Hey Rev, I am Everyday People

It’s a great speech yesterday, given by Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery as the benediction after Obama’s inauguration, until the time of 4:27 of this video……………………………..

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 give 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. Let all those who’ll do justice and love mercy say amen.

I feel this part is incredibly racist.  Why divide us into groups based on our skin color?  I thought we already went through all of this in the 70’s?  I thought we were “Everyday People”?

Look, if it is racist for a white man to say those same things, ( and really, I am asking the reader to think of the Reverend as a white  man making groups out of Americans based on race,) it is racist for a black man to say it.  That’s the truth.

I absolutely believe in the words of the song ‘Everyday People.’  We are the same, whatever we do.  The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then, makes no difference what group I’m in.

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE lyrics – Everyday People

1968

Sometimes I’m right and I can be wrong
My own beliefs are in my song
The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then
Makes no difference what group I’m in
I am everyday people, yeah yeah
There is a blue one who can’t accept the green one
For living with a fat one trying to be a skinny one
And different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee
Oh sha sha – we got to live together
I am no better and neither are you
We are the same whatever we do
You love me you hate me you know me and then
You can’t figure out the bag l’m in
I am everyday people, yeah yeah
There is a long hair that doesn’t like the short hair
For bein’ such a rich one that will not help the poor one
And different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee
Oh sha sha-we got to live together
There is a yellow one that won’t accept the black one
That won’t accept the red one that won’t accept the white one
And different strokes for different folks