Oh mighty God: you are just, holy, and judge righteously and impartially. We pray that Walter Scott’s family will find justice. We also pray that you will give them courage, strength, and determination to not to give up but to strive until you grant them justice. We also pray for all individuals who are victims of social and legal injustice, as well as human oppression and violence.
Oh God of justice:how many times, the American justice system has failed the poor, marginalized minority and groups, and Blacks in this country!
Oh rigtheous God: we long and cry for justice and equality in this country! We pray for the triumph of racial justice and the celebration of racial unity and harmony in our society.
Oh holy God: Oh how much, we can’t wait any longer for justice and righteousness to reign supreme in this land! We pray to Thee, O sovereign God of the universe to mend our racial wound and heal our land.
Oh Justice, dear Justice, sweet Justice: why are you hiding your face from us who are poor and marginalized? We pray to Thee, O Lord God almighty to orient our hearts toward forgiveness; to guide our thought toward righteousness; to direct our path toward holiness; and to turn our hearts and minds toward repentance and reconciliation.
Oh God our Refuge: We pray for strength, courage, and boldness. Oh mighty God, we shall not fear!
“Once they tell us, Jehovah, that in the great shadows of the past Thou hast whispered to a quicvering people, saying, “Be not afraid.” He watching over Israel slumbers not nor sleeps. Grant us today, O God, that fearlessness that rests on confidence in the ultimate rightness of things. Let us be afraid neither of mere physical hurt, nor of the unfashionableness of our color, nor of the unpopularity of our cause; let us turn toward the battle of life undismayed and above all when we have fought the good fight grant us to face the shadow of death with the same courage that has let us live.Amen.”– W.E. B. Du Bois, “Prayers for Dark People”
Everything “White” is Awesome including the Minnesota “Black” Santa Claus!
It has been reported in the Star Tribune (see “Racists Freak Out Over Black Santa At Mall Of America” ) that a lot of white Minnesotans are not pleased to welcome the non-traditional “2016 Black Santa” in their homes and to the Mall of America; this Black Santa has interrupted the monolithic narrative of Santa Claus as a white figure in Western history. Some Minnesotans have reasoned that the former (“the Black Santa”) is unable to bring Christmas joys and cheers to the children of Minnesota because he has an unfamiliar face, and his smile is black.
Okay, Minnesota People: Here’s the verdict:
Santa is white.
(The) Unicorn is white.
God is white.
Angels are white.
Jesus is white.
Mary is white.
Joseph is white.
Satan is white.
Heaven is white.
Hell is white.
The world is white.
White reason is white.
…and you are white!
Does that make you happy?
This incident at the Mall of America is a clear example of the tragedy of Whiteness. Even though Santa is not real, (some) white people want an unreal Santa to be a “white figure.” Hence, whiteness is both visible and invisible, transcendence and immanence, real and unreal. Whiteness is that which cuts through the world of the imaginary and non-imaginary. It is both fiction and non-fiction. It is the song that could be sung and (un-) sung…a melody without rhythm.
The question that must now be asked: Where is Santa Claus’ birth certificate?
Let’s kill the power of hate and race with the strength of radical love and inclusion.
To the poor, the afflicted, victims of human oppression, violence, and imperialism, and to the underrepresented families and the underclass workers: God is not against you; He is for you and with you in your daily struggles.
Jesus: An Old Story for a Dying American Christianity, Desperate Humanity, and Disoriented World!
The most important Person in Christianity and Christian history was an Immigrant Refugee and a Person of Color
1. Who challenged the Capitalist banking system of the Roman Empire.
2. Was an anti-imperial fighter.
3. Challenged the structures, forces, powers, and the government (and the class system and the individuals that support them) that oppressed the Poor, the underclass, and the Outcast.
4. Who fed the poor and the hungry.
5. Who provided free healthcare to the uninsured.
6. Who tablefellowshipped with the homeless, and the street prostitutes and gangsters.
7. Who told all of these people and groups named above that he was sent to serve them, to improve their lives, to love them, and to die sacrificially and willingly so they could be free spiritually from both social and spiritual oppressions and sins.
*This Jesus is absent in most conservative-evangelical Theology books, ministerial-seminary training schools, preaching, churches, and Sunday school lessons. The problem is that this Jesus is not a power-seeking-and-hungry Lord and Savior. His teaching, leadership style, and ethics–that is his cultural, economic, moral, and political preferences and choices– contradict those of the contemporary Christian churches and American Evangelicalism. His moral vision is the antithesis of the contemporary economic model, globalization, world-systems, and worldviews, which contemporary American Christianity supports.
