BIRMINGHAM, Mich. (AP) — Nearly a decade after the U.S. Census Bureau called Detroit and its suburbs the most segregated region in the United States, race still is a cause of tension between many of the area's whites and blacks.

One elected leader warns that things could worsen depending on what controversial pastor Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. says during his keynote address April 27 at an annual NAACP fundraiser in Detroit.

"I think he's one of the most divisive people I've ever heard speak," Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said Friday morning during a speakers' forum in Birmingham, Mich. "If he gives the same speech he gave before, I think he'll do irreparable damage to race relations" in the area.

Wright is a retired pastor at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. He also is former pastor to Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

Video excerpts of some of his past sermons contain comments by Wright in which he calls the country "U.S. of KKK-A." Wright also accuses U.S. leaders of bringing on the Sept. 11 attacks by spreading terrorism.

Obama has condemned the remarks, but his relationship with Wright has dogged his presidential campaign.

"We all know what Reverend Wright said," Patterson said. "If he goes to the Freedom (Fund) dinner and makes similar comments, then he's just driven a huge wedge, I think, to divide blacks and whites — African Americans from the white community."

But Patterson's stinging criticism of Wright brought and equally strong response from Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick who said Wright should be judged by his 36-year career, not those remarks.

"I've been to his church. I've heard numerous amounts of his speeches," Kilpatrick said. "I think he's probably one of the greatest orators to walk this earth. If he says something to offend people, he apologizes.

"I don't agree that somebody, who's not from here, can say anything to do irreparable harm to race relations. If he can do that, then we have very bad race relations right now."

Kilpatrick is mired in his own controversy. He and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty face perjury, misconduct and other charges stemming from a text-messaging sex scandal and testimony given during a whistle-blowers' trial.

Kilpatrick and Beatty are accused of lying under oath when they denied having a romantic relationship. They face a June 9 preliminary examination.

Despite his leap to Wright's defense Friday, Kilpatrick, himself, has been accused of using race in his efforts to reach Detroit voters.

During his March 11 State of the City address, Kilpatrick used a racial slur to describe threats he and his family began receiving after the Detroit Free Press published excerpts of sexually explicit text messages left on Beatty's city-issued pager.

Those messages appear to contradict their whistle-blowers' testimony.

"When people see Kwame Kilpatrick, white people get mad," Kilpatrick said Friday. "What I presume to represent is what they are mad at."

Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano and Macomb County Board of Commissioners Chair William Crouchman also took part in Friday's forum, which primarily focused on race relations, the economy and regionalism.

Several hours later, Kilpatrick joined Beatty in a Detroit courtroom as their attorneys argued against an effort by the Wayne County prosecutor's office to have a judge hearing their criminal case disqualified.

In addition to having Judge Ronald Giles removed, prosecutor's also were seeking to get the entire 36th District Court bench disqualified over potential conflicts of interest as one or two judges could be called to testify in the case.

Assistant Prosecutor Robert Moran argued that a $300 donation Giles made to a Kilpatrick re-election campaign and the mayor's appearance at a party at Giles' home are among issues that give the "appearance of impropriety."

But Giles said the donation was given while he was still a lawyer, and that he also donated to Kilpatrick's challenger in the election.

And other than greetings, he's never had a conversation with the mayor, Giles said before ruling not to disqualify himself of the other judges on the Detroit court.

After prosecutors requested a review by the court's chief judge, Marylin Atkins said she expects to rule on the issue within a week.