Tag Archives: history

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!

Fifty Years Later

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I remember the day and I remember it well! I came home from school that Thursday afternoon to discover gospel music playing on the radio and my mother crying. I knew something was amiss because the local radio station that my mother listened to, would normally only play gospel music until noon. After the noon hour, the station would change to a rhythm and blues musical format. As for my mother crying, I had only seen her cry once before that time. It was one year earlier; February 14, 1967, the day the only grandfather I knew (her father) died. I asked my mother what was wrong, to which she replied: “King is dead!” At the time, I was a naïve seven-year-old with no clue as to what she was talking about and so I asked: “King who?” At that point, my mother sat me down and explained to me who Dr. King was and what was going on in America.

Fast-forward to fifty years later. My mother has been gone for 19 years and that naïve little seven-year-old is now a fifty-seven-year-old preacher and pastor. America, although much progress has been made, is still a nation wherein people are judged by the color of their skin more-so than the content of their character! It seems as if, for the most part, the only time some people talk about Dr. King, his dream and what happened is during Black History celebrations in February and on April 4; the anniversary of his assassination.

Tremendous progress has been made! We’ve even had a two-term Black President, but America is still a nation, wounded, handicapped, and scarred by racial prejudice and racial hatred. It’s 2018, and there are still people in this country today who still think “white is right” and “black and brown shouldn’t be around!” The nation has opted to elect a president who shows no apparent respect for the truth, the poor or the disenfranchised. Because of the climate this administration has allowed (encouraged?) closet racists have come out of their closets, boldly speaking with their lips dripping with the saliva of hatred and contempt for people who are not like them! Is this the America of Dr. King’s dream? In 1968, there was confrontation with the police and law enforcement in protest of the war in Vietnam. Today, there still seems to be a systemic problem and disparity between the treatment of Black and White suspects! Black suspects are more likely to be labelled as thugs, shot and killed ,while White suspects are more likely to be labelled as mentally ill, treated with respect and even given burger and fries before going to jail! Is this the America of Dr. King’s dream? Even in Black communities, it seems as if Black lives only really matter when they are taken by the police; otherwise, it seems to be acceptable for Blacks to kill one another over drug, family, or personal disputes! Is this the Black America of Dr. King’s dream? Even many in the church, who are supposed to be setting the moral climate of justice, righteousness and equality for the community have forsaken the path and succumbed to the lures of fame, prosperity, and money! Is this the church of Dr. King’s dream or even the church that Jesus established?

It is fifty years later! We’ve come a long way; but we have such a long way to go! Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a man in and for his own time. We must quit looking and waiting for ‘another King’ and be kings and queens in our own right in our own generation. We don’t have to go to Washington, we can be agents of change, sources of inspiration and hope, right where we are! It is past time for our actions to be limited to reminiscing about what others have done in the past. We can’t get full off of yesterday’s lunch; we must cook and eat for today! Deep down inside all of us is everything needed to make an impactful difference in the world today. It’s fifty years later; the question is not whether or not the dream is still alive because it has been alive for ages! It didn’t start with Dr. King because it was alive in the hearts of the ancient prophets who spoke of a God who desired justice to roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream!

It is fifty years later! Dr. King lived and was killed for what he believed in! What about you and I today? Are we willing to take the necessary risks to stand up for justice and righteousness or will we be content to settle for the comfort of our own private prosperity as long as we are not directly impacted by the injustices and ills that still plague our society? Will we be content to just ‘talk about it’ or will we rise up and ‘be about it?’ I’ve heard all my life an old axiom that says: ‘Prayer changes things!’ But, the older I get and the more I study ‘the Book,’ I am convinced that is not entirely accurate. Prayer is not designed to change things; prayer is designed to change people so that people might change things!

It is fifty years later: Thank you Dr. King for allowing prayer to change you so that you were inspired to be an agent of change in your generation! Hopefully, we will eventually understand that you didn’t live and die for us to just remember and talk about you, but rather so that things would be easier for us to make changes in our own generation.