
Fox News host Glenn Beck held his march on Washington Saturday, with the theme of "restoring honor" to America. The crowd was predominantly white and mostly conservative. Tea Party members were all about, and Beck found Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to be a reliable stage prop for what some might consider a political circus.
Sarah Palin spoke at the rally, along with Alveda King, the niece of Dr. King. Rev. Al Sharpton held a counter rally nearby and marched with a group of protesters for the three miles to a spot where a monument is planned for the slain civil rights leader. Rev. Sharpton reminded the group listening to him that we should not "mistake progress for arrival" and made the accurate assessment that those in Beck's party would have considered Dr. King's organizers to be troublemakers.
First, I should say that Beck's claim that he is attempting to restore honor to America is both odd and disingenuous. Restoring honor means that somehow you feel that honor has been lost. I am not sure if Dr. King would be comfortable with that message.
Also, one would presume that if Beck and Palin are truly celebrating the values of Dr. King, they would advocate for the issues that King stood for, such as fighting poverty, improving public schools, increasing workers' wages and putting an end to senseless wars. Beck and Palin stand for almost none of that.
The only thing Beck has in common with Dr. King is that they were both protesting the government. The difference is that King protested the government's excessive commitments to white America, while Beck is now protesting the government's reduced commitment to white entitlement. If John McCain or Hillary Clinton were in the White House, neither Beck nor Palin would feel the need to protest with such deliberate and racially agitated overtones.
Speaking of agitation, I would argue that this is part of Beck's job description. With the smirk on his chubby face, he sits with his producers each day to find something racially divisive to say, in large part because he knows that people of color see him (and others like him) to be oppressive figures to which they must remain quite sensitive. I've decided that Beck is effectively an entertainer, and to treat him as anything other than that is counterproductive. By giving him all of our attention, we are only throwing grease on to a grease fire.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here. 

Comments: (15)
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By: LEE on 8/30/2010 3:13PM
He wants to restore america yeah right,
if he had his way he would bring back slavey
take away our civil rights or send us back to
africa ain`t gonna happen. We come to far
to turn back and still have long way to go
we`re here to stay get used to it.
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By: Sedated on 8/30/2010 3:30PM
If you are so adamantly "Here to stay" I think we should ALL get used to it.
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By: Bruce on 8/30/2010 7:26PM
Your Waa Waa comment is pretty lame and moldy. Do you seriously believe what you are saying or are you trying to reinforce a stinkin thinkin conspiricy theory. I personally think your trying to cover up a pathetic attitude that enslaves you. The philosipher Remmington said being a slave to yourself is the most odious.
I feel strongly that the difference in the two DC gatherings was OLD veiw civil rights and New version civil rights.
It's time to let Al and the gang go. They don't represent me.
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By: Little Dickie Dydoe on 8/30/2010 3:54PM
Aw is poor wittle Dr Boyce having a hissyfit? It must really be tough to be a closed minded Black Racemonger. Glenn Beck's rally had nothing to do with race and as far as restoring honor,a good place to start would be in the Black community.
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By: Shawn on 8/30/2010 5:53PM
We should start with these evil politicans in Washington. The black community has flaws just like the hispanic community, the white community, the latino community, the asian community. It's always a bad apple in the bunch. Unfortunately, people like you, who think their community is perfect & have no flaws are the real problem. Remember when you point one finger you're pointing three back at yourself.
However, I do have a question? Exactly who is Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" too? Restore...as if someone took honor away from this country. I wonder who he believes that is?
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By: jojo23 on 8/30/2010 3:59PM
I want some of that free money. I want some Obama and Al Sharpton money! Nobody took anything away from Dr. Martin L. King. We celebrate his birthday, black history month, name streets after him. This was not a rally of color. Take America back because we have a president who doesn't like America, and who has brain washed others' into not liking America. We are all free here. Everyone has come a long way to keep freedom. Al Sharpton should be looking into ways to give his money to the poor and donate it to education and improving the schools instead of trying to fill Dr. King's shoes. Obama snubs everyone. He too, should give some of his money to the poor and help them out.
