Friday, January 23, 2009

Reverend Joseph Lowery Gives Racist Speech at Obama's Inauguration



The following is an excerpt from a speech that Reverend Joseph Lowery gave during the recent inauguration of President Barack Obama. Click on this link for a transcript of the entire speech http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2009/01/rev-lowery-inauguration-benedi.html or click on the embedded video above.

"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."
Martin Luther King said that we should not judge people by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Lowery's statement categorizes people into separate racial groups and judges them on their color alone. I am offended by the outright bigotry and inaccuracy of Lowery's statement. If you are going to use color to generalize behavior of a group, why not be more accurate?

Although it is distasteful for me to categorize people into racial stereotypes and then make wholesale judgments based on race, I will do so here in an effort to demonstrate how absurd, insulting and inaccurate Rev. Lowery's statement is.

The day has come when "blacks will not be asked to get in the back". That day came over 50 years ago, when segregation was ended in America and civil rights laws were put in place and have been vigorously enforced ever since. I know of no known case of racial segregation since. If there were any, they have been corrected by our criminal and civil justice systems. In today's America, blacks are not asked to "get in the back".

On average, blacks are responsible for six times as much violent crime than whites in America. Shouldn't Rev. Lowery have asked the black man to "embrace what is right"?

On average, 70 percent of black children are born out of wedlock and a majority grow up in fatherless homes. Shouldn't black fathers be asked to "stick around"?

I have learned from my personal experience in predominantly black movie theaters and neighborhoods, that most black people are much louder and more rowdy than most Asians. Shouldn't the black man asked "to be mellow" (especially in movie theaters).

During the past 50 years, affirmative action and racial quotas have insured that under-qualified minorities get ahead of more qualified white men in college admissions and employment opportunities. Black men, women and other minorities have been given an unfair advantage of "getting ahead man" in college enrollment and employment.

Today's civil rights leaders focus on disparities in "outcomes", between different "groups", rather than equal opportunities and responsibilities that all Americans share. I would like to work toward the day when civil rights leaders preach about the the virtues of individual responsibilities, consideration to your fellow man, the importance of the intact family and aspiring to live our lives according to the Christian principles that our great nation was founded upon.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very clever riposte to Rev. Lowery's speech.

Speaking of speeches, I read Obama's inaugural speech & although I don't agree with all he says, it's still (to me) well written & inspiring. Maybe you want to comment on that.

I notice that with the new year, all your old articles were put into the archives.

Good job!

Ben

mother carol said...

It is amazing that he was allowed to get away with that just because he was black. If a white person had categorized in that fashion the press would have been convulsing.