RACIAL PROFILING
So let me see if I got this straight --
World renowned Harvard professor and best-selling author Henry Louis Gates, Jr. comes home from a trip abroad to communist China where he was filming a video about America. His driver brings him to his home in Cambridge Massachusetts, and he notices his front door is jammed or otherwise locked. He cannot get in. He goes around back (as all of us would) and finds a way into his home. A concerned neighbor calls the police and the police show up. Gates produces his driver's license and Harvard ID and within a matter of minutes he is arrested for so-called "loud and tumultuous" behavior.
Welcome to post-racial America , black folks. This is the America of 2009, where we live in a Twighlight Zone of sorts. On the one hand, we have school kids in Philadelphia who cannot swim in a pool at a suburban country club (where, by the way, arrangements had been made for kids to do so in the summer) -- because according to the club president, they might change the "complexion" of the club.
And on the other hand, we have in Barack Obama the nation's first black president, who has an African/Arabic surname: "Hussein Obama." We have in Michelle Obama an accomplished, Ivy League educated, black first lady who is of a darker ebony complexion and allows her young daughters to sport ethnocentric hair braids to school and White House functions.
Then there is Judge Sonia Sotomayor. The nation's first presumed Latina Supreme Court Justice-to-be, who also hails from humble roots in the Bronx, is Ivy League educated, and whose awe inspiring American story evokes not pride, but suspicion and fear from Republican Senators and conservatives alike. Go figure.
Now we have Gates -- a 60-year-old baby boomer, Harvard professor, founder of theROOT.com and friend of Oprah. He is the epitome of black success in America. And yet, in an hour standing in his own home he was badgered about who he was and why he was there and was further reduced to a black male criminal at the hands of lesser educated, ignorant, local Boston police (need I say more) who I believe lied in the arrest report to cover their tracks. But this is nothing new really -- is it?
Arguably the most profound existential dilemma that racism presents to those that are confronted with it is what could be called an "utter substitutability." In its most relentless form, it is the wholesale indifference to human individuality. It seeks to erase our singularity in the pursuit of some gain, whether it be material, psychological, emotional, or political. It is the terrifying reality that sometimes, in the course of a police investigation, criminal trial, act of violence, or discriminatory practice, any black person can stand in for any other, and be made to bear the burden for all.
But if we can step back and see how easily this happened to someone like Gates, arguably the most famous academic in the country, it should encourage us to be more vigilant about the toll that continuing racial disparities in law enforcement are taking on blacks, particularly the working class and poor, in America. The disproportionate policing of amorphous criminal statutes like "disorderly conduct" and "disobeying the lawful order of a police officer" have served to introduce thousands of otherwise law-abiding people into the criminal justice system. This puts undue stress and costs on police forces and communities, undermining the capacity to stem crime at its roots. When applied to juveniles in particular, this type of policing only stigmatizes and alienates youth, exposing them further to deleterious influences that ultimately encourage them to turn away from school and legitimate employment.
I'm closing. Now I don't expect the many apostles, prophets, and bishops of this site or within our community to be outraged by what has taken place. Nor do I expect them to speak up in any way; after all, we don't won't to upset the 'good Christian white folk' of ministry who control the major media outlets because 'we' are to incompotent to work together and establish our own media outlets, and we hate ourselves more than we love the unity called for by Holy scripture; and besides, that would ruin our chances of appearing on TBN or Daystar, maybe even the Word network, and they're 'Christian Black owned'. No, let us continuing to ignore the 'real' problems of culture, and continue our parade and pursuit of a lifestyle that can not satisfy us, leaves us perpetually empty, and we will leave behind someday.
Bless our hearts.
World renowned Harvard professor and best-selling author Henry Louis Gates, Jr. comes home from a trip abroad to communist China where he was filming a video about America. His driver brings him to his home in Cambridge Massachusetts, and he notices his front door is jammed or otherwise locked. He cannot get in. He goes around back (as all of us would) and finds a way into his home. A concerned neighbor calls the police and the police show up. Gates produces his driver's license and Harvard ID and within a matter of minutes he is arrested for so-called "loud and tumultuous" behavior.
