The perilous times in which we live are inescapable regardless of which newsfeeds we follow. Whether to the right, the left, or somewhere betwixt and between, we see it, or perhaps we keep our televisions turned off and stick our heads in the proverbial sand.
Perhaps our churches call for unity from the pulpit, and some do so without calling out the issues of the day which would call us to divide. I personally think that is backwards, and that it is simply trying to keep a lid on things.
The people that I hang out with these days are truth-tellers. People like Lawrence Lucas, Lloyd Wright, Marti Oakley, Shoun Hill, Richard Chowing, Kordel Davis, Corey Lea, Lander Bethel, Adam Zipkin, Jillian Hishaw, and many more. The list is too long to enumerate everyone. Truth-tellers write letters of protest. They appear on radio programs and zoom programs. They appear on national forums such as the National Whistleblowers Conference along with people like Stucki and Rosenberg, all truth-tellers who are investigative writers.
Truth-tellers and lie-tellers were all over Washington DC on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. Some lied to themselves that they had no part in the insurrection. Their names are Donald J. Trump, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley. Some have been lying to America for a long time. These are folks on the religious right who have co-opted the Christian faith with politics and turned the church upside down.
The mantra “God, guns, and Donald Trump” is a political ideology, but not a Biblical position that has any merit. Those who are Christological in their orientation like me know that the stories of life and justice and faith begin and end with Jesus of Nazareth. They know that Jesus was murdered by the religious right in concert with the powerful government of the day. They know that Jesus came to seek and save the lost and along the way He loved those who had been kicked to the curb by society. Overall, He was one of those folks whose people had been kicked to the curb. And so, he was found hanging out with sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, women, those overtaken by demons, those with shriveled hands and leprosy and paralysis.
So, on this sacred day, I am pondering the influence that Dr. Martin Luther King and his teachings have had in my life. I am pondering how we have gone from a country that despised him as an alleged communist and socialist, to one in which a day is set aside in his honor. I am pondering these ideas against the backdrop of a crazed mob looking for Vice President Pence, intending apparently on hanging him from the temporary gallows there on the Capitol grounds. Yes, the platform and the noose.
This mob, in a sense, was “lynching our country.” Or at least they were attempting to lynch someone.
Speaking of lynching, that notion and its inhumanities are well know by Black people in our country and by those of us who work alongside them and who know the history of mob violence in America. Want to know how to control people? Lynch them. Hang their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and cut their genitals off, save a finger for a prize, and yell while they are being burned alive, lifted up and down over the fires of hell as the onlookers cheer.
Want to know another form of “lynching?” Rob Black people of their land, livelihood, and generational wealth. Why? Because you can. That’s the way the system works. A Black family gets too uppity and wealthy? Burn them out. Starve them out. Steal their land.
In 1920, there were 950,000 Black farmers. There were 22,000 Black farmers who owned their farms. In 1910, Black farmers farmed 47,000,000 acres, down to 45,000,000 in 1920. In 1910, Black farmers owned 19,100,000 acres of land, down to 16,700,000 in 1920.
In 2017, there were 35,470 Black-owned farms with a total of 4,673,140 acres. The farm averaged 132 acres. At this same time, Black-owned farms was 1.7% of all farms, the acreage was .05% of all farms, and the average Black-owned farm was .30% of all farms.
Between 2013 and 2015, 86% of microloans by the USDA went to white farmers. Seven percent went to Black farmers. White farmers received 94.97% of all loans while Black farmers received .2% of the $5.7B loans. The amount of program benefits going to Black farmers was 0.80%. These stats come from Stucki and Rosenberg, 2019 and Lloyd Wright, 2020.
Just a few weeks ago, we were informed that 17,000 Black-owned farms were in danger of foreclosure. That is 48% of Black-owned farmers.
Want to know the value of land that Blacks have lost through the years and to various egregious means? Close to $1T. I cannot wrap my head around that much generational wealth that now resides in someone's hands rather than the original rightful landowners.
Elsewhere I have written at length about Black land acquisition and dispossession. That article was published in 2018 and is easy to find. In my opinion, heir’s property is certainly an issue and has resulted in Black land loss, but, in my opinion, the greater culprit is the USDA, its county committee system, and the commitment to keeping white people in charge. The system is made that way. The system is working the way it was supposed to work.
Now, Senators Booker, Warren, and Gillibrand have proposed a revolutionary bill to address these grievances, The Black Farmer Justice Act of 2020. It levels the playing field in many, many ways.
I wonder what Jesus would think about these times. I wonder what Dr. King would think about these times. What would Jesus think about the “God, guns, and Donald Trump” slogan? What would Dr. King say about it?
What do white Americans think about racial justice? What do white Americans who stormed the Capitol building think about racial justice?
I think we all know what would be felt and said and done.
No comments:
Post a Comment