Curiousity’s blog

A night out on the town

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            My wife and I found the information you provided very enlightening and intriguing.  I’m afraid I now have an appetite for it.  Do you have any other information backing afro American views in America?  Any other websites?  I remember when I studied journalism in school and college.  It was an adopted creed that reporting was to be unbiased and objective, to serve as watchdogs and whistleblowers and to bring to light injustice and conspiracy.  How is it that this material is not taught in college? Or in the media?  How is it that the people that believe this are restricted to being one race and otherwise thought of as conspiracy theorists?  There is something wrong with this picture.  Unfortunately, I feel I would need more than this lifetime to understand or get to the bottom of it.  Another fear I have is how do I cleanse myself of cultural, societal, “brainwashing.”  I’m terrified of Groupthink, in the sense that perhaps I’m not looking at something as objectively as I could.  That I’m being influenced by my peers, or the media, etc…  How can I get around that?  What litmus test could I apply to myself to ensure that my belief are governed by reason, logic, and rational thought?

Armand B. Etamé

Armand,

Try this for a litmus test, it has worked for me.  One, I try to study and stay informed.  I don't trust zealous people who have a view of something.  I always want to better understand what they are saying.  Two, I have found that in most instances a lot can be traced to money.  Why was slavery such an issue for the south and not the north?  Because in the south on plantations you had free slave labor that was of no use in the North from a monetary issue but it made southern plantation owners rich in cotton.  Money is usually the motivating factor for any mistreatment of a people.

The civil rights movement began with a boycott of a bus system.  Yet many people don't know that the real civil rights movement began with cases leading up to Brown VS the Board of education that was argues before the Supreme Court by Thurgood Marshall.  There was a strategy put into place by Marshall's mentor that called out inequality among the races when it came to education.  So they said we want equal treatment (not integration), which meant that the state would have to give the same amount of money to the black school like they did the white school.  Suddenly the cost of doing something like this was too much so integration was the solution.

So be sceptical of what you hear from blacks and whites alike.  Now... Two, for your litmus test.  Use biblical principals.  That will always keep your perspective where it should be.  God's way is the right way.  God made us as a great artist would into multiple shades color because it pleased Him.  No color has a right to look down upon another color.

Three, read and listen to both sides of everything and shine the light of God's word on it.  I listen to the conservative radio speakers because they give me one view, and I listen to the liberal speakers and black leaders because they give me another view... at the end of the day I find the truth some place in the middle.

Now I don't believe there is a great conspiracy against black people in this country, but I do believe that there is a system that does help to keep part of black America down.  It works like this...  You set up a country that allows anyone to prosper (see money again).  However, the prosperity of the system is truly based upon how much knowledge you have of how the system works.  It will allow a black person to prosper if they understand the system.  That's it....  look what this system is doing.

Those that understand the system pass it down to their children.  Those who don't fall into several different categories:

1.  Blame the system for your lack of economic movement (blame the white man) and do nothing.

2.  Blame the system for your lack of economic movement and get educated in your "blackness" and push not to work within the system and get no where while artfully articulating the issues with the system (blame the white man again).

3.  Understand the system (even whites will acknowledge that blacks have to work twice as hard in most cases to work the system), work within the system, prosper in the system and then forget where you started and leave the unlearned behind to become numbers one or two above.

4.  Understand the system, work within the system, prosper in the system and then try to help the unlearned get plugged into the system (this would be Obama).

The real difference I see with white America and black America can be summed up in one word - "legacy".  White people think (as a whole) about the generations to come.  They want them to do better so they pass down the knowledge that is needed so that the generations that follow are doing better than they did.  A strong sense of family helps this.

Black America on the whole (not all) is not looking to leave a legacy for the generations to come.  Black America is focused too much on today and what we can have right now.  This causes us to forget our past and miss our future.  Here is a Scripture that  a lot of black Christians have tried to use and misunderstood:

Jer. 29:11  "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

The above Scripture is always quoted in the NIV version because of that word "prosper".  However, when you read the whole chapter you come to understand that God was talking to a people who were about to go into captivity for 70 years.  This proclamation of His plans were for the legacy that would come 3 generations later.  It was not for the people of that time to prosper, it was for their grandchildren.

The lesson black America has not learned is that what we do now is not for us, it's for my grandchildren.  I have to pas on a legacy to my children for my grandchildren.  White America does this all the time.  So it's not a conspiracy, it's a system that will let you fail and I believe it affects African American's the most because we are above in numbers one and two.  Then we let a prejudice society point out number 3 to us and say look at the progress of the black race in America.  We need more of number 4.

For further study:  Read Larry Elder's book, "Stupid Black Men" (I'm not saying I agree with all he says but he helps to tear down a lot of misconceptions in black America.  A classic is WEB Dubois, "The Souls of Black Folk".  From a historical perspective look at the life of John Quincy Adams and you will get a picture of what this country was truly suppose to be.  From a spiritual perspective read Eric C. Lincoln's book, "The Black Church in the African American Experience" (it will show you how people like Dr. Wright came about).

