About that race-based benediction: “When white will embrace what is right”
Juan Williams got emotional over Rev. Joseph Lowery’s impassioned benediction, and marveled over the former NAACP head’s personal journey from ’60s civil rights leader to Obama benediction leader.
No question, Rev. Lowery has led a remarkable life.
But the benediction’s eloquence was marred by glib racialism.
Lowery got big cheers when he weaved in a weird prayer rap expressing his hope for a future in which the “brown would stick around,” the “yellow would be mellow,” the “red man would get ahead, man,” and the “white would embrace the right.”
The “white would embrace the right?”
Who wrote that line? Jeremiah Wright? And what would Obama’s grandparents and mother have to say?
Like I said last night: Feel the post-racialism!
***
The full paragraph:
“We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to give 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,” Lowery said.
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:
Big Bill Broonzy Black, Brown And White lyrics
This little song that i’m singin’ about,
People you know it’s true
If you’re black and gotta work for a living,
This is what they will say to you,
They says, “if you was white, should be all right,
If you was brown, stick around,
But as you’s black, hmm brother, get back, get back, get back”
I was in a place one night
They was all having fun
They was all buyin’ beer and wine,
But they would not sell me none
They said, “if you was white, should be all right,
If you was brown, stick around,
But if you black, hmm brother, get back, get back, get back”
Me and a man was workin’ side by side
This is what it meant
They was paying him a dollar an hour,
And they was paying me fifty cent
They said, “if you was white, ‘t should be all right,
If you was brown, could stick around,
But as you black, hmm boy, get back, get back, get back”
I went to an employment office,
Got a number ‘n’ i got in line
They called everybody’s number,
But they never did call mine
They said, “if you was white, should be all right,
If you was brown, could stick around,
But as you black, hmm brother, get back, get back, get back”
I hope when sweet victory,
With my plough and hoe
Now i want you to tell me brother,
What you gonna do about the old jim crow?
Now if you was white, should be all right,
If you was brown, could stick around,
But if you black, whoa brother, get back, get back, get back
***
Left-wing blogger dubs Lowery a “rock star.”
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Contemptible racist shot.
Yep, the most infuriating part of the morning. An election that wasn’t supposed to be about race, was everything and anything about race. So much for judging “their content of their character.”
MLK should be turning over in his grave. This wasn’t the message he intended.
It actualy matches what I expected, a screwed up oath (don’t care who screwed up first), racist prayers…
Just a sign of what is coming under obama.
Don’t forget the bastardized version of My Country ‘Tis of Thee.
After reading about this benediction, My wife who is hispanic turns to me(i’m white) and says…that’s it, your race is done. We laughed not because it was funny but because it’s true and scary and the only thing we could do is laugh.
It’s all off to a great start. Black won’t have to give back? Why not?
Yellow will be mellow? Did I miss the Korean riots or something?
White will embrace what’s right? Over the top race baiting, and I refuse to cooperate with any political movement that demonizes me.
MM: I just posted a comment about the benediction on the “crowd goes wild” thread. Not copying your work, just thinking similar thoughts…
Umm, I am a tad more optimistic about Obama and race. Some of his supporters may be racists, but he has already shown he will not always appease the far-left. He may not appease the black racists either.
I am so saddened/sickened/angered by this. We whites are only right when we agree with the priests of perpetual victimhood.
If BHO is truly the man he wants us to believe he is, he should apologize to the American people for this racist preaching-via-prayer at his inaugural.
Didn’t he say …
“and when white will embrace what is right.”
Right in whose mind? By whose judgement?
Perhaps if The One wants to be “Lincoln” he can go to Gettysburg, stand in the cemetary, look out at the stones marking the resting places of the thousands of lives that were abruptly ended and simply say “Thank You,” which is something no black leader has ever done.
Here come reparations.
My state paids its bill; 13,012 times. Still waiting for a Thank You.
What part of his spending twenty years in a black racist church leads you to believe that? Or his picking this racist dirtball to “pray” at his inauguration?
Does anyone else have the feeling that race relations are about to start moving backwards? With comments like this, there is going to be resentment.
Kinda makes the 0ne’s speech look good.
“What’s right” is sure to include abandoning the rule of law and surrendering American sovereignty with another amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens that have ignored our existing path to citizenship. The Democrats want to ensure their permanent majority even if they have to import foreigners, with the help of John McCain, of course.
reparations???
obambi promised JUSTICE to blacks, do you know what that means?
Overtly racist! One concession – if I recognize a racist prayer, certainly God does as well.
