REV LOWERY RHYMED THE DAY ~ BLACK BACK, BROWN aROUND, YELLOW MELLOW, RED aHEAD, WHITE RIGHT

"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." From Reverend Joseph Lowery's Inaugural Benediction January 2009

Odetta wanted to sing at President Obama's Inauguration,
however she died December 3, 2008.
Odetta was born December 31 1930.
I want to include Odetta on this post to honor her wish.
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Odetta sings We Shall Overcome and This Little Light of Mine
Thanks to Thespadecaller
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Odetta in an interview on Human Rights
Thanks to visionaryproject

Odetta - sings Glory Hallelujah

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Rev. Joseph Lowery ends his benediction with a mention of racial work still to be done

Source: www.chicagotribune.com

By Associated Press

1:14 PM CST, January 20, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid the outpouring of inaugural joy over the racial progress represented by President Barack Obama, there was a single, humorous mention of work still to be done.

After the first black president had been sworn in, Rev. Joseph Lowery' ended his benediction with a rhyme familiar to black churchgoers:

"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..."

There was laughter from the enormous crowd. The 87-year-old civil rights pioneer continued:

"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."

The crowd thundered, "Amen!"

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Lowery Grateful That Nation Believes 'yes We Can'

Rev. Lowery Offers Benediction Praying For Obamas And For Economic Recovery

(AP) The Rev. Joseph Lowery has thanked God for letting Barack Obama inspire the nation to believe that "yes, we can" work together toward a "more perfect union."

Delivering a benediction at the end of Obama's inauguration ceremony, Lowery said Obama takes office at a "low moment" in the nation's and the world's economic health. He prayed for an end to "exploitation" of the weak and poor, and what he called "favoritism toward the rich."

The 87-year-old Methodist is considered the dean of the civil rights movement, helping lead the Montgomery bus boycotts in the 1950s and delivering a list of demands to Alabama Gov. George Wallace during the bloody Selma-Montgomery March in 1965.

After being asked to deliver the benediction at Obama's inauguration, Lowery said he's long hoped that an African-American would one day become president, but didn't think he'd live long enough to see it.

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The election does not augur a "post-racial" era any more than it ends the civil rights struggle, writes Rev. Joseph Lowery. (Tribune photo by Alex Garcia / January 15, 2009)

Civil rights figure Rev. Joseph Lowery reflects on a movement

Rev. Joseph Lowery, 87, a major figure in the civil rights movement who marched with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to overturn discrimination in voting rights and other aspects of American public life, will give the benediction at Barack Obama's inauguration Tuesday. The Tribune invited Lowery to reflect on the journey from King to Obama. Here is his essay.

They tell me that when you stand on the Capitol steps and look down the Mall, you can see the Lincoln Memorial. I look forward to that experience when Barack Obama takes the oath to become the 44th president of these United States.

I will look down that Mall and in my mind's eye I will see a 34-year-old preacher standing before a crowd of nearly a quarter of a million at that Lincoln Memorial in 1963, calling on Americans to move beyond the color of their skin to the content of their character.

Obama's inauguration is a nation's response to that call.

We celebrate Martin Luther King's 80th

birthday the day before the nation's first black president takes office. Obama accepted his party's nomination on the 45th anniversary of that young preacher's "I have a dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial. Interesting connections, right?

In those days, we thought there would be a black person serving as president someday, but I don't recall any of us thinking we would live to see that day.

When Martin was killed in April 1968, there were only a few hundred black elected officials in the U.S. Today the number is around 10,000!

The 1965 Voting Rights Act—the most significant legislation in my lifetime—opened the door to political emancipation. In 1965, the first casualty of the voting-rights campaign, Jimmie LeeAlabama state trooper in a town named Marion. Out of this tragedy came the idea of marching from Selma to Montgomery to gain national support for the right to vote. Then Martin named a committee to take our demands to Gov. George Wallace, and I was appointed chairman.

But when we reached the Capitol steps to go to the governor's office, we were blocked by a sea of blue-uniformed state troopers. The National Guard was there too, and was authorized to protect us. I looked back at the general of the National Guard, and he barked some commands to the guardsmen and they tramped over in front of the state troopers and made motions with their rifles across their shoulders. Just as dramatically as it sounds, the "blue sea" parted, and we walked up the steps to the door of the Capitol. Moses had the Red Sea—we had the blue sea!

Even so, the governor didn't want to meet us, so he sent his secretary to ask for our demands. I said we didn't march 50 miles from Selma to give our concerns to the governor's secretary. A few days later, Wallace finally met with us.

