Upset

[crystalsmom]

Originally Posted by chloesMama

The problem with the past is that even when you let it go , it's always going to be there , you will always remember it and even when you put it aside you never truly forget it. Was the Inauguration of our first black President the best place for him to talk about racial division , hell no.

Saying we need to move past racial division is much easier said by the younger generation who are more removed from it than it will be for the older generation who have actually lived through it. Most don't want to forget and don't want their children to forget the struggles they went through. Not from a point of racism but out of pride that they came through it with their head held high at the other end.

We need to move forward as a nation , united together where race isn't an issue , but even saying that statement proves how far away we are. Even at a time when a Black leader is elected we still have the need to say black leader.

No matter how hard I may try to empathize I have never been considered someones property , I have never had to give up my own name and take my masters , I have never been in fear for my life because I simply wanted to sit in the front of the bus or walk through the door's of a school and be considered equal. I have never and will never know that kind of pain , anger or fear. But all who did probably don't like to be told to move on and get over it simply because it's in the past .

We are moving forward , but we shouldn't try so hard to erase the past. We need to understand our nation as a whole the good and the bad and learn from the mistakes of our past and hold onto hope for the future.

I hope one day that everyone unites as a whole , but we will not get far if we expect everyone to forget the struggles they went through no matter what their race.

This was a marvelous ending post and I am so proud of this thread and all involved. I love you all guys!! Because we live in America we can voice our different opinions but keeping it civil and listening to others is so important. Our country has a chance if we can all do this in the year and years to come. Hugs, Joan

[Angela]

Originally Posted by Nikki+2

I think we are awesome! We've actually managed to have a long controversial thread and not get it locked. I now believe in miracles!


Ashley I can't imagine anyone hates you. You have a right to your own opinions and I think you expressed them articulately and respectfully.

ETA- wow 9 pages without getting locked! This has to be a record.

LOL Nikki....I was just thinking the same thing!

Angie

[Baby Phat]

Everyone has their views on what was said. Everyone is going to feel differently. I feel that their are some whites who still have racial issues as well as blacks. The key is making sure that what's in each of our hearts is the right thing. I'm not God, so I do not judge. What I will do is pray for them and leave the rest to him. My suggestion is that everyone else do the same.

[Lovetodream88]

I hope nobodys mad at me for starting the thread. I really enjoyed hearing peoples opinons and getting to know people better

[Nikki+2]

Originally Posted by Lovetodream88

I hope nobodys mad at me for starting the thread. I really enjoyed hearing peoples opinons and getting to know people better

I don't think anyone is mad at anyone. I think it was a really interesting thread.

[YoRkiE Te aMo]

Originally Posted by Toby'sMama

Actually, after a bit of digging, this chant goes much further back in history. It was an intra-racial chant used by early african-americans most likely dating back to the slave days when the slaves were assigned duties based on how dark and light they were... i.e. the darker skinned slaves were given the worst jobs, while the lighter skinned ones got the premium jobs (field slaves vs. house slaves)

Here's a link that gives some of the background of the chant...

Big Bill Broonzy - Biography

Quoted in part...

"Is it possible, we wondered, if at least some of those words were inspired by Big Bill's lyrics for his song Black, Brown and White? Check it out: Black, Brown and White

We got a response from Chris Smith, blues researcher and author of 'Hit The Right Lick' a discography of Big Bill. He wrote:

It was an old rhyme in black oral culture before Bill and others changed the
subject from intra-racial to inter-racial color caste, by editing it. To
quote from a review of mine in Blues & Rhythm:

Big Bill abridges an old rhyme, which John Cowley suggests he may have got
from Zora Neale Hurston via Alan Lomax. In Hurston's Story In Harlem Slang
(American Mercury, July 1942), one pimp says to another: Man, I don't
deal in no coal. Know what I tell 'em? If they's white, they's right! If
they's yellow, they's mellow! If they's brown, they can stick around. But if
they come black, they better git way back! (Im indebted to Konrad
Nowakowski for this reference.)

Personally, I suspect that the first line originally started 'If they's
bright...' (light-skinned black) rather than 'white.' In other words, it
originally expressed internalized racism, as Brenda Dixon Gottschild notes
in Dancing in the Dark: African American Vaudeville and Race Politics in
the Swing Era¹ (New York, Palgrave, 2000; p. 135):

Internalized racism ensures that the values encapsulated in this vernacular
rhyme serve as an insidious, self-fulfilling prophecy:"

It's amazing to me what you can find on the internet now days...

the words werre there and so were these ...

In the 1938 programme, Big Bill performed (accompanied by boogie pianist Albert Ammons) "It Was Just a Dream" which had the audience rocking with laughter at the lines,
"Dreamed I was in the White House, sittin' in the president's chair.
I dreamed he's shaking my hand, said "Bill, I'm glad you're here".
But that was just a dream. What a dream I had on my mind.
And when I woke up, not a chair could I find"