Red and yellow, black and white, we've all got freedom of speech...right?

These last few articles that we've read on the online upheaval that followed such events as Kanye's appeal after Katrina, Reverend Lowery's infamous prayer and "Real Thugs" commenting about "The Wire" have been, hands down, some of my favorite.

I was particularly fascinated by the reaction to Reverend Lowery's imaginative contribution to President Obama's inauguration ceremony. Now, I didn't know when I read the transcript the Lowery was white. I probably knew at the time, but it hadn't clicked when I read it. And that in itself was interesting, but let's take another look at the part that really set people off:

"Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, 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 get [in] 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 do justice and love mercy say Amen! Say Amen! And Amen!" (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Personally, I had a little trouble seeing what all the fuss was about. 

First of all, Lowery addressed a lot of racial issues (except for the "yellow" being "mellow" bit, I have no idea what he was on about there) like poverty, social and racial equality and political rights, ethics and justice, to name a few. I'm not sure if it was Lowery's intention to link most of those issues back to white people "embracing what is right", but that seems to be the popular interpretation.

I just really enjoyed getting a glimpse of the conflict that surrounded this speech. Is there really an appropriate time to address racial issues (or an inappropriate one, for that matter)? According to the majority, a disaster relief commercial and national events on live tv seem to be taboo platforms to address racial. 

And yet, one could argue that any space considered "public" would incur the same criticism. With the advent of the Word Wide Web, our perception of public space and spheres have been overturned and we don't have a bedroom door to point at and say "here is your private space". This is not a middle school sex talk. No matter how uncomfortable we may feel in discussing controversial subjects, we have to realize that almost all space is public space and that we can't just hide behind excuses anymore. Forums, chats, blogs, as well as broadcast events and face-to-face conversations, they have all become equal platforms for debate and we can't ignore that any longer.

So the question still remains, are we going to continue to protest that challenging, discussing, even insulting race is something that should be done in "private", where "private" is no longer an option? Are we really trying to keep the conversation kosher or are we covering up some potentially world-changing debates in exchange for awkward silence?