Our struggle in Alabama awakened the nation, and the Voting Rights Act soon became the law of the land.

The "I have a dream" speech is Martin's most famous and is an international institution. It has been so used and abused that sometimes I think its beauty and power may have been tucked away. There are forces in this country who have deviously used lines from the speech to claim that Martin opposed affirmative action! As we celebrate Dr. King's 80th birthday, I want to call your attention to my favorite of all his writings, "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

In the heat of the Birmingham movement, eight white Alabama clergymen issued a statement calling on Dr. King to halt the demonstrations. Interestingly enough, the clerics affirmed the righteousness of the cause but condemned the timing. "Wait," they cried, "for a more convenient season."

Martin's response, written on scraps of paper, even toilet paper (jailers would provide no paper at all), was classic. He expounded on the efficacy of non-violence in achieving social change, the urgency of now and the futility of waiting on a more propitious moment. He set forth the moral and theological underpinnings of the movement. He discussed the nature and purpose of "direct action"—civil disobedience—and explained his great disappointment with the failure of white moderates and the white church to come to grips with the moral imperatives of both the Christian and Jewish faiths.

He made clear that the goal of the movement was not to defeat white folks but to change a system that harmed both the oppressor and the oppressed.

To appropriately celebrate Martin, we must honor both the man and the movement. To ennoble the man and ignore the movement is to do injustice to both. We must not let the spirit of the movement be overcome with sentimental ceremonies that omit the sacramental nature of the struggle. Ceremonies end with the benediction while sacraments begin with the benediction. Ceremony is like putting a ring on her finger at the wedding. Sacrament is ringing her life with love and joy ever after.

"Letter from Birmingham Jail" keeps the focus on the movement—the continuing struggle for justice. The need to honor the mission as well as the missionary is expressed in a poem by Carl Wendell Hines called "Now That He Is Safely Dead":

Now that he is safely dead

Let us praise him ...

Dead men make

such convenient heroes: They

cannot rise

to challenge the images

we would fashion from their lives.

And besides,

it is easier to build monuments

than to make a better world.

Now that the American people have elected an African-American president, I'm hearing terms like "post-racial." I don't understand that any more than "post-civil-rights." Are people implying that we have reached the goals of the movement now that we have a black president? No way. The election of one black even to the most powerful office on the planet does not resolve all the problems of racial discrimination. The advocacy community must continue to "speak truth to power" no matter who holds the reins of power. The racial/ethnic/color/gender identity of the powerful should change from time to time, but the advocacy for "justice to roll down as waters" must be everlasting.

The median income of blacks is about two-thirds of the median income of whites; the criminal justice system of 2008 is too much like the criminal justice system of 1938 as far as race is concerned. But thank the Lord, we have come a long, long way, and I am proud of my country for the election of Barack Obama. It is a giant step forward.

When I recall the image of that preacher at the Lincoln Memorial on Tuesday, I'm sure he will be smiling, and both of us may have eyes moistened with tears of joy. I'm equally certain that we will continue to pray for justice to roll down as waters, and for that day when there will be peace in the valley, and for that day when every man and every woman will sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none will be afraid, and for that day when black will not be asked to get back, brown can stick around, yellow will be mellow, the red man can get ahead, man, and white will embrace what is right! Amen! Read the article at the source www.chicagotribune.com

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Jan-19-2009

Civil rights figure Rev. Joseph Lowery reflects on a movement

(topic overview)
CONTENTS:

• You're free when you do what you ought to do." (More...)
• Lowery and King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 to fight racial segregation and other injustices. (More...)
• As in so many political cartoons during the campaign season, the word '''change''' could be interpreted as the kind that goes ka-ching ''' and hasn'''t been doing so lately. (More...)
• 'We are witnessing the swearing-in of the 44th president, who happens to be a black person, and that's unprecedented,' Lowery said from his home in Atlanta. (More...)

Source: newsfeedresearcher.com

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Genocide Ends

When Enough of Us

Stand Up Against It

JOIN US
1-800-GENOCIDE
www.savedarfur.org
www.genocideintervention.net
www.standnow.org

www.miafarrow.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"IF HE WAS ALIVE HE'D BE A SICK MAN" DICK GREGORY ON PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH

NOTE: YouTubes added to this post February 26, 2008

There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Fear and God do not occupy the same space. "Dick Gregory
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"I'm tired of people talking about these elections from the standpoint of fear..."
Dick Gregory from the Black State of Union 2008

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I had C-Span on all day today and listened as I did the wash and carried on my day. It was the live airing of The State of the Black Union from New Orleans, Lousiana. It can be seen online now as the morning session, Part 1 and the afternoon session, Part 2. It will reair on C-Span, Friday February 29 at 8:00 p.m. Tavis has a forum to talk the issues of being black in America.

