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Ever heard the crab-in-the-barrel syndrome? Put a bunch of crabs in a barrel. As one draws closer to the top of his barrel, nearing his escape, one of the other crabs would reach up and pull his fellow crab back down. Another one goes up, another one comes down. This process continues until someone rescues all of them, or they die in the barrel.

For this reason, I'm done with Jeremiah Wright. Barack Obama should be, too.

I have seen Obama's campaign withstand the subtle (Bill Clinton) and not so subtle (Geraldine Ferraro) racial subtexts that the Clinton camp has repeatedly introduced into public discussion. I've seen the GOP come at him, branding him at various times a Muslim, a terrorist sympathizer, a racist, a Marxist and of course, an affirmative action case. These are things many of us expected.

We never saw Jeremiah Wright coming.

The power of his voice, skewered and sliced through various technologies and third-person interpretations, became an Sisyphean boulder for Obama and his campaign. No matter how many times he distanced himself, or repudiated (and denounced and rejected) his former pastor's comments, he found himself back at square one because Obama couldn't find it in himself to do the "honorable" thing and disown completely the man who'd helped lead him to Christ.

As a Christian who grew up in the United Church of Christ, the same majority-White denomination that Wright's Trinity church shares - to say nothing of a Black man who simply grew up in both urban and suburban settings - I am familiar with many of the arguments that Wright proposed. Many a time have I had conversations that centered around the notion of conspiracies against African-Americans, mostly centering around crack, housing developments, politics and AIDS. Whether those arguments emerge from the church or from the barbershop, none are unanimously agreed upon. Quite frankly, many are dismissed outright, regardless of how many low-budget conspiracy documentaries are screened as you wait for your high-top fade. (My adolescence was in the late '80s - cut me some slack.)

Likewise, the theories that Wright espouses at the pulpit aren't necessarily accepted as fact by his church audience. But when I first heard his soundbites, I was reminded of the fact that there are still many people in Black communities across America who remember the fact that the U.S. government used Black men as guinea pigs as recently as 1972. If you haven't heard, look up something called the Tuskeegee Experiments.

So what many would love to dismiss as paranoia is in fact based in the fear of what has passed coming to manifest again. I understand Jeremiah Wright. But as we all have learned in the last several weeks, his views do not exist in a vacuum. And just because one might agree that he speaks some truth unto power (as well as some trash), it doesn't mean that that truth is simply accepted as such. While that may seem obvious, today provided the proof that Wright:

a) thinks that his words are simply that, and doesn't yet understand how he undermines Obama

or, more likely in my opinion,

b) he fully understands what he's accomplishing with this PR tour of his: in a remarkably selfish act, he's using his moment in the public spotlight to sabotage Obama's candidacy at a crucial moment in this primary race, despite the fact Obama did not toss him aside during his own public crisis.

In other words, he's one of the crabs in the barrel. This expression has been used to describe African-Americans for decades, and it's one I learned early from my parents. I saw it manifest first in high school, when my good grades, diction and personal achievements were met by derision by my fellow Black students as "acting white". It wasn't just me - many of my Black friends went through the same thing, and many Black kids are going through it today. The cycle continues, sadly, and it's sad to see a grown man perpetuating that same type of behavior - particularly to the first Black candidate to go this far in a presidential race.

By repeating the same things, and dancing a jig while he does it (literally), Wright is showing no respect or consideration for the man who could've dissed him a la Bill Clinton and Sister Souljah. He has to know how this PR tour would play out in the media, and how it would potentially affect Obama's campaign. And from what I've seen today, it's been a complete negative for Obama and will continue to be.

I can't tell you how many times I've talked to fellow voters around Philadelphia, a city that Obama won 65-35, and had people express concerns or anger about Wright and how that reflects on Obama. Whether it was a middle-aged Italian guy from South Philly telling me Obama lost his vote over Wright, or African-Americans worrying openly about just that sort of thing happening, the Reverend's effect has been undeniable. Yes, I know polling shows that it had a negligible effect on the outcome, but I also factor in what I've experienced. Wright knows he's anathema to Obama's entire message of inclusion and understanding, and he doesn't care.

To break it down, here's what Wright is doing: he's spitting in the face of the man who defended him, who said he was "like family" and did so without any undertones of private anger or resentment. He did so unconditionally. Now Wright is using his newfound notoriety to become the next racial demagogue, and who cares if it's at the expense of Obama? If CNN, MSNBC and Fox News are booking me as the Black Pat Buchanan in a few years, then it's all worth it!

Obama extended his hand to help Wright above the fray. Instead, Wright has pulled him back down into the barrel, making it even more difficult for the most talented politician we've seen in years to escape the politics of race, resentment and self-victimization that continue to condemn us all.