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By: Shawn on 8/30/2010 5:54PM
How has Obama brainwashed people into not liking America? So you think because we celebrate "Black History" in the shortest month out of the year that that's okay? What is a street sign if you don't know what the person stood for or even the reason as to why people would even name streets, buldings, & schools after them. You want Al Sharpton to donate his money. Fine, but what about the Tea Party leaders, the Becks, the Palins, the O'Relliy's of America...shouldn't they be donating money as well? The only thing that changed in America is people can not be openly racist anymore. Now you HAVE to have diverse work forces & equal pay. People still hate people based off skin color whether black OR white. We are NOT all free. May I remind you of the 14th Amendment that the Arizona government wants to change so children born to illegal immigrants can NOT become US citzens. Even though this same Amendment was adopted back in 1868 to ensure African-Americans citzenship in this country, it also was a population booster & help those immigrants coming from Europe (on boats like the Titanic) become US citzens as well. But now it's a HORRIBLE law and must be changed immediately...hmmm...I wonder why the Republicans & Arizona gov't want to change it now? After all this time. It was okay for your ancestors to come over from Europe but it's horrible to birth Mexicans and have them stay here. The irony. Even a few key Republicans think it's a bad idea http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100820/pl_yblog_upshot/ex-bush-official-to-gop-dont-touch-14th-amendment
If you can't see through Beck, Palin & some of these so called Politicans then YOU are brainwashed. Stop watching Fox News only...watch all of them, READ & decipher your own a opinion.
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By: fumoron on 8/30/2010 6:12PM
Yeah maybe Obama can donate some of his money to help pay for your new brain. get off of the computer.
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By: Blind Justice on 8/30/2010 5:37PM
I submit black folks need to be digruntled with Beck and his white follower not accepting the first black President of the United States. They continuously, attempt to deligitimize him as America's leader. Palin and Beck have brought out racist and made them place themselves on their best behavior. Case in point:
As one Fox contributor put it,“ this is not the type of guy you expect to see on a dollar bill.”
Limbaugh: "If Obama Weren't Black He'd Be a Tour Guide in Honolulu"
Rush said that Obama "wouldn't have been voted president if he weren't black," adding, "If Obama weren't black he'd be a tour guide in Honolulu." Rush also accused the liberal media of wanting the GOP to fire Michael Steele "so they can ... write about the Republicans firing a black guy."
Bigotry wrapped in Racism
Is U.S. President Barack Obama more dangerous than al-Qaeda or the former Soviet Union? Is the President a threat to the country’s founding principles? Former Colorado Congressman and Presidential candidate Tom Tancredo seems to think so.
Since Barack Obama was elected President two years ago, the Commander in Chief has been labelled and compared to any negative historical figure you can think of, including former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. He has also been labelled as a communist and a Muslim extremist.
Speaking at a campaign fundraising rally for Republican Colorado Senate candidate Ken Buck, former Congressman and 2008 Republican Presidential candidate Tom Tancredo told the audience that President Barack Obama is more dangerous than al-Qaeda and even the former Soviet Union. “The President is the most dangerous threat to the founding principles of the U.S., including its liberties, the Constitution and “our way of life.”
On August 4, 2010, President Burrack Hussein Obama did celebrate his 49th Birthday. And I submit, if the president were white his gift of support would definitively have been different. But, as is stands:
A new Research 2000 poll reveals an incredibly disturbing view among registered Republicans. Because that means that 58% of them either believe he wasn’t born in the US or aren’t sure. That’s how far and deep this birthers’ nonsense has spread…from a racist chain email.
Here’s the question and the party breakdowns…
“Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?”
Republicans
Yes: 42%
No: 28%
Not Sure: 30%
Democrats
Yes: 94%
No: 4%
Not Sure: 3%
Independents
Yes: 83%
No: 8%
Not Sure: 9%
When all the numbers are put together we see that:
77% say Yes, 11% say No and 12% say Not Sure.
This is truly amazing, the Republicans want to repeal the 14th Amendment to deport all 12 million undocumented Latinos and their American born terrorist babies which means President Obama would make the 12th million and 1st in that package.
Limbaugh: "If Obama's not the first anti-American president, who is?"
The Obama Racial Divide
I would submit that Bill O’Reilly of Fox News does have an enormous handle on White folks in various aspects of our American society who do share his racist ideology. And with that having been said, I think O’Reilly clearly defines where his head is at, and speaks for the rest of America’s White racist when he describes: The Obama Racial Divide.
