Black By Design- Black History Month Series (Guest Author Aaron Williams)

In honor of Black History Month, I felt it would be appropriate to bring in guest authors from the African American community to do my small part in attempting to amplify their voice and provide a space and audience that might not normally hear from them. This week we hear from Bishop Aaron Williams from San Antonio, Texas. I implore you to listen to these voices. Reading this may sting… It should. Maya Angelou once said “Once you know better, do better”. My humble prayer is through these voices as a nation we would know better… and then do better. 

John 

“There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don’t come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.” — Isaac Asimov

Why “Black Holidays?”

Why does America celebrate and have Black History month? And why does America have a Black church? Why does America have Historically Black Colleges (HBCU’s)? On and on goes the inquiry of why things are codified as Black in this country. Why no White History month? Why is there always a first Black to do this or a first Black to do that? This country we call America, was founded as a Caste System. White settler colonialism. A system that is based on the fiction of “race” with what’s we call “white” is on top. Blacks on Bottom. Black & Native Americans especially can never be fully integrated into this American organization because our exclusion is the basis of its organization. The country was organized to have nation based on race with one supreme.

Black History Month as a “Token”

Black History month is not used very well in my humble opinion. The month is free, Black History month didn’t cost the nation anything. I would trade Black history month for reparations all day every day. 500 years later Black people are still “fighting to vote” and for full citizenship.  Blacks need to be careful with this narrative that says Black Americans have earned inclusion in Americanism by contributing to the building of the empire. Our humanity transcends citizenship in this nation.

Tokens, symbols and holidays are used mostly used to assuage white guilt. Rejecting fantasy and the Star Spangled Banner Disney Versions of Americanism is the first step in getting past the on-purpose brainwashing and indoctrination. It was not necessary for my ancestors to endure the brutality of slavery and build a nation based on the lie that they were less than human. Whiteness never has to justify or earn their humanity. No celebration or recognition will erase this crime. It is ongoing to this day.

White Supremacy is the Cause for “Black Holidays”

For the most part White Supremacy has co-opted these acknowledgements/celebrations itself for being nice to Black people giving it a month to honor its history. America has never ceased to be a white settler country. Slavery was not evolution or the natural process of life. It was on purpose, crafted by fiction and executed by Evil White Supremacists. White Supremacy is the reason we have the aforementioned “Black” days and celebrations. These celebrations will never replace the need for tangible acknowledgement of the Black experience in the country. Along  with the genocide against Native Americans.

The Church is at Fault

As a Bishop I must charge the Western church in this case. Particularly the American church for being a co-conspirator with the government for taking the Lords church and making it a “White” house. White Supremacist clergy preached sermons ordaining and endorsing slavery. The White church clergy served communion to the slave and slave master. The White Supremacist church used slave labor to build their stained-glass cathedral. White people don’t need a Holiday, you have the system, the system is white privilege, white power and white pride. Governments across the nation are passing laws to ensure future generations never have one ounce of guilt about this fact.

The Order was set Centuries Ago

To the naked eye something could appear nice, good and harmless. Yet in the end worthless. Why the “Black” acknowledgement? In my opinion “order”. Blacks have preferred racial symbolism or racial substance. In “American Gangster” Frank Lucas killed a man in the street in broad daylight. The crew ask him why he killed him? He responded: Above any man’s life is “Order”. Sharing ancestry and history with the original colonizers does not mean tangible results or citizenship for Black people. The American order is governed by race.

Race is the single greatest determiner of life outcomes in America.  Black is Codified in the Constitution by the 3/5 Compromise. Also, Black is codified with the Dred Scott decision which stated “a negro whose ancestors were imported into the U.S.  and sold as slaves whether bond or free could not be a citizen”. Black was codified with Plessy v. Ferguson decision which said “separate but equal” was constitutional.  White Supremacist created the slave, darkie, tom, non-citizen, segregation colored, negro, Black, and African American.  The order was set centuries ago, By Design.

By: Aaron Williams, ThD, Lead Pastor of My Fathers Business Fellowship in San Antonio Texas.