Rhetoric Race and Religion
Here are the top posts for the week of June 22-June 28, 2015 on the Rhetoric Race and Religion Blog. We ask that you share this with others.
1.“Father Forgive Them”: The Foundation of Forgiveness-Pt. 1
by Andre E. Johnson
What if Jesus was trying to demonstrate what to do when forgiveness is simply too hard? Father forgive them, because I can’t. Father forgive them, because I might just cuss. Father forgive them, because I might lose my mind up in here. Father forgive them, because I might call somebody and roll up on some folks. Father forgive them because this is some mess I can’t understand. Father forgive them, because I don’t know where to turn. Father forgive them because something may come out of me that I don’t want anyone to see. Father forgive them, because sometimes they know exactly what they are doing! By asking God to “forgive them,” what if Jesus was showing us what to do when we can’t forgive the hurt and pain that others have caused in our lives??
2.#CharlestonShooting: “Hood Blacks, Good Blacks, He Just Saw Blacks”
I turn to the church because I too am an ordained clergy person. I have been trained by some of the finest thinkers in this country. While government uses events like this as opportunity to discuss gun violence, which it should, I would rather appeal to conscious. Stricter gun laws are a technical response to a bigger issue. We cannot legislate how we feel about each other. No law can do that. No law can legislate our attitudes. No law can mandate that we listen to people who are different from us. No law can demand the understanding that it will take for us to begin treating each other with respect. Law cannot inspire us to love. Only visionaries and prophets can do that. And even then we fail.
3.#CharlestonShooting: How Long White America? How Long-Pt. 1
The Ku Klux Klan, which has been the “face” of White Supremacy, is a part of White Christian America. Reagan, who played a monumental role in the present school-to-prison pipeline and mass incarceration system, was a White Christian. It was White Christians who led the pro-Darren Wilson marches and held up signs saying “Support OUR POLICE! PRAY FOR PEACE” and “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Many who attack me on my Facebook page and on comment sections are White Christians who say the same damn thing: “stop playing the victim,” “just listen to the cops and Blacks will not be killed,” “stop race baiting,” “stop killing each other,” “Black on Black crime,” and “abortion is the biggest issue for the Blacks.”
4. A Social Death By Misadventure: Rachel Dolezal and the Manipulation of Blackness (Part 1)
The Black American experience is much more nuanced than the music, soul food, civic organizations you have membership in, college courses you teach, or romantic relationships you choose. Braids or ‘fros don’t cut the mustard, folks. The conundrum lies in the alleged allegations that she has been a victim of racial discrimination and harassment because of her race or ethnicity which is a lie in and of itself. She is a white woman who has chosen to become aesthetically, and for all intents and purposes, Black. The media alleges that the threats she says she has endured and the letters she has received and the noose planted in her yard are all a hoax. And this is what’s troubling. The Black American experience isn’t a game. The Black lives that have been lost solely due to the stereotypes perpetuated that suggest the Black American is a menace to society and a harbinger of skullduggery and criminality are no joking matter and definitely not something that should be taken with a grain of salt. There is a huge difference between wearing a costume & wearing a hue or attire that cannot come off or be discarded in a closet or found at a beauty shop or tanning salon.
5. #CharlestonShooting: Why I Want Us to Stop Praying for a While
I continue in this day of sadness and bewilderment with a heavy heart and with the conviction that we religious folks may, perhaps, need a moratorium on our talks with God— for a short time at least. We need, instead, to start talking openly, honestly and without fear to one another about how people in our generation continue to participate in the oppressive phenomenon known as racism. We need to talk with one another about what it means for people of color to live in terror, what it means for a church like the historic Emmanuel AME to lose its sense of sanctuary, and what it means when outrage against events like these only lasts as long as the news cycle will allow.
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