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De Blasio Inauguration Starts With ‘Plantation’ Rhetoric
Politiker ^ | January 1, 2014 | Colin Campbell

Posted on 01/01/2014 7:35:47 PM PST by NYer

Edited on 01/02/2014 7:07:03 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

City Hall at today’s inauguration event. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty)During the election season, Bill de Blasio was often painted by conservatives as a leftist radical. But at his inauguration today, it was not Mr. de Blasio who dropped the most aggressive lines, but the first two speakers at the event.

In particular, Rev. Fred Lucas Jr., who was among several chaplains representing the city’s uniformed workers, surprised many observers by comparing the five boroughs to a “plantation.”

“Let the plantation called New York City be the city of God, a city set upon the hill, a light shining in darkness,” he declared. “Elevate our valleys. Make low our mountains. Make our crooked places straight and our rough places smooth. Oh God, oh God, oh God, break every chain, break every chain, break every chain.”

Mr. Lucas had several additional references to slavery in his short address, citing shackles, bondage, auction blocks, the Emancipation Proclamation, Civil War and Reconstruction Era.

“Oh God, on this first day of January–the anniversary of the first Emancipation Proclamation–sound forth the trumpets of heaven proclaiming a new Emancipation Proclamation in New York City,” he invoked. “From your divine leadership, emancipate every New Yorker from the shackles of fear, futility and frustration …. Oh God, end the civil wars and usher in a new Reconstruction Era that builds upon the many successes and achievements of yesterday while proclaiming the beginning of a new beginning.”

The speaker before Mr. Lucas, civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, was also blunt as he discussed racial tensions and injustices cemented by government policies. (Mr. Belafonte, of course, is not known to be a bashful speaker; during the campaign, he caused controversy after comparing the billionaire Koch brothers to the KKK.)

“New York, alarmingly, plays a tragic role in the fact that our nation has the largest prison population in the world. Much of that problem stems from issues of race perpetuated by the depth of human indifference to poverty. Changing the stop-and-frisk law is … only the tip of the iceberg in fixing our deeply Dickensian justice system,” he argued, referencing the controversial police tactic Mr. de Blasio has vowed to overhaul.

But Mr. Belafonte, one of Mr. de Blasio’s endorsers in the campaign, said the new mayor was the right man to help undo these systemic injustices.

“We have seen America wrestle with her conscience. We have seen her struggle to become her better self. I think the solution to what most people want America to become resides here in New York. We can become America’s DNA for the future,” he said. ”Bill de Blasio gives New York another opportunity to open the door of possibilities.”

Mr. Belafonte concluded, “We New Yorkers must not let him fail.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: billdeblasio; blackkk; classwarfare; deblasio; newyork; newyorkcity; nycmayor; plantation; racebaiting
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To: NYer

New York, alarmingly, plays a tragic role in the fact that our nation has the largest prison population in the world. Much of that problem stems from issues of race perpetuated by the depth of human indifference to poverty. Changing the stop-and-frisk law is … only the tip of the iceberg in fixing our deeply Dickensian justice system,” he argued, referencing the controversial police tactic Mr. de Blasio has vowed to overhaul

Idiot making idiotic remarks, he will go back to his glass house intthe sky and the former stop and frisk perps will once again prey on thier own in black nieghborhoods. Convincing us once again that crime is a disease and rehab instead of jail time is the way to go and the big dope is stuck on pre k


21 posted on 01/02/2014 2:53:51 AM PST by ronnie raygun
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To: RKBA Democrat
FTo the tune of Led Zeppelin's “Dancing Days Are Here Again”

The Dinkins days are here days are here again as the storm clouds grow
I got my flower, I got my power, what I do with it no one knows

[Refrain]
I said it's alright. You know it's alright - but you don't know whats all in my heart

I am the only , the one and only. And that's that the way it should start.

Crazy ways are evident .... and this is just the start

22 posted on 01/02/2014 3:38:27 AM PST by rdcbn
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To: NYer; ken5050; The Mayor; Sun

DeBlabio’s stupid rhetoric dooms NYC to decrepitness.

