Upset

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by IndianaGirl

Aren't all of our holidays "white" or European anyways.
St. Patricks day is a Irish holiday, St. Valentines Day I believe is either an Italian or Irish, not sure. My point is, all or most of our holidays that we celebrate here in America are "white" or European holidays. Black history month does not insult me. To say give us what they have to make it equal sounds like you might have some deep issues you have not brought up to the surface yet. Believe me when I say this, I felt just like you at one time and I guess life experiences and meeting different people, my views have been broadened.
And for me, Im happy to NOT feel like someone has more rights than me or something isn't fair. I guess Im getting old lol

When I was in elementry school I was one of very few white people at my school and I was treated very badly for it it got to the point I just wouldnt go to school.

[phfgkl]

Unfortunately, it's always going to be a color thing. Because there is always going to be blacks in pageants and yet the blacks are still going to have their black pageants, then the NAACP, they need to stop with all that if they want everyone to be treated equal. Everyones blood is the same color, so, all the nonsense needs to stop on both parts.

[RebelBelle]

I don't think that a couple decades worth of backlash from centuries of racism and prejudicial practices is "nonsense". Why should a minority be forced to stop a tradition that the majority forced them into starting in the first place?

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by IndianaGirl

UGH! I really think its because you guys are still young. You haven't yet experienced or understand empathy for others. He is an old man that has seen and encountered many terrible things. If his grandson had said that, then I think this would be a different discussion altogether

Just because we are young dosent mean we havent experienced or understand empathy. That is judgmental and stereotypical. He shouldnt get a free pass because of that when hes speaking to over a million people.

[Ashley V]

Originally Posted by RebelBelle

I don't think that a couple decades worth of backlash from centuries of racism and prejudicial practices is "nonsense". Why should a minority be forced to stop a tradition that the majority forced them into starting in the first place?

I don't know, but where I live, whites are becoming the minority. Most jobs we apply for we are told that we must speak both english and spanish in order to even be considered for the job. I think that's racism and discrimination. I can't get a job because I don't speak spanish? I don't want to speak spanish and I don't feel I should have to, but I'm not given equal opportunities. I don't see anyone as a minority. Everyone is equal.

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by chachi

Now would everyone be just as accepting if an older white paster preached about white supremacy at a white presidents swearing in. There just seems to be a double standard

Thats one of the things I was trying to say just couldnt come up with the word doubled standard.

[RebelBelle]

Originally Posted by Ashley V

I don't know, but where I live, whites are becoming the minority. Most jobs we apply for we are told that we must speak both english and spanish in order to even be considered for the job. I think that's racism and discrimination. I can't get a job because I don't speak spanish? I don't want to speak spanish and I don't feel I should have to, but I'm not given equal opportunities. I don't see anyone as a minority. Everyone is equal.

I was speaking of the time when the NAACP and black pageants were started.

However I also don't have a problem with business owners requiring a second language. Business is about catering to your customers needs and employees must be qualified to do so. My job requires a college degree. The woman in the cubicle next to me was required to know sign language. That's not discrimination. It's a fact of our changing global community.

[Koran]

[quote=Ashley V;2432096]I don't see where you are proving your point. It said even Obama stopped smiling at that.

It proves the point in that these words weren't created for the speech. He is quoting a man who went thru the trials and errs of the past. Its simply a quote. The original author died in the 1950's.

Was it appropriate? I can say when I first heard it I thought it was a break from the normal pomp and circumstance but in a day that is steeped in MLK and the long way that our country has come with embracing all cultures a statement from the past may not have been received in the best of light.Obama is not looking back, he is moving forward. We should all learn from that.

I look forward to a world where we all move forward and quit blaming and pushing for reminders from a past that has long since past. We can only lift ourselves as high as or sights can set and you cant set them high if you keep looking back.

[crystalsmom]

[quote=RebelBelle;2433138]

However I also don't have a problem with business owners requiring a second language. Business is about catering to your customers needs and employees must be qualified to do so. My job requires a college degree. The woman in the cubicle next to me was required to know sign language. That's not discrimination. It's a fact of our changing global community. [/quote)

........

[Toby'sMama]

Originally Posted by RebelBelle

The rhyming chant is a relic from the civil rights movement. He didn't make it up on the spot or conjure it up just for this benediction. The man was reflecting on his history. I'm sure when he was chanting it back then, it was in future tense. He just repeated it as a memory to reflect on and see how far we have come. Unless we can talk to him and find out what he was thinking, I truly think it's unfair to judge his statements.

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...

[Ashley V]

Originally Posted by RebelBelle

I was speaking of the time when the NAACP and black pageants were started.

However I also don't have a problem with business owners requiring a second language. Business is about catering to your customers needs and employees must be qualified to do so. My job requires a college degree. The woman in the cubicle next to me was required to know sign language. That's not discrimination. It's a fact of our changing global community.

It is discrimination when you apply for a job like McDonald's and there are people getting hired left and right that don't speak english very well, but you aren't even considered because you don't speak spanish. I have literally went to the drive through and have been greeted in spanish.

And I've been denied a job because I'm a girl. It was a host job at a restaurant.

I mean obviously if you are looking for a job as a doctor or a computer specialist or whatever, you need a degree. If you are speaking to those who are deaf, you need to know sign language. That's a given.

[IndianaGirl]

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...

Thanks for sharing that

[IndianaGirl]

Originally Posted by Ashley V

It is discrimination when you apply for a job like McDonald's and there are people getting hired left and right that don't speak english very well, but you aren't even considered because you don't speak spanish. I have literally went to the drive through and have been greeted in spanish.

I mean obviously if you are looking for a job as a doctor or a computer specialist or whatever, you need a degree. If you are speaking to those who are deaf, you need to know sign language. That's a given.

My son had the same problem when he applied at KFC
He is not bilingual and has no plans on becoming bilingual.
He is trying so hard to find a job, and its been almost impossible.

[RebelBelle]

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...

Wow! Thank you for finding and posting that!

[crystalsmom]

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...

This is so WONDERFUL to know, thank you so much.