As much as I really got a lot from this and I appreciate the discussion of "blacks", "browns", "yellows" and "whites" ~ I am disappointed the "reds" are almost always completely left out. I hate the use of color to identify human beings. None of us are those colors anyway. No Asian is yellow and the indigenous people we call Indians are not red... Very, very rarely do we ever include the first American, the Indians in any discussion. This is WRONG.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I hate it when I am dismissed. And we as a country are dismissive of the First Americans, indigenous people to this land ~ like they don't count, like they don't exist. And they do exist. And they will be the LAST to be recognized. Let us start including them in the dialog.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
The Measure of a Man, 1958
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Link that will allow you to see the whole day, February 23, 2008 in New Orleans

C-Span complete coverage of the State of the Black Union

See Tavis Smiley "State of the Black Union" ~ Morning Session

See Tavis Smiley "State of the Black Union" ~ Afternoon Session

NOTE: This link of the entire morning and afternoon sessions worked for me February 23, but every time I have tried it after the first successful loading, it has not worked. Keep checking youtube, because it will eventually show up there most likely ~ too good not to... I just checked today, February 26 and that is when the Youtube embeds on this post were found with portions of Dick Gregory's sharing and I added them to this post for my readers.

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Dick Gregory "apologizing" to Bill Clinton
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"...How in the world can a nine year old child find a heroin man, but the FBI can't find it...."
Dick Gregory

Highlights were Donna Brazile at the 1 hour 2o minute mark, hurricane Katrina survivor Herreast Harrison at 2 hours, 29 minutes, and Dick Gregory really gets everyone going at the 56 minute mark, then again at 3 hours, 2 minutes. He zeroes in on Bill Clinton being a black man at 3 hours, 9 minutes.

DON'T MISS DICK GREGORY!

I particularly liked Eddie Glaude, Princeton University Professor of Religion's about "What is the prize?" at the 3:28 mark, that is the 3rd hour, 28 minute mark. But he is also good at the 50 minute mark.

I missed the bru-ha-ha between Tavis and the fact that Barack Obama was invited to come and participate and made the choice of campaigning for President in Ohio and Texas instead. But he did tell Tavis that Michelle Obama could come to represent the black perspective. But Tavis said no. This next link I think spells out quite well why Barack's decision was the correct one.
Why Obama should skip Tavis Smiley's State of the Black Union
Roland S Martin

Here is the letter Senator Barack Obama sent to Tavis Smiley:

The following letter dated February 13, was sent to Tavis Smiley asking him to reconsider his decision not to let Michelle Obama stand in for her husband at the 2008 State of the Black Union forum in New Orleans.

February 13, 2008
Mr. Tavis Smiley
President and CEO
The Smiley Group

Dear Tavis,

Thank you for the invitation to participate in the 2008 State of the Black Union forum in New Orleans, Louisiana February 21-23. The exchange of ideas raised at this annual symposium are invaluable as our nation strives to address the critical issues facing not just African Americans, but Americans of every race, background and political party.

I especially commend you for hosting this dialogue in New Orleans. On the eve of the Louisiana primary, I visited this great city for the fifth time since declaring my candidacy to share policy proposals for rebuilding the Gulf Coast so that we never experience another Hurricane Katrina. On February 9, I was deeply humbled to win the Louisiana primary with 86 percent of the African American vote and a 14 point lead among all voters who said they were adversely affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Uniting our country and creating a national constituency for fundamental change is why I am running for President of the United States. We have come a long way in this race, but we still have a long road ahead. In the final stretch, I will be on the campaign trail everyday in states like Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin talking directly with voters about the causes that are at the heart of my campaign and the State of the Black Union forum such as affordable healthcare, housing, economic opportunity, civil rights and foreign policy. I am committed to touching every voter, and working to earn their vote.

That is why with regret, I am not able to attend the forum. I understand that you have declined the campaign’s request to have Michelle Obama speak on my behalf. I ask that you reconsider. Michelle is a powerful voice for the type of real change America is hungry for. No one knows my record or my passion for leading America in a new direction more than Michelle Obama.

Tavis, this is our movement and our time. I look forward to working closely with you throughout this election. Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,
Barack Obama
Source: The Black Political Review Tavis Smiley Feeling Blowback of Obama

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Tavis Smiley's Covenant with Black America

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”Martin Luther King, Jr.

