Rev. Jeremiah Wright Compares Obama and MLK: ‘I Have a Dream,’ ‘I Have a Drone’

obama jeremiah wrightPresident Barack Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is back in the news this week, but this time it’s for  critical comments he made about the president at an event for the Chicago Teachers Union on Wednesday. While iconic civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered for the famous phrase,  “I have a dream,” Wright suggested Obama’s legacy could be boiled down to “I have a drone.”

CNN news anchor Don Lemon presented a report on Wright’s remarks, asking if  they could be considered “political payback” for Obama’s decision to denounce the pastor’s past rhetoric during the 2008 presidential campaign. While CNN’s cameras were asked to leave the room when Wright began speaking, the network managed to obtain some cell-phone video of his speech.

In addition to the unfavorable comparison between King and Obama, Wright also reportedly compared himself to the civil rights leader, who he said was reduced to “sanitized” soundbites much in the same manner negative soundbites were aired about him during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Still independent.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top