In case you just got back from vacation, in a cave, Barack Obama has recently been forced to denounce the opinions of his long-time pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Wright has voiced in his sermons several things that are problematic for someone of his acquaintance running for office, ranging from the merely un-PC (9/11 was American’s chickens coming home to roost) to the provably false and paranoid (HIV and crack were engineered and distributed by the US government).
Now, how this reflects on Obama and how it will affect his campaign are topics best left to GD. What I’ve come to ask is how typical Wright is in the African-American community. Wright obviously had a large following, but was it because of or despite his nuttier beliefs? Do African-Americans widely believe the worse of their government, not just in a pessimistic and cynical analysis of the facts, but in swallowing urban legends and baseless conspiracy theories?
Well, here’s one point of data, for what it’s worth (nothing). Senator Gary Siplin thinks the baggy pants fashion originates from prison inmates advertising sex, of which there is little evidence. http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080312/NEWS/803120310
It seems that the article writer also accepts that the style originated in prison. They part ways, however, when (Florida state senator) Siplin goes on to indicate that “saggy pants signal a prisoner looking for a date”, which the article notes there is little evidence for. The author of the article says the style originated because of security reasons preventing the wearing of belts in prison.
None of my black friends send me nonsense about Glade plug-ins burning the house down, aspartame causing a multitude of diseases, coins having In God We Trust removed from them as an evil anti christian plot, and Bill Gates sending me a bazillion dollars if I forward an email to every dumbass I can think of.