Welcome to post-racial America , black folks. This is the America of 2009, where we live in a Twighlight Zone of sorts. On the one hand, we have school kids in Philadelphia who cannot swim in a pool at a suburban country club (where, by the way, arrangements had been made for kids to do so in the summer) -- because according to the club president, they might change the "complexion" of the club.
And on the other hand, we have in Barack Obama the nation's first black president, who has an African/Arabic surname: "Hussein Obama." We have in Michelle Obama an accomplished, Ivy League educated, black first lady who is of a darker ebony complexion and allows her young daughters to sport ethnocentric hair braids to school and White House functions.
Then there is Judge Sonia Sotomayor. The nation's first presumed Latina Supreme Court Justice-to-be, who also hails from humble roots in the Bronx, is Ivy League educated, and whose awe inspiring American story evokes not pride, but suspicion and fear from Republican Senators and conservatives alike. Go figure.
Now we have Gates -- a 60-year-old baby boomer, Harvard professor, founder of theROOT.com and friend of Oprah. He is the epitome of black success in America. And yet, in an hour standing in his own home he was badgered about who he was and why he was there and was further reduced to a black male criminal at the hands of lesser educated, ignorant, local Boston police (need I say more) who I believe lied in the arrest report to cover their tracks. But this is nothing new really -- is it?
Arguably the most profound existential dilemma that racism presents to those that are confronted with it is what could be called an "utter substitutability." In its most relentless form, it is the wholesale indifference to human individuality. It seeks to erase our singularity in the pursuit of some gain, whether it be material, psychological, emotional, or political. It is the terrifying reality that sometimes, in the course of a police investigation, criminal trial, act of violence, or discriminatory practice, any black person can stand in for any other, and be made to bear the burden for all.
But if we can step back and see how easily this happened to someone like Gates, arguably the most famous academic in the country, it should encourage us to be more vigilant about the toll that continuing racial disparities in law enforcement are taking on blacks, particularly the working class and poor, in America. The disproportionate policing of amorphous criminal statutes like "disorderly conduct" and "disobeying the lawful order of a police officer" have served to introduce thousands of otherwise law-abiding people into the criminal justice system. This puts undue stress and costs on police forces and communities, undermining the capacity to stem crime at its roots. When applied to juveniles in particular, this type of policing only stigmatizes and alienates youth, exposing them further to deleterious influences that ultimately encourage them to turn away from school and legitimate employment.
I'm closing. Now I don't expect the many apostles, prophets, and bishops of this site or within our community to be outraged by what has taken place. Nor do I expect them to speak up in any way; after all, we don't won't to upset the 'good Christian white folk' of ministry who control the major media outlets because 'we' are to incompotent to work together and establish our own media outlets, and we hate ourselves more than we love the unity called for by Holy scripture; and besides, that would ruin our chances of appearing on TBN or Daystar, maybe even the Word network, and they're 'Christian Black owned'. No, let us continuing to ignore the 'real' problems of culture, and continue our parade and pursuit of a lifestyle that can not satisfy us, leaves us perpetually empty, and we will leave behind someday.
Bless our hearts.
Comment
-
Comment by E. Marcel Jones on July 23, 2009 at 1:26pm
-
Doctor, you are some kind of orator/writer! Awesome writing, my brother. I know your congregation is so blessed to hear your words of encouragement, conviction, and correction each Sunday. Be blessed and thanks for the read.
-
Comment by Dr. Robert C. Scott on July 23, 2009 at 10:00am
-
I keep trying to tell people that just because we have a black president does not mean racism is dead or even sleeping.....We still have a long way to go
-
Comment by PASTOR CHARLES E BELL JR on July 22, 2009 at 12:31pm
-
THIS PASTOR IS WITH YOU IT IS BAD IN MISSISSIPPI BUT IF WE STOP BECAUSE OF A BLACK PRESIDENT THE WE WILL FALL BACK INTO SLAVE TIME LIKENESS . LOOK IN CONGRESS AS THEY TRY TO OBAMA AS A DUMB NIGGER IN MISSISSIPPI PAPERS THEY CALL HIM EVERY THING BUT NIGGER SO I AGREE WE DONT NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS BEHIND CLOSE DOOR BUT LET THEM KNOW WE WONT STAND FOR THIS.
© 2024 Created by Raliegh Jones Jr..
Powered by
You need to be a member of Black Preaching Network to add comments!
Join Black Preaching Network