LEGAL TO HAVE SKIN COLOR AND HAIR

We have never made laws about plant color. But we have about human skin color. Why are "we" so bothered by skin color and the texture of human hair? I love color. Imagine a world without color.

The thing is I look white. Well, not white. But you know that skin color that is referred to as white.

As far as I know, I am part French, Irish, Swiss, and German. My mom’s side has had an official research done and published in a hard copy book (cover page) that informs that the name Mickley was originally Michelet. My father’s side has had no formal search, but while in Switzerland, I was informed by the nuns where I was staying that a man across the street had my last name, Hammel. And there is a Hammelburg in Switzerland, however there is also a Hammelburg, Germany. My red hair and fair skin is shared by no one in my family. Since my father’s mother had the red hair gene, and I assumed she was Irish, I thought that is where I got the red hair. But when I was in Innsbruch, Austria, I met a young lady who had the exact color of red that I have now and the same complexion color. Red hair has many shades. Even my color has not remained the same. It was once darker. My mother’s mother told me once that there was someone black in my ancestry. No one else has ever mentioned this. I did have one black hair once. Who knows? And some wonderful Hopi told me I looked Cherokee while visiting in Priscilla Namingha Nampeyo’s home in Arizona.

And although my mother “told” me as a child that all people were “equal”, it only played out as painful for me when I was attracted to one of two black boys while 11 years old at my Yellow Creek Lake Church of God summer camp in northeastern Indiana . I never had met a black person before in my life, but didn’t think anything of it, as... well ... you know, something ~ WRONG to do. His name is Eddie Griffith and was from Gary, Indiana. His minister, Brother Cherry, was a camp counselor. He sang at one of the nightly church services, “No Not One”. A clear and sweet voice. I was “in love”. He was adorable. The only thing we ever did was hold hands, have two pictures taken together and exchange letters. But when those pictures and two letters mysteriously came up missing from my bedroom desk drawer without ever an explanation ~ I was crushed. I cried myself to sleep while smothering my sound into silence. It was only the second emotional pain of my life. And this was my first time of being hurt this way. I didn’t understand. My mother never explained. My father only made a passing comment that I didn’t want striped or polka dotted children, while waiting for the school bus one morning. (The first hurt had to do with a "just-hatched" bird ~ no feathers yet ~ I found on my mile walk home from school, that had been run over ~ when I was in third grade. I was going to nurse it back health, but my mother made me throw it away in the woods across the street from our house. That hurt.)

So when I once again had a black person in my life in my thirties, I knew what to expect. Disapproval. I was not wrong about that. When Mark and I decided not to get married, but to live together, we planned a “Commitment Ceremony” which we invited his parents, one friend each and my family. But when my family couldn’t condone our decision not to marry, it was better not to have that “aura” present. They have never approved of me in general. Just never fit the mold.

I have been thinking of race lately. White people can do that. Think about race only when it is convenient or when it suits us. If you are not white or don't look white, you don’t have that choice. It is thrown in your face daily. One of the people I met in New Hampshire while volunteering for the Obama campaign, said that the lady at the door she was canvassing wouldn’t touch her flyer about Barack, but was instructed to lay it down at the door. This young girl, looked fine to me. I didn’t ask her what her race was, but it struck me as puzzling because I didn’t see why someone would think she wasn’t white. I’m aware of racism, but even this was a mystery to me.

The host of where I was staying asked me if Richard Wolffe was black immediately when I showed him who he was. I didn’t get the reason for the question. What would it matter first of all unless it was an issue? And anyway, Richard doesn’t look black to me. So.

After Eddie, my 11 year old beau friend ~ my dad always would think I was some expert on whether someone was black or not. He would ask me if Leslie Uggams was black, etc.

These questions to me are telling. When my cousin pointed out that the people of Lousiana were black and his reason for explaining ~ in his mind~ their behavior during hurricane Katrina was because they were black, I found that a bigoted statement on a couple of levels. When I heard a family member, say that hurricane Katrina happened because all of the people in the area were evil, I thought this had bigoted undertones to the statement.

And when a couple people thought they were being open-minded and showing their acceptance of Mark, they said, that they didn’t think of Mark as black. My comment was to a family member, that Mark thinks of himself as black.

After 15 years, I am no longer living with Mark. But I miss his extended family. They opened my world. They welcomed me. I felt accepted by them. They have had to deal with white people their whole lives.

