I'm a socially aware person. By this I mean, I keep up to date on world events via tumblr. I pay attention to the news and I'm active on other forms of social media, i.e facebook and twitter.
I'm also a person who has a lot of empathy. When I hear people's stories, situations and issues I immediately feel for them, I want to help..I feel defeated if I can't.
Needless to say within the last two years, the social and political climate of the United States has definitely been in turmoil. As a black woman, the deaths of Trayvon Martin, and then that of Michael Brown broke my heart. As I realized the realities of discriminatory law practices and learned words like patriarchy, institutionalized racism, Industrial prison complex, capitalistic infastructure...I found myself getting angry.
My heart became bitter as I looked at the racial dynamics of the United States, as I studied the statistics that placed black men and women at the bottom of the totem pole.
I became angry during the Trayvon Martin case. What I saw was a young man gunned down by a vigilante, but my white Facebook friends disagreed. They made statements in support of Trayvon's death, saying that he deserved it among other accusations. I found myself deleting a lot of those friends.
When Ferguson began to unfold, I became hooked on social media. I followed the live tweets of members of the Ferguson community, I watched their on-site video footage. What I saw were peaceful protesters, tear-gassed for daring to excrise their given rights.What I saw was an unapologetic police force created from corruption. My white facebook friends disagreed. They saw rioters without respect for the law and the officers who keep said law. They saw a group of people who were asking for their own deaths.
When the Grand jury decided not to bring charges against Officer Wilson in the death of Michael Brown. I was so angry, I was hurt, I cried. This to me confirmed everything I had been witnessing in my capacity as someone who was 'socially aware'. It said to me that black lives didn't matter, and our deaths were of no consequence. It said to me as a young black woman that I needed to be careful about how I raised my future son, because his character wouldn't matter...and that somehow...someway his death could always be justified.
I found myself growing a hatred within me. I began to blame all white people. I had learned terminology like: 'white privilege' and was quick to use it. How dare these people not recognize their privilege. How dare white people walk about smug like their wealth wasn't built on the back of the black slave.
I didn't even want to acknowledge the plights of the black community....my black community. I didn't want to address our tendencey for lawlessness, our defeatist attitudes, our overt glorfication of violence...money.
I blamed everyone and everything else for the shambles of the community to which I self assigned.
Then God, as he always does began to check my heart.
I found myself addressing what the anger in my soul had truly became: hatred. I found myself questioning this hatred for a whole group of people.
I began to ask if I was better than my so called 'oppressors'
I even turned to God and asked...why us Lord. Why is my skin and my people so hated around the world. What have we done?
I would love to say that God answered right away. But he didn't. The silence seemed deafening.
I soon joined a church. My pastor and his wife are both white, but the church is multi-ethnic and multi-generational. The college ministry however is all black, with the rare exception of two or three token white students who visit on occasion.
I see my white pastors pour themselves out to the students that attend the college ministry. I see them give spiritually, financially and physically into the wellbeing of these black students.
I witnessed my Pastor on a Sunday morning, before the entire congregation boldly address the racial tension in Ferguson with the gaze of God's love and without fear of being politically correct.
I witnessed my white pastors feed countless black students each week, pay for groceries..
When my then boyfriend hit me and we both ran to the church before he ran away..it was my white pastor who held me in her arms and allowed me to cry.
She listened to me as I spoke and she spoke God's life giving and affirming word into my life.
This is when I began to realize, God doesn't see race. God doesn't see black or white. God simply sees the saved and the unsaved. We are all sons and daughters in the kingdom of Heaven. It is our sinful flesh that brings division and distinction between us.
As unpopular as it is to say, a lack of God's favor results in the destruction of man. And while I don't have all the answers, I do know that God is the only one who can stop the turmoil that is 'social injustice.' God is the only one who can heal the hurts of our hearts and the pain of our land.
Hating your brothers and in sisters in Christ because of this sinful world is deplorable in the eyes of God.
2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray
and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from
heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
If we seek God in all that we do, If we obey his commandments, he promises to forgive our sin and heal our land. That means if we turn to him, truly turn to him, he promises to right the wrongs of this world's injustices'.
My hatred of white people was detestable in the sight of the Lord. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves, regardless of any skin color. This love does not take into account what we feel because of our environment. This love relys on the creator to fix the hurts of the human heart and mind instead of relying on the creation.
God promises justice for the wicked and provision for the righteous.
So if you're like me, and Habakkuk, asking God why does injustice flourish?
Habakkuk 1:1-4 How long must I cry, O Eternal One,
and get no answer from You?
Even when I yell to You, “Violence is all around!”
You do nothing to save those in distress.
3 Why do You force me to see these atrocities?
Why do You make me watch such wickedness?
Disaster and violence, conflict and controversy are raging all around me.
4 Your law is powerless to stop this; injustice prevails.
The depraved surround the innocent, and justice is perverted.
and get no answer from You?
Even when I yell to You, “Violence is all around!”
You do nothing to save those in distress.
3 Why do You force me to see these atrocities?
Why do You make me watch such wickedness?
Disaster and violence, conflict and controversy are raging all around me.
4 Your law is powerless to stop this; injustice prevails.
The depraved surround the innocent, and justice is perverted.
Habakkuk 2:12-14 Woe to him who builds a city on bloodshed
and who establishes a town by injustice!
13 Look! Is it not because of the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies,
that all the people work for is consumed in fire
And that all the nations produce comes to nothing?
14 For as the waters cover the sea,
the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge
That the Eternal is glorious and powerful.
and who establishes a town by injustice!
13 Look! Is it not because of the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies,
that all the people work for is consumed in fire
And that all the nations produce comes to nothing?
14 For as the waters cover the sea,
the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge
That the Eternal is glorious and powerful.
The eyes of the almighty are roaming the earth to and fro looking for those that are faithful to him, and he promises to strengthen them. 2 chronicles 16:9 So do not be dismayed by this world, or allow it's evil to corrupt your heart. Love God, and trust God. The end.
All my love,
Obioma
 |
| A silly picture of the blond braids I intended to wear into my 22nd birthday. The braids only lasted 6 days and unfortunately did not make it. Check out my youtube channel for the reasons why :) |
