I recall an old Robert Frost stumbling thru his poem at Jack Kennedy’s inaugural. This delivery/benediction is so reminescent. Hard to hear, delivered with eyes wide open, poetic, prophetic, hopeful, inspirational. Listen to the words. Heed the message.
The best of all that took place this day.
jsg

Did you hear the racism coming from his mouth? Is it not time to quit talking in colors? Most of the people who voted for the president did not see color, they saw a man with the good of the nation as his goal. The final comments made by the Rev. were a racial slur based on race and should not be tolorated.
Make Dr. Kings’ dream come true and everyone stop seeing colors, see a fellow man.

DB, your remark about the Rev. Lowery’s use of “racial slurs” has me shaking my head. Was it the use of the word “black”, or “brown”, or “yellow” that upset you or when he said “when White can embrace what is right?” Was it because he used words for minorities that you feel are demeaning to them or because he presented a criticism of those who have historically held all the power?

In a time when we are supposed to be getting past all this, it is a profoundly ignorant thing to peg all white people under the same “prayer”. Statements like that are detrimental to any progress. They only fuel the fire. I’m “white”, but my family immigrated here from Greece in the 1970′s. I’m sorry that I don’t fit the profile this man has cast out today. I have always “embraced what is right”. I have had people try to make me feel guilty about the color of MY skin in this country since I was born. I have nothing to be ashamed of, I have done nothing wrong. Let it all go and look forward, not back.

Wow! I think it was a great prayer, also, but when I started reading comments, I realize Rev. Lowery (accidentally) tripped over a cultural misunderstanding. Please keep in mind the man’s 87 years old. The comments about Black, White, etc. were not meant literally, instead it was a play on words from a song popular more than 50 years ago in the Black community (“Black, Brown, and White” by Big Bill Broonzy). The refrain from that song goes like this:
“If you’re black and gotta work for a living,
This is what they will say to you,
They says, “if you was white, should be all right,
If you was brown, stick around,
But as you’s black, hmm brother, get back, get back, get back”
The problem is very few Blacks under the age of 50 would have known about the song and even fewer Whites. So in his attempt to be “cute” he inadvertently offended some. I am sorry that happened, but I am pretty sure he meant no slights by his otherwise non-controversial remarks.

His speech was one of the most moving parts of the entire ceremony. I don’t think any person of any color should be offended by his final remarks – they were jocular and half serious while having an obvious satirical aspect to them. I was truly moved almost to tears at that moment, and that moment alone.

The good reverend was put on this earth to say that prayer. I am certain that MLK had his hand on Rev. Lowery’s shoulder. I believe I can actually see the moment when the spirit entered him.
His light-hearted ending was inspiring.
Put it into context. That man went from Jim Crow, firehoses, separate but not equal, lynchings, the assassination of his leader, and on-and-on, to standing in front of the Nation’s Capitol reciting a prayer of benediction to the entire country while one of his “brothers” was sworn in as the President of the United States.
What does a man do when God shows his mighty hand?
Peace and Halleluyah!

Lowery is a racist just like the not-so-reverend Wright. So much for Obama as the candidate who transcends race. He should be ashamed and embarrassed by the words “…when whites will embrace right.”
Would ‘embracing right’ include the 250,000+ northern whites who died fighting the Civil War or those whites who passed the civil rights bills or are fighting for the freedom of the (brown) people of Iraq and Afghanistan? Will Obama embrace right when he cuts and runs in Iraq/Afghanistan and, as a result, millions upon millions of innocents are slaughtered when Al Quaeda returns.
Perhaps Lowery should look at his own people in the inner cities who can’t stop the killing or to black dictators in Africa who slaughter their own people with impunity. Bottom line, many blacks need to embrace the decency of whites in this country.
Lowry is but another example of the hatred that defines the left and that, sadly, is tolerated/embraced by most of the posters on this board. So, I’m not surprised to see them expressing pleasure and support for the “whites are bad” comments of their fellow traveler and peddler in hate.

I couldn’t believe Rev. Lowery’s ending to his “prayer”. How racist can you get!!

Keith Williams’ explantion of the allusion certainly should clear up the hurt feelings, but it won’t.
If most whites “did right’, then there wouldn’t have been a Civil War, and the result of the war would not have required African -Americans to wait to vote till the Civil Rights Era of the ’50s and ’60s. It would not have required the Brown decision, and would not find our schools nearly as segregated so many years later.
If most whites “did right”, oppostion to civil rights for African-Americans would not have been part of the often successful campaign tactics of Republicans since Goldwater.
If most whites “did right”, than someone who went to the scene of racial crimes and injustices in the deep south, where Justice was denied until the Federal Government got involved, and that someone said the federal government is the problem, not the solution, that person could not possibly be hailed by many self described non-racist whites as the greatest modern President, much less re-elected.
President Bush promised “a new Marshall Plan” for Afghanistan. Instead we got a war in Iraq, where hundreds of thousands of “brown” people have died, and in Afghanistan, they are still throwing acid at girls who want to go to school. (But at least we have the Oil deals straight.)
Lots of whites voted for Obama,including me. More voted against him. That doesn’t make tham racist, any more than voting for Reagan did. But it certainly opens tham up to the sort of criticism some have found in the prayer. They didn’t do right.