Several more elegant NYC restaurants are doomed to oblivion...b/c the melanin-underclass prefers Old Country Buffet.


23 posted on 01/02/2014 4:39:45 AM PST by Liz
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To: NYer
Bill and Hillary after De Blabio's swearing-in.

"Look at all them suckers, Hillary. We duped them into voting
for me, and we'll dupe them again to get you in as president."

24 posted on 01/02/2014 4:42:35 AM PST by Liz
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To: NYer

She appears to be stoned, drunk or dead in this photo. May God help us if this is what we have to look forward to in 2016.


25 posted on 01/02/2014 5:39:37 AM PST by rhubarbk (It's official, I'm suffering from Obama fatigue!)
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To: ClearCase_guy
New York City is a great place to live if A) you like daily interaction with people (it truly is Sesame Street writ large); B) don't mind sacrificing a little of your autonomy in exchange for conveniences like mass transit; C) are somehow titillated by the prospect of rubbing elbows with the rich and famous; and D) are at one or the other ends of the economic extremes.

When you live in a place like that, seeing representatives from every nook and cranny of humanity, you do feel the tug at your heartstrings and want to help the downtrodden in some meaningful way.

While I've lived in Brooklyn and LI and may be biased, NYC stands head and shoulders above Detroit, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. A normal person could buy a home - and cheaply - in one of those latter cesspools (I looked into it).

That they elected Republican, if not conservative, mayors who cleaned up crime and made some attempts to help businesses bought NYC some time.

That said, I knew it was just a matter of time before they returned to their socialistic roots. Their solution to the problems that plague not just their city but humanity involve very little personal activity and center entirely on notions of authority.

Your typical New Yorker is helpless, for example, face with a flat tire (if he's one of the minority who owns a car). Call the "tire guy." Everybody is trained for a specific task ala communism. There is very little Yankee ingenuity left. De Blasio's election reflects that.

It was fun while it lasted, but we can expect New York to return to the status of just about every other major northern city as a haven of indolence and gimme-ism.

26 posted on 01/02/2014 5:41:13 AM PST by Lexinom
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To: ClearCase_guy

The Republican Giuliani was a great choice. Bloomberg was a “Republican” only for his first term, when he became the Republican candidate because he knew that no Dem could win. But then he switched to “Independent,” since his policies for the most part, except for policing, were not even vaguely acceptable to Republicans. So it’s not quite correct to say “recent Republican mayors.”

I think the GOP candidate in the most recent election, Lhota, would probably have been a good mayor.


27 posted on 01/02/2014 6:02:29 AM PST by livius
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To: Lexinom
Their solution to the problems that plague not just their city but humanity involve very little personal activity and center entirely on notions of authority.

Very well put. I grew up in NYC (on the Upper West Side!) and have gone back there at various times to live, because I like the environment. However, Bloomberg's incredibly intrusive authoritarian bureaucratic overreach made it very uncomfortable, and the new Marxist government is just going to put the nail in the coffin.

I always hoped that New Yorkers were too eccentric and individualistic to go along with these schemes, but there is also a substratum of hard-left authoritarian conformism in the thought of many of the New Yorkers who shape opinion (press and educational establishment), and I guess that triumphed.

28 posted on 01/02/2014 6:08:03 AM PST by livius
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To: livius

I’m a born and raised NYCer and the thing with the populace is that they never think they are going to get on the business end of these policies. When they do, they change their tune fast.


29 posted on 01/02/2014 6:12:39 AM PST by Ted Grant
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To: livius
..but there is also a substratum of hard-left authoritarian conformism in the thought of many of the New Yorkers...

Superbly expressed. It's likewise in the West, a region once characterized by rugged independence and frontier spirit. Like the religious worldview that it is, liberalism ineluctably draws its adherents back to the Mecca of dependency.

Many New Yorkers view the Upper West (Jewish) and East (WASP) sides as "the problem" - to put it mildly.

30 posted on 01/02/2014 6:42:14 AM PST by Lexinom
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To: Lexinom
Their solution to the problems that plague not just their city but humanity involve very little personal activity and center entirely on notions of authority.

It's the division of labor writ microscopic.

