Saturday, October 13, 2007
News Updates:Racism at Teachers College; Social Justice and Christianity; Jena 6
Peace and blessings,
Below are a couple of news updates. Have a blessed weekend and speekonit...
1)
2)
3) An article dicussing the
Labels: Christianity, professor, racism, social justice
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Important Perspectives: Jena 6, Racism in the Church, Anti-violence protests in Chicago, and more...
Peace and blessings,
Below are a few articles that I came across, which offer some important perspectives on many of the issues facing us as God's children. In addition to reading about these and other issues, I also encourage us to continually and fervently take these issues up in prayer. Take care, stay blessed, and speekonit...
1) A Bishop and pastor discusshow the Jena 6 case may reflect larger racial issues that are affecting the body of Christ
2) An Op-ed contributor to the NY Timesargues that the racism within the justice system is only a fraction of the larger issues plauging black families.
3) The Million Father March comes to the West Coast, holla! Videos on the Million Father March in Sacramento, CA, and the Black Cross March protesting youth violence in Chicago:Click Here
Below are a few articles that I came across, which offer some important perspectives on many of the issues facing us as God's children. In addition to reading about these and other issues, I also encourage us to continually and fervently take these issues up in prayer. Take care, stay blessed, and speekonit...
1) A Bishop and pastor discuss
2) An Op-ed contributor to the NY Times
3) The Million Father March comes to the West Coast, holla! Videos on the Million Father March in Sacramento, CA, and the Black Cross March protesting youth violence in Chicago:
Labels: Bishop, church, justice system, Million Father March, pastor, prayer, racism
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Holding it Down: Bishop George McKinney
Peace and blessings,
As a sophomore in undergrad, I was fortunate enough to attend an African American Christian Leadership conference. At the conference, I was able to learn from and interact with a host of students, pastors, and prayer warriors that helped give my life more direction while changing my music preferences. Although I heard from many powerul speakers, one in particular continues to stick out in my mind. For those who may not have heard of him,
introducing
After hearing him deliver a powerful message, I decided to approach him and get some guidance regarding a faith issue I was struggling with. At that time in my life, being in college and being exposed of all the injustices that have occurred and are still occurring against people of African descent, I was having a hard time (and sometimes I still do) trying to understand why and how something like 400 years of slavery could have happened. I refused (and still do) to say that God “allowed” slavery to happen, yet when discussions around slavery would come up in various contexts, I had no idea as to how to approach the issue (and similar issues of injustice) from a Christian-faith perspective. After telling Bishop McKinney these things, he simply replied, “the final chapter has not been written yet.” Initially I thought that he “short-changed” me with that answer as I expected much more. The more I thought about it, however, the more I realized that his reply was more than what I needed. Consequently, as soon as I returned home from the week-long conference and cracked open my bible, the first thing I noticed was a passage (I think in Exodus) that was talking about how God will avenge and restore His people (Children of Israel) who were enslaved for 400 years! At that moment I remembered how Bishop McKinney spoke with so much faith and conviction regarding the power of God through Jesus Christ to change lives and right wrongs.
Let’s fast forward about three years later while attending graduate school on the east coast. While visiting the school of Divinity’s library, I came across one of his books (see below) called “The New Slave Masters.” In a nutshell, the premise of the book is that just as people of African descent were stripped of their identity and oppressed beyond measure during the years of physical slavery, people today (of all races and walks of life) are in spiritually enslaved to drugs, gangs, materialism, crime, violence, hatred, racism, sexual immorality, and negativity just to name a few.
I recommend Christians and non-Christians to cop it. It’s not expensive, short, and it’s an easy read. In addition, it doesn’t come off as “preachy.” Do you think there are similarities between "social" issues and "spiritual" issues? Differences? Weigh in and speekonit...
