I was watching part of In the Heat of the Night today. No, not the TV show with Carroll O’Conner. The classic movie with Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. I love it when Virgil responds to Gillespie’s denigrating question about his name through nearly clutched teeth, “They call me Mr. Tibbs!”
There is one important scene where Tibbs confronts Mr. Endicott. He is the rich guy who pretty much runs the town, and was trying to stop the new factory from coming into town. He viewed himself as a caretaker for the helpless black man. He realizes they have come to question him about the murder of the Chicago businessman and slaps Virgil in the face. He promptly strikes him back.
Endicott is shocked that Chief Gillespie does nothing. Tibbs and Gillespie head to the car. Gillespie realizes that Tibbs really ought to leave town now. Tibbs asks for 2 more days to take that fat cat out of his house on the hill.
The light goes on for Gillespie. “You’re just like we are, ain’t you?” The light when on for me too, for I hadn’t noticed that exchange before.
Tibbs looked down on white people just as much as white people looked down on him. This seems to be the big obstacle in the whole discussion of race in America. We seem reluctant to admit that many blacks look down on whites as much as many whites look down on blacks. This is what shocked so many people about Rev. Wright’s sermons. This was not Chris Rock, who we expect to be outrageous. But here was a pastor, a respected pastor in his community and denomination, speaking to a (mostly) black audience and saying many of the things white people are afraid to hear- many blacks really don’t like or trust us. And Obama just minimized it.
The obstacles are on BOTH sides of the fence. And we’ll never make any real progress unless we address this on both sides. In some ways Rev. Wright’s numerous comments (reality check, it is not an isolated slip of the tongue) deflate my hopes for racial reconciliation. On the other hands, it reminds me how necessary it us for us to proclaim, believe and live out the gospel. Sadly Rev. Wright felt content to play the victim rather than address the sins of the people under his care (which seems more the role of a sermon than the sins of those ‘out there’.
Cavman Considers 