Next, Obama's foes will go after his wife
His break from church won't placate racial fearmongers
If Barack Obama thinks that resigning from Trinity United Church of Christ will stop his opponents from trying to stereotype him as a race-man, he has another think coming.
Next, they'll be going after his wife, Michelle, twisting every comment she's ever made about race.
It's already started with distortions of her 20-year-old college thesis, and a remix of her "first time I'm proud to be an American" gaffe.
Obviously, the rant by the Rev. Michael Pfleger that ended up on YouTube left Obama little choice but to look for a new church home.
Instead of doing the "denounce" and "reject" dance once again, Obama cut bait with Trinity and left Pfleger, a longtime activist Catholic priest and an Obama supporter, to do his own explaining.
Pfleger has since apologized for inflammatory remarks in which he ridiculed Hillary Clinton's near tears before the New Hampshire primary.
In talking about "white entitlement," Pfleger obviously got swept up in the pent-up emotions expressed by many in a congregation that has been demonized across the country.
"Oh, damn! Where did you come from?," Pfleger said, mocking Clinton. "I'm white! I'm entitled! There's a black man stealing my show!"
Here was a white man purportedly telling a predominantly black congregation what some white people were thinking.
Here was a white man using this historic Democratic primary between an African American and a white woman to illustrate the silent subtext of race that has been part of the contest since Day One.
No wonder a lot of Trinitarians jumped to their feet hooting and hollering.
Pfleger, who has raised holy hell about racist policies, including those fostered by churches under the umbrella of the archdiocese, has been a modern-day John Brown.
For those who are fuzzy about history, in 1859, Brown was the white abolitionist who led an attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, trying to arm blacks for an assault on slaveholders.
They were stopped before carrying out the plan, but the insurrection put the South on notice that there were abolitionists willing to wage fierce battle to end slavery in America.
Brown was hanged, but not before he challenged slaveholders with these poignant words:
"I pity the poor in bondage that have none to help them; that is why I am here; not to gratify any personal animosity, revenge or vindictive spirit. It is my sympathy with the oppressed and wronged, that are as good as you and as precious in the sight of God. . . . You may dispose of me easily, but this question is still to be settled -- the negro question -- the end of that is not yet."
All you have to do is drive by a devastated black neighborhood in any urban area in any city in America today to understand that the "negro question" is still being asked today.
But because Obama is running as the post-racial candidate, there is little tolerance for painful conversations about racial wrongs, let alone the angry rhetoric by Wright or the mocking condemnation by Pfleger.
Indeed, until this thing is over, black activists, especially those even remotely associated with Obama, better not get caught saying a negative word about white people.
Although I don't appreciate that Obama has repeatedly been forced to cut ties with black leaders by people who are exploiting white fears, it was time for him to leave Trinity.
After all, it isn't fair that Trinity has been held hostage for more than a year.
Black people, just like other people, go to church looking for comfort. But as a result of ugly politics the sanctity of Trinity has been trampled.
Throughout this spectacle, a lot of Obama supporters have held their peace publicly while silently asking: "When is the brother going to stand up and stop letting the right wing of the Republican Party push him around?"
Maybe now, Trinitarians can get back to worship without having the words spoken from the pulpit filtered through people whose only agenda is to tear Obama down.
Maybe now, the fearmongers have pushed Obama as far as he can go and that's the end of it.
We'll see when they come for Michelle.