Labels: African American, Children of Israel, Christian Leaderhip Conference, identity, New Slavemasters, oppressed, racism, sexual immorality, violence
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
A "Dream" Deferred
Peace and blessings,
I want to address these photos, but right now i'm not sure how. I'm still trying to process them. Although these photos courtesy of
The Smoking Gun were taken from different Universities across the country, they all had one thing in common. Each of these "parties" were thrown on or round MLK day. More on these incidents can be found by clicking on the links. What makes it worse is that these degrading events seem like teh result of a well thought-out plan involving some major universities. SMH...
These photos were taken ofTexas Law School students
Convinced that things are all bad? If not, peep these pics ofUCONN Law School students
Still not convinced? This pic of students at Clemson University says way more than any photo should say.
I feel like watching "higher learning" or something to get my mind right. Take care and speekonit...
I want to address these photos, but right now i'm not sure how. I'm still trying to process them. Although these photos courtesy of
These photos were taken of
Convinced that things are all bad? If not, peep these pics of
Still not convinced? This pic of
I feel like watching "higher learning" or something to get my mind right. Take care and speekonit...
Labels: I Have A Dream, MLK, racism
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Is this what it took?
Peace and blessings,
It appears that Paul Mooney (comedian who was the "ask a black man" guy on the Dave Chapelle show and the father of Damon Wayans' character in Bamboozled), decided to no longer use the "N" word and the "B" word. He says that watching Michael Richards use the word the way he did "scared" him, prompting him to critically look at the word's impact. Growing up I struggled with using the "N" word, seeing how on one in it could make me feel so included yet devalued at the same time. I eventually decided to do away with the word. I did so because even though it can be used as a term of endearment, acceptance, or whatever, changing the usage of the word does totally do away with the nature in which the word was formed and used. I also feel that any word that I have to think about using only in certain contexts is a word that should not come out of my mouth in the first place. I guess being called a "nigger" by someone I considered a close friend can do that to you, lol. I pray that all people seriously decide to stop using both the "N" and the "B" words. Although the focus of Paul Mooney's decision will probably focus on the "N" word, I think it is equally laudible that he decided to do away with the "B" word as well. Although i'm disappointed that it took the Michael Richards incident for a prominent entertainer to decide to stop using those words, better late than never. A link to the article is provided at the bottom. Until next time, speekonit...
http://www.sohh.com/articles/article.php/10336
It appears that Paul Mooney (comedian who was the "ask a black man" guy on the Dave Chapelle show and the father of Damon Wayans' character in Bamboozled), decided to no longer use the "N" word and the "B" word. He says that watching Michael Richards use the word the way he did "scared" him, prompting him to critically look at the word's impact. Growing up I struggled with using the "N" word, seeing how on one in it could make me feel so included yet devalued at the same time. I eventually decided to do away with the word. I did so because even though it can be used as a term of endearment, acceptance, or whatever, changing the usage of the word does totally do away with the nature in which the word was formed and used. I also feel that any word that I have to think about using only in certain contexts is a word that should not come out of my mouth in the first place. I guess being called a "nigger" by someone I considered a close friend can do that to you, lol. I pray that all people seriously decide to stop using both the "N" and the "B" words. Although the focus of Paul Mooney's decision will probably focus on the "N" word, I think it is equally laudible that he decided to do away with the "B" word as well. Although i'm disappointed that it took the Michael Richards incident for a prominent entertainer to decide to stop using those words, better late than never. A link to the article is provided at the bottom. Until next time, speekonit...
http://www.sohh.com/articles/article.php/10336
Labels: B word, Bamboozled, Michael Richards, N word, nigger, Paul Mooney, racism
Sunday, November 26, 2006
On the Michael Richards incident...
