Keep Your Eyes on the Prize...Press On!

Standing on the campuses of Bowie State University and Howard University recently, I found myself inundated by a sea of ignorance.  Historically, HBCU’s had been a bastion of the “best and brightest” of our race.  Yet, can we still say that?

HBCU’s have historically been heavily involved in the advancement of equality.  Yet, in the advent of desegregation, the stature of HBCU’s has consistently declined. Can it still be said that HBCU's are educating and producing the best and the brightest?  The “Black School Experience” is a romanticization of inefficiency and ineffectiveness as things of which to be proud. 

Yet, the connection does not stop there.  It is as if desegregation has ushered in an era of complacency.  Having set a goal of integration, we - Black people - have opted to rest on our laurels; we are satisfied with an integrated inequality, not realizing that integration does not equate to equality.

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize...Press On!

While reading Philippians 3:10-15, I could not help thinking about the PBS documentary, “Eyes on the Prize" and the spiritual that permeated nearly every scene of that film: Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.  This song was adopted by the Civil Rights Movement as a “battle cry” of sorts. 

“I got my hand on the gospel plow, won’t take nothing for my journey now.  Keep your eyes on the prize, Hold on!”

Imagine a plow, tilling hard soil to make fertile ground for the Gospel.  Its sentiment charged nonviolent activists to “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:14)

These activist were a people with a charge to keep.  Theirs was a legacy of the forbearers who had to fight for their dignity as human beings.  Forcibly removed from their homeland, stripped of their heritage, of their names, of their language, of their history and culture, these men and women were herded like cattle and treated as livestock.  They were a people who in the eyes of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, “had no rights by which the White man was bound to respect.”  Yet, their faith told them that they too were God’s children.  They knew that humanness and dignity were not “whites only commodities,” so they kept their eyes on the prize and pressed on.  By the grace of God, and much blood, sweat and tears, they attained their freedom.

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize...Press On!

And, the concept of freedom is usually juxtaposed with that of equality.  So, having attained freedom the new “prize” became equality.  At this time, the law of the land was “separate but equal.”  And in the face of inequality, mainstream leaders of the Movement thought that the answer was to achieve equality through integration.  The thinking was that, “separateness” is what rendered inequality.  So, rather than attacking inequality - be it separate or together - the leaders attacked separateness.  And, with integration as their goal they “kept their eyes on the prize.”  And again, by the grace of God, and much blood, sweat and tears, they attained integration.

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize...Press On!

Yet more than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, we are forced to ask: has integration rendered us equal?  Has the ultimate prize been attained?

Truly, this is a controversial question.  And, folk on both side of the color line will be taken aback.  Many will tell you that we live in a post-racial society.  Progressives will tell you that the battle is against social and economic inequality.  Yet, the numbers say that even after you parse inequality among social and economic lines, there still exist the reality of race that makes still renders our society unequal.  And, like Young Goti said: “women lie, men lie, numbers don’t lie!”

I cannot believe that our ancestors hoped to achieve integration and forsake equality.  I would rather like to believe that their ultimate quest was for equality and their thinking was that integration was the path to that attainment.  And, I would like to believe that we will not allow ourselves to be bamboozled by those who say there exists no more racial bias in America.  So, although controversial this is the question.  And, I suggest that the prize has not yet been attained. 

So let us take a quick look at the numbers.

There is a 42.9% gap in social justice equality.  As a for instance, Black people are six times more likely to go to jail than Whites.  There is a 23% gap in overall health and wellness.  The education gap is at 22.4%.  White people are 1.5 times as likely to have a Bachelor’s degree than Blacks.  Yet, despite what seems to be a small difference in the attainment of higher education, there is a 42.6% gap in economics.  The White unemployment rate is over nine percent.  The Black unemployment rate is over 15%.  Blacks earn sixty cents for every White earned dollar.  And, Black people are three times more likely to live below poverty than Whites.  Forty-seven Black families own a home for every hundred White families.  And, on the whole, Blacks enjoy 38.2% less “equality” than White people.  This cannot be the prize for which our ancestors gave their lives!

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize...Press On!