On August 5, 2010, O’Reilly stated on his show that “ A new Gallop poll says 88% of African Americans continue to support President Obama, but just 38% of whites Americans feel the President is doing a good job. That is a 50% differential in the President’s job approval rating! So what is going on?
Most white Americans don’t like the huge expansion of the federal government and don’t want the feds telling them what to do. But African Americans have supported a bigger federal government so it can impose “ social justice”.
A majority of blacks want money spent to redistribute income from the white establishment to their precincts. There is no question there are now two Americas - the minority community continues to believe that society is not completely fair to them and they want a huge government apparatus to change that.
While the White community may sympathize, they apparently believe more harm than good is being done to the country with the cost of social justice programs.
As far as the Beck rally is concerned, those were the folks who follow a racist who specially agrees with O'Reilly. Black folks should stop living in deniel, Palin and Beck are not stable people and seem to have 300-600,000 white folks backing them up. You want irrational thinking? Take a look.
Beck’s The “Restoring the Honor Rally”
As we all know, it was about the same time last year when Beck lead the way to Washington, DC, with his 9/12 Tea Baggers in an attempt to stop the passing of President Obama’s health care bill. That protest similar to this Honor Rally, brought out tens of thousands to the capitol but, this time there was a new twist.
This time the rally which was held on the 47th Anniversary of MLK’s “I Have A Dream Speech”, on the lower steeps of the Lincoln Memorial, was not just about restoring the honor back to America but, also according to Beck, “reclaiming the MLK’s, Civil Right’s Movement” because, “ white folks did it in the first place?” So, let’s analyze how Beck himself saw his mission of reclaiming MLK’s dream and God’s words that came from the “burning bush.”.
On August 29th the following day after his rally, Beck was interviewed on Sunday’s Fox News show, where he shed light from his prospective, on his successful message and rally.
From any sane and rational person’s prospective, Beck came across as totally disingenuous, because you can’t teach Black History lessons every Friday night on T.V. and not know that MLK’s “I Have A Dream Speech”, was given on August 28th,1963. He also projected himself to be totally disconnected to reality in that he assumed the positions of being a theologian, black historian, college drop out, bottom out reformed alcoholic, cry baby, oxymoron, entertainer, who tried to tie President Obama to a Demonic, Marxist, Rev. Wright’s Black Liberation Collective Salvation Theology.
Beck said President Obama was actually hiding behind the true aspects of Christian salvation and tried to create a nexus between the president and the vast amount of insurmountable problems America is facing today?
Beck, then took the opportunity with his new understanding of President Obama, to apologize for calling him “A Racist”, based on his previous misunderstanding of President Obama and his black radical religion?
Beck, then took a moment to reflect on the fact that his 300-600,000 followers behaved themselves by not bringing political signs, (outside of the “Don’t Tread On Me)T-shirts worn by the T-Baggers and no one brought guns.
It also appears that a lot of folks followed the “Avoid the Black People” in Washington, DC Subway Map published by Mark William’s from the Tea Party Express, because there were no racial incidents reported.
In the end, Beck recalibrated the meaning of Dr. Kings civil rights speech and movement by saying he was in disagreement with Dr. King’s message of social and economic justice civil rights, according to Beck the civil rights movement he reclaimed only dealt with equal justice based on the content of a man’s character and not his skin color.
Now I’m sure out of the 300-600,000, American patriotic followers of Beck and Palin that were present, there were many who were convinced that Beck had some legitimate knowledge of what the black civil rights movement was all about even though he admitted, he had not been born during the time of the Jim Crow struggle; and as it relates to his followers, one could easily conclude that they would be prime examples of ignorance in plenitude. They wouldn’t have the slightest clue or knowledge of the “Strange Fruit” that hung from the Poplar Tree.
As Rev. Sharpon so accurately stated, “maybe if they read the speech rather than try to reclaim something that is imaginary, they would understand it,"
Beck was asked about a Beck/ Palin ticket for 2012, and Beck humbly declined stating he wasn’t smart enough. Something tells me that’s not what Mama Grizzly Sarah is saying, especially after seeing over 300,000 people show up, the only thing difference is, she would rather call it a Palin/ Beck ticket!
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By: taylor on 8/30/2010 6:05PM
http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/2357214809.html
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