The Friend

Being Black Will Get You Killed Being Black and having a panic attack will get your killed. Being Black and driving a car will get you killed. Being Black and shopping will get your killed. Being Black and calling the police for help will get you killed. Being Black and having a car engine die will get you killed. Being Black and running will get you killed. Being Black and not using a signal will get you killed. Being Black and alone will get you lynched. Being Black and asleep in the car will get you killed. Being Black at leaving a party will get you killed. Being Black and minding your business will get you killed. Being Black and going home will get your killed. Being Black at school will get you killed. Being Black and standing on a corner will get you killed. Being Black with a toy gun will get you killed. Being Black with a white women will get you killed. Being Black and voting will get you killed. Being Black and being falsely accused will ...

Open Letter to White Christians “Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, I want to see,” he replied. Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.” ‭‭Luke‬ ‭18:40-41, 43‬ Thank God for ‘White Allies’. Seriously. The task of convincing a nation of white people, who have never known that their being white was weaponized against people like me, is tedious and honestly, very unfruitful at times. While there are so many white folks who choose to adopt the spirit of ‘Luke 9:23-25’ there are many who do not know they are ignorant and in need of a reformation of values. ‘White Allies’ are tangible and real examples that white people can go through a reformation that leads to lasting change. Yet, there are other kinds of white people who, not only being ignorant, weaponize that very thing that has led to so much pain ...

Hey, White Friends: While I know that gathering around the television, curled up in a blanket with a slice of avocado toast and a cup of coffee with an organic sweetener, to watch, “The Help” sounds like a great idea, I would like to suggest several different movies to watch first. It is not that, “The Help” is a bad movie, it’s rather good, but it is emblematic of the problem. Too often movies dealing with race are centered around a ‘white-hero figure’ (Emma Stone) and a black person unable to help themselves (Viola Davis) without a ‘white hero’. It creates this narrative, in some newly learned minds, that this is the path towards racial justice. So I am providing a list of movies to watch instead, that promote a much more accurate picture of the struggle for freedom, to help you in your journey. EVERYONE please feel free to share and add (preferably people who have been doing this work) below: Netflix When They See Us 13th Dear White People Amazon Prime Just Mercy I Am Not...

As black people, we have gone through 400 hundred years of pain and suffering that is unlike anything else in human history.  We have been taken from our land, beaten and chained. We were forced into slavery by people who called themselves Christians.  For 246 years our women were raped by white men because they could be. For 246 years our men were killed by white men if they fought for their humanity. For 246 years our children were born into a world that viewed them as commodities and then stripped from their parents as soon as they were of working age.  After the emancipation in 1865, our people were forced into violent segregation while white Christians rode around on horses dragging burned black bodies by a rope.  In 1921, our haven, Greenwood, Oklahoma, was burned down because of white jealousy and 300 of our people were killed for thriving.  In 1954, a 14 year-old Emmitt Till was wrongfully accused of whistling at a white women and because of...

The issue of ending racism is much more complex than simply hugging a police officer or ‘hugging the hate away’. The issue is not a ‘lack of love’ from this black person to a police officer but a lack of justice. How can I hug someone (ultimately an institution) who is withholding justice from me?  We have been hugging white people since Trayvon was murdered in 2012.  We have been hugging police since Michael Brown was murdered in 2014.  Yet to this day the same racist system remains in place. I do understand the sentiment of communicating an ethic of love that embodies the best of humanity. This black person hugging this officer is powerful. But the ONLY redeeming quality of this photo is that, time and time again, black people are inviting our perpetrators to a better way of living and being.  Black people are CONSTANTLY and incessantly asking white people to take their knee off of our throats. Year-after-year we we meet white violence with black grace. Ye...

There is so much more to our Christian responsibility than our views on same-sex marriage and a child’s right to life. If I can be honest both of those areas are legitimate concerns but lazy excuses for wholeheartedly supporting a political party (or person) on either side of this democracy. For far too long we have allowed the conversation of political Christian ethics to be driven by the limiting (and debilitating for Christians of color) perception of single-issue voting. President Donald J. Trump has, by any stretch of the imagination, been a flawed representation of the American political process (at the very least) and who he is as a man has superseded his responsibility as the leader of the ‘free world’. I think it is also limiting (and politically lazy) to make his character and his presidency two mutually exclusive topics when we are voting for the person just as much as we are voting for a set of policies. What must be challenged, in the middle of this #impeachment, is not ...

