Barack Hussein Obama Inauguration Part 4: "Please, Lord, save us from the white people!"

This is the last post I'm going to do on the inauguration ceremonies; I'm pushing overkill here, and I wasn't going to post anything at all until the inauguration happened and there was just too much BS to leave it alone. This last bit is about the "prayer" offered by Dr. Joseph Lowery, former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. I don't make a habit of criticizing how others pray, since I believe God hears all sincere prayers by those of any faith, and it is not my place to judge the sincerity of someone's personal prayer. This, however, was not a prayer, it was a speech, and a particularly offensive, divisive one. Listen to this speech (or not), and tell me which side of the political aisle is still obsessed with race and categorizes people based on the color of their skin:



I'm going to ignore most of the prayer, and focus on one statement at the end:

"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."

The first thing wrong with this is that it is a list of absurd catch-phrases partially intended to get a laugh (which they did), that have no place in a prayer worded as they are. What stupid statements. "When black will not asked to get back"? How long has it been since we make black people sit at the back of the bus? "When brown can stick around"? This is a statement promoting illegal immigration, which is an admittedly difficult topic to debate since we're talking about many people who are honestly trying to make a future for themselves in this country, and it's hard on them to feel lumped together with those who cross our borders illegally, often bringing drugs and crime. "When yellow can be mellow"? He pronounces it yellah and mellah. I have no idea what he means by this at all; I think it's in there to include another race, and to rhyme, that's it. "When the red man can get ahead, man"? I know of nothing at all standing in the way of any American Indian being successful. Many of them are very successful, owners of lucrative casino businesses. It's another stupid rhyme, too.

The other, far more offensive thing is the last statement: "When white will embrace what is right." My white heritage, immigrants and minorities, is the only heritage that is maligned here. The implicit message is "step aside, evil white people, it's the black man's turn now, you can't make us drink at a separate drinking fountain any more, 'cause you totally still do that!" After that hilarious poem, this had to be said, ruining the funny tone of the whole thing with this racist statement. I have been discriminated against by the man appointed by our new President to pray at his inauguration. Who is colorblind? Not Democrats.

If we truly want to move forward in a post-racial America, we need to see Barack Hussein Obama not as the first Black President, but as the 44th American President. I can't say it any better than Juan Williams wrote in the Wall Street Journal on the day of the inauguration:

"It is neither overweening emotion nor partisanship to see King's moral universe bending toward justice in the act of the first non-white man taking the oath of the presidency. But now that this moment has arrived, there is a question: How shall we judge our new leader?
If his presidency is to represent the full power of the idea that black Americans are just like everyone else -- fully human and fully capable of intellect, courage and patriotism -- then Barack Obama has to be subject to the same rough and tumble of political criticism experienced by his predecessors. To treat the first black president as if he is a fragile flower is certain to hobble him. It is also to waste a tremendous opportunity for improving race relations by doing away with stereotypes and seeing the potential in all Americans.

Yet there is fear, especially among black people, that criticism of him or any of his failures might be twisted into evidence that people of color cannot effectively lead. That amounts to wasting time and energy reacting to hateful stereotypes. It also leads to treating all criticism of Mr. Obama, whether legitimate, wrong-headed or even mean-spirited, as racist.

This is patronizing. Worse, it carries an implicit presumption of inferiority. Every American president must be held to the highest standard. No president of any color should be given a free pass for screw-ups, lies or failure to keep a promise."

The full article is called Judge Obama on Performance Alone, and can be found here.

Already Obama has given a gold mine of material to blog about, but I'm Obama'd out for the moment and I'm sure any of you who actually read all four of these inauguration posts all the way through are as well. Time for a break; I'll post about something else soon before returning to the topic of America's transition to socialism.