The nation is abuzz with talk about the nation's racial divide, thanks in no small part to Barack Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

I'm intrigued by those who don't understand why a black minister "still" decries the treatment of blacks in this country. Why, some ask, is he so angry? There have been tremendous improvements in access and equality during the past 50 years.

Don't misunderstand me. Like Obama, I don't agree with much of what Wright has said. But like Obama, I'm willing to get where Wright speaks from. But just as the United States hasn't delivered everyone an "American Dream," it's also not a nation that wants to hear about its problems.

In dismissing Obama's recent Philadelphia speech about race as eloquent but "nothing new," some critics have revealed a colossal irony: It's still necessary for someone to point out our nation's gaping racial divide. And we're still not ready to hear it.

We live in a time of tremendous paradoxes: As far as blacks have come -- and we have -- - we've still got a lot of work to do. Everyone does. However, we're in danger of failing to learn from the horrific discrimination that got us to where we are today.

That is, we can't simply "drop it." We can't forget or be afraid to talk about our nation's past and present racism and inequality. If we don't acknowledge this and talk it through, we can't fix contemporary problems with roots in the recent and distant past.

We've come a long way, but we haven't come all the way. In fact, we haven't come as far as we think.

Progress means being able to talk about the painful legacy of slavery, Jim Crow laws and institutional racism. Progress means we can frankly discuss why we tell other nations to tear down walls while building our own. Progress also brings with it an honest assessment of our educational and judicial systems.

Likewise, if we have truly progressed, we'd see the wisdom in the Martin E. Marty's article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: chronicle.com/free/v54/i30/30b00101.htm.

In this commentary, the legendary theologian and prolific writer paints a different portrait of Wright, his former student at the University of Chicago. Marty, who is white, also explains how Wright became his friend.

"Now, for the hard business: the sermons, which have been mercilessly chipped into for wearying television clips," writes Marty. "While Wright's sermons were pastoral - they were also prophetic. At the university, we used to remark, half lightheartedly, that this Jeremiah was trying to live up to his namesake, the seventh-century B.C. prophet. Though Jeremiah of old did not 'curse' his people of Israel, Wright, as a biblical scholar, could point out that the prophets Hosea and Micah did. But the Book of Jeremiah, written by numbers of authors, is so full of blasts and quasi curses -- what biblical scholars call 'imprecatory topoi' -- that New England preachers invented a sermonic form called 'the jeremiad,' a style revived in some Wrightian shouts.

"In the end, however, Jeremiah was the prophet of hope, and that note of hope is what attracts the multiclass membership at Trinity and significant television audiences. Both Jeremiahs gave the people work to do: to advance the missions of social justice and mercy that improve the lot of the suffering. For a sample, read Jeremiah 29, where the prophet's letter to the exiles in Babylon exhorts them to settle down and 'seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.' Or listen to many a Jeremiah Wright sermon."