Flash back to the scene at our Nation’s HBCU’s.  All are a FAR cry from their heydays.  Gone are the days when students came attired as professionals.  No more do we hear stories of student led protests, reminiscent of those student led movements during the 50s, 60s and 70s.  Now, our HBCU’s are in danger of becoming irrelevant.  Scrambling to bolster their endowments, fighting declining enrollment, and unable to afford their scholarships, HBCU's face a myriad of problems. Without vision the people perish, and without an ideal for which to strive we have taken our eyes off the prize.

And, in taking our eyes off the prize we have rendered the very real sacrifices of those who fought for human dignity to mere nostalgia.  The legacy of slavery and the fight for abolition.  The strivings of Reconstruction and the backsliding of the Black Codes.  The inhumanity of Segregation and the courage of the Civil Rights Movement.  All have been relegated to the swift remembrance of our year’s shortest month, with no efficacy to the fight that lies ahead.

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize...Press On!

And, that prize is the call of God in Christ Jesus to which we press onward and upward.  That call, that human dignity, that equality is that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of us.  No, brother and sisters, we have not yet apprehended it...we have not already attained it.  So, we must keep our eyes on the prize and press on!

This ought be the charge issued to our HBCU’s.  For in the face of the lie that is post-racial America, where else but at an HBCU can one focus on battling the racial inequality that is rampant in our land?  Where else, but in the safety of the Black School can we focus on developing the solutions that will secure the blessings of Liberty for ourselves and our posterity?  The largely liberal Traditionally White Institutions, program us to believe that inequalities are simply founded upon social and economic lines.  They train us to believe that "A rising tide lifts all boats," and we see that in President Obama's stance.  The few conservative Traditionally White Institutions train us to believe that we simply need to "pull ourselves up by our bootstraps," refusing to acknowledge that the bootstraps given to the Black Community were rotting.
 

Do not exchange the truth of God for a lie!  Do not give up on equality, for its illusion! 
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize...Press On!


Yours is a special task...a vital task.  For, only at our HBCU's can we engage in developing the solutions that work not just for us as individuals, but also for us as a collective.  This, to me, is the task of HBCU professors, students, and alumnae.  Whether you are training to be a doctor, lawyer, teacher, nurse, police officer, soldier, business executive, politician, scientist, or whatever, there is an injustice to be addressed.  So, hold on and press on!

 

If we are to uphold our pledge as Americans for form (and continue forging) a more perfect Union, we must have this mind that compels us to reset our eyes on the prize and press toward the goal despite the sufferings we might face.  Despite the ridicule, despite the hardships, we keep our eyes on the prize and press on, knowing the power of the resurrection of our Lord and trusting that we will be glorified with Christ and the countless martyrs who fought for our dignity and equality. 
Keep your eyes on the prize....press on!

Come and get your reparations!

Reparations means we shall not be lulled to sleep!

Play this song, while you read this post:


In the grand experiment that is society, we must declare VICTORY for gladiatorial games of the Roman empire.  The arena and its games, given to the masses to dumb them down, have proven their worth.  This should be the "Summer of our Discontent."  Yet, rather than exclaiming our outrage at the malfeasance of justice that is the involuntary manslaughter verdict in the Oscar Grant Murder Trial, the Country is declaring their outrage at LeBron James’ “Decision,” and/or Dan Gilbert’s response.

In a consorted effort to quell any tensions, the media has done its damnedest to keep the Oscar Grant murder out of the news.  One might even wonder if LeBron James was either complicit or used as a pawn in the effort.  I mean, his Prime Time Special diverted   all media attention from any matters that really matter to life.  All focus for the days leading up to his “decision” was on the “important question”: Where will LeBron go?  And, in the days after the focus is now on: what does his decision mean?

But, reparations means we shall not be lulled to sleep!

There was no focus on the trial of the Bay Area Rapid Transit “Police Officer” who murdered an unarmed Black man on camera.  You haven’t seen it?  Here it is again:

POLICE SHOOTING AT BART STATION - OSCAR GRANT


The frustration and outrage displayed in the days afterwards is certainly understandable.  What is the answer of a “free society” to the realities and feelings of being trapped, among the disinherited?  To where should they turn?

We of reason, and we of ignorance alike, would say that in a Democratic society they people should turn to and rely upon justice.  But, clearly justice still means “Just-Us” and the voices of the dispossessed remain unheard...their pain remains unfelt.

