The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (based in Atlanta), who gave the benediction today at the inauguration of President Obama, seems to not realize what decade it is. Indeed, after reciting the third verse of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn also known as the “black national anthem,” he said this:
“We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.”
How petty of him. Is he not aware that over 60 million people just elected Barack H. Obama to the office of President of the United States? Does he not realize that the majority of those people were, point in fact, white? Where today are these blacks which are asked to “get back” and where are the browns which are allegedly “sent away.” And are asians getting too excited for his tastes because they aren’t “mellow” enough? Notice, of course, how in Lowery’s eyes whites still evidently don’t “embrace what is right.” Pathetic.
It is Lowery who cannot seem to move on from the past and who embraces victimhood with both arms. The SCLC has made clear that even with the election of Obama the United States is still a racist country, and it is again obvious that the true bigotry lies within Lowery’s own soul. Too bad, frankly, because the rest of the Republic long ago moved on.
[UPDATE] As Michelle Malkin notes on her post concerning this matter, “A reader points to this old civil rights chant that adds context to Lowery’s remarks — but makes the jab against whites all the more egregious.”
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north ga – no wonder you’re single.
I’m single and proud of it.
Kellie, hasn’t your passport expired yet?
I’m single and proud of it.
When did you finally achieve single-ness?
I worked in Randolph County, 98% black. Obviously, I am white.
Let’s just say that Lowery’s attitudes are EXTREMELY prevalent in Randolph, at least.
Since that has been my only experience in a majority black area, I have no other data, which leads to a conclusion that such attitudes are prevalent in MOST, if not EVERY, area with similar demographics.
That Obama willingly associates with such men as Wright and Lowery speaks volumes about his own attitudes.
dash – no one will even date him and he hates women. He has mentioned that many times.
North – “Kellie, hasn’t your passport expired yet?”
what does that mean?
That Obama willingly associates with such men as Wright and Lowery speaks volumes about his own attitudes.
It says nothing more than that he is a calculating politician. He’s probably an atheist. People as brilliant as he is usually lack faith, but never let on in mixed company.
dash – no one will even date him and he hates women. He has mentioned that many times.
Hmm. Maybe he’s playing for the other team (nttawwt).
Dash:
We are known by the company we keep, like it or not.
Which is one of the reasons I take pains to separate myself from the Ron Paul crazies and the loons that tend to congregate in the C4L. I don’t care to be known to others through them, and personally even in my own mind the LP for so long was linked to such crazies that it took me a lot longer than it should have to make the leap and join.
Now that I’ve actually looked at exactly where the LP as a whole stands and I’ve been able to talk to some of its more sane members, I realize that I was wrong to think bad of the LP because of the crazies I knew.
But it all goes back to my point: You are known by the company you keep.
And Obama keeps company such as Wright and Lowery.
We are known by the company we keep, like it or not.
That’s only true for normal folk. Obama does a cost-benefit analysis on every move he makes. He gave The Movement a nod with Lowery (as confirmed by the same kind of pandering with Rick Warren), and Lowery’s sad performance today will be quickly forgotten (except by Lowery’s kind of people). Obama is good. Damn good. You best recognize.
Don’t forget Rick Warren, Colin Powell too! Them radicals!
PS – Dana Perino is a hottie. I don’t care who you are.
what does that mean?
You’re an illegal immigrant from another country, aren’t ya?
I’m disappointed that folks laughed at Manuels though I guess I shouldn’t be all that surprised, people often snicker at racist jokes and neither Republicans nor Democrats have the market cornered on racism. It doesn’t make it right though. It is not funny to refer to Asians as “yellows.” It is not ever appropriate to refer to native Americans as “red.” School children all across the country watched the inaugurati0n as a classroom exercise and well they should. It was a great day and a great event on so many levels but Reverend Lowery’s Archie Bunker impression was simply dreadful and worse, the President of the United States was seen by school children across the country laughing, albeit a bit bit uncomfortably in my view, at Lowery’s insensitive closing ditty. What possessed Reverend Lowery to do something so tasteless and hurtful to so many kids, and let’s be absolutely clear, the man was obviously referring to Asians as yellow and Hispanics as brown and native Americans as red. It was anachronistic, tasteless and offensive and completely inconsistent at today’s historic ceremony and the with lofty tone President Obama tried to set. So tomorrow in schools across the country Reverend Lowery has given approval to all kinds of stupid racial hate speech and Asian kids are absolutely going to be asked if they are “mellow yellow.” That is Southern Christian Leadership? Yikes.