My prayer: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us (really, really damn tough in this case but I’m working on it).
White’s do embrace the right, and are hated for it!
Well, what did we all expect, really? A doofus poet followed by a racist minister, to balance out Pastor Rick Warren, sorta. Opps. Out of order. Doofus main speaker, double-doofus poet…
Lowery, my great-grandfather fought in the Union Army to free yours.
You’re welcome.
Yes I do know what JUSTICE to blacks means. It means that caucasians are screwed in this country. Our country has just elected a leader who was a 20 year member of a racist white hating church. I had nothing to do with what happened 100′s of years ago but because there is an entitlement sense nowadays in this country, we will have PAY PAY PAY!!!! and by PAY I mean give up our MONEY, TIME, and our SAFETY.
Lock and Load girls and boys, it’s going to be a scary ride!
My favorite part was the poem. Complete foolishness and drivel wraped and tied in an elitist bow. It inspired me to write my own rambling poem that makes no sense.
Coffee with no cream or sugar
Trees with branches but no leaf
The dog is not the cat
Money in an ATM
Sand in my eye
Children play on the swing
Water in a container
The pencil has no eraser
Socialist take yours – it is now mine
Democrats grope in the dark your wife
Republicans stand in line
This poem is ridiculous… or not
And so was the poem I heard today
Have it your way
Burger king style of life
Damn the torpedos
Turn out the lights
What’s knew … Obama and his minions, including his wife, are a bunch of racists.
So Whites don’t do what is right? But then do Blacks do what is right? When, about what?
Obama: “First order of business. I am declaring D.C. renamed New Amsterdam! Hey Marion! Come on over here, and bring your crack pipe with you! Time to party up!”
My great-grandfather fought for the Confederacy, not me. He died before I was born.
I’ve never met a Confederate soldier, or a slave.
There is a great case coming to SCOTUS from the Second Circuit. Several white police officers sued for reverse discrimination because, although they got the highest scores on promotion exams, less qualified minorities were promoted for “diverstiy.”
Can’t wait to see Obama-Holder on this one.
Will he go under the bus?
Remember to gird your loins as you cling to your gun and religion!
The best part is going to be watching these racists shuck and jive in 2010 and 2012 after the elections!
Later white generations inherit the sins of their ancestors, but never the ancestors’ good deeds, according to reparations advocates and liberal white guilt.
Wethal, there is no such thing as “reverse racism”, racism is racism, it is not defined by what color is being discriminated against.
Maybe he just expressed hope that more white people would join the Republican party.
Do a search for Rev Lowery Coretta King funeral. You will find a You Tube video that shows you a lot about this man also, and in relation to what he said today I guess you could say he was understated.
Move over Maya Angelou, there’s a new poet in town! LOL.
When I heard this racial filth, I thought I’d lose it. Of course white folks are the author of all tyranny and hate, and this is the basis for everything Obama’s mindless drones believe.
History is being rewritten, hearts and souls are being poisoned and corrupted, and a nation is in its last dying moments. We are a nation of fools. We had the birthright of freedom and liberty, and sold it to despots and posers.
Juan Williams is one nasty rascist, a worse anti-Semite and a dip stick liberal to boot. Did Lowery say Brown is Renown? If he didn’t he is a racist, so there.{T}he “white would embrace the right” and the black race hustlers such as Lowery suck the life blood of their own communities.
I refused to watch or listen-had to turn on Rush several times before he came on. But Rush did a job on that cartoon character poem with one of his own. Anybody have a take on how Rick Warren from Brokeback Mountain/Saddleback, whatever, did?
More like, ‘up yours whitey’, at least that’s what I took from it.
Hey Lowery, I have a poem for you:
“You make think you’re cool,
but you’re just a fool.”
Are we really surprised? The man hates whites and he hates this country.He sat in a racist church that hates whites and America for 20 years and went to Europe telling them how awful America is.And we are now shocked?
Race pandering did not end today nor will it ever end. It is how the left gathers votes and maintains its power base. The majority of those who voted to elect Obama were white. The only good thing about his benediction was that he had to cut it short to go feed the parking meter so his time machine would not get a ticket.
I had the great pleasure of seeing BB King this summer. He is truly a great man. He told the audience about how great America is, and how it is so much better being a black man today than when he was young (he’s 83). He told us of his love of America and John Wayne.
That is what I want for America and race relations, not the your people hurt my people decades, centuries, millenia ago.
I am sick of all this racist bullcrap!
