Yesterday, civil rights leader Rev. Joseph Lowery delivered the benediction at President Obama's inauguration. At the end of the prayer, Lowery offered a light-hearted approach to a hopeful future absent of racial bigotry:
LOWERY: 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 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.Right-wing talker Glenn Beck found Lowery's blessing way too much to handle, however. On his new Fox News show yesterday, Beck compared Lowery to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, accused him of calling all of America "racist," and asked, "Can you imagine anyone else saying something like that!?" Seeming to take personal offense at Lowry's benediction closing, Beck made sure to inform his viewers that he doesn't "hate minorities."
He then chastised Obama, saying he "was shocked" that Obama "actually smiled when he said this and shook your head." Watch it:
Later in the program, now Fox News political analyst Brit Hume said that, even though he wasn't "greatly offended by it," Lowery's benediction "was a slightly discord in note." Hume then suggested that Lowry might make some changes to incorporate Beck's outrage if he had to do it again:
HUME: Well, it was little - I thought it was a slightly discord in note at the end of the prayer which was really pretty, if you will, mellow. And in some ways, you know, the colloquialism of it, you know, the rhyming of it, I think, suggested that, you know, he needed to find words that rhymed. I wasn't greatly offended by it. I suppose if, you know, he had it to do over again, he might beware of the implications that you suggested.
Some right-wing blogs even joined in, calling Lowery's prayer "divisive" and "overcome by racist hate." Speaking of Lowery's benediction, Beck asked with exasperation: "Is this how the post-racial Obama administration begins?" Indeed, it doesn't appear that Beck is off to a good start.
Comment: Amid the hysterical accusations of racism in the comments on the transcript of the benediction, voices of sanity reminds us how important it is to "remember the past":
By Gayathri on January 21, 2009 12:08 AM
He was just reversing an old saying....
"If you're white, you're alright
If you're brown, stick around
If you're yellow, you're mellow
But if you're black, get back"
and
By Runita Jones on January 21, 2009 1:10 AM
This whole issue shows that racism needs to be discussed fully to completely be healed. Right now, everyone just wants to pretend it didn't exist and that it doesn't still exist...after all we have an African American President.
Having an African American President will not solve the problems if we push what we don't want to see under the rug. That said, the quote used at the end of Rev. Lowry's speech is from a 1949 blues song called Get Back or Black, Brown and White. It was an indictment of the Jim Crow Laws which were enacted by southern state governments.
I am not of the generation that experienced Jim Crow, but I heard this version of the quote: "If you're black, get back; if you're brown,stick around; if you are white, you're alright". Sometimes the word light would be substituted for the word white. When this was the case, it would mean a light skinned black person. Rev. Lowery actually changed the wording and was praying, I believe, for a time when all vestiges of this way of thinking could be truly left behind us. He also implied that we are well on our way when he quoted Lift Every Voice And Sing, by James Weldon Johnson.