Give a listen to the corporate media, and it's pretty clear what tune black voices are supposed to be singing. Obama is constantly called on to swear allegiance to America--to prove he isn't swearing allegiance to blacks. The other way to say that is, he's supposed to swear allegiance to white, not black, America. Meanwhile, the back end of that deal is that black Americans are required to substitute Obama for real structural racial progress. As in, "You got your nominee. See, we're not so racist or bad after all. Now shut up!"

Wright was Obama's "fish." Or that's what we called it when I was coming up. It's the "bad nigger" that all "good blacks" would be wise to avoid: the latest Sistah Souljah or Willie Horton. Farrakhan didn't take the bait, so Wright got the hook. Before Wright, Chris Matthews and his cohorts dangled Jesse Jackson out there, often repeating the line that Obama "is not like Jesse Jackson," so as to make Jackson's name (and his politics, importance, "style" and period) a pejorative.

Who knows who will be the next black bogeyman?