Exorcising Racial Demons: Part I (by Melvin Bray)
If properly understood, Senator Barack Obama's remarks yesterday at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, constitute one of the most significant and honest public addresses ever made on America's 400-year struggle with race. Had we heeded DuBois' 1903 prophetic warning, The Souls of Black Folks, it may have found voice in the 20th century. There is a conversation America has, literally in some cases, been dying to have. That conversation is not in favor of any particular presidential candidate. Please don't relegate and dismiss it on those grounds. However, it is unlikely that we would be so inescapably confronted with such issues outside of a person of color experiencing some measure of success in a bid for the highest elected office in the land.
In her post, "Putting Rev. Wright's Preaching in Perspective," Diana Butler Bass implored us to listen better to one another. Now let me suggest something to listen for. The thought is simple, but the lesson is not: Not everyone has experienced America in the same way. And we must lay down the self-absorption that makes us think this doesn't matter, if we are ever to begin to appreciate each other.
Permit me this timely example. If you are not Black, you may not know that the Black church is the theatre in which Blacks have historically exorcised their demons - with the pastor as both theologue and thespian embodying the collective process of redemption for his/her people every week. Initially, church was the one place we could go that we weren't under massa's whip, which is why we relish it. Eventually, it became the center and sustainer of our community. So most of us understand Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a way that may escape others.
Church equaled life for us. Where else could we go to exorcise the demons of injustice and intransigence? Where else could we go to exorcise the marginalization and invalidation, the defeat and depression, the struggle and scorn? Where else could we go when our children asked - as my daughter did while coloring just the other day- if Jesus were brown or white? My answer was that he was born to Jewish parents, people of color, whom we usually refer to as olive-skinned. And her heartrending response at 5-years-old was: "Why can't he be white? In all the pictures, he's white!"
It was in church that we heard the story of a people who were considered least among the nations, scattered and subject to the whims of others. Their story taught us how to survive in exile. We listened close and learned that a healthy nationalism has been the most broadly successful defense against the ravages of imperialism. Thus, it was in the womb of the incontestable sense of ethnic validity given to me by Black liberationists/nationalists like Rev. Wright who were "unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian" that I finally found enough courage to reach beyond my own tragic racial history.
From outside the Black experience, you can't legitimately critique this. Western Christianity hadn't been true enough to forestall the savageness of chattel slavery (a peculiar and altogether new institution of bondage in which for the first time in recorded history a people were legally, socially, theologically and scientifically defined as property, a thing, subhuman), let alone genocide, apartheid or discrimination. If an amalgamation of Black pride and Christological hope were the only way those of us who held onto it could remain Christian, so be it.
Notwithstanding, there have been those like King, non-nationalists, who by divine grace cultivated eyes to see and ears to hear glimpses of the kingdom that heretofore had escaped almost all of us. He and those like him caught a glimpse of a post-racial reality in God. (Not a non-racial reality—a well-meaning sociological nonentity—but post-racial: those who have suffered through the crucible of race and come out the other side determined to live beyond race—still in visceral awareness of its worst and unequivocal opposition to even the slightest of its indignities.) You and I could have such eyes and ears and tongues and lips, we're just not practiced enough.
Lest one be tempted to brandish the name of King in vain, as many are apt to do, we must immediately confess that 'post-racial' is a martyrdom posture in a relentlessly racial modern world. Forty or more years of privilege can alter the collective memory of a nation. But I remember. It was not the majority of middle- and upper-class blacks and whites who loved King while he was alive. I remember. He became America's hero only once dead. I remember. King and Shabazz were assassinated only as they moved closer to each other and closer to embodying justice as the birthright of the entire human family. I remember. Robeson was blacklisted and Hughes domesticated in children's literature texts. I remember. DuBois was expatriated and Washington's message appropriated to justify segregation. And I remember Douglass, magnificent Douglass, who up and decided one day "that however long [he] might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when [he] could be a slave in fact" - and vowed to give as good as he got from any person who thought otherwise. (And he did.) With a ferocity and intimidation unmatched by a mere mortal such as Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Douglass voiced a irresistibly brilliant and no less scathing critique of America that succeeded in having him sent abroad 'in service to his country' at the very time his eloquence and intellect were most sorely needed here. I remember.
So what do we do, my friends, in the face of our undeniably incongruent histories - which give us reason to forever suspect one another, a reason dramatically subverted by the call to embrace one another in the way of Jesus?
