Tag Archives: American

Coming Out of the Closet with ‘Go Back’ Rhetoric

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When one normally speak about ‘coming out of the closet’ it is usually a reference to a person’s first initial instance of openly admitting and embracing a homosexual lifestyle and identity. But there are some other people who are coming out of the closet these days! The ‘closet-racists’ are coming out of the closet! But the difference between the closet homosexual and the closet racist coming out of the closet is the homosexual’s integrity and honesty! Usually, when a person who is a homosexual decides to come out of the closet, they have gathered enough strength and resolve to deal with the repercussions of their coming out! But the strange thing about the closet-racists who are coming out of the closet of racism is the fact that they want to be bold with their racist statements, ideals, and actions, but at the same time, they want to deny that they are indeed racist! The Bible says that a tree is known by the fruit it bears! The people from my neck of the woods say: “If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, has webbed-feet and water won’t stay on its back; it’s a duck!”

We are living in a time wherein the here-to-fore closet racists are now coming out of the closet! But don’t be fooled! The people who are expressing racial hatred now were hateful all the time! This was not an overnight development! The only difference is, now they think it is acceptable to ‘come out of the closet’ with their racial hatred and prejudices and freely express them because of hateful, irresponsible, immature, and insensitive actions of the current occupant of the Oval Office.

But this current spreading trend of hateful rhetoric, telling people to ‘go back’ to where they came from is the epitome of stupidity and there are several reasons why:

1. If every American today were to actually go back to where they originally came from, no one would be left in America but the American Indians! They are the only ones who can claim legitimate original occupancy!

2. If you want to be technical about it, there is no legitimate deed for stolen property! Therefore, America actually and legitimately belongs to the original Indian tribes and their descendants!

3. As far as Black people going back to Africa: According to the history books, the original Blacks did not come to America as immigrants or in search of better opportunities and freedom! They didn’t come over on the decks or in the living quarters of the Mayflower, they came over in the cargo-holds of slave-ships! They were brutally captured, taken from Africa and brought to America as slaves! So, for a White person to tell a Black person to go back to Africa shows a gross ignorance of history and borders on an ultimate expression of stupidity! The original Blacks were not allowed to go back when they wanted to go back! But now, after all of the time, talent, un-paid and under-paid labor that Black people have invested in making America what it is, and some people have the nerve to tell Black folks to go back to Africa? What a ridiculous and idiotic idea!

Anybody who has honestly read history would have to admit that America in her origin, cheated in the competition for greatness! Any country would rise to power and greatness at a faster rate if that rise and rate of ascent was built and supported by ‘free’ labor! In America’s case, her advantage was gained and supported by the hands and backs of free Black labor! And now some of the descendants of the advantaged, who are enjoying advantages and privileges today only because of the free Black slave labor of yesterday, have the nerve to tell the descendants of those Black people to go back to Africa? PLEASE! The people saying such things have lost their minds!

4. The idea of everybody going back, at this point, is a stupid and ridiculous notion! If you want people to go back, then quit eating pizza, because the Italians brought that with them! Don’t worry about getting ready to stop for the traffic signals, because a Black man invented the kind of traffic signal in 1923 that gave drivers a warning between green and red! If Blacks are to go back to Africa, then the concept of the modern-day traffic light would have to go back with them! Feel like eating Chinese tonight? Too bad! Because If the Chinese were to go back, they would have to take all of the shrimp-fried rice and soy-sauce back with them!

I could go on, but I think the point is clear! If one group should go back, then every group that was not here originally should go back! But wait a minute! Wouldn’t that also include even the ones who are telling all the others to go back? The whole idea is on the level of dumb and dumber! It was diversity that made and continues to make this nation great! America is the great melting-pot of the world; that’s what makes America great! Some are saying they want to ‘make America great again!’ But American doesn’t need to made ‘great’ again, America need to be made America again!

What makes America, America? We all do! Everyone of us who calls this nation our home! In the final analysis, it really doesn’t matter how we got here or where we came from: We are here now! And just because we have disagreements, having disagreements don’t make anyone any ‘less-American’ or less patriotic! No one group can define this county because, by definition and constitution, this country is only what it is because of the contributions of many different groups and ethnicities! So for some to now suggest the notion of separating the ingredients! Again! And  I can’t say it enough: What a ridiculous and idiotic notion! Sending people back to where they came from would only make America, no longer America!

More __________________ Than Christian?

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christian-more-likeOne of the major problems with many who would claim to be Christian in America is that in most cases, they are more of something else than they are Christian! For instance, there has been such an uproar lately about the silent protest being led by Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League. In order to call attention to the disproportionate number of shootings and killing of Afro-American people by the police, Kaepernick kneels instead of standing during the playing of the national anthem before football games. But there are some people, many who claim to be Christian, who are absolutely infuriated by the Kaepernick’s protest! They are more upset by his protest than they are by what he’s protesting about! They claim he is being unpatriotic and un-American! Seriously? This country was founded on protest! Duh! History 101! But my real point is that whether you agree with his methods or not is really beside the point! But to be more upset over his protest than by what he is protesting against proves the point of his protest! For many people in America, standing for the national anthem and respecting the American flag is more important than the lives of some American citizens!

Now, I used Kaepernick’s protest as an example, not to belabor the issue of Black Lives Matter versus Blue Lives or any other lives mattering. The fact that there is even a debate or a contention about lives mattering in the first place is an indication that to some people, “some” lives don’t matter! No! I used that example to illustrate the point that for many so-called Christian people in America, their Christianity takes a back-seat to their prejudices, biases, politics, economics, gender, and race. They are more Black than they are Christian! They are more White than they are Christian! They are more liberal than they are Christian! They are more conservative than they are Christian! They are more Republican than they are Christian! They are more Democrat than they are Christian! They are more American than they are Christian! They are more _______________ than they are Christian! 

However, if you are more _____________ than you are Christian, then perhaps your Christianity is suspect! Biblical Christianity supersedes all human categories and distinctions and demands that all who would espouse it be as one! Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to his passion: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn. 17:20-21 ESV).  The “these only” Jesus referred to were his present disciples and the “those who will believe” were all those who would ever come to believe because of the testimony of his disciples. Jesus prayed for the unity of believers. In fact, the prayer suggested that unity of his believers was to be the proof to the world and the cause for the world to believe that God sent him! So, according to this passage, the fact that so many “Christians” are more something else than they are Christian is evidence that they may not be Christians at all! At least, not Christians as Jesus calls Christians to be! For Jesus calls Christians to be unified, not by their race, creed, color, political affiliation, nationality, or politics, but rather by their faith in him!

The Apostle Paul wrote; “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:26-28 KJV). According to this text, all of the issues that divide us have been obliterated in Christ! So the fact that they are yet dividing factors suggest that we have not completely submitted ourselves to Christ! We are more ____________ than Christian! God, help us to repent! The racial issue in America will never be resolved, the political in-fighting will never stop, unbelievers will never really believe until those of us who claim to be Christian are indeed more Christian than _____________!