Reparations is a conversation about a ‘debt that is owed.’ Reparations is NOT a handout NOR welfare. Reparations is an OWED payment to an entire people group who literally and figuratively built the United States with its own hands. Reparations is biblical, just and it is necessary. Reparations is as it is implied: A repairing of an unjust action against African peoples that lasted for 244 years, 100 plus years of Jim Crow, domestic terrorism, police brutality and an unjust criminal system. Reparations is a restorative process that enacts a repayment process to men who were lashed, sold, beaten, castrated, mutilated and subjected to slave labor until the day their heart gave out. There was no escape from slavery. Reparations is a restorative process that enacts a repayment to women to were taken, shackled, used as human bed-warmers for house guest, raped, taken from their families and forced to produce children who were fathered by their oppressors who wanted nothing to do with...

To the White Church Yes, I believe the gospel is the only solution to the malice that invades the human heart. I believe that the blood of Jesus is strong enough to drench even the most racist of human hearts. I believe that Jesus’ broken body on Calvary covers a multitude of sins. All of humanity, in one fells swoop, was given the opportunity and repent, believe and be saved. Yet, whiteness (as an ideology) must be dismantled. White supremacy must be dismantled. The privilege that exists between you and me must be dismantled. The supremacy of Eurocentric/German theology in academia must be dismantled. The supremacy and racial bias in the white church must be dismantled. Whiteness (the leading disease of racial prejudice) must be named, cast down and replaced with the true ethic of Imago Deì. Each of us represents the glory of God EQUALLY and without discrimination. Therefore anything that reeks of white supremacy (implicitly and explicitly) must be dismantled and the t...

Controversial Monday Morning Topic: Racism and Comedy Here’s the thing. I have listened to A LOT of people and read A LOT of articles, post and tweets about Dave Chappelle and the reaction of people who consider themselves ‘progressive’ and folks who consider themselves ‘conservative’. I have never dedicated a post to exegete the public’s response to a comedy special but I think it’s important that we have a proper conversation that highlights the dissenting opinions surrounding his Netflix special. Dave Chappelle is a black comedian. That in itself signifies a uniquely influenced approach to comedy. An approach that uses comedy as a way to engage the tragedies of racism and persecution in America by using comedic relief to unify and communicate the plight of black suffering. Hip-Hop and Rap music were born from the same roots but black suffering is communicated differently between the two entities. By and large I’ve seen many people who would qualify themselves as “white liberal...

Is the Gospel Preeminent in Your life or Your Political Affiliations? If we are so committed to single party participation that we are willing to sweep any form of injustice against humanity under the rug to be in favor of a little more money back on our tax returns, I would say we have missed the heart of God. If we are willing to make continual excuses for our leaders who offend, degrade and dehumanize any person or ethnic group, I would say we have missed the heart of God. If our commitment to man-made loyalties supersedes our commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, I would say we have missed the heart of God. If our racial, social or economic biases prevent us from empathizing with hurting and maligned human beings, I would say we have missed the heart of God. If we care more about being right (from where we are standing) than building bridges between ourselves and our enemies, I would say we have missed the heart of God. If we are more inclined to support s...

# StephonClark “Fearing for their safety” Another young innocent black man has been murdered by police officers.  “Fearing for their safety”  They allowed learned racial stereotypes to lead them to protect themselves by any means necessary rather than ensure that this man was treated as a human being.  “Fearing for their safety”. These officers executed a young black man for being black in the wrong place at the wrong time.  “Fearing for their safety” Too many police officers have been licensed to discharge their cowardice and racist behavior that leads to the accumulation of more dead black bodies.  “Fearing for their safety” Another grandmother is forced to identify her dead grandson’s black body because white fear of black skin is given the green light to shoot first and ask questions later.  “Fearing for their safety”  Stephon, who probably enjoyed watching  # BlackPanther  like the rest of us have, was murdered ...

To the American Church, Enough is enough. I’ve had enough. Many God-fearing hard working people have had enough. Many people of all ethnicities have had enough. We have all had enough of the deceptive, divisive, disrupting, inhuman and inhumane rhetoric that is being echoed through the once most prestigious elected position in the world: The office of the President of the United States of America. Time and time again I have sat back a refused to address him personally because I realize that President Donald J. Trump is not the real issue. The ideology and factions that built, promote and encourage his linguistic ferocity are the real issue. Those who voted for him yet refuse to hold him and his accomplices accountable for his rhetoric and actions are the real issue. Those who sit in the corner in complicit silence while refusing to acknowledge the pain most black and brown people feel as we are constantly degraded and attacked are the real issue. There is a sickness in America tha...

