Reflection on Dr. King in the Era of Post-Racialism

Dr. King died eighteen years before I was born. My mother was seventeen when he was murdered. Now I sit at my computer on the thirtieth anniversary of the declaration of his federal holiday, in deep conflict about the legacy of the movement.
My conflict is rooted in angst about the willingness to be satisfied with a myth of equality. That it appears that much of the "gains" made in the Civil Rights Movement are being traded for oligarchical shortsighted efforts. That hell, there are two cities in the US in the same state being poisoned intentionally for no real apparent reason. That the prison industrial complex has tripled since 1970. That young black men and women are dying without justice at the hands of bad policing and a justice system designed against them. That success for people of color does not mean that the needle has moved on meter of justice. The scales remain out of balance. So I am not happy or satisfied. I refuse to believe that King's Dream is anyways close to being fulfilled. (The dream was bigger than hypothetical equality. The hypothetical cannot be achieved without the practical. The practical in the eyes of Dr. King was rooted in the economy and in justice. That post-slavery dismissal from the economy only served to empower Jim Crow.)
Many people reduce the legacy of Dr. King to a sermonic tag at the end of the keynote of the March on Washington in 1963. They connect with him saying, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. […] And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" This promotion of the “dream of Dr. King” generally ignores the actual thrust of Dr. King’s Speech and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The March challenged the role of racism in increased levels of unemployment among Black Americans and the poor. The language of the speech is a harsh and unyielding critique of racism in America. Failing to acknowledge the righteous anger and frustration that those who are oppressed remains a major critique of even the most positive and well-intentioned forms of colorblindness.

So this leaves us to why there is a need to #ReclaimMLK. Unlike Malcolm X or Marcus Garvey, King's message was open for everyone. That in King's vision race is only a factor in the systemic inequity that is America. That it could be claimed by anyone who can perceive to be marginalized. But, you cannot claim marginalization and be part of the perpetuation of marginalization. You cannot claim King and sit on the sidelines and reject the complexity of his legacy. King called America to deeper depths. He challenged our religiosity. He pushed those who sat in judgment to actually practice empathy. We need that same voice now. We need voices pushing the church forward in justice. To reject the overrated nature of social media and viral presence. This what the legacy of Dr. King has to be in this era. That he called Blacks and Whites to the mat.

First, in order to survive this pseudo-post-racial world, the disenfranchised must know who they are. This is not just about cultural acceptance, but knowing where they stand in this society. It is about knowing the rules of the game. The paradigm in the colorblind world is both static and a moving target. It is static because those standing frameworks of identity remain. But, it is a moving target because success can be attained (for a price). The narrative of racism in America is not binary and is very complicated. Knowing this fact, one can maintain hope. Second, despite the barriers, despite the apparent increasing dangers, the bank of justice is not empty. There has been a legacy of fighting for freedom and justice. The context is that as Dr. King said in 1963, the founding creeds of this nation were a "check marked insufficient funds".

Dr. King, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, W.E.B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington, countless others believed firmly that the bank of justice is not empty and will not give up fighting for rights that belong to me and my legacy. This country's tenuous relationship with race and poverty chains it to the past. 

This state of awareness is what Touré describes as “post-blackness. Post-blackness shifts the focus from a fight for retribution for past harms to obtaining seats at the table of power. He closes his book, Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? with these words: “We don’t gain from rejecting America before it rejects us and from shunning voting and education. We progress by getting as much education as we can and launching ourselves into corporations and entrepreneurialism and politics and finance and real estate. We need more and more Blacks sitting at tables of real power. Let’s be like Barack. Let’s get what we want from America in spite of racism. Let’s buy into the promise of America and get what we deserve. Let’s come home. You can fight the power, but I want us to be the power.^”

Progressing up the ladders of success in multiple areas that are stereotypically outside of the reach of minorities is the proper attack against color-blind racism. The pain that we will endure will be very real, but it alone cannot be the sole focus. The cry for retribution has appeared to fall on increasingly deaf ears, so we need to gather political capital to change the system.

It needs to be noted as I close, that just as power has continually adapted throughout history to maintain its control, power will try to reject and marginalize the mobilization of resources. As we continue to speak the truth about racism and racial harm, powers response will often to revert to name calling and misdirection. It must be remembered that color-blind racism is built on a myth, “the idea that race has all but disappeared as a factor shaping the life chances of all Americans. This myth is the central column supporting the house of color blindness. Remove this column and the house will collapse. (Racism Without Racists, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva)^” The truth of the matter remains that colorblindness unchecked is as dangerous as the emperor with no clothes. Just as the young boy that exclaimed the truth; the most powerful tool that we have to contend in this crazy world is the truth.

May the King Live Forever!! Blessings!!

Ernest

Why I Still Believe...

