I havent slept more than maybe 90 minutes tonight. After watching the news and talking with my parents about our nations current events, I started and stopped several posts, and started and stopped several attempts at videos, because I just felt the need to say something, but I guess Im not sure exactly what to say…or even if Im equipped to say it. But heres my heart, at least in part, tonight in light of whats happening in our nation right now, and Im prepared to lose some social media friends behind it, although my genuine intention is not to offend: 1. Black America needs real, true leadership. Not civil rights opportunists. Not another popular preacher. Not someone whos a cliche and soundbite machine. But Black America needs true, real leaders who understand the struggle of being Black in America in postmodernity, and corral people in the traditions of our forefathers, but with a spirit that ushers in FRESH perspectives, passion and execution of the things we need to do TODAY. We dont need someone simply parroting the lines of the 60s. We need one, or several, who can effectively translate the spirit of the 60s into action thats commensurate to a 2014 context. Dare I say, we need a martyr. 2. Ive never been a race baiter, or one who likes throwing out the race card, but I will say this: If you do not have, or have never had a young Black boy look into your eyes and call you Daddy, you really dont have a context to fully understand the emotions involved in tonight. Because although many have debated Michael Browns decisions and choices preceding his murder, those of us who are Black men, raising Black boys to become Black men understand you DONT have to rob a store, carry a weapon or dress like a thug in order to be perceived as a threat by the powers that be. 3. Im tired of hearing people call America a Christian nation. Its not. Very few founding actions that precipitated the founding of this nation can be considered Christlike. If you fail to see that, youre in denial. Just because the founding fathers pulled out the Bible and threw in a few quotes doesnt make it a Christian nation. It never has been a theocracy, so please stop saying we need to go back to what this country was founded on. Please understand what going back to what this nation was founded on means to some people. It means going back to modern day forms of slavery and segregation. Going back to being seen as 3/5 a man. Going back to being good enough to do the work to build this country, but not worthy to fully have a seat at the table to consume the banquet our blood, sweat and tears literally helped prepare. Going back to some means having your dignity and native citizenry stripped away, being killed off or pushed into reservations all in the name of what some called Manifest Destiny. 4. That said, it has become increasingly clear and painfully clear that, just as I said earlier, the American system is not broken. It is working exactly how it was meant and originally designed to work. It helps to protect the interests of those it was founded by. No other group of people other than Anglos were originally included in the original American Dream blueprints. It was never expected for Black and Brown people to be truly welcomed and accepted as equals at the table of this nation. This was not how the country was initially designed, and what we see in current times is the manifestation of those seeds of classism, division and divisiveness. 5. Black people, stop being so reactionary to the point where we fail to think critically. If boycotting Black Friday was that big of a game changer, wed have done it a long time ago. Black Friday doesnt represent perpetuation of the system anymore than you putting $3-per-gallon gas in your SUV does. Even if we all did withhold our purchasing power for this one day, well make up for what we didnt spend when we find ourselves needing to make the purchases necessary and germane to our every day lives. 6. Stop trying to stick it to the White man. Forget about the White man as far as our progression as a people, a race and a culture go. There is nothing the White man can do to help us rebuild and restructure our communities from the inside, out. Im not saying dont be angry. Im not saying dont protest the corrupt machine that is America. Im saying do it wisely. Do it with a mind toward long term legacy building, and not just to get a rise out of Social Media or to make a one day or short term statement. 7. Black Church Community and Black Clergy. Lets get back to preaching Jesus and circling our communities around the Cross, but doing it with an ear to our communities and neighborhoods. Lets put our fingers back on the pulse of our people once more, and lets stop equating ministry success to big buildings and lots of bodies to fill them. Lets build churches that look like and sound like the communities they are planted in. Lets preach messages that prophetically push us back into the arms of Christ and not our own personal ideologies. Lets allow our ministries to strengthen our families instead of begging families to strengthen our ministries. Black America needs the Black Church to become a postmodern version of what it once was to the Black Community. 8. The fact that we must do a better job of policing our own communities does not excuse the hatred and utter disregard for Black life that exists here among law enforcement and some of the other powers that be in this nation. Typecasting Black people who are angry about this nations injustices as thugs is hypocritical at best, and evil at worst. The people who initiated the Boston Tea Party which turned into a gigantic riot, then a war, are called Sons of Liberty. The people who are turning their city upside down in protest to unfair and oppressive treatment are called thugs, savages and beasts. It sets the precedence that anger isnt right unless its white. 9. Pray we must. But what happens after that? And how exactly do we pray? Pray for peace? Or pray that God would actively USE us as the answers to those prayers. I find it interesting that in Matthew 9, toward the end of the chapter when Jesus sees the lostness of the people in His community context, He tells His disciples to pray that God would raise up people who would WORK to be the change that He wanted to see. The interesting part is in the very next chapter, Jesus was deputizing the same people who He told to pray. He was empowering them to do the very thing He asked them to inquire of God to do. What does it mean? It means we ought to be careful not to use prayer as a tool of procrastination and passivity. Dont pray with a mindset that God will use someone else other than the one who prayed. And Dont be surprised if God reveals to you through your prayers that you are the answer to those prayers. Pray we must. But Its past time to act, my people. Thats all I got….Goodnight.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 11:42:04 +0000
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