As a mexican-american and a person who’s mother would not be served in a southern restaurant when she came to this country in the early 60′s, I am so glad that this discussion is happening in a forum where everyone’s perspective is honored and appreciated. I live in the inner city as one of 2 caucasian families on our street in a city where african-americans/blacks have seen very, very poor leadership examples. Yet I see the spark that is rekindled in them at this point in time. I so value this. I believe Lowery was responding from his perspective and there should be grace to see this. I think it is so important to see things within their context as Evan and Keith did before reacting.
It sounds like many of you were disappointed with Lowery’s prayer. It seems many of you felt included in a negative way. I encourage you to go further with your observations in a kind way. It is time, as Obama quote the Bible, to put away childish things and become the people our forefathers meant us to be–people of freedom and peace.
Peace will come from those who are willing to discuss these things openly with non-reactive minds that listen with empathy and pursue understanding.

I’m saddened by the accusations of racism. It will be a good day when we all relax and aren’t in constant state of high dudgeon, on high alert for perceived slights.
I’m white. I did not feel I was being singled out because of the color of my skin as not “embracing what’s right.” I listened on the radio so did not have visual cues, but I found Rev Lowery’s delivery of the benediction very moving, prophetic, hopeful, and yes, challenging. I thought the ending was lighthearted, it did ring a satirical and funny note for me. It made me chuckle in delight, and then raised goosebumps with the final call to say Amen.
I’m glad to know about the Broonzy reference.
I think on these lines instead:
“And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.
And as we leave this mountain top, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.”

Rich wrote “Perhaps Lowery should look at his own people in the inner cities who can’t stop the killing or to black dictators in Africa who slaughter their own people with impunity. Bottom line, many blacks need to embrace the decency of whites in this country.”
The Nazis were experts at killing millions of others who looked like them. Yet we don’t call it white on white crime, even though the Nazis were a criminal dictatorial regime. Stalin, Hitler’s mirror image, did the same to millions in the old Soviet Union. The man who used a ponzi scheme to defraud so many trusting people of their savings and investments committed fraud in spite of his victims looking like himself. Africans killing one another in Africa or blacks doing so in America are examples that we all, regardless of ethnicity, have an undeniable potential for doing unspeakable evil. We also have within us the capacity for nobility and goodness. Mere accusations against this or that segment of humanity profit nothing.
The statement “Lowery should look at his own people” lacks clarity, because “your people” are really “our people.” Who among us can identify with certainty every single one of our 256 great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents, just to take one generation? Among the members of that generation and even more recently may well appear many unsuspected ancestors, which might include one or several Africans without whom none of us could possibly exist today!
“Embracing the decency of whites in this country” gives the impression that goodness appears exclusively in only one American ethnicity. Surely the baneful drug trade, prostitution, and pornography could never find existence were it not for the collusion of buyers and vendors of every complexions.

Lowery counterstated a vicious and threatening poem that overseers and owners said during slavery.
Black,
go back.
Brown,
stick around.
These lines were known by almost every one of my African American students when I taught for nine years of the 1970s in black higher education in Georgia and in South Carolina.
The slave overseer invited “brown” to “stick around” because of visual
evidence that another overseer had his way sexually earlier with brown’s mother or grandmother. The poem is a lurid sexual overture by a white predator.
Lowery’s prayer recalled this legacy of slavery and lanced some of the
poison — straight from Lowery’s lips to God’s ear, and to the ears of anyone who has ears to hear!

Lowery’s prayer … imperfect? okay. But if there was ever a time to be slow to speak and slow to anger (james 1) it is at the end of this powerful, humble, even winsome, if I hear it correctly, and hard-earned offering.

From the perspective of being there, Rev. Lowry’s prayer was full of grace, wisdom, and humor. Everyone around me, crammed together on the Mall, felt in his words the divisions of our past healing in the light of the new day. There was no hatred there, it was a celebration of a turning tide for our United States.

i’m white and i wasn’t offended. asking me to do what is right doesn’t suggest to me that i’ve done wrong in the past.
i thought the warren prayer [and the circumstances of his presence] and the roberts flub and obama’s not so subtle shots at the departing bush policies and the taped music quartet were not inspiring.
i thought president obama’s address was mediocre or good, but not great.
but then, from nowhere, this 87 year old man gets up and seems to be hopeful and unifying and poetic and inspiring.
bravo!

I thought the prayer was good. It had humor and it is from an old jazz song from the 1950s that was inspired by an oral tradition. It is a poem that is only offensive if you are looking to be offended. I am a 26 year old white male and felt very inspired by Rev. Lowery’s hard earned weathered words. Thank you sir.