[to be continued...]
Melvin Bray is a devoted husband, committed father, learner, teacher, writer, storyteller, lover of people, connoisseur of creativity, seeker of justice, and believer in possibilities. As founder of Kid Cultivators, he lives, loves, and dreams with friends in Atlanta, Georgia.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Comments
Thanks Melvin Bray,
I readily appreciate, understand and accept what you have written and am looking forward to Part 2.
Is it alright to say that Obama's speech last night has started a necessary dialogue, and, that, being in part a reaction to the furore caused by Rev Jeremiah Wright, the good pastor has in fact achieved something positive with his 'incendiary' words? Something that may result in a greater understanding, through 'enforced' dialogue, between the races that the Rev may never have dreamed of?
Does not God "work in mysterious ways"?
Later ...
God bless you.
Alu
Dar es Salaam
Posted by: Robert Alu | March 19, 2008 11:44 AM
When you're hurting real bad, feeling and experiencing the wrongs against your people, in anger and tears, I can see someone vehemently calling for God's judgment from heaven, for damnation of the thing that continues so wrong, blind, hypocritical and immediately unjust. If it were you, could you suppress that anger, pretend it not exist, bury it inside and shine out a fake happiness and smile? That's what people have been asked to do, publicly, for generations, or suffer even greater indignities.
Nevertheless, I note that violence by man was never extolled, and it was well within, "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord" - not man's.
I honestly believe, to the cry of anguish that is, "G-D America," the response ought to be an embrace returned, in loving tears, of "O, my brother, my brother - I am so sorry!"
Posted by: Wash White | March 19, 2008 12:11 PM
thank you, wash white. thank you...
Posted by: melvin bray | March 19, 2008 12:31 PM
I refuse to accept the premise that if you're not part of one group then you can't possibly understand how that group could feel. Its a weak premise that is used justify the wrong actions of a group of people. I don't think anyone could reasonably talk about white supremacy churches and the "white experience" and have understanding for their bigotry. Whites and non-whites can look at that type of preaching and see it is just not truth. The same goes for the bigotry that Rev. Wright espouses.
I know everyone here loves Obama, but you can't let that blind your judgment. Seriously, this Rev. Wright is not preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ when he 'prophetically' tells us that the US government invented AIDS and if he's not preaching the Gospel of Jesus, then he has no business being in the pulpit.
Posted by: Jason J | March 19, 2008 12:44 PM
right on Melvin
Posted by: justintime | March 19, 2008 12:53 PM
"I don't think anyone could reasonably talk about white supremacy churches and the "white experience" and have understanding for their bigotry. Whites and non-whites can look at that type of preaching and see it is just not truth. The same goes for the bigotry that Rev. Wright espouses."
This totally denies reality, making the KKK and Rev. Wright morally equivalent, as if there is no difference
between the practical evil of oppressor and the protesting victim.
The KKK took life and rights away, in a practical massive insurgency of physical terrorism and murder, done anonymously in pursuit of re-establishing white supremacy in the South and overthrowing Reconstruction. And it succeeded. The North acceded in this, for the slaves had not been the real issue, rather secession had been, which had been resolved.
Now who have Rev. Wright and the UCC, or the black community in general, done those same things to? What structures of sin have they set up to maintain their superior financial, social and political position against their "inferiors"? What hooded violence have they practiced, whom have they enslaved?
Posted by: N.M. Rod | March 19, 2008 1:06 PM
jason j, please don't rewrite the premise. it's not that we can't understand one another's experience(s). but we do need to deconstruct our assumptions that we can boldly and unilaterally critique another's experience that is dramatically different from our own.
Posted by: melvin bray | March 19, 2008 1:09 PM
Melvin, I would argue that our situations have much more in common than any of our differences and that is why we can critique others that may come from different backgrounds. I have traveled across the world and met people from all different cultures and it always amazes me how much more we have in common than we have different. This is what should be our focus.
Additionally, as a brother in Christ, we should have more in common than not. Therefore it is appropriate, and necessary, to critique and test his prophetic speech content against the bible and what we understand as acceptable Christian principles.
To me when we try and focus on what's different, it always drives a divide between us. The unity that is our inheritance in Christ is compromised when I'm told that other people are inherently different than me and I could never possibly understand them. I think we need to find unity and accord rather than to allow hate filled speech like Rev Wright's to drive us apart. What purpose of the kingdom is fulfilled by people like him fueling hatred against 'the white man.'
