ATLANTA (AP) — Civil rights veteran Andrew Young is apologizing for referring to some people who are demonstrating against police violence as “brats.”
Young tells WSB-TV (http://2wsb.tv/29Ph9rO ) he didn’t mean to offend demonstrators. And the former U.N. ambassador says his own granddaughter told him she was ashamed of him.
Young made the original comments in a talk to Atlanta police that the department posted online. Young told officers that some people protesting police violence against blacks are “unlovable little brats.” He then told officers they must try to love and understand the demonstrators anyway.
The Georgia NAACP criticized the remarks, saying Young was denigrating legitimate protest. And the head of a group that organized demonstrations in Atlanta called them belittling.
Young says he apologizes if he got “over emotional” about the issue.
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Thanks, Andy. Ever since you went for the gold, we dumbfucks was wonderin’ 'bout your … priorities.
Can I lick you finger? Maybe find the wind?
A few are unlovable little brats, but a lot of groups in the modern society that protest against something have there share of unlovable little brats. Even my favorite causes have their share of them. To pretend otherwise is absurd.
Sure, no group of people is uniformly loveable. However, this reeks of “get off my lawn”-ism. These entitled young folks complaining about the system we oldsters already fixed, and all that…
Well looks like Andrew Young has traded his wingtips for flip flops. Cowardly and sad.
Very disappointing.
I believe this is why young people often reject the ‘wisdom’ and earlier experience of Civil Rights leaders of yesteryear…Some of those leaders have clearly forgotten where they came from, or want to see their contribution with undying veneration, like we were all stuck in time. Young people making new waves need to be offered support, even if it is tempered somewhat to fit the times with a new sense of caution. Many elderly civil rights leaders want the younger generation to never forget the sacrifices that were made presumably on their behalf…However, I think Andrew Young is stuck in a time warp personally. Perhaps he needs to pull out the old photo albums and newspaper clippings to refresh his memory on police brutality during his younger days, and try to find ways to draw parallels, not veer off onto right angles.
Very off-putting remark.
We’ve been sanitizing Dr. King’s activism for waaay too long. Time to get real. Including from the people that later helped sanitize his legacy to some degree, like Andy Young.