I could care less about this mans skin tone, and ALL about his crap sandwich policies. All the people he hangs with are racist, cause he too is a racist.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACIST BHO
I thank hunter (#32) for the simple reminder and clarification. It is a simple point, but all too true and frequently overlooked. Racism is racism is racism… Unfortunately, it appears to rear it’s ugly head in many (all?) demographics of humanity. For the America-haters and apologists, we (the US) are often singled-out as the worst offender, however, the reality is that racism is even more prevalent in many other nations and societies around the world. By contrast, we (the US) have made great progress in our nation’s [relative] short history.
You’re damned right white will embrace right, you fool. Just not the way you think. 1/20/2009 the beginning of an error.
“Omnia relinquit servare republicam”
I had the same feeling, what I said was it was such an accusatory and divisive benediction asking for unity. Really made me sick.
If racism would end how would some, like Jesse Jackson,Jr. and Al Sharpton, find work?
Just because we have a black president, it will never be enough to stop the drum beat.
The chip will always be on some people’s shoulders.
People in my family have said they think reparations are owed for slavery. When I hear that from them, I always make the same tongue-in-cheek remark…that it’s a nice idea, but that was the one instance in which I do not believe the government needed to reimburse a citizen for taking his property away from him.
Please don;t get upset…it’s just a bad joke aimed at countering another bad joke.
Just be careful that all of this baiting doesn’t make the white flex their might.
All of this “Post-Racialism” appears to be stoking a lot of fires that are best left un-stoked. When you’re a minority with less than 1/8 of the population, I’m not sure that “IN YOUR FACE!” is the right tone to take.
At a minimum, this will foster sentiments like “President Token-bama” if the black minority keeps making this a black vs. “whitey” issue. At worst, all sorts of nasty things could happen. The Secret Service are already on tenterhooks, and the Obama people are going out of their way to down-play that Obama’s only qualification appears to be that “he’s black.”
That’s the trouble with an empty suit – you can’t pretend it’s anything but an empty suit. He *has* no other qualifications, he *was* elected because of black identity politics, and white liberal guilt.
Stabilizing? Hardly. We basically have a president who was elected on “reverse discrimination” grounds.
This thing is a powder keg. It could easily become Rodney King, times 1,000. Does nobody remember race riots? Does nobody remember just how violent things can get?
Most importantly: COULDN’T THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES REQUEST THAT PRAYERS TO ALMIGHTY GOD NOT FLAME RACIAL TENSIONS?
Nice to see the empty suit doing what empty suits always do: look pensive while crap happens.
How long before white people have to board the trains to the work camps?
Lindsay, Not a chip, more like the whole log — or computer to make it a 21st Century analogy!
The black people think the whites are the problem??
I think they’re finding out in LA and other places that the mexicans, especially the mexican GANGS are as racist, or more racist than the klan…
oh well what goes around comes around…
I remarked on this on another blog line. Those black days (no racism intended) must be so ingrained in these old guys, that they just can’t seem to get on with living life as just “Americans.” Race hatred will disappear when these fomentors of disharmony go on to meet their Maker.
As a poor white boy from a poor family I can only say that this guy can go straight to hell.
What a way to start, lets get at each others’ throats.
How come everybody that speaks for Obama is freakin racist, but his followers are too dumb to add it up?
Obama got half the population to vote for him by only regurgitating cool slogans that have no meaning at all. One has to wonder – are we really doomed?
This is a perfect example of what’s wrong with Obama’s approach to leadership. He figured he could balance out Rick Warren with Lowery, and thus please everyone. Instead, he pleases no one. This is not leadership. This is pandering.
Racism in this country won’t die out until the most racsist part of our society quits playing the race card.
They will MLK this along in order to squeeze a little bit more victimhood and money out of it.
Where else are Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Jeremiah Wright going to get the attention they crave and the money they want?
If the rhetoric doesn’t significantly cool, this poor Republic will soon be become embroiled in race wars and quickly disintegrate.
Something that has not been mentioned……where is Obama’s sister?
Hey, Chap. Coincidence, or did you just happen to read the following article today?
http://www.vdare.com/buchanan/090119_gop.htm
Buchanan in a round about way says what many of us on this board have feared. That the demographic shifts, due in large part to immigration, combined with a large and growing population of “tax consumers” have reached a tipping point where the democrats may have a lock on the POTUS for the foreseeable future. Others may disagree, but I see no good ending for America.