At our “Commitment Ceremony” we wrote our own “vows”. I included a small excerpt from SPORT OF NATURE By Nadine Gordimer. Below I have included this excerpt between the *….* but I have also included what follows this portion. I enjoy the differences. And I acknowledged the difference by using this passage. Why pretend? I see no reasons. Part of the enjoyment of life is to see the beauty and differences can be beautiful. I love skin. There is nothing like touching skin. Body to body. It’s quite a gift given to us to enjoy. I know it makes some people cringe to think of white skin and not-white skin touching, but I’m not one of those people.

* Lying beside him, looking at pale hands, thighs, belly: seeing herself as unfinished, left off, somewhere. She examines his body minutely and without shame, and he wakes to see her at it, and smiles without telling her why: she is the first not to pretend the different colours and textures of their being is not an awesome fascination. How can it be otherwise? * The laws that have determined the course of life for them are made of skin and hair, the relative thickness and thinness of lips and the relative height of the bridge of nose. That is all; that is everything. The Lilliesleaf houseparty is in prison for life because of it. Those with whom she ate pap and cabbage are in Algeria and the Soviet Union learning how to man guns and make bombs because of it. He is outlawed and plotting because of it. Christianity against other gods, the indigenous against the foreign invader, the masses against the ruling class ~ where he and she come from all these become interpretative meanings of the differences seen, touched and felt, of skin and hair. The laws made of skin and hair fill the statute books in Pretoria; their gaudy savagery paints the bodies of Afrikaner diplomats under three-piece American suits and Italian silk ties. The stinking fetish made of contrasting bits of skin and hair, the scalping of millions of lives, dangles on the cross of Christ. Skin and hair. It has mattered more than anything else in the world. Page 177

More text in the comment section...

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Emily faced racism in her family. But her family has come around.

RACISM IS NOT A GOOD THING FROM ANY SIDE OF IT

God Created All People Equal ~ It's Just That We Can't Get There From Here Unless We Lose the Fear
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=swmlc5avUy8

As I walked today with my white skin with a Barack Obama pin on my coat, I felt something. It was just my sense of what was going on. But I trust my intuition. I sensed racism.

I have written about this before: Personally I have experienced racism in my own family. The two times in my life that I experienced it, was when my family found themselves confronted with the issue because I had a black male in my personal life. This happened when I was eleven and when I was thirty-six. You might think that my parents would have let the first one slide because I was only eleven and chances are I wasn't going to marry him one day. But no, that is not what happened. And you might think that when I was thirty-six, that my parents would have realized that it was none of their business, because I was well-beyond the years of being raised by them. But that was not the case.

I no longer am in the 15 year relationship with my former "significant other", but I still adore his family. His family was a blessing to my life and they continue to be a blessing to the son that we adopted together, who is white.

There was one time that he and I attended a concert and I was about the only white person there. That was a revealing and new experience of feelings for me. That is exactly what my former significant other has to live every day for his entire life. We, white people, have no idea what it is like to live with racism every day.

And as much as I love Barack Obama as a Presidential Candidate, I am sobered by the realness of racism that we have in the "United" States of America in 2007. This country will never be the "grown-up" that it has the potential and responsibility to be, until it confronts its racism toward the American Indians, the blacks, the Mexicans, "immigrants" and on and on. We don't really "need" to have another group of human beings to look down upon, in order to "lift our own opinions of ourselves up". We can find our worth without knocking someone else down. But we can't do that unless we are willing to face our internalized racist, bigoted covert or overt ways.

We are better than this. We can do better. But not without asking the questions that will require the courage to face the ugly truth that we are bigots.

Barack Obama bleeds the same color of blood that every other person bleeds. We are all the same in the most human and valuable ways. But many will pass him up because they see his skin.

Racism comes from fear. People controlled by fear about their own worth are most likely to be racist.

One of the last songs that my dad sang to me before he passed away May 10, 2007 was the childhood song:

"Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world."

Okay, so I never did get the color thing. I mean who is yellow or red? And I always thought that black people were more brown than black. And I'm not really white. And that "flesh-colored" crayon ~ really was a racist, bigoted statement in a box of crayons. But the idea of that song is that if we are Christian, then we should love and accept everyone equally. But that has not been my experience in my so-claimed Christian family.

I am disappointed to put it mildly that many people won't vote for Barack because of one thing. And it isn't that he lacks experience. Bush didn't have "experience", as well as other qualities and yet he has been the president for two terms. So ~ it would be a really good thing for people to get to know what integrity Barack has and accept him accordingly.

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http://youtube.com/watch?v=HFBUgPNcCcE
This Little Light of Mine
Sung by Bruce Springsteen