Inaugural benediction: Pray that “white will embrace what is right”

[Svante]

No, but people seem to be trying to make a mountain out of nothing here.

Listen to the whole context.

i d o listen to hole context and it make white people racist.this i s not true becuase this i s white people who help elect presiident Obama.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Whites still need to do what's right.

What makes you think that most of us don't? I thought you left?

 

[sky dancer]

Speak for yourself, spinner girl. I've done nothing to earn any 'zinger'.

You sure you have earned this zinger. It's funny that you cannot see that.

You've earned it because YOU think you're above being insulted once because you happen to be white?

 

[Modbert]

I'm just curious, what will arguing over this accomplish?

I've come to realize that some people won't see it as racist, some will, and others just don't care.

This is not reflective upon Obama. Notice Obama's face in the video when he said the line about whites, he wasn't laughing.

Really, I swear that some of you people on here would argue who has better fashion as president if it came down to a very slow news day and you tried hard enough.

Today is the dawn of a new era, whether you like it or not.

Today is the day that change comes to the White House, whether you like it or not.

Today is perhaps the only day of this year when we can all come together, stand together, and have some hope. Not just in this government change, but perhaps also in ourselves.

It was Robert F. Kennedy who once wrote/said:

"Let no one be discouraged by the belief that there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills -- against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence... Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man (or a woman) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he (or she) sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

And that is the same message that Obama is trying to get across. He means us, us as Americans have gone through perhaps our darkest hour in recent history with 9/11 but we survived. We survived thus far and in the words of the newly elected President:

"In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come."

So for once, let's not sweat the petty things and just be Americans. May we be white, black, yellow, red, whatever. Whether you love or hate Obama, just be happy. That we can have such a moment in this history. That a man like Obama who if he were alive 60 years ago couldn't walk into really any restaurant without being served, or that 200 years ago he would only be considered 3/5 of a person.

 

[dilloduck]

Whites still need to do what's right.

Everyone does-----which happens to be the point.
Focus---maybe you can understand it.

 

[Svante]

Everyone does-----which happens to be the point.
Focus---maybe you can understand it.

thank you.averybody need to do what is right.

 

[Zoom-boing]

You sure you have earned this zinger. It's funny that you cannot see that.

You've earned it because YOU think you're above being insulted once because you happen to be white?

I'm not above anyone, neither are you. Don't you get that? It's not ok for white people to insult black people in a racist way but it is ok for black people to insult white people in a racist way? Sugar, it's both ways or no way.

 

[sky dancer]

Everyone does-----which happens to be the point.
Focus---maybe you can understand it.

Focus yourself. You're clueless. Whites did not support the civil rights movement in large numbers. People put their lives on the line for civil rights.

Whites can use a shake up once and awhile. The status quo 'good ol white boy network' is being replaced by a racially inclusive step forward. It is historical, and a zinger to remind us of that is not inappropriate.

 

[Amanda]

no one has lived for centuries---it was racist---I'll move on----but please stop fallnig all over yourselves trying to convince us that it wasn't a racist little jingle this dude put together.

That's a sort of zinger in itself... he didn't make it up, it's a known saying in certain circles.

 

[del]

Focus yourself. You're clueless. Whites did not support the civil rights movement in large numbers.

you define clueless.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Really, I swear that some of you people on here would argue who has better fashion as president if it came down to a very slow news day and you tried hard enough.

Obama would win this race (oh, is it racist that I said 'race' in context of speaking about a black man? ) hands down. The guy is an impeccable dresser.

 

[dilloduck]

That's a sort of zinger in itself... he didn't make it up, it's a known saying in certain circles.

Really ? Never heard it before. What circles?

 

[Againsheila]

What's wrong with white embracing what's right?

What's right is equality. Genocide of First Nation Native Americans was not right. Slavery was not right. Blacks and people of color having no voting rights was not right.

If some white people found that one sentence offensive--think of the offensiveness that others have put up with for centuries. Get over yourselves.

In my lifetime, blacks weren't considered human. In my lifetime, lynchings occurred. In my lifetime, skinheads murdered Mulageta Seraw.

Do whites need to see the light? Yes, some still do. The ones who said over my dead body will this black man be elected.

And yet he was elected, and without the white votes, he wouldn't have been. To claim whites are racist in his inaugural address is a slap in the face to all the whites that voted for him.

In my lifetime, right now, this very minute blacks are still being sold as slaves in Africa. Whites, especially young white girls are also being sold into slavery.

 

[del]

Obama would win this race (oh, it is racist that I said 'race' in context of speaking about a black man? ) hands down. The guy is an impeccable dresser.

harry truman was a great dresser, i'd have to go with harry, myself. obama dresses well, too, but i just like those old timey double breasted suits.

 

[Truthmatters]

History means nohting to hese people.

This whole Bushian attitude that they can do no wrong and should never have to hear someone who they dont identify with ever say anything about their "culture".

Slavery was perpetrated by white people on black people by the most part. They refuse to ever let anyone acknowledge this without pitching a fit. Then they wonder why race realtions have been tense for so many years.

 

[rcajun90]

I think some people view it as racist.

My understanding is he said:


There seems to be an assumption that white has not embraced what is right. If that's what he's saying it would seem to be a racist statement because of how it paints all whites as not embracing what is right.

What is your take?

Those lines were taken from a song during the Civil Rights era of the 60's. It goes like this...ifing you brown....stick around....if your black get back. I don't think it was appropriate here. If whites had not embraced right then Obama would still be in Hawaii. One thing I don't understand is why so many black people identify with Obama when his ancestors were never slaves. Dragging up the past on such a momentous day and great leap forward in race relations in this country was a bad call. JMHO

 

[Againsheila]

Focus yourself. You're clueless. Whites did not support the civil rights movement in large numbers. People put their lives on the line for civil rights.

Whites can use a shake up once and awhile. The status quo 'good ol white boy network' is being replaced by a racially inclusive step forward. It is historical, and a zinger to remind us of that is not inappropriate.

Then please explain how blacks got civil rights since they were and still are a minority? If large numbers of whites didn't support civil rights, there would still be Jim Crow laws.

 

[Modbert]

harry truman was a great dresser, i'd have to go with harry, myself. obama dresses well, too, but i just like those old timey double breasted suits.

Too bad he was in the pocket of the mafia.

And I can see others rather just argue to death about racism.

 

[sky dancer]

And yet he was elected, and without the white votes, he wouldn't have been. To claim whites are racist in his inaugural address is a slap in the face to all the whites that voted for him.

In my lifetime, right now, this very minute blacks are still being sold as slaves in Africa. Whites, especially young white girls are also being sold into slavery.

Whites ought to do what's right. Why did the speaker say that? Because he was addressing racial oppression and naming groups who have experienced that.

Do you feel that you are oppressed because you're WHITE? C'mon, sheila. You're smarter than that.

 

[dilloduck]

History means nohting to hese people.

This whole Bushian attitude that they can do no wrong and should never have to hear someone who they dont identify with ever say anything about their "culture".

Slavery was perpetrated by white people on black people by the most part. They refuse to ever let anyone acknowledge this without pitching a fit. Then they wonder why race realtions have been tense for so many years.

OMG--we have been called--"these people"

what a zinger.