Most Contemporary Christians in America prefer the majestic and glorious Jesus as God and not the Jesus as Man, the lover of the poor, the homeless, the refugee, the immigrant and the friend of the underclass, the wage worker, the exploited, and the colonized.
This Jesus was committed wholeheartedly to the practice and promotion of justice, equality, human dignity, and godliness. This Jesus who was/is a social reformer and “The Way” to God was God-incarnate in the human flesh.
”Understanding Price-Mars: Africa First not Haiti” (Part 2)
The single passion of Jean Price-Mars was to become “a great man for his nation (Haiti) and race (black people).” In his (45-page) controversial response to René Piquion (“Lettre ouverte au Dr. René Piquion, directeur de l’École normale supérieure, sur son Manuel de la négritude”: Le préjugé de couleur est-il la question sociale?” 1967), he informed us that was his mother’s driven vision for him: to be an exemplary man of valor to the Haitian people, the people of Africa, and those of African ancestry in the Black Diaspora. Because of this obsessive childhood dream (or a dream driven by a passion for Haiti and Africa), in his scholarship and public intellectual activism, Price-Mars resisted the separation of Africa, Haiti, and the black diaspora.
Unlike other Haitian intellectuals (i.e. Baron de Vastey, Joseph Antenor Firmin, Hannibal Price, Louis Joseph Janvier, etc.) who portrayed Haiti and interpreted the history of Haiti, by the virtue of its existence as the first postcolonial state and Black Republic, and its successful revolution and tremendous contributions to universal emancipation, human rights, and the end of slavery, as the rehabilitation of the black race in modernity, Price-Mars constructed an alternative narrative of Haitian history and Haitian society premised on the history of Africa and the Old Continent’s contributions to universal civilization in human history.
On one hand, Price-Mars would not use African traditional society and life, or the culture of Haitian peasants, which is African in content and practice, as a model to “build” the contemporary Haitian society. On the other hand, he would urge Haitian intellectuals and the country’s elite-minority to reconsider the African retentions on Haitian soil and Haiti’s indebtedness to Africa. The Price-Marsian clarion call to affirm the African presence in Haiti does not mean that Price-Mars has undermined Haiti’s triple heritage: Africa, Native American, and Western. It does convey, however, Africa is first, and that the “Black Continent” should shape and occupy the Haitian imagination.
Run for Justice, Fight for Love, and Pursue Peace!
Fighting for justice and equality, and striving for what is right, beautiful, godly, and human-uplifting in the contemporary American society is very depressing and time-consuming.
Many individuals in places of authority and influence have sealed the mouth of justice and deferred the power of love and peace in society. In other words, whenever an individual or a society fails to do justice and walk in solidarity with those who are weak and oppressed, as the author of Isaiah has observed, “Therefore justice is far from us, And righteousness does not overtake us; We hope for light, but behold, darkness, For brightness, but we walk in gloom” (Isaiah 59:14). The result is both tragic and simple: a life of despair and a nation in crisis.
A society characterized by selfishness, injustice, inequality, oppression, and racial tension is not worth celebrating and defending. We need to stand against all manifestations of evil and hate in our society.
How to move forward toward a better society and the common good?
Here are a few suggestions:
1. We need to prioritize Love not Hate.
2. We need to prioritize Compassion not selfishness.
3. We need to prioritize Justice not inequality.
4. We need to prioritize Lives not politics.
5. We need to give preference to Forgiveness not hostility.
6. We need to give preference to Optimism not pessimism.
7. We nee to give preference to the Poor and the Oppressed, not elevate the rich and the exploiter!
These are dangerous times to seek to live in harmony with each other; these are also terrible moments to seek to protect the lives of the least among us, to run for justice and fight for love, and ultimately, to “turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm:34:14).
My good friend Dr. Jarvis Williams who serves as an Associate Professor of New Testament interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY has a forthcoming book on the Southern Baptist Convention, racism, and segregation in Southern Baptist churches, as well as on the imperative of racial unity and reconciliation in Christian circles:
” The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has an obvious historical stain on it: namely, racism, evident by the SBC’s affirmation of slavery, its fairly recent repentance of this sin in 1995, and the numerous segregated Southern Baptist churches. This stain prohibits Southern Baptist churches from embracing the one new man in Christ outlined in Ephesians 2:11–22 and from participating in the new song of those saints from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation in Revelation 5:9.