Ever heard of the Willie Lynch Speech or the Willie Lynch letter?  Supposedly "lynching" comes from his name:

http://www.daveyd.com/willlynch.html

Now this letter or speech was never mentioned before it hit the internet in the mid 90's.  The language is not reflective of the 1700's.  Yet blacks have fallen for it hook line and sinker.  I believe the Nation of Islam put it out myself so that Farakahn could bet more men for his million man march.... we fool each other every day.  It is known to be an internet hoax by the way.

Study the downfall of the black panthers and you will see the whole drug issue...

I hope this gets you started.  But for sure, just google black history and see all the things blacks did in this country and you will understand why the history is not taught.  Because group number one might see a need to pass some information on to their children that they could use.

Mr. Etame,

Please, call me Kevin.  Your question is the question that a lot of people are facing and it bothers me to no end that so many people have passed judgement on fragments of some sermons.  It is no different than people who read the Bible and pull out certain Scriptures but not the complete context.  Also we miss what is really said even in the parts that we hear and do not actually listen to what is actually said.

Let me go at this from Rev. Wright's theological disposition and my own.  His is black liberation theology.  Mine would be called evangelical or conservative meaning I let the Bible speak to me.  In that way Scripture can not mean today what it never meant when it was written.  Black liberation theology was started by a man (Dr. Cone) who in the late fifties and early sixties saw that period of violent race struggle in this country and also saw that blacks were becoming disillusioned with the church.

To help the black culture embrace Christianity he, in my humble opinion, "changed" the color blind biblical meaning of salvation by declaring that Jesus came to help the oppressed and the poor.  That in fact salvation was not just being saved from hell, but that it was a deliverance from injustice.  So suddenly Jesus became black and everything became black and Christianity's purpose was not to just get people saved, it was in fact there to eradicate injustice.

I don't agree with any of that.  It's not biblical in my opinion.  However, there is something that the black clergy call "prophetic" preaching.  It's not preaching of the future, but it's really a style of preaching that comes from studying the Old Testament prophets like Amos.  As a matter of fact, Martin Luther King's letter from the Birmingham jail is a reflection of the theme in Amos.  The speeches of many civil rights leaders were crafted from the prophets speaking to Israel in the Old Testament as it pertained to the lack of justice and God's wrath against Israel's blatant disregard for fairness at certain times in their history.

To do that kind of speaking or preaching today against the country is out of context.  Wright's words would be OK if they were directed at Christians who were doing the injustices he outlined in that sermon.  However, Obama was right in one of his speeches when he said we no longer live in a country that is Christian.  When King was speaking, almost every elected official was a prophesying Christian, so when he used Scripture to speak to them he was still within the context of the prophets.  They were speaking to Israel, a theocratic society where one claimed to believe in the One true God.  Therefore they could say "Thus say the Lord" because they were talking to people who claimed to know Him.

If Wright were saying that Christians were mistreating other Christians his remarks would be within the context of the prophets.  In order to follow black liberation theology one must be able to "twist" Scripture to mean something it does not mean and has never meant.  It's to take Scripture and use it to change society when Scripture is there to change individuals who function in society.  Church should not be political in any way.

The church should effect society by saving individuals within society.  Not by trying to make none believers act according to the Bible.... I ramble a bit.

As far as what Dr. Wright said... have your wife and her sisters listen to him in context, the whole sermon or at least what he said five minutes prior to the "God damn America" then have them listen after.  They will be surprised that they have fallen for a simple media trick.  Just play sound bites.  He was simply telling his congregation that America needed to straighten up its act or God would damn America.  To be damned means to be cursed, he was not cussing.

As for Obama going there and all that other rhetoric.  What you have is another way for (I hate to say this) those who really don't want a black president, to scare as many white Americans as possible from voting for him.  His loyalty to Dr. Wright is understood when you look at the total picture of that church and what Dr. Wright has done in that part of Chicago.  Do they know that the church is located in one of the poorest sections of this country (not just Chicago)?  Do they know that if it were not for that church and the work that Dr. Wright has done that a lot of disenfranchised people would have no hope and no help?  Have they considered that if Dr. Wright was so racist and so anti-American that there wouldn't be any white people that attend that church?  Think about it... a church in a very poor area where cab drivers do not like to go, where crime is high, where drugs and prostitution are a part of life, and yet white people go from all over the city to that church.  Its because the church does help the poor and the needy.

So in summary, Dr. Wright doesn't preach a lot differently than a great number of black ministers in this country.  Especially those older ones who came through the turbulent sixties.  We still have racial prejudice in this country.  As a minister of the gospel I believe it is my responsibility to attack racial prejudice by getting as many people saved and taught about the family of faith found in Christ.  I believe that the church should not interfere in politics (this means Pat Robinson and Jerry Farwell to), however if the church focuses on converting as many as it can to Christianity, then we will have more elected officials that are Christian.  Obama has admired the actions of the church, the heart of the pastor, and the effectiveness of the ministry.  You can't expect him to run away from the place that he has seen help so many people having been an organizer himself.  It would be a lack of character to do so.  Again if people would hear these sermons in context they would understand why Dr. Wright said what he did.  I don't agree with his theology, but as an African American I understand where he is coming from.

