As I was scrolling through my Facebook timeline (probably my first mistake) and I saw a headline for an article that just completely blew my mind.
"Charleston church shooter hears victim's kin say, 'I forgive you'" To me this is mind boggling, befuddling, perplexing, baffling, bewildering. Just to be sure I want to put this in context. This man sat for an hour in the study of scripture with 10 other people having written a manifesto about the inferiority and inhumanity of what he called "niggers" and proceeded to gun down nine innocent lives, telling the tenth woman "I'm going to let you go so you can tell people about what happened here." What he did to amounts to not only terrorism, but also the theft of the most valuable thing each of those nine families possessed; the life and existence of a loved one. Gone. Pilfered. Plundered. Never to be had again for as long as time and space exist. Let that sink in. Now think about what your response would be. What should your response to this be? Here were some of theirs. "I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you" "Have mercy on your soul. You hurt me. You hurt a lot of people but God forgives you, and I forgive you." "As we said in the Bible study, we enjoyed you. But may God have mercy on you." I forgive you God forgives you May God have mercy on you We enjoyed you This makes no sense unless you begin to think about the dynamics of race in America. You see, one manifestation of white supremacy is the forbidding of black rage and the insistence that black people be held to a higher moral standard. Instead of addressing this man as a hell-bent terrorist who methodically planned and executed a mission to purge the earth of what he thought were inhumane and inferior beings that were raping his women and taking over the country, he was treated as an innocent soul who had somehow made a mistake. The sad thing is that this is what has become expected of black people. It is why we (as an American conscious) accept MLK and vilify Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party. Martin Luther King reacted in a passive, non-resistant, non-threatening to oppressive violence. It is obvious to see why this would be welcomed by the mainstream. When Malcolm X and the BPP reacted with resistance to violence, (actually the norm for most American systems), they were treated as threats, radicals, militants, extremists, and agitators. In actuality passive resistance is only expected of black people. President Obama tweeted about the calls for forgiveness, "In the midst of the darkest tragedy, the decency and goodness of the American people shines through these families." In reality, this reaction to terrorism is about as un-American as it gets. We didn't react passively to Pearl Harbor, Lusitania, 911, the Boston bombings, Benghazi, the list goes on. When Americans are attacked by people with political motives we move swiftly to defend ourselves and eliminate the threat. As we should, "self-preservation is the first natural law" as Malcolm would say. However we as black people have been programmed to accept and pardon white violence when it is directed towards us. Its why they label those who display violence towards police as "thugs" for example. This amounts to a neutralizing agent that makes it impossible for black people to feel or react with anger towards white brutalization. We must realize this. This is not to discredit the solace that these families may feel that forgiveness brings to them. However we as a people need to be doing what any sensible nation would be doing and that is asking critical questions. What can we do to protect ourselves against what is inevitably the next act of hate? How are we preparing to protect the next batch of innocent lives targeted for theft? How will we make ourselves safer? Until we answer those questions, God have mercy on us. -515
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
October 2018
Matt BruceViva DSM!! |