Posted by: Jason J | March 19, 2008 1:32 PM
allow me to ask a favor of you, jason j, if i may. when you get a chance, please check out Things Fall Apart by Achebe. (you may have already have, so you'll understand my next statement) what you propose has been asserted by the west for a long time. it has never worked out well for people of color.
nonetheless, i promise not to leave us at stalemate tomorrow.
Posted by: melvin bray | March 19, 2008 2:14 PM
"i promise not to leave us at stalemate tomorrow."
Alright! I await your next segment. :)
My main concern is when we choose to define ourselves outside of Christ, we take on identities that we sometimes shouldn't. The biggest conviction God has laid on my heart is to lay aside all of my preconceived notions of who I am and solely to be a Child of God. Hopefully we can all agree that our affiliation with the kingdom comes first, then everything else a distant second.
Posted by: Jason J | March 19, 2008 2:27 PM
Jason,
I can understand your point but I think you miss part of Christ's. Christ never and I mean never meant for culture not to matter. He just wanted all people treated equally. Revelation reveals God's plan for the nations while Rome was persecuting Christians. Christ's plan was to make sure that many people from different nations worshiped and had loving union with God the father and each other. To ignore culture and focus purely on being a son of God doesn't allow for the total redemption God had planned. God planned to make me a black man, to redeem it and to show him and I as transcendent. Being a son of God is being a black man, it is being a son of my parents and their parents before them. I am the living the redemption of what occurred before me.
That is all.
p
Posted by: Payshun | March 19, 2008 2:38 PM
Thirty years ago I entered seminary in Chicago, where a focal point of our education was the Christian Church and Black Experience. Being a white woman from the Midwest, I was stunned and affronted when African-American clergy, students and instructors confronted the rest of us about not just our ignorance of traditions, history and mindsets other than our own; they confronted us re: the myths we fed ourselves about living in a world with one true -- and one actual -- perspective and assuming it was the one with which we were familiar.
When I was shocked enough, I ended up sitting and listening, and when I sat and listened enough with a humble heart and open mind, I received an education I hadn't even realized was I was lacking. Life has led me into confrontations with African-American issues from time to time (in the adoption of my four African-American and biracial children; in the Central Illinois parish where, because of my 4 and 1 year old children someone hung a dummy in effigy in front of the parsonage; when my 19-year-old son was arrested for "being black in Gulf Shores, AL" -- and at other times). The greater measure of potential conflict never arose because I found that if I shut up and listened, those with whom I met would explain their concerns with dignity and power, and then grant me the attention to do the same.
White folks who really believe they can negate color and race by claiming the differences would disappear if we all loved Jesus enough reveal their own racism more than that of others. And sorting out the truth of Rev. Wright's prophecy is an exercise in profound spiritual growth if we'll undertake it.
Posted by: openeyes | March 19, 2008 6:37 PM
The 'ability' to transcend culture and be focussed only on the Saviour--is generally a privilege of the dominant culture alone--for we are the standard.
Jason, even if we were pure beings able to set aside the language we have learned, the framework through which we see life, the values/norms/beliefs of the cultural air we breathe, the word we assign to the pigmentation in our skin, we would be so attuned to our human tendency towards idolatry and self-worship--I believe we would run with great thankfulness towards the opportunity to reflect on our lives through the grid of another so as not to rid ourselves of culture--but as I believe P commented--to redeem it--to bring it under the Lordship of Jesus.
The Gospel of Jesus carried around the world appeared to much of the world as an "Ugly American."
I understand your sentiments and how sensible they seem. Let me just say I have spent thirty years learning about this as a racist white guy; building relationships of trust and mutuality with African American brothers and sisters (and wife and children); but this does not for a moment reduce my responsibility tomorrow to walk into a new relationship (or an existing one) and be willing to again close my mouth and submit.
The path to mutuality and unity for those of us from a dominant community with the history of an oppressor is not the path of saying, "Sorry. Let's just get along. (Frankly a great big chunk of us can't even bring ourselves to say that much)" Rather the path is one of submission to our brothers and sisters at the foot of the Cross.
Posted by: letjusticerolldown | March 19, 2008 11:03 PM
Open eyes,
I am glad to hear that you whiteness has been exposed to you! It's ugly isn't it. It's repulsive to see what our ancestors have done to the African American in particular.
