And that’s why Black Lives don’t matter. We preferred to serve the Egyptians of White America than to die in the desert.
We didn’t want to go into the unknown. We didn’t want to take our chances on our own. We didn’t want to find a new paradigm. We didn’t trust the Lord to fight on our behalf and lead us along the way with His Pillar of Cloud and of Fire.
We did’t really…we haven’t really hoped in the Lord for our deliverance.
We said that’s what we were doing. We will still say that’s what we’ve been doing. Yet, none of us who say that have a reasonable answer for the Lord’s failure to deliver a people who call to Him in faith.
It was easier for us to sing and say that we are marching on till victory is won. Yet, it Black Leadership found it better for us to serve genteel White Power than to die in the desert.
The Hebrews complained to Moses multiple times: “why did you bring us out here to die!?!?!”
They didn’t believe in God’s power and care. They didn’t believe in the ability of Hebrew Leadership. Having been oppressed so long, the only thing they knew and could count on was the power of the Egyptians…
They could count on the “good enough” existence they had in Egypt. It wasn’t really freedom…but it wasn’t really death either!
It is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert.
I could see some of the Hebrews going back. I could see some of them that never left…wouldn’t even think of leaving.
Like Solomon said, there’s nothing new under the sun. And so Niggers been betraying our own self-interests since forever. I could see a Hebrew being the one to sell out the Exodus to Pharaoh, thinking it might grant him/her favor with Massa…allowing them to live “a little better” than before.
Still not free. Still not with dignity. But, good enough to continue enduring oppression…good enough to tolerate the continued defacing of the image of God.
Is that not our position as Africans in America?
Still not free. Still not in a land that sees us as created in the same image of the One God, to Whom they claim allegiance.
But what is the alternative? Right?
What choice do we have…right? Is that not the thought?
“‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert.”
So we don’t speak of freedom. Or if we do, that conception of freedom amounts to little more than living “half a shade” better than we were before – trusting in Pharaoh’s genteel disposition toward us.
Has it been better to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert?
Has it been better for us to have remained in the land of our oppression, amongst a people who see no value to our life, rather than venture into the unknown?
What are the alternatives? What types of alternatives should we be considering? What alternative will actually lead to us overcoming white supremacy rather than ever waiting for “someday” to come?
What do you think?
