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 i...