“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.
The only way he could have topped this would be instead of closing with “Amen” he’d said “Up yours, whitey.”
Let’s break this down – “black will not be asked to give back.”
Why not? What was King’s goal – equality, or superiority?
“Brown can stick around” – I’m guessing he means open borders; no deportations. The unskilled labor pool – which statistically includes a lot of black folk – will take a serious economic beating.
“Yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man” – that’s just stupid. Inaugurations should not be “cutesy” for pity’s sake. Way to trash the solemnity and dignity of the occasion, Reverend.
“When white will embrace what is right.” I’ve got news for you, sir. Barack Obama could not have been elected without the white vote. And Dr. King’s goals could not have been met without the commitment and work of many white people, who were on the front lines of the civil rights battle alongside him.
To imply, especially on such an historic, solemn occasion, that white people are just wrong, that he looks forward to the happy day when we’ll finally stop being wrong reveals him to be a small minded bigot himself. It is unbelievably offensive that he’d ch0ose such an occasion to rhetorically pit races against each other.
And President Obama smiled and nodded throughout. Post-racial? I don’t think so.
Allahpundit has the video, and his exit question is classic: “Exit question: Hey, that Rick Warren’s pretty controversial, huh?”
h/t MM who wonders “And what would Obama’s [white] grandparents and mother have to say?”
When I read this yesterday, I didn’t comment because I thought you were misquoting, but I couldn’t find a transcript.
It’s not, “when black will not be asked to give back,” it is “when black will not be asked to get back.” The whole thing is quoted here.
The transcript is incorrect. Listen to him yourself:
It sounded like give when I was watching live and it still does, to me. But even if it is really “get” the whole “prayer” is still odious.
My computer has no sound! It died this week while I was working on sermon files. No YouTube, GodTube, or anything else for me. I think I am going through withdrawal.
I actually just heard a commentator on TV who said it was “get in back” … as in get in the back of the bus … and they were supposed to be reading from some official transcript.
Okay … here I am again (LOL!) … I feel like a stalker! After leaving that comment, I opened up Bloglines and found this from LaShawn Barber and she has it as “get in back” too.
Now, I am cracking myself up … the link in LaShawn’s post quotes it the way you do! LOL! Though, LaShawn does not quote it that way itself. I tend to lean a bit more her way and say, “hey … he is an old man who has lived it so cut him some slack.” But, I can see how some would be offended regardless. I think it is another one of those, you got to be black to get it … or close.
If you click through the MM link you’ll find the old civil rights chant he was (sorta) echoing. But even if I’m incorrect on the “give” versus the “get” the tone of the whole benediction, and the explicit parting shot at white folk is unmistakable. It was completely unnecessary – and it was not the first cheap shot he’s taken. He did the same at Coretta Scott King’s funeral; another event where it was *completely* inappropriate.
I know, but when you are around people like him (old black people that remember the civil rights movement like it was yesterday), most of those comments aren’t actually directed at white people as a whole, but the white people that they feel degraded them. It is like throwing up a finger at “the man” and saying, “see here … we did it anyways.” It is hard to explain, you just kinda have to sit down with some of them and listen to what they say. Because most of them aren’t racists and will have the nicest things to say about white people that they knew even back then that they did not see as racist. I think that for them it is snubbing racism and to them that is linked with “white culture” … and they don’t even get why some people get offended when they do it. Being white, I do … but being around them … I see their side too. It is weird.
I appreciate what you’re saying, but I disagree and just cannot sympathize. There was a time when my mother used the word “nigger” fairly freely. She didn’t mean all black people – she meant criminals and people who stayed on welfare when they were able to work and acted “entitled” to a free ride. But it got to the point where I told her she would not be permitted to spend time with her granddaughter if she didn’t knock it off. I don’t care what she meant by it. It was unacceptable.
People can say and feel whatever they like – but this was a Presidential inauguration for pity’s sake! – and his racist comments were every bit as inappropriate as his politicizing Mrs. King’s funeral was. Whatever he may have meant by it, it’s a disgrace. If that’s what he wants to think in his own house or with family and friends… whatever. I disagree but I would never suggest he’s wrong for expressing that opinion. But lowering the bar – having a different set of expectations for social behavior for black folk at a major event like this – is a more subtle, but equally disgusting form of racism. I don’t understand how they can not “get” that. Imagine if Rick Warren had deplored in his prayer how many black babies are aborted and expressed how thankful he was that Obama’s single mother hadn’t aborted him. Think of how that would be covered by the press; imagine the outrage… it is not possible for one to be wrong and the other to be right.
Well I found the benediction a disgrace. Knowing that Obama’s team had to approve the prayers before they were offered makes it even worse.
The words Lowery used were taken from an old Civil Rights chant. Basically had the same words in it, plus more. Everyone says to give the guy a pass, he’s old, he’s black…. NO WAY. What he said was wrong and just plain offensive to many races… white, asian, indian…..
I found it rather insulting and odd that Obama would approve it especially after a speech in which Obama said: “What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.”
Right…. this is change?