Julian Bond: "Obama is to the Tea Party as the moon is to werewolves.”

[bigtree]

Julian Bond @JulianBond · 18m 18 minutes ago
Former NAACP chair Julian Bond retraces civil-rights journey in Kent State speech - http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/former-naacp-chair-julian-bond-retraces-civil-rights-journey-in-kent-state-speech-1.560699 …



Civil rights leader Julian Bond responds to a student’s question during the University Dialogue Series, a part of Kent State’s 13th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, held in Ritchie Hall.


____ Civil-rights activist, former NAACP chair and former Sen. Julian Bond told a crowd at Kent State University on Thursday evening that race relations have improved remarkably in his lifetime, but said Martin Luther King Jr. might be disappointed that progress isn’t further along.

“A black man is now in the White House and a statue of Dr. King sits upon the Washington Mall, but Barack Obama’s election and re-election was testament to one man’s singular abilities,” he said. “His victory didn’t herald a post-victory civil-rights America or that race had been vanquished. It couldn’t eliminate structural inequities or racist attitudes. In fact, there’s evidence that it fermented them. Obama is to the Tea Party as the moon is to werewolves.”

He said people who say race is history have it backward; history is race.

“America is race from its symbolism to its substance; from its founding by slaveholders to its remedy by the Civil War; from Johnny Rebel to Jim Crow; from the Ku Klux Klan to Katrina; from Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin to Michael Brown,” he said...

“Instead of the towering figures of Kings and Kennedys standing alone we now see an anonymous army of women and men, and instead of more marches we see brave and lonely soldiers often working in near solitude ... instead of prayerful petitions we now see aggressive demands. But it falls on us to continue that fight.


read more: http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/former-naacp-chair-julian-bond-retraces-civil-rights-journey-in-kent-state-speech-1.560699

[merrily]

1. IMO, Julian Bond is a national treasure.

[madokie]

2. Thats the gem that will take me through the rest of my day

thank you for giving it to me
Peace

[myrna minx]

3. K&R

[Cirque du So-What]

4. I wish I'd known about his visit

I would have tried to attend.

[Scuba]

5. "History is race."

[malaise]

6. Julian always had a way with words

He wrote a poem with the following words at the zenith of the Civil Rights movement.
I cracked up, saw it as delightful light moment and still remember it

Watch that girl shake that thing
We can't all be Martin Luther King

[sarge43]

7. Damn, I love a good metaphor. Perfection.

Thank you, sir. You nailed those bigots.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Julian Bond is a great, great man.

I admire him so much. What a master of words, a great advocate for humanity.

[LynnTTT]

9. My Julian Bond story

I graduated from high school in Maryland in 1965. That fall, I went to college , to St Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg North Carolina. A very nice, small liberal arts college. But many of the students were from your basic small Southern towns. No one used the "n" word, everyone was very nice, but they still had those built in prejudices of teenagers who grew up Southern in the 50's and 60's.That winter, early 1966, the College invited Julian Bond to speak to the students at an evening program. He came in a little late and strode down the aisle, confident and well dressed in a nice.
I really don't remember the talk, but I do remember this. A friend turned to me and said "Why,he's almost good looking!". When we talked later, she was surprised.Because she had never seen a black man in a suit except a few elderly funeral home owners. She really had never seen a black person as in any way equal to a white person. And it was unthinking.

[bigtree]

11. great story, Lynn

...thanks for sharing it.

[TNNurse]

12. This is mine

I was a freshman in college in the fall of 1967. Julian Bond came to speak and those of us who were from GA were invited to sit with him at lunch. It is still a highlight in my life. I was already an admirer and so was thrilled to meet him.

He must have spoken at a lot of small southern colleges, mine is in TN.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

10. For some in the Tea Party it's ALL about race....

Want proof? Some of them will vote for Hillary.