What a moron. If white didn’t embrace what was right then who in the bloody hell would have fought and died in the Civil War to end slavery? Let me guess… they are saying now that the slaves freed themselves while all white men fought to keep them on the farm. Why not say it? Liberals like to rewrite history all the time.
That is P. Obama in a nutshell, well said. What is considered as pragmatism, by his admirers, is really a need to please and appease everyone. If he was a true leader, he would chart his course definitively and lead the way. Instead we are going to be treated to an administration that has too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
“When white will embrace what is right.”
Yeah, sure — about the same time as…
– When black will grow up and take responsibility for its homegrown problems; and
– When black will stop blaming “whitey,” “structural racism,” “the legacy of slavery” and “The Man” for everything and take a look in the mirror instead.
Not holding my breath waiting on those last two.
Anyone who believes that we have entered a “post-racial” society just because a black man got into the White House is fantasizing, nothing more.
There’s no way that a black culture which has subsisted for decades on avoiding responsibility for itself by externalizing its problems onto bogey-men is ever going to let whitey off the hook. Lowery’s stupid remark is proof of that.
There once was a man named Obama
Whose friends put the country in Trauma
He said with a grin
As he was sworn in
Yo crackers! Get used to the Drama!
Can I please be poet lauriet? Pleeeeeze?
During Big Bill Broonzy’s day, the black man had a legitimate gripe. Looks like the black man is getting work today.
“Looks like the
blackstraw man is getting work today.”I just had to do that.
Great point in your comment b-cat.
I recently heard one of the black leaders say this is not the end of racism in America it is just a down payment for the ills that we have caused them.
Well, I am white and I am still waiting for this “white advantage” to kick in. I have a $9/hr job and no $$. When is my “white good ole boy network” going to give me my effing money??? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Blacks act like they have it so bad. Guess what? White people have it bad, too. A-holes.
The time when Americans of all color very publicly rebuking the racist dramatists cannot come soon enough. I’ve had it with these a$$holes, I’m long since past feeling any guilt about anything toward anyone. They’ve got their President, they can go straight to he!!.
I bet that Michelle Malkin wasn’t very “mellow” when she heard the Black Racist Minister’s “yellow” comment!
***
The Reverend Doctor Luther King was not perfect–but he had a much better future vision for our country–color blindness, mutual respect, and equal rights and treatment for all.
***
There must have been a much better Black Christian Minister available for the “sermon”. This man was just a cut above Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
***
Hope and change came to the new U.S.S.A. today.
***
John Bibb
At 12:00 Noon I had an open mind and Hooped for the best. By the end of this prayer I was offended. My President would repudiate these comments. Will this one?
That’s all we need. A preacher turned rapper!
Did anyone notice, besides this racist comment, how “black” the inauguration celebration was? From the celebrities to even the cops surrounding Obama (referring to a picture I saw recently of Obama standing with 2 black officers on either side). I mean, seriously – why is this racism ok? Why is it ok to make this some big celebration of everything black – isn’t Obama the President of the entire US and its citizens, or just the black ones? And has everyone forgotten that Obama is 1/2 black and 1/2 white?
I am just dumbfounded at all of this – how in the world did we come to this? It is a sad day for our country indeed and I fear race relations will never improve as long as we make such a huge big deal about it!
He isn’t totally a rapper yet. He didn’t say nigger or hoe once in his speech.
:: rolleyes ::
Another case of it’s ok if we say it…
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday’s message, “We’re all the same.” Today’s message, “Not so much.”
This guy does realize it’s the year 2009 and Barack Hussein Obama is now the 44th president, right? Or is he obsessed with the fact that BHO is half-white and still doesn’t believe we have a black president?
All this race obsession is so confusing.
Being that my family is both caucasian and asian, I am offended twice by these comments.
BO is not my president. I didn’t vote him into office. He does not represent me. These comments made during his transition team’s pre-approved benediction just reinforces my attitude toward the clown we now have in the WH.
I intentionally avoided watching or following all of this “coronation” but had to come here and kind of catch up after getting a couple of phone calls …
I just heard from 2 of my daughters and their husbands and was informed that my Hispanic and Chinese son-in-laws and their parents and families are highly irate over these comments … so it is not just the “white folk” that are offended by all of this …
Just brace yourselves folks … if you thought the Clintons governed based on the results of those daily polls then you haven’t seen anything yet … BO is going to make them look like rank amateurs in that regard …
So being that duh1 is half white, that makes him half a racist. Everybody knows you can’t be “part racist” any more than you can be kinda pregnant. So Lowery elected a racist.
nice
With all due respect to Mr. Lowery, when I heard he was selected to deliver the benediction, that is all I really expected to come from him. There are those, white and black, who will never release their bitterness and desire for eternal vengeance. He believe him to be one of them.