Maybe Rouge and others protest a little too much but I am disappointed so many are defending the indefensible on this site. There should be no more free passes for bigoted, racist speech and no more laughing along or defending those who do.
PS, I’m soooooooooo glad to be an arrogant and narrow minded person.
Who is more brain dead, Rev. Joseph Lowery or Rich Lowry?
Both have equality on my list of people to ignore because they rarely, if ever, have anything intelligent to say.
Wretched propagandists, both are.
PS, I’m soooooooooo glad to be an arrogant and narrow minded person.
And yet you live in a trailer deep in the woods of Lumpkin County – a hotbed for open-minded folk. You must feel like a fish out of water.
North,
First you thought I was a gay man, now I’m mexican? Did you change meds?
PP Guardians- Please pull the the plug on this thread!!!
All,
Has anyone watched the benediction on youtube?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pEH37JIgBU
His speech is about inclusion and tolerance.
Here is the text:
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/01/20/2334684-text-of-rev-lowerys-inauguration-benediction
The text you referenced is at the very end of the speech and judging from his reaction an off-the-cuff comment. You know the man is 87 years old. And I attribute it to a senior mement. He should leave the comedy bit and rhyming to professionals. (what rhymes with white?” But as a member of a minority group I salute him for fighting a good fight for me so I do not have to. By the way, the comment about mellow yellow makes me laugh. I consider it a teasing a sorta inside joke from someone who has stood and fought for me for all those years.
As much as I thought Lowery’s “ditty” was out of place, uncalled for and was an unfortunate follow up to a President who had just given exactly the opposite message, he is elderly and living in his glory days. aTherefore, I’d give him a break. However, those laughing (including the new President, no matter how uncomfortably) so not get a break.
And yet you live in a trailer deep in the woods of Lumpkin County – a hotbed for open-minded folk. You must feel like a fish out of water.
Well I’m a rarity I guess.
First you thought I was a gay man, now I’m mexican? Did you change meds?
I used to take Zinc pills, now I take Multivitamins.
Zinc to multivitamins! My gosh, man! What do you have? Some kind of death wish!!
POUR THAT STUFF OUT RIGHT NOW! I’ll be over to your place soon with Chris, Bill Simon, and Icarus. An intervention is needed. Don’t try to fight it.
Ignorance abounds.
I thought about maybe giving a little history lesson here on the origin of Lowery’s ditty. But screw it. What the hell’s the point? Some people are just going to see it it they way they want to see it or like Rogue build strawmen to knock over and claim resounding victory.
To hell with it. Believe what you want to believe and enjoy your ever shrinking world.
Grift sounds like he’s been hitting the “multivitamins” a little too much himself!
wheat, barley, and hopps are all vitamins in my book. Enjoy a 12 oz multivitamin myself right now.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Attributed to George Santayana, US poet and philosopher
William L. Shirer made these words the epigraph for his “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.” (1959)
Jesse Jackson is quoted in the AJC article referenced above, “Barack Obama has run the last lap of a 60 year race.”
The test has just started, the last lap is not complete. It is a good thing to remember the past without living in the past. Opposition to Obama and Democratic policy will grow. The litmus test will be whether or not this opposition to Obama and Democratic policy will be accomplished without bigotry or racism and like wise whether opposition to Obama and Democratic policy will be labeled as bigotry and racism.
We’ll see.
Dark Knight Begins
Re: “I take pains to separate myself from the Ron Paul crazies and the loons that tend to congregate in the C4L. I don’t care to be known to others through them.”
Well like somebody really cares. I mean really. The C4L doesn’t care and neither does anybody else. But once you become an individualist you won’t care what everybody else thinks anyhow. It’s how you become a free man. Of course if you’re thinking about running for office than disregard this comment.
IN fact, IMHO this is a contributing factor to why our country is in deep doodoo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_think
So your solution against group think is to try and get enough people to form a majority of delegates at Republican conventions, in order to control a group of people to support your message in an attempt to get 51% of the vote?
Are you seeing the problem here yet?
At least he didn’t recite Macon’s motto…..
IMHO the controversial statement by Lowery was the best thing of the whole day. Why? It was different from all the other feel-good pablum. And at least we always know where Lowery stands. It was refreshing, and may have been a throwback to an old phrase from the ’60s or ’70s. Completely different than anything else. Way to go Rev. Lowery. My biggest concern was some of the hidden gems in the Obama speech.
