Thursday, January 22, 2009

My one and only political thought. . .

“Lord, ... 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.”

I'm not into politics or care much about them honestly, but this really irritates me. Since moving to Missouri I have been called racist on several different occasions. . .basically for holding the black girls I supervised to the same standard as the whites. I never said anything degrading. I never called them names or talked badly about them to any one. I feel I treated them the same. . .and I have several black friends that would agree with me. (But obviously many that would not) Anyways, I'm white and I feel this quote insinuates that I don't embrace what is right and seems very one sided and even racist. To be honest, if i were Asian I would also be mad too. Saying that they should be mellow. . .whats that suppose to mean???? Are they high strung or "unmellow?" I can't believe people aren't totally upset about this. If it had been flipped around and a white man would have said blacks were in the wrong for something. . .anything, there would have been riots right on the spot. Someone tried to inform me this was socially acceptable to say that whites have not been equal to blacks but to me this comment is flat out saying we are ALL choosing to do what is wrong. That makes me mad. Whites did vote for Obama. . .Even if he would have said whites would continue to embrace what is right or something else. . .To me this just seems like a slap in the face. . .Do you agree? Am I reading too much in to this? What do you think?

4 comments:

kimaBannon said...

Hooray! Stephanie blogging political thoughts! Since I am anonymously referred to in this post I am going to comment. I said that this quote is "PC", meaning culturally acceptable, not socially acceptable. The reason (I think) that people aren't making a big deal about this, is that this not that unusual. This quote is reflective of what culture accepts as acceptable opinion regarding majority/minority relations. The only thing out of the ordinary about it is the setting in which it was said; during the benediction prayer at the inauguration of the president who is leading us toward a post-racial culture. Ultimately I think the words were chosen because they rhyme, but at an occasion of such consequence, it was a thoughtless thing to say.

The Clan said...

I don't care if they rhyme or not. Not OK!

Rantipole15 said...

Alas, it makes me think of nothing more than the "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" rule that we used to enforce in Mombasa so that we wouldn't fill up the septic tank so fast...

jennifer said...

stephanie, i totally agree with you. not only is it racist and unnecessary it's pretty uneducated and pathetic choice of words to address the whole nation (and world) with. i think it's a silly thing to say and i would have thought that a bit more consideration would have gone into the message given across - something slightly more important than very childish rhymes??
the only thing i found more embarrassing than what you pointed out - what the horror of the 'poet' who spoke. honestly, she sounded like a daft robot and was utterly rubbish. and i was pretty embarrassed because she sounded like she had a problem - and was meant to be representing the US on an artistic/intellectual level? ahhh... it was horrible. and possibly even worse than 'white get it right'... if that is even possible?