I believe that the very concept of race is the problem, and as you point out, we are still a long way from relinquishing this crutch to understand and relate to one another, in all our individual differences and in all our cultural and linguistic affinities.

I have read that this litany of red-dead, yellow-mellow, etc., is a take on a traditional African American poem. This does NOT make it acceptable for use in the benediction of the inauguration of the United States of America. I could recount to you many ‘traditional white cracker’ aphorisms to which I was subjected in my hillbilly youth by my paternal kin, which are equally as ‘quaint’ if viewed as harmless from a racist ‘white’ person’s perspective. As I said, we should be striving to eliminate these conceptions of one another from our minds, our lives, and our societies, not reaffirming them by treating them as humorous glimpses into our traditions.

Something is never okay to say if it is not okay for anyone to say it at any time, that is my view on language which may have a racially or socially divisive nature.

I have no intent to become a regular here, but I hope my essay will provoke thought and will keep cheking back in for a while to engage in any dialogue. I was simply quite shaken by these events, and even more shaken to read how universally positive many Obama fans are about the Lowery benediction.

If that constitutes trolling, my apologies, but I appreciate your keeping my essay intact.

@ kaonashi: good point on people not “deliberately” not getting it!

@ indy in asia: thanks for your reply and invitation. it is great that you are were not angered but as you see by this and other sites, there are those that are pretty ticked off. i cannot participate in your web tv show but my opinions are stated on my blog. i hope that i and others have sufficiently explained the “context” of rev. lowery’s benediction. whether they accept or come to grips with the explanation is a totally different story.

i’m not sure if rev. lowery will explain since he may believe that most understood where he’s coming from. he is of course two or three generations removed from the folks that do not know what it is like to not have a microwave, computer, Wii, or color tv.

the case for reparations has been kicking around for sometime. when the us government compensated japanese-americans for loss of property and internment during ww2, it felt like a slap in the face to native americans and african americans. some argue that native americans should be happy with the “perks” that come with them being allowed to build hotels and casinos, for example. hitting the jackpot does not replace the injustice that continues to exist in various nations (tribes) in america. many argue that african americans have received compensation for slavery in the form of laws that guarantee freedoms, affirmative active and other “programs.” the problem with that logic is that all in america have benefited from those and until you close the book on this “legal” issue, it will always come up. the only reparations i want are a better economy and a continuation of making america better for all americans.

you need to do more research on malcolm x. it seems that you only know one aspect his life. you cannot watch the movie(s), you have to read the various books that have been written about him. malcolm x represented a leadership in the black community that was deemed dangerous to “those” in power. not comprehending the whole story allows one to settle and further spread half-truths and lies. even when certain people talk about the black panther party, you hear about the “unlawful” organization instead of some in the organization that broke laws. people fail to realize that the black panther party was established in response to what was lacking in black communities. some of their programs are still used to this day by the u.s. government. what we had for the past eight-years impacted all in america and people followed a man that used a grassroots campaign to mobilize people in many neighborhoods in response to what was wrong in america. rev. lowery spoke about what was wrong and asked for a divine and human solution in fixing those problems (institutions), not white people.

it is very lame to compare the earned love of president obama to hitler. hitler’s plan worked for his vision of a master race. obama’s vision works to race toward a master plan. a plan to restore faith and confidence in everything that is America. i guess that it is okay to be fanatic for a sports team but it is wrong to be fanatic for a person that represents a true change in America.

if you do not see or use the category of race, i salute you. however, the world does not see things that way. until humans and institutions change their ways, categories will exist. as one poster said, “it is not about always about YOU, it’s about changing the institution called america for the better. thanks for your reply.

Take out the ‘white=evil’ message created by the implication that ‘whites continue to embrace wrong’ resulting from the phrase “when white will embrace what is right” and you’ve got a totally different rhetoric.

The fact that it is poetic form, and not simply some off-the-cuff comment tossed in shows that, this speaker gave considerable thought to making this statement and to precisely how it was crafted. In short, the message that ‘white=evil’ is in my view not a coincidental one but a quite intentional one.

There are definitely racist people in America, and people who, whether they are conscious of it or not, suffer from a variety of biased or prejudicial thinking. I hypothesize that one’s so-called ‘racial identity’ exhibits virtually zero association with their degree of racism or other forms of social-identity bias.