I am a White Man who has lived a multicultural lifestyle for over half my life. I went to a Historical Black College, Pastored a historical 500 member AA church, was employed by a Black institution and was married and divorce a black woman while being employed by a religious black institution. That didn't go over well. I am a person who received it from both sides! I would think I would have some creditability speaking on the subject. I just don't understand white people who make comments on race when they have never face it.
If you leave it up to us white people there is no racism in America. That is so strange when I go to my job when i see the "directors" all white and the people in the back room filing or doing the cleaning all minorities. Oh I know why, its because they are too lazy to work hard to move up the ladder huh?
The very issues that white people say are divisive are the issues that will only unite us. We wants must take ownership of our historical past. I paint the picture like this.. let's say your brother or a family maliciously killed another person. You didn't do it but i am sure you would feel bad about the situation, wouldn't you feel a little ashamed? Ok what If I don't at least understand what the family of the victim would feel about the FAMILY! it doesn't matter if you didn't do it or not ITS IN YOUR NAME. Its what you name represents. They cannot separate your family from you! Get it? So we whites need to just accept it. If your not racist then then fight against don't say we should just forget the past.
The hubris of Whiteness is ugly and a disease that we will not take anything for. We are psychological damaged just like those whom we have damaged.
Posted by: Tony | March 19, 2008 11:40 PM
Dear Melvin,
Being a fellow educator this piece really nailed it on the manger door for me.
The illustration from your daughter, touched me. Children tell us exactly the way they see us. The most important thing is that they are still anabashedly willing to keep asking those questions which put us on the spot. Tell that child she can paint Jesus any color she wants, because we were made in God's image. Just don't expect anyone elses Jesus to look the same way.
Not one of us see's Christ from the same point of view. As we are all siblings of the same family, Elohim. Like wise We each see the world differently depending on our location on the planet. Yet we are sure it is the same earth. Each one of those environments nurtured someone who tells a true story even though they are often contradictory. Only God can fully appreciate this.
I remember from my childhood some of the hateful things that many people were saying about MLK when he was alive. I could not have the freedom to be doing the things I am doing to day as a teacher if he had not died. I regret that it required his death to change the rigid world I was living in. I am hungry now to read what he would have wrote if he could still speak to on these times.
I look forward to part 2. Things are happening so fast who knows what will transpire before you get your pen to the page.
Posted by: Ms. Cynthia | March 20, 2008 3:01 AM
When asked about the different responses to his pastor and to Imus, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor questioned the premise of the comparison and defended Obama’s response in each case. “He spoke out both times, so it’s entirely consistent,”
Posted by: hmmmm | March 20, 2008 3:13 AM
i want to thank everyone who responded and who did not respond to the first part of this article.
to be honest, i expected much of negative feedback that has become typical of any conversation of race and politics initiated on GP of late. but it hasn't come. thank you to all of the usual suspects who did not try to skew me or my words and make this a debate regarding whose experience is more valid. even in the one instance of stark disagreement, we conversed with grace. thank you, jason j.
then thank you to all those who did respond and were courageous enough to expose your hearts. thanks for not going after each other and making this a space where we could be vulnerable.
oh, btw, "hmmmmm", funny you should bring it up. in a couple of weeks i plan to talk about imus as well.
Posted by: melvin bray | March 20, 2008 9:50 AM
Thanks for your thoughts Melvin!
Posted by: evelyn goodman | March 20, 2008 8:26 PM
Melvin,
I'm a little behind the game, only reading this today, on Good Friday. An appropriate theme for Good Friday, I think. It's great to see you writing here.
Peace, brother,
Ryan
Posted by: Ryan | March 21, 2008 10:37 AM
Melivin,
Thank you for the illumination.
Peace be with you,
Posted by: Shaun Mazurek | March 21, 2008 3:33 PM
Sorry for redundancy here - not sure where to put these comments... :-( Melvin, I do appreciate your thoughts and comments. However, in the spirit of Proverbs 15:1 (A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare), I think what has been lost in all of this is the following:
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." ~Galatians 3:28
And according to the Rev. Wright, if white people are truly the enemy (as in his comments regarding black-on-black violence), then the Reverend should remember:
"You have heard the law that says, 'Love your neighbor' and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that." ~Matthew 5:43-47
In closing,
Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. ~Ephesians 4:31
"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." ~John 13:35
Posted by: Armed2Win(Eph 6:10-18) | March 25, 2008 10:50 AM
Post a Comment
Are you aware of our Rules of Conduct?