the smugglers.

The Mexican government called for an investigation after Pablo Arnaud, Mexican consulate in Calexico, saw the full version of the incident on the Internet. According to Border Patrol supervisor David Kim, the FBI will investigate the shooting.

On the video, it doesn’t appear to show that the Border Patrol agent is being attacked, however you do see Acosta cock his arm back, which at that time the agent fired at him. Even more disturbing, after Acosta was gunned down, it seems somebody in the Calexico station moved abruptly moved the surveillance camera to the left. Was this done on purpose? There many question that need to be answered.

This post is cross-posted over at Scholars & Rogues, a new group blog I participate in.