The events in Charlottesville, Virginia were tragic as a domestic terrorist group sought to incite violence and instill fear into the hearts of all non-whites on August 12th, 2017. If 2017 has taught us anything, it is that many members of the white majority have displayed a learning deficiency in regards to the actual black experience, the actual historical degradation and the actual suppressive ideology of white supremacy (beyond the factions of 'white supremacists' who appear on our television screens). The reason I have labeled white ignorance as a 'learning deficiency' is because I have found that many whites are simply unable to empathize with the black experience and much of this is ignorance is because their realm of existence is so distinctively different than that of black Americans. When someone is diagnosed as having a learning deficiency it is sometimes due the inability of the brain to receive or process information. Many blacks have found that when exp...

In other news, we have an issue.  Shaun King says, "More than 660 people have been killed by American police so far in 2017. This year is on pace to be the deadliest on record for people killed by American police since national databases began keeping track in 2013. No other developed nation in the world has 10% of that number." In a country that is continually set against itself we see another example of heinous police brutality.  Justine Damond, was shot and killed by those sworn to protect and serve after alerting the Minnesota Police Department of a possible disturbance behind her home.  I grieve for her, her fiancé, her family and the community of people who knew her.  I am sorry for the loss of of this woman who deserves to have the opportunity to decide what she wanted to do with her day today. I am grieved to know that there are those in her native country of Australia who are, perhaps for the first time, experiencing firsthand America's violent histori...

Lifetime Likelihood of Imprisonment: White Men 1 in 17 (5.8% of all White Men) There are a total of 197,870,516 (as of 2014) million non-Hispanic White people in America.  This is roughly 63% of the total U.S. Population. Lifetime Likelihood of Imprisonment: Black Men 1 in 3 (33% of all Black Men) There are a total of 42,020,743 (as of 2014) million Black people in America.  This is roughly 13% of the total U.S. population. There are more than 2,400,000 people incarcerated in the United States. 40% of the U.S. Prison population are Black Americans (2,306 per 100,000 people). 39% of the U.S. Prison population are White Americans (450 per 100,000). "Black cities have similar crime statistics for blacks as do cities where majority of population is white." Bureau of Justice Report What is interesting about these numbers is that there is a clear lack of delineation when we hear people talk about the fairness of our justice system is giving fair and equal treatment ...

Please encourage. Plead to those in our seminary to speak on our behalf. On my behalf. Read the words that I have wirrten if need be. Silence is the same as opposition. The white moderates have always been the ones who have caused the most frustration in our plight. Always. Dr. King framed parts of the letter from the Birmingham jail based upon the response he had received from moderate white Christians.. You have to speak. If you choose not to it only further proves that our plight in inconsequential to whites and white clergy members. How can someone be my brother but not stand for me? Let me not be insincere and be brash with you because it will cost you. Standing with me with cost you frienships. It will cost you security. Yet that is the gospel. Here in America blacks are like the Israelites in the land of the babylonians and assyrians. Yet in the academy our professors can teach about the 1st century church but not show adequate care and compassion for the people that are under t...

"Why do you want to kill me?"   Does a gold grill justify a black man's death? Does a darker and sweaty complexion in Oklahoma summer heat warrant a black man's execution? Does a muscular physique require lethal force to be used against a black man? What is it about me that makes you want to kill me? Does the bass of my voice make you feel inferior? What is it about me that warrants death? Is it my athletic figure? Does this make you want to kill me? Is it the pain of my eyes? Is the burden too heavy to bear? It is the brokenness of my soul? Does it bring you shame? It is my strength? Does it make you want to conquer me? Is it my disposition? Does it make you feel threatened? Is it my displeasure with the way I've been treated? Should I stay in my place like a 'good boy'? What is it about me that makes you say, "he looks like a bad guy?" Is it the way I walk? Please help me to understand. What is it about me that m...

Cameron Friend M.Div George W. Truett Seminary Baylor University July 1st 2016 94 of the 96 Offenders of Domestic Violence in the NFL since 2000 are Black Men On July 14, 2015, sports writer Stephen A. Smith hosted the ESPN television show “First Take” alongside of Skip Bayless.  On this particular day the two men were responding to the allegations of domestic abuse made against Greg Hardy, who was soon to be employed as a defensive end for the Dallas Cowboys. Hardy’s ex-girlfriend, Nicole Holder, said that Hardy assaulted and threw her onto a couch covered in automatic weapons and ammunition.  Smith noted that the allegations against Hardy were expunged because the plaintiff (Holder) never showed up to her court date for unspecified reasons.  The defendant (Hardy) may have avoided facing any jail time but the rest of the NFL powers-at-be thought Hardy to be guilty. Even though Hardy played in the 2015 season, he has since been ostracized from the NFL. It was not...