Black History Month Essays: Deification and Demonization: Enemies of progress

 

"Deification and demonization are the graves wherein we have buried all hope of genuine reconciliation, justice, and meaningful transformation. The songs we sing at that graveside are not songs of mourning and loss; only the sorrowful wailings of self-justification and self-destruction." --Allan Boesak in Pharaohs on Both Sides of the Blood-Red Waters

 What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. (Isaiah 5:20 NLT)

Last month, the US celebrated Martin Luther King Jr Day, and since 1976, the nation identifies each February to remember Black history.  As an African American man, I have had mixed feelings about how each of these things are commemorated.

On one hand, I am deeply grateful for and incredibly excited to honor leaders of the civil rights movement, from which I (as well as the entire nation) am the beneficiary.  One of my earliest memories is the assassination of Dr. King.  I do not remember much except the incredible anguish and anger of my parents and the gathering of people in my neighborhood to share the depth of their pain and anger. One of the things that many people forget is that Dr. King and his non-violent approach was not immediately adopted in the African American community.  Dr. King's non-violent approach required even more vulnerability and sacrifice for a people who were already disproportionately the victims of almost every kind of violence.  Leaders like Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) with the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) began as partners in Dr. Kings non-violent approach but grew frustrated by the lack of political and social change in combination with the escalating cost of African American pain and suffering.  Eventually offering an alternative that encouraged self-defense, by whatever means necessary, and Black empowerment.  Ultimately, political and social change did come but the genius of Dr. King was to understand that the civil rights movement was not exclusively for Black Americans, but for the soul of the nation. 

"Let us not think of our movement as one that seeks to integrate the Negro into all the existing values of American society. Let us be those creative dissenters who will call our beloved nation to a higher destiny, to a new plateau of compassion, to a more noble expression of humanness." --Martin Luther King Jr. in Where Do We Go From Here?

Dr. King and other civil rights leaders (including Kwame Ture, Malcolm X, Dian Nash, Fannie Lou Hamer, Fred Hampton, etc) courageously advocated to literally change the nation. It doesn't matter if you agree with their politics, their methodologies, or their faiths, the cumulative effect was that the nation understood its obligation to affirm the dignity and worth of all of its inhabitants, which is at the every heart of a democracy and the foundation of its inception. 

However, I also have my reservations.  MLK Jr day was created in 1983, by President Ronald Reagan.  Most African Americans understand that President Reagan was not a supporter of civil rights, and in fact campaigned against civil rights.  He opened his presidential campaign in a courthouse in Neshoba County Mississippi, where civil rights activists had "disappeared" years earlier.  That choice alone, signified a disdain for the principles of the civil rights movement, and for many African Americans, disrespect for them. 

So why did President Reagan support the development of a holiday for Dr. King?  I believe that he used a strategy of deifying a leader that deflects the focus away from issues of justice.  Dr. Allan Boesak, South African Theologian and anti-apartheid activist recalls that Nelson Mandela was admired and "defied" by White South Africans because he did not demand repentance, remorse, or restitution for their crimes against Black South Africans.  In other words, there was no change in the economic power structure in S. Africa.  There is a tendency of those in power to deify someone without actually acting or supporting whatever they advocated for.  It's for that reason that the Rev. Bernice King warned on her father's birthday that those who oppose racial justice should not quote her father on his birthday or any other day.

Over the past 8 years, there has been a conscious loss of the gains of civil rights.  Much of that has been done through the rise of White Supremacy that has interestingly become mainstream. The telltale sign is the scapegoating of people of color for every malady and the open expression of replacement theories. Scapegoating is blaming Brown and Black immigrants, for fleeing violence or Brown and Black citizens for crime in the nation.  Scapegoating is characterizing immigrants as violent, rapists, murderers, or gang members without evidence to justify your unwillingness to help. Replacement theories are a family of conspiracy theories that believe that there is a government conspiracy to remove White men from their entitled place of power and authority.  In the 2017 violent "Unite the Right Rally", many of the participants yelled "The Jews will not replace us" and several mass murders have been inspired by replacement conspiracies (Buffalo, El Paso, etc)   

Duke Kwon accurately describes White Supremacy as theft.  

"After all, White supremacy expressed itself as a symphony of vices: not least idolatry, covetousness, lying, adultery, and murder. Even so, the simple fact is that American White supremacy originated in the theft of Black bodies, sustained itself through the theft of Black [and Indigenous] wealth, and justifies itself through the theft, the erasure of truths that expose its lies." -- Duke Kwon and Gregory Thompson in Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair

The theft of truth has been politicized where there has been a need to remove Black history from some curriculum because it makes some uncomfortable.  There is a purposeful perversion and demonization of multple concepts that are part of racial justice.  "Woke" was a term used by African American activists which meant to be vigilant to systemic injustices of any kind.  Critical Race Theory is an interdisciplinary approach to studying the racial disparities in legal, educational, and health care systems. DEI programs are diversity, equity, and inclusion programs seeking to address historic and contemporary inequities in business and education.  Yet, "woke" is  misrepresented  to mean "reverse racism to White people".    CRT as a corruption of elementary education that teaches that White people are inherently bad".  And DEI as racism against Whites in schools and the workplace.   And because of that perversion, politically motivated advocacy groups have literally erased Black history courses in public schools which was woefully underrepresented anyway.

Both deification and demonization work to distort history and deflect away from the activities and advocacy of the civil rights leaders.  We celebrate Dr. King's day and commemorate Black history month by truthfully remembering the struggle and re-committing to its values to help fulfill the American Creed that all of its people have the opportunity towards life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

I leave you with a challenge from African American Theologian Drew Hart (Who Will be a Witness):

"We are called to the work of scheming and plotting for good, for God's delivering presence on the earth, for justice, righteousness, and peace in our world.   And we do this while refusing to use the evil means that the powerful employ to accomplish their goals.  We remain as innocent as doves by employing strategies of peacemaking and nonviolence, by overcoming evil with good, through radical love and prophetic intervention, and through vulnerable noncooperation with anything that clashes with the reign of the Messiah. We are invited to scheme and plot for God and to engage in strategic preparation in the way of Jesus."