A few months ago, I was in #Brunswick #Georgia to preach and lead an Anti #WhiteSupremacy workshop at Church of the #GoodShepherd. I remember leaving that event, that night…
Driving down the dark and narrow road that leads from the church, I got a flat tire.
I felt it…the car dragging. I heard the flapping and popping. You know the sound. And you know you have a few moments to drive before you ruin your rim and need more than a new tire.
But I did’t stop.
I couldn’t stop.
I was driving while Black…in the backwoods of the South.
I mean, we know ANYWHERE in America is dangerous to be Black at the wrong time. But, we know in the South that threat level increases. In the rural south, that threat is exponential.
I was dressed in my cassock, which I wear when I work – hoping that Christian sensibilities might outweigh white peoples dormant supremacist vitriol. But still, you never can be too safe…
It was night. It was dark. You never know…I ain’t stopping.
As I’m driving slowly but not too slowly (don’t want to bring attention to myself), I’m hoping I make it to civilization before I see sparks or hear metal grinding. But there are no lights…no signs of life.
Then, some lights pop into my rearview…
Unlike the smattering of previous cars, this car doesn’t drive around. They sit behind me. Going as slowly as I’m going.
Whether it’s police or civilian is no matter – as #AhmaudArbery’s lynching proves…I’m preparing my heart and soul for what might be about to happen.
By #GodsGrace it was one of the saints!
One of the faithful from the workshop, leaving church after I did, recognized my car and called me to let me know she was the one behind me and was going to follow me to the nearest gas station.
At the gas station, we waited under the lights. She had family come and tow my car. She took me to my hotel.
They found a tire for me and got my car fixed. We had a beautiful conversation as she decided to wait with me at the body shop the next morning. That flat tire proved to be extremely fruitful! #ThanksBeToGod
But I was traumatized by that experience…
It reminded me of the fate of those who do this work…
Traveling down dark stretches of road in the Deep South, trying to build Beloved Community.
When I told people how I felt that night, it was easy for others to dismiss it. We are led to believe we live in different times. Even in the era of police brutality and extrajudicial killings, we think that will only happen to “those types of Negroes.”
Whoever that “those” might be…
But we are those Negroes…just depends upon which Whites we happen to be around.
Around some Whites, we are good and acceptable Negroes. Around other Whites, we are crazed and deranged Negroes. The same Negro can be deranged and acceptable – all in the same day, simply by changing the circle of Whites.
But light nigger, dark nigger, faux nigger, real nigger, rich nigger, poor nigger, house nigger, field nigger…
When will we realize… #Still
We should all know by now…
If we’re honest with ourselves, we feel it. Sense it. Deep in our bones and at the core of our being…
The Spirit speaks and lets us know we ain’t safe…
We quench the Spirit…throw water on the fire, trying to make nice with Massa – hoping he might take his foot off our necks. Yet #Still…
We sense that no matter who’s in control: Democrat or Republican. #Still…
Because somehow in a land where #WhitePower always proclaims the #RuleOfLaw to be sacred, a posse of outlaws can mount up and lynch another American.
Somehow, a band of outlaws can go outside The Law and yet that “law” still protects them…
Still affords them their freedom…
Like the Hebrew people who betrayed the Law and the Lawgiver, White Power consistently betrays its own Creed while demanding acquiescence from Black and Brown. Yet we keep appealing to White Power for hope, when the only One Who has hope, is He Who Is Hope.
And clearly, White Power knows God – but doesn’t have any intentions of submitting to His Will.
But that’s not the problem…
The problem is ours…
Will we continue to hope in Liberal and genteel White Power? Or will we return to the Lord?
Will we continue following a Church of new scribes and Pharisees, leading us to our demise or at best pacifying us along this way of death? Or, will we identify those wolves and leopards who come to steal and kill and destroy?
Black leadership has sacrificed us to the Beast, to ensure their own safety.
Rather than calling the Beast to repentance…rather than calling our White sisters and brothers out from under the Beast’s spell, they compel us to appease the Beast and betray the Lord.
Like the Israelites lost in the wilderness, Black leadership has us celebrating the Golden Calf, with our heart & intention fully rooted in Egypt.
They have abandoned us in the wilderness and convinced us that this shitty existence is somehow the Way of Love.
We deserve better brothers and sisters. We need better…
The world needs better…
White Power hasn’t only done this here in America. Yet, all over the world, economies are crumbling, global food supplies are threatened, the poor are getting exponentially more poor, piss poor healthcare systems are being stetted and stretched, and those with their hands on the buttons are too busy posturing and bickering to do what is right and good and joyful.
But Black leadership will have you believe that all we need to do is get behind the right (or Left) White man…
If we pledge our allegiance to the genteel White man, things will be well.
If you think that’s a winning strategy for the “change” we “hoped” for, then I’m surprised you read this far. Thank you.
If you feel we need a better strategy… If you feel we need better Black leadership… If you been thinking about what that would even look like, I invite you to click here & read on…
