{"id":582,"date":"2014-06-25T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/06\/fear-of-a-black-god-and-white-devils-jay-z-and-the-five-percent-nation-part-2.html"},"modified":"2014-06-25T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T07:00:00","slug":"fear-of-a-black-god-and-white-devils-jay-z-and-the-five-percent-nation-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/06\/fear-of-a-black-god-and-white-devils-jay-z-and-the-five-percent-nation-part-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Fear of a Black God and White Devils: Jay Z and the Five Percent Nation-Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

by Andre Key<\/a><\/span><\/span>
R3 Contributor<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

*Read Part 1\u00a0<\/span>here<\/a>

<\/span><\/span>I think that the obsession with the critique of whiteness found in the Five Percent Nation\u00a0<\/span>teachings and other black nationalist oriented religious traditions found in the African American community misses the point entirely.\u00a0 A question that is not often asked is, \u2018what should the religious mythologies and theology of Black folk reflect if not a response to the experiences of\u2026well\u2026Black folk?\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 The fact that after centuries of racial enslavement, brutal and oppressive Jim Crow segregation that some aspects of Black religiosity responded to it in theological and even in mythic terms should not be surprising.\u00a0 To equate whiteness and white society as the function of some demonic force hell-bent on oppressing and enslaving black folk is just as logical an conclusion as those who generations earlier believed that enslaved Africans due to their circumstances were the recipients of a divine curse (<\/span>a la<\/em>\u00a0curse Of Ham).\u00a0\u00a0 The more intriguing question to be asked given the historical circumstances of enslavement and racial violence during the late 19th and earlier 20th century is, \u2018why didn\u2019t the belief that the\u00a0<\/span>white man is the devil\u00a0<\/em>became more widespread in the African American religious worldview?\u2019 \u00a0<\/span><\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span><\/span>Perhaps, it is a function of white privilege that African Americans and other non-whites can be subjected to yearly doses of white Jesus films and other re-enactments that are supposedly historical in nature that feature the whitest of actors playing biblical figures in order to reinforce the sacredness of whiteness.\u00a0 The fear and angst exposed towards the teachings of the Five Percent Nation is a cosmos in which whiteness is not revered.<\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
The Five Percenters and its parent group the Nation of Islam offer is a normative religious cosmos for black existence.\u00a0 This is often overlooked in favors of criticizing the elements which are unpleasant to white ears.\u00a0 But lets us imagine that ancient Egyptians, Canaanites, Jebusites, and all the other \u201cites\u201d from the Hebrew Bible could be resurrected; would modern Jews abandon their faith in order not to offend their one-time foes?\u00a0 And even as the Catholic Church and mainline Protestant denominations have officially abandoned the charge of\u00a0<\/span>deicide<\/em>\u00a0against \u201cthe Jews\u201d there still exists a sizable number of Christians who hold Jewish people responsible for the death of Christ. \u00a0This gets at the crux of the matter, religion as a human phenomenon responds to the human experience with particularity rather than universalism.\u00a0 The ethical and moral universalism of religion is filtered through historical and cultural myths, rites and rituals that give meaning to the particular religious community.\u00a0 For most whites, black religion operates as what noted historian of religion Charles Long calls an opaque theology.\u00a0 The inability to comprehend a reflective inner life for Blacks which sacralizes its historical experiences leads to an obsession with the elements that openly criticize whiteness (i.e. white man is the devil). \u00a0Therefore the traumatic slaveocracy and Jim Crow segregation that produced the \u201cblue eyed devil\u201d myth is ignored or marginalized and black religious groups are treated as irrational hate-mongerers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span>To be Continued\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/i><\/span>

<\/i><\/span><\/span>Follow Andre on Twitter \u00a0@AkeyPhD<\/a><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Andre KeyR3 Contributor *Read Part 1\u00a0hereI think that the obsession with the critique of whiteness found in the Five Percent Nation\u00a0teachings and other black nationalist oriented religious traditions found in the African American community misses the point entirely.\u00a0 A question that is not often asked is, \u2018what should the religious mythologies and theology of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFear of a Black God and White Devils: Jay Z and the Five Percent Nation-Part 2<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Andre KeyR3 Contributor *Read Part 1 hereI think that the obsession with the critique of whiteness found in the Five Percent Nation teachings\" 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