My Brief Thought on Richard B. Spencer and The Threat of White Supremacist Groups in America’s Higher Education

Dr. Celucien Joseph Uncategorized , , ,

Below, I express my brief thought about the case of Richard B. Spencer and the threat of White Supremacist Groups in America’s Higher Education.

First of all, we MUST stand against  any manifestation of hate  or any form of White Supremacy and White Supremacist Groups if we want to build an egalitarian society and more-promising democratic life in this country.

What transpired recently at Texas A & M, in which a white nationalist and racist by the name of Richard B. Spencer was given the “administrative” pass, is a threat to human life, American democracy, and cosmopolitanism. If the administration of Texas A & M could tolerate Mr. Spencer and allow him to deliver his racist message to the students, it is evident that America’s higher learning system is bankrupt and does not promote a safe environment for faculty, staff, and students of color.

Those of us who care about public safety and the triumph of democracy and love in our society should be puzzled and asked concurrently this challenging question: Is this really an act or example of freedom of speech?

Unashamedly, Richard B. Spencer used the platform and public sphere of a “public university” to spread the message of hate, national division, the doctrine of white supremacy, the superiority of the white race, and that the white race is the apex of human history. Spencer’s radical white supremacist discourse engenders collective fear and isolation, and stimulates collective anger and more animosity between the races.

This American freedom of speech or self-expression is detrimental to human life itself and arguably a threat to those of us who are black and brown people in this country and the world.

This needs to be stopped! If not, it will spread across our university campuses in this nation.

Finally, if the people in power and those with tremendous cultural, economic, and political influence in this country shall rise and find any merit in the project of racial justice and racial reconciliation, democratic life and egalitarianism, it is imperative that they MUST use their means and resources to stop this non-sense and white supremacy disease from spreading across this country and our university campuses that are supposed to be “sanctuary places.”

In the same line of thought, we as the people Must stand together against white supremacist groups and white supremacist rhetoric. White supremacy or any expression of hate toward any group or race is a threat to human life, cross-racial friendhisp, peace, human flourishing, and human dignity. Let’s kill the power of hate and race with the strength of radical love and inclusion.

For more information on this incident, see “A White Supremacist Incites a Crowd at Texas A&M” By Katherine Mangan

A Prayer to the God of Justice!

Dr. Celucien Joseph Uncategorized

A Prayer to the God of Justice

​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!

Dr. Celucien Joseph Uncategorized , , , ,

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.

Jesus: An Old Story for a Dying  American Christianity, Desperate Humanity, and Disoriented World!

Dr. Celucien Joseph Uncategorized

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)

Dr. Celucien Joseph Uncategorized

​​”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!

Dr. Celucien Joseph Uncategorized , ,
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).

A New Book of Southern Baptist Racism and Racial Unity

Dr. Celucien Joseph Uncategorized , ,

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:

Removing the Stain of Racism from the Southern Baptist Convention: Diverse African American and White Perspectives (B & H Academic, 2017)

Book Description:

” 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.”

I can’t wait to read Dr. Williams’ new book.