Indeed, I am afraid to say that, because of the continuation of resentful, and vindictive if not hateful philosophies of racial conflict (e.g., Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan) and the insinuation, if not mainstreamization of ideas from these philosophies into everyday contemporary American culture (particularly African American pop cultures), the degree of association between ‘race’ and ‘racism’ seems to be as likely to be associated with ‘black’ identity as it is with ‘white’ identity.

A lot of us ‘whites’ already embraced what is ‘right’ in our view, and we are alienated, and indeed disappointed when African American rhetoric falses attributes us with bias, racism or ‘wrong’ simply because we are ‘white’ in their eyes.

Or perhaps some of these folks think they know our minds, our behavior, and our lifes better than we know our own, simply because they are ‘black’ and they got us ‘whites’ all figured out? Now if that is not a reversal of bias portraying itself as the correction/removal of bias, I don’t know what is.

I voted for the man, I have high hopes that he will do a lot of good, and I would LIKE to believe in him. But if this is the sort of thing that will be tolerated in Obamaland I cannot say I am impressed whatsoever. I guess I should not be surprised given his 20 years in Wright’s church.

Implying that all whities are racists is simply not implying something that is likely to be empirically true, much less socially progressive and useful.

In all honesty, it offends me when someone just calls me WHITE, much less that they infer that I am a racist based on their perception of my belonging in some particular social category that they erroneously and ignorantly think is validly labeled ‘race.’

I am of mixed ancestry, and I am from a disadvantaged background; I would say at least as disadvantaged as our ‘black’ President. But by virtue of labeling me white and him black, I am automatically placed stereotypically into a historically dominant, more powerful, oppressive social group, which I would tell is simply not the case.

I look down at my arm . . . I see no white here! Beige, tan, pink, even some greenish in the veins . . . “WHITE” is simply a useless term, just as is “BLACK” “YELLOW” “RED,” and all the other nonsensical terms to divide humanity into racial clumps.

We should be working to ELIMINATE these concepts from our minds, and from life on Earth. We are all HUMANS, PEOPLE, PERSONS, FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES, NEIGHBORS, etc. When we automatically think of one another, talk to one another, and refer to one another with these non-segmentary conceptions of joint membership instead of those tired and frankly evil racial typologies, THEN we will be making real progress toward the world that Dr. King and others dreamed about.

I have no doubt that Lowery was a hero in his day, and fought the good fight for Civil Rights. But the Civil Rights movement is over, we are in a new phase of the evolution of true liberty and equality in our society, and to burden ourselves with unnecessary references, and false attributions to past divisions among us is simply not helpful.

Very bad idea to have Lowery give your benediction Bama, or at least very bad idea not to have a look over his speech before you let him say it. But then, you did smile when he said it, so maybe you agree with the idea that you and I really are different because you are ‘black’ and I am ‘white’ and that those labels really do adequately describe our life experiences, our views, and our predispositions.

Given your membership in Wright’s church for so long, I really do fear that this is what you believe, and I fear for what this means for our nation and the world, not to mention for your safety and well-being.

Honestly, I think all the hoopla about Obama has made me just a tad bit depressed. No joke; while all you people have been having the time of your life cheering and shouting, and passing through waves of ideo-politic-ecstascy, I have been progressively cringing more tightly and worriedly with each CNN video and each blogosphere scan I endure.

It is so discouraging to be so poignantly reminded of how simple, emotive, and pliable people are. I’m not saying he is ‘the Anti-Christ,’ but I would like to point out that: the cult of personality which has steadily grown, and most recently erupted into Krakatoa proportions is disturbingly similar in some basic social psychological dimensions to those which surrounded some very sketchy past leaders. For example, Hitler and Mussolini . . . yes, yes I know, ‘good guys’ have also had massive cult followings too (JFK comes to mind, but beyond that . . . hmmmm, can’t actually think of any others) . . . but there is just something that is honestly [to me] rather creepy about how people feel about Obama.

He strikes me as a very smart, very capable, respectful and thoughtful man who will surround himself with people who are highly knowledgeable in their chosen disciplines. I also do not doubt that he really is a visionary with an inspired mission to ‘make the world better,’ who has an incredible charismatic ability to inspire people that whatever the specifics of that ‘mission,’ they believe in it, and are devoted to it.