That’s why reparations means we shall not be lulled to sleep!

Who else is going to keep the pressure on?  Who else shall ensure that justice run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream?

But, we have been effectively lulled to sleep.  We heard very little of the trial and even less of the verdict.  And, the status quo continues because the frustrations in Oakland have been isolated and contained.  An issue that should be one of concern for Americans across the Country has been sidelined by “the decision” of a millionaire athelete. 

Cleveland is in turmoil...heartbroken because a millionaire decided to leave the City.  They burn his jersey and express outrage that LeBron could “betray” them.  Yet, no one is outraged that “justice” has betrayed America.  What does it say about a people...about an “advanced society,” when we are more affected by the isolated decisions of the rich than the connected struggle of the disinherited?  We should be ashamed of ourselves.  I feel like Dap in School Daze: “Wake UUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!”

Reparations means we shall not be lulled to sleep!

And, we who have been “educated” have a greater responsibility.  We should be aware of Massa’s tricks.  We should be hip to the workings of propaganda that keep us complacent while the ideals we supposedly uphold are trampled underfoot. 

It is quite ironic that all of this happens during the period in which we remember the birth of American Democracy and our “independence.”  We celebrate Freedom, Liberty and Justice for All, while a part of that “All” lives with the reality that Liberty and Justice remain a farce.  And while that part of humanity aches at the heartbreak of (Obama/post-racialist) hope deferred, mainstream society aches at the hurt of LeBron’s decision.  Damn...

What does LeBron’s decision do for the memory of Oscar Grant?  What does Dan Gilbert’s response do to aid the strivings for justice of a marginalized people?  But, check the Facebook posts and Twitter feeds.  Check the “trending topics.”  What’s the discussion?  Clearly are perspectives and priorities are skewed.

Children of God, sons and daughters of justice, we must take a different perspective.  We must remain focused and vigilant.  Reparations means we shall not be lulled to sleep!

Come and Get Your Reparations!

Does One Vote Erase A Legacy of Tyranny?

This morning we were alerted to the passing of long-time US Senator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia.  And, as I head to the heart of “the South,” to met with those who’ve inherited the ideological legacy of the “Giants of the Confederacy” who founded and established the University of the South, I can’t help but wonder:

Does one vote erase a legacy of tyranny?

I was surprised to hear that some have alluded to Sen. Byrd’s membership in the Ku Klux Klan.  Fewer have mentioned his filibuster of the Civil Rights Act.  Nevertheless, his involvement in the Klan and segregationist past is glossed over supposedly mitigated by his support for Barack Obama’s candidacy for President and a few statements that his past thoughts were wrong.

Ironically, I just started reading Blue Rage, Black Redemption, the memoir of Crips founder, Stanley Tookie Williams who was executed in 2005 by lethal injection despite being nominated for five Nobel Peace Prizes and four Nobel Prizes in Literature.  It’s funny that one man could give his early life over to debauchery and then commit his later life to undoing the damage he caused and working to ensure that others don’t follow his path of destruction.  Yet, his efforts have no efficacy to redeem him in the eyes of the public-at-large.  Meanwhile, another man could give his early life to a more extreme level of tyranny and debauchery, ignore his past as if it caused no perpetual damage, and by simply casting a ballot for a Black man’s assent to the presidency, he is redeemed.

Does one vote erase a legacy of tyranny?

Something is wrong with this picture.  The Crips are a violent street gang that cause much pain to inner-city America.  But, no Crip walks the “halls of power.”  No crip also has the ability to make laws to enforce and institutionalize their terror.  In that vein, there is an escape.

However, these is NO escape from the tyranny caused by the KKK.  And, that is highlighted by the very presence of Robert Byrd in the US Senate.  Senator Byrd was a recruiter and leader of his local Klan chapter.  He is said to have resigned from the Klan  in 1943, a year after joining and prior to entering Congress and later the Senate.  He might not have been a “dues paying member”, but he was a member of the Klan and a champion of their ideology.  After his supposed resignation from the Klan, letters were found implying that his resignation was a formality allowing him to take on greater responsibilities.  In 1944, Sen. Robert Byrd wrote to fellow segregationist and Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo.  In it he states:

I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.