The glorious gospel of Jesus Christ necessitates that all Southern Baptists do their part to remove this stain from the SBC. This requires sacrifice, humility, and perseverance, along with a relentless commitment to Christian unity. This volume, edited by and contributed to primarily by African-American voices in the SBC, is one small effort to help remove the stain of racism from the SBC in pursuit of this unity in our beloved denomination.”
If we want peace in our land and desire to live peacefully as a people, we must be agents of peace here and elsewhere and must not support war and tyranny, and protagonists of human terror and oppression in other countries.
The Legacy of Fidel Castro and the Evangelical Christian Community
In the past two days, I have engaged in some interesting and controversial conversations with some evangelical christian brothers and sisters (I myself am a follower of Christ, and do not identity myself as an evangelical Christian.) about the legacy of Fidel Castro and American imperialism, and America’s foreign policy towards Cuba and the so-called Third World countries. Let me make this clear: I am not a communist nor do I support violence and terrorism of any form. I’m against war and all forms of violence and human oppression. I’m a Christian pacifist and non-violent follower of Christ.
Below, I highlight five counter-responses to my underlying thesis (see below), from my christian brothers and sisters:
1. First of all, a christian evangelist and preacher told me that if you do not like America and American foreign policy toward the Third World, why don’t you go live in Cuba and go back to your country.
2. A christian gentleman, who holds a PhD in missions and theology, told me that I’m a communist and do not support American democracy, and that he and his grandfather have fought for the freedom of this country.
3. Another christian (a trained seminary gentleman) accused me of being anti-American, unpatriotic, and liberal.
4. Another Christian brother said to me that I was talking nonsense dressed up as pseudo-intellectualism.
5. Another christian thinker, who currently serves as the chief editor of a famous Christian magazine accused me of spreading communist propaganda.
For example, here’s one of the comments I made in the course of the conversation:
“Thanks for your comment. American imperialism and political greed in the world, especially in the Middle East, has also led to the death of thousands of children and innocent people. Fidel Castro was not the only bad guy; he was one among the many. Our pro-lie philosophy must also be inclusive; we cannot be partial or discriminatory in our evaluation.
By any means, I’m defending Castro’s leadership in Cuba. Castro was an ambivalent figure. He is a hero to many people; for others, he was the devil in the flesh. However, we need to balance our assessment and take into consideration his accomplishments and contributions in modern history. Many people in the Third World regard him as the hero who had consistently fought American imperialism and Western oppression in the world. He decried American racism against African Americans and was an aspiration to many Americans in the era of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements in the United states. Fidel Castro is also revered in many countries in South Africa, and in most Latin American and Caribbean countries because of his uncompromised liberative beliefs and ideologies against the Empire and oppressive American-European economic capitalism and strategic globalism in the Region and in the world. He was also an inspiration to many Latin American theologians and freedom fighters in various Regions in the Americas. It is important that we articulate a fair narrative about the Man.
Furthermore, in addition to Castro’s brutal leadership, American foreign policy and years of embargo in Cuba have contributed to the mass exodus of Cubans out of Cuba. Imperial America gave Cuba Castro! Just like Imperial America gave the Haitian people Francois Duvalier (Papa Doc). It is also good to study US foreign policy in the world, which most American don’t care to know. Fidel Castro (1926-2016) was and will remain the Devil to many people; for others, he was the Savior.
If we are going to condemn oppression and human degradation elsewhere and everywhere, we must first begin here in the United States. If we want to be faithful to the Gospel and its clarion call to practice peace, justice, and reconciliation, we must also denounce American oppression and the dehumanization of certain lives.”
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PostScript
I have to constantly remind myself that the United States of America is not the world, and certainly does not represent the collective voice of the people and leaders outside of the United States of America. America happens to be one of the countries in the world. The opinions of American citizens about Castro do not represent those of non-U.S. citizens, and they’re certainly not the final words about The MAN. We are not the world! As my friend Marc-Arthur Pierre-Louis has cautioned us:
“If you don’t come from an oppressed country, if you have not been alien in someone else’s country and suffered oppression, it will be nearly impossible to understand the complexity of Castro and the Cuban people existential struggles and so I urge you not to oversimplify the Cuban revolution into a binary, Manichean settlement.”
In the video below, “Fidel Castro and Political Rights in Cuba,” “James Early and Paul Jay discuss the death of Fidel Castro and how corporate media deals with the question of political freedoms and human rights in Cuba”
drcelucienjoseph, "Thinking and Meditating" 