Peace and blessings,
I pray everyone's holiday was well. Or if you don't celebrate it, atleast you used these few days off to spend with family and loved ones. I'm sure most of you have heard of the incident involving Michael Richards' racist and degrading comments at the laugh factory. Although I am in no position to past judgement on anyone because there are times where I stereotype other ethnic groups and act out of prejudice(either directly or indirectly, through actions or through thoughts), I especially think that those who are constantly in the public eye (e.g. actors, comedians, etc...) need to be extremely careful for what comes out of their mouth because of their words' potential impact on their listeners. Don't get me wrong, we all need to check our individual prejudices and need to be held accountable, but this should definately be the case for those who have people pay to come hear what they have to say. When you think about it, when we pay (e.g. with our money or time) to hear people speak(e.g. comedians, artists, scholars, etc...), we are in essence paying for the expression of their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. It's the same with purchasing any music artist's cd. Therefore, given the fact that people paid something to hear Michael Richards speak, his motives behind saying what he say are independent of the potential impact it can have on not only those his comments were directed towards, but on his audience as well. It goes back to that scripture that says the power of life and death is in the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). We continue to pray (not only for Michael Richards and for those whom his words affected, but also) that we watch not only what we do, but what we say and think as well, because according to the Bible they are all the same. Below is the incident at the laugh factory as well as the his apology on the David Letterman show. Take care and as always, speekonit...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3RjiVcIlhY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uul6COkTnNU
I pray everyone's holiday was well. Or if you don't celebrate it, atleast you used these few days off to spend with family and loved ones. I'm sure most of you have heard of the incident involving Michael Richards' racist and degrading comments at the laugh factory. Although I am in no position to past judgement on anyone because there are times where I stereotype other ethnic groups and act out of prejudice(either directly or indirectly, through actions or through thoughts), I especially think that those who are constantly in the public eye (e.g. actors, comedians, etc...) need to be extremely careful for what comes out of their mouth because of their words' potential impact on their listeners. Don't get me wrong, we all need to check our individual prejudices and need to be held accountable, but this should definately be the case for those who have people pay to come hear what they have to say. When you think about it, when we pay (e.g. with our money or time) to hear people speak(e.g. comedians, artists, scholars, etc...), we are in essence paying for the expression of their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. It's the same with purchasing any music artist's cd. Therefore, given the fact that people paid something to hear Michael Richards speak, his motives behind saying what he say are independent of the potential impact it can have on not only those his comments were directed towards, but on his audience as well. It goes back to that scripture that says the power of life and death is in the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). We continue to pray (not only for Michael Richards and for those whom his words affected, but also) that we watch not only what we do, but what we say and think as well, because according to the Bible they are all the same. Below is the incident at the laugh factory as well as the his apology on the David Letterman show. Take care and as always, speekonit...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3RjiVcIlhY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uul6COkTnNU
Labels: Bible, Michael Richards, prejudice, Proverbs, racism
Monday, October 16, 2006
The Unpredictability of Prayer
Peace and blessings,
I wanted to share something with you, something that God revealed to me a few about 6 months ago. But first, I have to add some contextual background...
About a week and a half ago, my girl told me about an interesting phenomena she observed while at Kaiser. Basically, she was telling me how she watched a woman who, after having an unpleasant interaction with a woman of a different race, kept telling her young son (who by girl thinks could not be any older than 7 years old) that the other woman was mean. In particular, the mother kept telling her child something to the effect that "see, now that's a mean, mean woman," and so forth. Moreover, the mother made sure that her voice was extremely soft and her demeaner was overly nice, as to provide her son with a sharp contrast between the nice, sweet mother and the mean woman of another race. After my girl told me exactly why this observation upset her so much (namely because she felt that the mother was using her influence as his mother to convince her son that the other woman was mean), we came up with the following "theory" regarding the development of prejudice and/or racist attitudes among children. In particular, the idea that the development of prejudice and/or racist beliefs within a child may result from the child's learned association between a person of another race and another trait. Further, this association (and thus its affects on the child's development of discriminatory attitudes) is stronger when the child learns this association from an influencial authority figure (e.g. his mother, etc...).
How does this incident relate to prayer you might ask? I provide this story as contextual background because as a child, I underwent a similar process in which I came to associate a behavior with an influential person in my life. That person was my great aunt. She's a matriarch of the family in that all of my cousins and I grew up over her house, as she would babysit all of us. She also one of the most annointed, sweet, and "filled with the holy ghost" type folks I have ever met. In fact, I truly believe that she is an angel, always providing the family with the type of love and spiritual guidance we always need but rarely know how to ask for it or truly appreciate it. Every day, she would pray over all of us( her children, myself and our cousins). In addition, she would spend hours in her room praying to God. As a look back, i realize that she provided me with a great deal of the spiritual foundation that I working to strenghten today.