Until the current black leadership is replaced by those more like Barack Obama, there will be no reconciliation between the two races. And black problems will only increase in this area when hispanics finally rise to their place of cultural dominance in the coming decades.
I know this is off topic, but I can’t help it…Hanover Fiste…that’s got to be the best screen name I’ve ever seen! LOL!!!
As usual, you have NO idea what you’re talking about. Old black people — and Lowry is super (87 years, in fact) old — have an oft-repeated saying from their day about how America worked: “If you’re black, get back; if you’re brown, stick around; if you’re white, you’re alright.”
The phrase from Lowry’s speech today (that you’re corrupting) is his hope that this is a day when “black will not be asked to get back.” But I know you folks can’t live without your feigned outrage and your paranoia.
Meanwhile, us liberals are gearing up for our free retroactive abortions and volunteering to aid undocumented illegals cross the border!
Sorry. “I believe him to be one of them.”
Yet another example of the Obama administration’s high-speed vetting skills on display… Bigots and tax-cheats and thugs, oh my…
What a disgrace.
nyk,
That doesn’t make it right. There are lots of white people who are just as old – would it be OK if they went around saying “back of the bus, all you black folk…” ??
Of course not.
The point is that what Lowry is talking about is LONG over, and Obama knows it. The fact that he can’t get over it? I can actually understand that. There are some things that you never get over, and being a victim like he likely was is one of them.
It fell to the President of the United States and his team to make sure that this kind of crap DIDN’T get brought up today, assuming that he really means all of this “post racial” stuff.
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t be post-racial while bringing up all of the old stuff and flinging it in each other’s face.
What a tool. Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans are the ones who should be truly offended. While blacks and whites refer to themselves and each other as such (it’s part of the vernacular), I haven’t heard the terms browns, yellows and reds used since about the Nixon era. Talk about uber PC-incorrect.
nyk: Lumping all of us together based on our beliefs shows you are just as prejudiced as Rev Lowery.
Like those who suffer the ravages of BDS?
A good friend was once a cop in Boulder, CO and he kids about stopping criminals with his call to, “Freeze, or I’ll make your birth control retroactive.” Just who are you libs planning to retroactively abort?
#87. It was a conversational quote. If I was going for grammar it would also have included the word “of.”
You know I think trying to stoke a Civil War II might be one too many analogies to Lincoln for The One to make.
Gadzooks, People. The guy was a holdover from Jim Crow era politics. He was a stage prop so ObingoWingoDingo could up his street cred as “black”. He isnt black— Michelle his beautiful Bride is black—Obingo-Soetoro-Barry-Barack is 44 per cent African.
He needs Jim Crow memories to be stimulated so that he can stay galvanized with a voting block he doesnt understand…but knows how to manipulate.
Let the old guy go. He is a product of the impact of racism. And that was what he meant by “embracing what is right…”
Check it out. This election was pure racial politics. Do any of you really understand “WHY?”
Bear1909out
Why do the Donks/Civil Right people still fight the Civil War? Both sides of my family came over to this country after the war! Does that make me guilty of what their ancestors went through during slavery? And, if I recall, weren’t the Donks a proponent of slavery for years, well before the Civil War???
RobM1981:
Is your (#88) post in response to my (#87) post to nyk?
If so, what are you saying?
Over…
Michelle just doesn’t get it because she is a honkie! Honkies just ain’t down with the struggle.
If she were a “person of color” who hadn’t had everything handed to her for her whole life she would know what it is to go through life being oppressed by Whitey.
Honkies don’t get it. That’s just the way it is…
Welcome to post-racial America
Maybe Bobby Byrd can dust off his old Grand Wizard outfit and make an appearance at one of the balls? I’m sure that will do the trick.
100% post racial, of course…
Bringing America Together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3FnpaWQJO0
Check it out. This election was pure racial politics. Do any of you really understand “WHY?”
Yep. It’s an obviously successful, tried and true brainwashing tactic, and it worked extremely well.
I’ve never really seen any Asian people who were yellow. I’d imagine that would be a sign of serious liver disease.
They seem, like “white people”, to vary from pretty pale to pretty well tanned, depending on ethnicity.
But it rhymes. For some reason, it can be meaningless, as long as it rhymes.
Nail…head!
Channelling Johnny Cochran—If the glove doesn’t fit…
Very simple, folks. White people screwed themselves, big time.