And, as stated in the Wikipedia article on Robert Byrd, in 1946 or 1947 he wrote a letter to a Grand Wizard stating, "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation."  The votes he cast were all in the interests of his constituency and predicated upon his membership.

The media can’t even forgive Jay-Z for being a former drug dealer.  Critics can’t forgive Snoop Dogg for being a former gang banger.  They couldn’t forgive Tookie for being a founder of the Crips and then working diligently to destroy the monster he created. 

But, they can forgive Robert Byrd for defending the South’s right to dehumanize Black people.  They can forgive him for being a part of an organization that had no qualms hanging strange fruit in every corner of the South. 

Does one vote erase a legacy of tyranny?

Now, I believe redemption is color-blind.  All people can be redeemed.  To that end, Sen.  Robert Byrd could have been redeemed before he died.  But, that begs the question: what is the difference between man’s redemption and God’s redemption?  What is a worthy redemption...a real redemption, the true redemption? 

For in the juxtaposition of Stanley Tookie Williams and Senator Robert Byrd, we see an equally corruptible beginning with completely divergent middles and staggeringly incongruent ends.  One man was executed in disgrace, ignoring the work he had done to redeem himself.  Another man is honored at his death, and the only thing that can be said in attempt to erase his racist past and legacy of tyranny is: “he supported Barack Obama for President.”

No one says that Sen. Byrd became a champion of legislation to destroy the legacy of institutional racism.  No one says that he went back to undo the racist legislation he helped to usher through Congress.  All that is said in reference to his commitment to the Klan is: “he came around to support a Black man for President.”

How is it that Sen. Byrd is redeemed in the eyes of society while Tookie Williams stands condemned?  I’m not saying one should be redeemed and the other condemned, nor vice versa.  I would wish that both found redemption.  Just asking the question: Does one vote erase a legacy of tyranny?

Must we continue in a world where White people are easily redeemed, yet Blacks are judged by a different standard?  How would God judge our judgments?  Do our requirements for redemption match with God’s requirements?  Who’s requirements are greater?

We cannot allow ourselves to be dehumanized to the point that we believe someone to be beyond redemption.  We must not allow society, including religious clerics, to determine that some are more human than others and thus more worthy of being redeemed.  Rather, we must know that God’s “amazing grace” is available to us all.

Come and get your reparations!

Will Obama's Choice of Elana Kagan Finally Wake Blacks up?

So, I saw this article through one of my listservs asking the question if President Obama's choice of Supreme Court Justice (Elana Kagan) would finally wake up the Liberals.  I don't even think that's an important question.

To me, the bigger question is will his choice finally awaken Blacks (liberal and conservative)? It's like Minister Farrakhan said in his TVOne interview: we need to realize that he will not - cannot - do anything for Black people...not just because of the political repercussions, but (in light of the Tea Parties, Rush Limbaugh and his cronies, and Dan Fanelli - check this crap out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMbPvGSADUg) the real threat of physical reprisals. 

Will Obama's choice of Elana Kagan finally wake Blacks up?

Do you all realize that if we don't wake up the Obama Administration will leave office (in 2012 or 2016) and gone will be our chances at advancement? What you think the argument will be once he's gone: "you didn't press the Black President to do this...why you bothering me?"

I feel like Lawrence Fishburn in School Daze: "Wake UUUUUUPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!"

We worried about what liberals will think...Liberals ain't made no beef with the fact that there will now be three women on the bench and only one Black - who's conservative BTW. Black liberals have been displeased with Justice Thomas ever since his consideration, and still get nothing.

Will Obama's choice of Elana Kagan finally wake Blacks up?

Don't get me wrong: it ain't Obama's fault. It's our own. We have 32 or so Members of the CBC. They made (and cannot make) any demands. Rather than putting forth NAMES of people and linking with Black organizations to place public pressure for a Black choice, we sit back and wait as if we're entitled. Our comfort has made us forget "Why We Can't Wait!"

We could have at least provided Obama with some cover, so he wouldn't be seen to be "favoring Blacks" as all the racist elements (again, Tea Parties, Limbaugh and Co., etc) waiting in the wings would say. There would at least be some political pressure and potential social unrest that would (at least seem to) force Obama to do something on behalf of his Black constituents.