31 posted on 01/02/2014 6:59:13 AM PST by Carry_Okie (0-Care IS Medicaid; they'll pull a sheet over your head and take everything you own to pay for it.)
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To: Bogey78O

“..She looks bloated...”

Water retention - Dropsy


32 posted on 01/02/2014 7:00:39 AM PST by stonehouse01
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To: Lexinom; ClearCase_guy
Thank you, Lexinom, for an excellent description of Manhattan and environs. Like you, I grew up downstate - Queens, the Bronx, then LI - and worked in Manhattan for 20+ years.

That they elected Republican, if not conservative, mayors who cleaned up crime and made some attempts to help businesses bought NYC some time.

Sandwiched in between some of the more notable mayors Koch and Giuliani, Manhattanites voted in David Dinkins who was soft on crime. Giuliani took a much harsher approach. An excellent article on the differences in the mayoral administrations is the following, from Front Page Magazine.

The Rise and Fall of New York

33 posted on 01/02/2014 7:01:38 AM PST by NYer ("The wise man is the one who can save his soul. - St. Nimatullah Al-Hardini)
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To: Ted Grant

That’s true. I just hope they change their minds really fast on Wilhelm and prevent him and his cronies from destroying the city.


34 posted on 01/02/2014 7:02:39 AM PST by livius
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To: Liz

ROFL!!! Already, two friends are promoting her future election. Both are died in the wool Democrats who, as Rush often calls them, low information voters. They are not thinkers; they are democrats.


35 posted on 01/02/2014 7:04:53 AM PST by NYer ("The wise man is the one who can save his soul. - St. Nimatullah Al-Hardini)
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To: NYer
“Let the plantation called New York City be the city of God, a city set upon the hill, a light shining in darkness,” he declared. “Elevate our valleys. Make low our mountains. Make our crooked places straight and our rough places smooth. Oh God, oh God, oh God, break every chain, break every chain, break every chain.”

Amen, bro!

36 posted on 01/02/2014 7:05:04 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: NYer
Rev. Fred Lucas Jr., who was among several chaplains representing the city’s uniformed workers, surprised many observers by comparing the five boroughs to a “plantation.”

What??? Outrageous!

Where's a pic of this white, right-wing wacko racist!?

37 posted on 01/02/2014 7:06:49 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Lexinom

“...upper West and East Sides as the problem...”

Very interesting!!! My daughter (24) just got a studio in the 80’s (East Side) and she is Irish Catholic - however I see your point.

She has a work ethic!! Why do the socialists reward slackers? Not too long ago the Irish were told not to apply for work and instead of whining as victims for generations, they worked instead, anyway.


38 posted on 01/02/2014 7:07:03 AM PST by stonehouse01
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To: Texas Eagle

39 posted on 01/02/2014 7:10:37 AM PST by ThomasMore (Islam is the Whore of Babylon!)
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To: Lexinom

I’ve always thought that Upper West Siders, many of whom are the successful second, third or fourth generation of Lower East Side immigrants from Eastern Europe, had a sort of romantic fondness for socialism because of all of their grandparents who had come out of European Jewish Socialist movements, sat around reading the Forward, etc. This didn’t prevent either the immigrants or their descendants from advancing rapidly up the rungs of capitalism, but it did leave them with a romantic dream of Socialism as a tribute to their romanticized past. Even Zionism was originally a very left-wing movement that came out of that past.

Of course, since the educational and union establishments in NYC also came out of that milieu as the children of the immigrants moved into teaching and civil service positions, these ideas became enshrined in the bureaucracy they built, and with the right (or wrong!) encouragement, could take on a life of their own, as they have done now.

As for the Upper East Side, those people always make me think of the sort of Margaret Sanger, thin-lipped liberal Protestant reformer types who really saw “social reform” as a way of controlling the despicable hordes. Despite his family background, Bloomberg was more of an Upper East Sider in his thoughts, not so much a Socialist as a sort of a local one-man Ford Foundation with the power of the government behind him.

Unfortunately, the current situation represents a disastrous confluence between the UWS and the UES.


40 posted on 01/02/2014 7:19:00 AM PST by livius
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