One last thought... he said that the government invented and gave blacks aids, or something to that effect.  Ask your wife if they have ever heard of what happened at Tuskegee:  http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762136.html

It's because of things like that, that you will have these kinds of conversations in the black community.  It is believed that aids was an experiment and that it was given by government of some kind.  Aids did not seem to develop and move from an area, it seemed to start in countries all at once.  Here is the kind of rhetoric that is out there about this:
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/who.htm

That is from 1987 so it's not so crazy that Dr. Wright who has been in a country that has done some things to black people that have been proven would make such a statement.  By things done to blacks - Tuskegee, drugs, guns... the list goes on and on.

With that information in mind, if they go back and listen to Obama's speech they will appreciate how blacks could view the injustice of this country.  How whites could view a "reverse" of discrimination that they will say they are being blamed for when it was a parent or grandparent that was that way.  This is the country we live in...

Mr. Harris,
 
My apologies at the delay in getting in touch with you and if I have not correctly addressed you by utilizing “Mr,” I assure you it was not my intention.  But its funny that we speak on the subject of intentions, because I don’t know if you are aware of what I was meaning to discuss with you about but it speaks to the heart of the intentions of a man.  The man in particular that I speak about is Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  This development within the news has brought a lot of interesting arguments or “discussions” I should say, to my household.  I am the son of an African American born in West Africa and educated in the states.  I’ve grown up here most of my life and followed the same path as my father in that I’ve married an American woman.  What is different from my father is the fact that my wife is not African American like my mother.  But she is in fact white.  I feel it pertinent to give some background on our history before proceeding with these questions.  Its curious because my wife and some of her sisters were vehemently against the words spoken by Rev. Wright.  “God Damn America,” are powerfully poignant words to come from the mouth of a preacher a man chosen by god to lead not only by example but by his interpretation of the gospels.  In Short he acts as the leader of his flock.  My wife insists that this bears an onus on obama because he sat in service after service listening to this man with whom he has shared a relationship for over 20 years.  Although, I disagree with some of what was said, I can’t help but wonder is it any different from the patriarch of her family.  Their grandfather from whom after learning that we had intentions to wed sent me a letter while I was living in Paris, France which sought to dissuade me from marriage.  Stating; “our kids wouldn’t know what side of the fence, they were on,” “That I would need to change my name because of the confusion that I may be Muslim.”  To her families credit, all Christian and god fearing people alike, uncles, aunts and even her father wrote and rose to my aid.  Denouncing their grandfather’s words and pledging their support.  I believe in the unity of marriage and families, so in the wake of this and the following years I have cast a blind eye to this, as if nothing has happened.  We treat each other with respect and looking and speaking with the man I could not tell, he was even the author of those words.  Every Christmas we spend with them accepting gifts and monies, because as previously stated.  He is the patriarch of that family.  With that said, I’ve attempted to convince my wife that obama has denounced the words of Rev. Wright because they were divisive, and although he doesn’t believe in everything the pastor says he still attends the church.  This I do not see to be evil.  Just as the family denounced their patriarch and continues on as if nothing happened.  I think being raised in a very sheltered, Christian home was very good for her family, but I believe it has blinded them from some facts.  Some being that racism is still alive and thriving.  I cannot necessarily blame her grandfather of the youthful age of 80 in his actions.  He grew up in a very turbulent time.  Maybe his interactions with blacks have been marred by some “happenstance.”  He lived his life during a very frenetic and volatile time with regard to the integration of minorities and could still view it that way in some respects.  I myself have been educated in private schools, I’m 6’10inches tall and have played basketball professionally in 4 countries.  Racism rarely touches me except in the form of stereotypes.  The well educated, well spoken athlete etc….  Pastor or not I stay steadfast to my claim that human being are human beings.  Regardless, of office, title, or occupation.  In private amongst our peers we all spin yarns and tell tales of things we dislike etc.  Pastors existed in the 1930’s 40, 50, how did they explain or rationalize jim crow laws, segregation, or separate but equal mentality?  They did it with the bible, with their titles and occupations.  Although this was all a perversion of the truth.  I’m rambling thick now and escaping from what my questions were but allow me to return to my point.  Were Rev. Wrights words wrong or to poignant for a country still healing from a civil rights movement that was in its heyday during my mothers lifetime.  Was he wrong in what he said?  Is it a poor reflection of obama or merely an attempt at mudslinging politics by his competitors?  Where do we move from here?
 

Armand B. Etamé

Hilarious

Dear Readers,

Well hello.  Its not often that i get the opportunity to reach and speak with so many individuals at once.  lol, i'm only joking.  This is my first post and although you won't find alot here on the maiden voyage.  I can promise you that you will find very much, very soon.  My life, is a life in pursuit of answers.  It is a life of reflection, of change, and a progressive one.  I often play the devils advocate in my little debates and i pray that you will keep an open mind and continue your pursuit of knowledge.

Armand-