Although as a child I didn't fully understand what the Christian walk would entail, or who God was for that matter, But started emulating my aunt's prayer behavior for two reasons. One was that you simply couldn't grow up in her house hold and not talk to God, lol. The other, and more important reason, was that even though I didn't quite know what she was doing or why, I knew HER. I knew that she always had my best interests at heart, and whoever she was praying to must be pretty important, because she truly was (and still is, of course) a strong, wise, and beautiful person. So, whenever I would be experiencing hardships, i would get on my knees and attempt to talk to God. Out of the many things I would pray for ( and out of a need to preserve my character I'm not going to name all of them, lol), the thing that I prayed for the most was for my parents to stop arguing. When I was younger, they used to argue all the time, and I was scared that they were going to get a divorce. Despite many nights of praying, my parents continued to argue (and in some instances the arguments got worse). Once my sister came into the picture and was old enough to realize what was going on, I became less concerned with how the arguing affected me, and more concerned with how I could prevent it from affecting her.
Now plenty years have passed and I've gotten older. Further, I have come to know for myself, the same God that my aunt so fervently prayed to day in and day out. Although I could now say that I had a personal relationship with God, at times I would still feel that because my parents didn't stop arguing, that God did not answer my prayer. However recently, out of nowwhere, it was if God spoke to me and was like "look at the bigger picture." I thought about my fellings regarding the answering of prayer, and how sometimes when I would tell others to trust God I would feel like a hypocrite because deep down I felt like that one my sincerest prayers as a child did not get answered. However, as I widened my perspective of who God is and the extent of our relationship, it became clear that many times when i pray, my "prayer-scope" is limited due to the limitations of my human nature and rationality. Because my parents didn't go from arguing to "the Huxtables," I thought that God "dropped the ball" with regards to that prayer. Despite my doubting of God, he nevertheless reminded me that He did in fact answer my prayer, but He answered it HIS way, which was in much broader scope than I had initially perceived. Even though in my prayer I wanted my parents to stop arguing, what I really wanted (e.g. my heart desired) was for my parents to stay together. By the grace of God they just recently celebrated their 23rd anniversary and I don't have to spit out divorce statistics to illustrate how much of a blessing that is.
So in sum, it took alot of wrestling and growth to realize that God answers all your prayers (assuming they are in accordance with His will), but He does so His way. Further, His way is the way that has our best interests in mind. So if I've learned anything from this realization, is that not only does God answers prayers, but that if we feel like we have been constantly praying to God for something to no avail, then it probably means that our "prayer scope" is too small, and that when God answers it, He's going to do so in a way that 1) gives Him the glory and 2) goes over and above what we thought we wanted or needed. Until next time, speekonit...
I wanted to share something with you, something that God revealed to me a few about 6 months ago. But first, I have to add some contextual background...
About a week and a half ago, my girl told me about an interesting phenomena she observed while at Kaiser. Basically, she was telling me how she watched a woman who, after having an unpleasant interaction with a woman of a different race, kept telling her young son (who by girl thinks could not be any older than 7 years old) that the other woman was mean. In particular, the mother kept telling her child something to the effect that "see, now that's a mean, mean woman," and so forth. Moreover, the mother made sure that her voice was extremely soft and her demeaner was overly nice, as to provide her son with a sharp contrast between the nice, sweet mother and the mean woman of another race. After my girl told me exactly why this observation upset her so much (namely because she felt that the mother was using her influence as his mother to convince her son that the other woman was mean), we came up with the following "theory" regarding the development of prejudice and/or racist attitudes among children. In particular, the idea that the development of prejudice and/or racist beliefs within a child may result from the child's learned association between a person of another race and another trait. Further, this association (and thus its affects on the child's development of discriminatory attitudes) is stronger when the child learns this association from an influencial authority figure (e.g. his mother, etc...).