Will Obama's choice of Elana Kagan finally wake Blacks up?

That's the question we should be asking. Neither Liberals nor Conservatives, nor Greens nor any political party has our best interest in mind.  And, if we continue to wait for the benevolence of historically malevolent groups, we deserve the injustice which follows.  

Reparations requires us to take hold of our own destiny.  Wake up...it's too dangerous to be caught sleeping!  

Come and Get Your Reparations!

Fight or flight: the dilemma of the Talented Tenth

Ok, so I started reading Stride Toward Freedom by Dr. King yesterday and had some compelling thoughts that I would like to share. 

If you talk to (former) community activists over 60 they will tell you that desegregation made it more difficult for them to organize around social justice issues.  I have a cousin who was an organizer in the (no longer existent) Pruitt Igo (sp?) housing development in St. Louis, MO.  She spoke of being able to call a meeting in the morning and have several hundred present that evening.  Clearly, those days no longer exist.

She spoke to me about desegregation opening doors of opportunity for Blacks, and also opening doors for selfishness.  Community organizers and movement leaders began to abandon ship for the “dry land” of integration.  They left the struggle behind for a “safe, secure job with benefits.”

Truly, as the wise Solomon said: “There is nothing new under the sun!” (Eccl. 1:9)  Today, those of the “Talented Tenth” continue to run to their own prosperity, abandoning those who are not able.  Today, the “Talented Tenth” runs for a “better way of life” - either to escape the hardships of their upbringing or to avoid loosing their “parent-given” social status.  To accomplish either of those ends, one must abandon or ignore the plight of others.

Fight or flight: the dilemma of the Talented Tenth.

I started by speaking of Dr. King’s book, Stride Toward Freedom.  This book details Dr. King’s time in Montgomery, AL.  The first chapter is entitled “Return to the South.” 

We forget, or do not put into context, that Dr. King was raised in the South and had left the South.  Little discussed is his hope to teach more than to pastor.  Even less discussed is the opportunity which awaited him in the North.

Being raised in the South, he experienced segregation.  Having studied in the North, he experienced “desegregation.”  As he mulled over the opportunities before him, he thought: “I have a chance to escape from the long night of segregation.  Can I return to a society that condones a system I have abhorred since childhood?”

Both he and Coretta faced the same dilemma.  And, they faced it together.  Coretta knew that her musical career stood a better chance in the North.  Neither of them particularly relished the thought of raising children in a segregated society.  Yet alas, they “came to the conclusion that [they] has something of a moral obligation to return...” (emphasis mine)

Fight or flight: the dilemma of the Talented Tenth.

Certainly, Dr. King had much promise.  But, imagine where we would be if he had decided to take one of the teaching positions offered to him over the pastorate in Montgomery.  Imagine if he had taken a pastorate in one of the Northern churches that wanted him.  What would have happened in the movement?

Had he taken a different course, yes he would have likely still been alive.  Or, at least would might not have died by the hands of an assassin.  He might have become a renowned professor, or he might have been simply another brilliant Black man with a Ph.D.  He probably would have raised his family in a solid middle class existence.  Coretta might have become a renowned singer.

But, where would we as a people be if Dr. King did not feel that moral obligation?

It is that moral obligation and deep love that must win out in the midst of this dilemma.  It is ironic that this past Easter Sunday was the anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination.  On Resurrection Sunday we celebrate the Risen Lord and the truth that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).  Yet, this year we are reminded of the nexus with 1 John 3:16, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And, we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”  Dr. King answered that call.  Will you?

Where could we go if you feel that moral obligation?  To where might we fall if you just allow the phone ring?  To whom much is given, much is required.  Certainly, you are being called to something.  Should not then those of us, in the Talented Tenth, who profess being Christian answer that call?

Fight or flight: the dilemma of the Talented Tenth.

Will you fight, or will you flee?  Will you be concerned for your own prosperity?  Or, will you give of yourself for another?

Reparations requires that we become actively and sincerely concerned with the general well-being of society and not simply with our own.  Reparations demands that we do more than throw parties and events.  Reparations warrants that we are compelled by the Gospel to use our attained social status for the benefit of “the least of these.”

Come and get your reparations!