Icarus,
Enjoy your vitamins and herbs without a prescription while you still can. If Agribusiness has their way, you’ll need a prescription for that stuff by next year.
Is that thread jacking on this insane thread.
GameFan:
If I told you that I was friends with Jim Wooten (a vast overstatement, just using him as an example here), you could probably draw fairly decent conclusions as to where I stand/values that I have.
Similarly, if I told you that I was friends with Cynthia Tucker (again, just using her as an example), you could possibly draw decently accurate conclusions as to where I stand/values that I have which would be pretty opposite from the ones you would draw looking at Mr. Wooten.
Now, it COULD be that I have learned to be civil and that my friends and I have vastly different political views (which is actually true), but come on, that is pretty dang rare in this modern age. People tend to be friends with people who think decently alike. Yes, they may have differences on an issue here or an issue there, but overall their philosophies are similar.
And by that, you CAN know a person by the company he keeps.
Just a general question, from seeing a pic on AJC.com’s front page:
Why is Michelle Obama wearing a wedding dress to an Inaugural Ball?? Haven’t they been married for the better part of a couple of decades now??
In the evening……… before their first night in the Whitehouse………..
……….you’ll figure it out………
I’ll be over to your place soon with Chris, Bill Simon, and Icarus. An intervention is needed. Don’t try to fight it.
LOL, I needed a laugh. Shep, I don’t think you’d know where to start in Lumpkin County when going about finding me, much less being able to find Chris/Icarus and Bill Simon.
gator:
Aint exactly like it’ll be something she has never seen/experienced before… a house is a house.
Now, in the executive office on AF1, THAT might be something a little different, assuming they are not Mile High Club members already.
“Since that has been my only experience in a majority black area, I have no other data, which leads to a conclusion that such attitudes are prevalent in MOST, if not EVERY, area with similar demographics.”
I have to say that is a dumb conclusion.
All you could actually come to realize is that one set of people in one particular are in one particular field that you come across feels that way.
rugby:
Perhaps it should be mentioned that I also have extensive experience talking to several black individuals from wide ranging (ie, literally from every corner of the country) geographic areas that have espoused similar attitudes. So while it was the one populace as a whole, there have been several concurring accounts from select members of wide ranging populations. And these select members have often been much more highly educated than many I encountered in Randolph County. (Most of the individuals in question were college students of the BS or higher level, though a few have also had advanced degrees as well.)
I personally wouldn’t draw a conclusion based on who your friends are. It would depend on a number of factors. Do they live right down the road, or did you meet them at a swinger party or a sex club?
Almost everybody in a sex club would want sex. Practically everybody in a woodworking class wants to improve their woodworking skills. Flaggers liked the ’56 flag. People in the C4L want Liberty. Get it? This stuff is easy. And I still haven’t read Ayn Rand.
You miss the point.
Anecdotal evidence is worthless.
If it were otherwise, then I have proof that Libertarians (and a number of libertarians) are paranoid whack-job idiots, because “I have extensive experience talking to several libertarian and Libertarian individuals from wide ranging (ie, literally from every corner of the country) geographic areas that have espoused similar attitudes.”
rugby:
As noted, that was an issue even for me, and I am a LP member now!
Anecdotal evidence may not be valid in a court of law, but in the court of public opinion it reigns supreme 90% of the time.
And that’s wrong and misguided 100% of the time.
griftdrift: Ignorance abounds.
I thought about maybe giving a little history lesson here on the origin of Lowery’s ditty. But screw it. What the hell’s the point?
Exactly. What would be the point? Demonstrating the existence of a historical context for scolding a group which includes Obama’s own mother as if it is still 1965 does not serve to justify the use of those same words without clarification in 2009. I agree with you to the extent that there’s no point in making a federal case out of Lowery’s Jackson-esque little ditty. I also have no problem with the idea that maybe we should cut the proud old warrior some slack. But if you are truly suggesting that on an objective level Lowery’s words are above criticism and that those who interpret them otherwise must be blissfully ignorant of their historical context, then this says more about your analytical rigor and capacity for debate than it says about the relative ignorance of Lowery’s detractors.
The evolution of societies and individuals says differently, rugby. Said evolution notes that while it may be wrong quite a bit, it is correct enough in its most general application to be a useful guide until further information is available.
Then explain the historical context, smart guy.
Then explain the historical context, smart guy.
You want me to make your argument for you? I know I suggested that you have no tolerance for debate, but seriously…
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