“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 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.”
— Rev. Joseph Lowery at the inauguration of Barack Obama.
Excuse me?? When white will embrace what is right? Hey, I don’t care if you’re a reverend or not. I don’t care what your civil rights background is or who you marched with. That was an a-hole comment, and you were an a-hole to say such a thing during a historic event which took place only because whites did do what was right.
Joseph Lowery, like so many of his ideological ilk, are still stuck in the 1950’s and 60’s. According to them, no progress has been made. Even though the guy is standing at the swearing in of the first black president in U.S. history.
This statement spoiled the inauguration; it negated everything that led up to Obama’s election by practically pretending that it never even happened. It was despicable and offensive not only because it was inappropropriate, but because it was untrue.
Tommy Oliver at the site Race 4 2012, says:
According to the poll, roughly 70% of African Americans feel that MLK’s dream has truly been fulfilled, which is a truly staggering number, even by today’s standards. On the other hand, only 45% of the white population feels that the dream is fulfilled.
So while a clear majority of African Americans feel that they have an equal opportunity to succeed in this country, only a minority of white people feel that way. Leave it to the Reverend to remind them that he is among the 30%. You can find the rest of that 30% by reading the membership lists of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Rainbow/Push Coalition, The Black Panther Party, and whatever group Al Sharpton is now attached to.
Race 4 2012 reader “Lori” got her frustration out, writing:
That was no prayer! That was a preachy sermon by a high and mighty racist. It was so offensive to me. I am not the sensitive type but to make victims of every color except one and infer that the one color had yet to do anything right well it just was so wrong. It attributes motives to white people that they don’t have. It makes a mockery of real victims of racial bias of days gone by. The guy is living in the last century. There is no apartheid anymore. I know no one who is bigoted or prejudicial or stands in the way of another based on race. Discrimination no longer exists on a systematic level. In fact you would have to look very hard to find a single instance. The only racists left in America are some extremist klan members in hiding. The guy totally ignores 50 years of progress and enlightenment. Give it up already. This is a new day, and has been or else Obama would never have been elected last November. Wake up and embrace the new America. Stop looking at the ghosts of days gone by. This sort of rhetoric is divisive and indefensible. Get over it already.
Hear hear!
Lowery’s statement, followed the crickets chirping in the studios of the otherwise over-sensitive liberal mainstream media, just goes to show that whites will never win. They’ll never be able to shed the guilt of racism of those who came before them decades and centuries ago, even though the ancestors of most whites in America today either (1) did not engage in racist acts or thoughts, and/or (2) weren’t even living in America in the first place!
Andrew Roman, who blogs at Roman Around, sticks in his two shekels about Lowery's comment. Read his post here, as well as a follow-up post where he responds to the comments of a disagreeing reader.
Welcome to the post-racial era, suckers.
Recent Comments