I was going to invest a series of in attacking the injustice in the world, but I have been in numerous conversations with intellectuals and activists that demand an answer about my faith. There questions and probing and ultimate attempts at proselytizing me to turn my back on my faith and the hope of glory. 

The trend among young intellectuals is to reject a faith that does not include the marginalize. I echo many of their concerns with the direction of the church in the western world. The church that is so distracted and dysfunctional that it has exchanged its call to love for anger and hatred; righteousness for being right; spiritual warfare for blind allegiance to earthly government. I am well aware of the ignorance that the church has fallen in love with. Majoring severely in the minor things and missing every opportunity to learn and serve and lead the world to the Savior. To my young activists of color, I know Christianity's link to the vileness of the empire runs deep. That they have justified the enslavement of our ancestors and justified the raping and pillaging of multiple continents through the lens of Christianity. I know the violence of the empire is undeniable and I know the legacy of Christianity walking hand in hand with the violence. As a black male, the burning crosses are singed in my psyche. The rationalizing of hatred of difference races or gays and lesbians...has been laid at the feet of idea of faith.

My response to all of it, I believe in Christ, I believe the Bible as the Word of God, because the more I study it--the more I am challenged and pushed to grow. My relationship with the Bible and with people who call themselves Christian has been hard and complex. Just an example of my angst posted after the Charleston Tragedy:

So, I have been quiet...I have prayed and cried and prayed and cried and know now that I cannot be silent anymore. America...doing what you have always done and expecting different results is insulting and the very definition of insanity. Safety is not my concern. I have always known...I will always know that I am not safe. I am not safe to be black, Christian, filled with hope, sobered by reality, heartbroken for this world. I know that I am not safe and what I am called to do is ultimately dangerous, but I choose to not live in fear. I said in the past, "I am tired...I am so tired. I am tired of the message on repeat that my life does not matter. I am tired of feeling like a stranger in a strange land in my own home. My anger has boiled over to just exhaustion. I am tired. I am tired of not being able to explain my hurt without being called foolish or a race baiter or divisive. Dammit I am distraught...and there seems to be no relief." I am still tired, I am still broken, I am still gobsmacked by what happened in Charleston. I do not believe that the perpetrator was a mere sycophant, a mere mentally ill man. This young man was cold, calculated and planned his attack and thus is a symptom of white supremacy. White supremacy believes that their position is constantly under attack. But, it is only under attack because it continues to choose to abuse those that don't look like it. It is toxic and is bred in too many young men and women (He was 20). This supremacy refuses to believe that there is noone else but it in the world. But here is the problem...Here is the real tragedy of it all. How many times can we/you see violence, experience injustice, taste the bitter pill of tragedy until we make change!? How much more? Oh...I used to not know the answer...but the answer is inescapable. We will continue eat tragedy for breakfast with our morning coffee. Devour pain and anguish with a racist, classist, homophobic glaze for lunch. Serve up chaos and ignorance for dinner. ALL DAY EVERY DAY. Change takes courage and the mythos of freedom has made us soft and lazy. We continue to eat crap like we are in Human Centipede 3 and enjoy it. In the end, I have unplugged from the matrix. I refuse to be desensitized. I refuse to remain silent. God has given me a voice and I will use it for justice, righteousness and love. I forgive him, because he does not know what he does. I pray fervently for those that are broken. I pray for those who are lost. I pray that God awakens His Church to do more than cry and become His hands and feet.

Brian Zahnd, a very insightful pastor wrote blog about his issues with the Bible. (http://brianzahnd.com/2014/02/problem-bible/) I have many of the same issues, but my perspective is very different because of being part of the disenfranchised. My conflict with the Bible is similar to question posed to Howard Thurman while he was on a trip to India in the late 1930s, "I am a Hindu. I do not understand. Here you are in my country, standing deep with the Christian faith and tradition. I do not wish to seem to be rude to you. But, sir, I think you are a traitor to all the darker peoples of the earth. I am wondering what you, an intelligent man, can say in defense of your position." (Jesus and the Disinherited, pg 19). This conversation with this Hindu man birthed one of the most powerful books written about Jesus and justice, Jesus and the Disinherited. This book continues to shape my perspective on Justice and Faith.

Jesus was not a member of the empire. He could not have been a member of the empire because he came to subvert the empire. I believe wholeheartedly in the potential that the Bible expresses. I believe wholeheartedly in the hope that the Bible shares and that Jesus brought into the world. I believe because it keeps me from acting out of line. It gives me safety in a world where I am not safe. 

I pray that the church, the bride of Christ, falls more and more in love with Him. The more we fall in love Jesus, the King of Glory, the Prince of Peace, the less we can love and remain in love with the empire. I pray that we will forever be followers Christ first, lovers of people, and whatever imperial banners we fly...way...way...somewhere down the list.

Happy New Year, Be Blessed.

Ernest