Mellow Yellow

Sunny got to watch the inauguration on TV with his first-grade class at school. I got to watch the inauguration behind a corporate firewall which screwed up the webcast, so I didn't get to watch it at all.

Sunny said his favorite part was when Rev. Joseph Lowery said "mellow yellow."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid the outpouring of inaugural joy over the racial progress represented by President Barack Obama, there was a single, humorous mention of work still to be done.

After the first black president had been sworn in, Rev. Joseph Lowery' ended his benediction with a rhyme familiar to black churchgoers:

"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..."

There was laughter from the enormous crowd. The 87-year-old civil rights pioneer continued:

"When yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen."

The crowd thundered, "Amen!"

I don't go to a black church but I'm pretty familiar with that rhyme. He used it at the rally we went to last year. I've seen Lowery speak a bunch of times at different Atlanta events. The man is a powerhouse. He's everywhere! I even have a picture of Sunny and him together, although it's not a very good picture and you really only see his back.

I explained to Sunny that the different colors in the rhyme stood for different groups of people. Yellow stood for Asians, like me and Ojiichan. I also added that I normally don't like being called "yellow" but I'll give Lowery a pass on that one. Black stood for black people and African-Americans, red stood for Native Americans and so on.

He asked "What about me?"

I told him he was black and white. He said, "Yay!"