With the exception of every single one of those descriptors except respectful and to a certain degree thoughtful, you could use the paragraph above to describe Adolf Hilter. He was very smart, very capable, ‘thoughtful’ depending on exactly how you want to deploy that word. He surrounded himself with people who are highly knowledgeable, and he clearly was a real visionary with an inspired mission to ‘make the world better,’ and who had an incredible charismatic ability to inspire people that whatever the specifics of that mission, they believed in it, and were devoted to it.

I am NOT saying that Barack Obama is the latest incarnation of a genocidal maniac despot who is going to usher in a period of massive bloodshed, suffering and catastrophe. I am simply pointing out that, many of the dynamics of a Great Leader with the capacity to inspire people are not mutually exclusive with megalomania, prejudice, vindictiveness, even callous inhumanity and hatred.

I guess if he had been in the Senate for 20 years, and we had more of a history of how he actually thinks and feels, how he tends to vote, and what he really believes in, I might feel differently.

But we don’t have that. What we have is a past that is hard to pin down with any particular term except ‘ambitious, tending to be liberal, populist, litigiously-competent and eloquent.’

How many times is it that he voted ‘Present’ during his legislative days?

Add to this the whole Rev Wright connection, some comments he has made during his campaign, his response to the Lowery benediction . . .

‘Uneasiness’ sincerely describes how I feel about this man at this point, and I am DEFINITELY not a ‘conservative.’ I am pro-Gay Marriage, I voted for Clinton, Gore, and Obama, and I tend to think that socialized medicine is a good thing.

Understand, I am not saying that I am dead-set against Obama; I am not firmly convinced that he is malignant force, and I am not [yet] opposed to him . . . but just uneasy, a bit wary, and very much skeptical.

This latest incident with Lowery’s Benediction is IMO, just the latest “blip” in a series of blips that indicate a kind of megalomaniacal elitism and vindictiveness as a person of color. Perhaps we are on blip #11 or 12, but we are not yet on blip #20.

Barack Obama still “IS MY PRESIDENT.” I voted for him. I hope for the best for him, and for us; and I very, VERY much _WANT_ to believe in him, and place my trust in him that he will always do what is right for the greater good of America and the world. After 8 years of Bushes general incomptence, bullheaded stubbornness and arrogance someone who really had the characteristics of diplomacy and skill which Obama seems to have would be a refreshing change.

But when I see repeated instances of his complicity if not agreement with what I consider to be racist views of Black-White relations in the U.S., I get very uneasy . . . VERY uneasy, and I am reminded of just how inspiring Adolf Hitler was to the German people.

In the present PC climate, in which reversal of bias is all too often portrayed as ‘leveling’ or ‘righting wrongs’ or as reforming bias, I am planning to keep my head down . . .

Stop and consider this: If McCain had won, and they got some aging born-again preacher from a holdout racially segregated white privilege district of the South. Say for example, a Jerry Falwell type of caricature.

What if, during his benediction, this joker gave some poetry something about like this . . .

Would you think that that was equally as ‘trivial?’

Or how about this, leave everything the same as in Lowery’s original transcript

[quote]
Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in 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. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.[quote]

But just change “when white will embrace what is right” to “when non-whites will embrace what is right.”

Would THAT be trivial?

No it would NOT be trivial, and neither is implying that “whites embrace what is wrong!!”

just my opinion
60 year old Male

THE POEM REFERS TO THE INSTITUTION OF RACISM, NOT WHITE PEOPLE.

He took a very ugly (and unfortunately truthful at times) poem and changed the words so it reflects the positive of ALL people, and what we as Americans should aspire to be. IT’S NOT ALWAYS ABOUT YOU.

Mahalo for responding to my post.

I was addressing what I was reading beginning with the heading, “Rev. Joseph E. Lowery Benediction Angers Some”.

Please understand I was not ANGERED by Reverend Lowery’s prejudiced remarks, I just found them in appropriate to, indeed, antithetical to, the spirit the occasion.

My invitation is to discuss further whether Reverend Lowery’s poetics were racist or not did not mean to do so at my blog, but on my Television Program.

If it was you who wrote, “…it seems that some have misunderstood the meaning of the rhyme at the very last part of Reverend Lowery’s benediction…” then I extend to you my hand in brotherhood, and invite you to be my Special Guest on IndyInAsia Television.

Aloha nui loa,
Indy