How does this incident relate to prayer you might ask? I provide this story as contextual background because as a child, I underwent a similar process in which I came to associate a behavior with an influential person in my life. That person was my great aunt. She's a matriarch of the family in that all of my cousins and I grew up over her house, as she would babysit all of us. She also one of the most annointed, sweet, and "filled with the holy ghost" type folks I have ever met. In fact, I truly believe that she is an angel, always providing the family with the type of love and spiritual guidance we always need but rarely know how to ask for it or truly appreciate it. Every day, she would pray over all of us( her children, myself and our cousins). In addition, she would spend hours in her room praying to God. As a look back, i realize that she provided me with a great deal of the spiritual foundation that I working to strenghten today.
Although as a child I didn't fully understand what the Christian walk would entail, or who God was for that matter, But started emulating my aunt's prayer behavior for two reasons. One was that you simply couldn't grow up in her house hold and not talk to God, lol. The other, and more important reason, was that even though I didn't quite know what she was doing or why, I knew HER. I knew that she always had my best interests at heart, and whoever she was praying to must be pretty important, because she truly was (and still is, of course) a strong, wise, and beautiful person. So, whenever I would be experiencing hardships, i would get on my knees and attempt to talk to God. Out of the many things I would pray for ( and out of a need to preserve my character I'm not going to name all of them, lol), the thing that I prayed for the most was for my parents to stop arguing. When I was younger, they used to argue all the time, and I was scared that they were going to get a divorce. Despite many nights of praying, my parents continued to argue (and in some instances the arguments got worse). Once my sister came into the picture and was old enough to realize what was going on, I became less concerned with how the arguing affected me, and more concerned with how I could prevent it from affecting her.
Now plenty years have passed and I've gotten older. Further, I have come to know for myself, the same God that my aunt so fervently prayed to day in and day out. Although I could now say that I had a personal relationship with God, at times I would still feel that because my parents didn't stop arguing, that God did not answer my prayer. However recently, out of nowwhere, it was if God spoke to me and was like "look at the bigger picture." I thought about my fellings regarding the answering of prayer, and how sometimes when I would tell others to trust God I would feel like a hypocrite because deep down I felt like that one my sincerest prayers as a child did not get answered. However, as I widened my perspective of who God is and the extent of our relationship, it became clear that many times when i pray, my "prayer-scope" is limited due to the limitations of my human nature and rationality. Because my parents didn't go from arguing to "the Huxtables," I thought that God "dropped the ball" with regards to that prayer. Despite my doubting of God, he nevertheless reminded me that He did in fact answer my prayer, but He answered it HIS way, which was in much broader scope than I had initially perceived. Even though in my prayer I wanted my parents to stop arguing, what I really wanted (e.g. my heart desired) was for my parents to stay together. By the grace of God they just recently celebrated their 23rd anniversary and I don't have to spit out divorce statistics to illustrate how much of a blessing that is.
So in sum, it took alot of wrestling and growth to realize that God answers all your prayers (assuming they are in accordance with His will), but He does so His way. Further, His way is the way that has our best interests in mind. So if I've learned anything from this realization, is that not only does God answers prayers, but that if we feel like we have been constantly praying to God for something to no avail, then it probably means that our "prayer scope" is too small, and that when God answers it, He's going to do so in a way that 1) gives Him the glory and 2) goes over and above what we thought we wanted or needed. Until next time, speekonit...
Labels: children, family, God, learn, parents, prayer, prejudice, racism, spiritual
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
It's official: Things are definately all bad...
Peace and blessings,
A good friend of mine sent me an e-mail about these pop music twins called Prussian Blue. I did a search and couldn't believe what i found. They are two 14 year old girls who sing a message of white nationalism and hate. I can't even comment on this right now because my spirit is too grieved. Lord we need you...
A good friend of mine sent me an e-mail about these pop music twins called Prussian Blue. I did a search and couldn't believe what i found. They are two 14 year old girls who sing a message of white nationalism and hate. I can't even comment on this right now because my spirit is too grieved. Lord we need you...
Labels: hate, nationalism, Prussian Blue, racism
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