How I got free from the Political Narrative of Racism
Racism is often politicized and misappropriated as bigotry or as prejudice, or as racial bias or even racial hatred. While these all are egregious characteristics of racism, they are not racism. None of these are racism. Racism is power struggle between races, for resources, power, and the control of the narrative of another people group. The ultimate expression of racism carried to it’s destructive and evil end is the complete annihilation and elimination of another people of group. The purest expression of that form of racism is what Margaret Sanger did with Planned Parenthood, setting an organization in place to eliminate the undesirables from society. Black people, of course was lumped into that category of undesirables. Another expression of racism in recent history was Hitler in the Nazi Germany era eliminating the Jews. Both Margaret Sanger and Adolph Hitler were the epitome of a racists.
Racism at its purest expression is the elimination of another people group, or the holding down of another people group, the isolating of another people group, to control the resources, the influence, and the narrative of another people of group. Any other so called racists expressions are not actually racism, they can be attributes of a person that becomes a racist, or they can be characteristics of a person that becomes a racist, but they are not racism. Meaning, a person can be a bigot and not be a racist. A person can have racial bias, but not be a racist. A person can be racially insensitive, not knowing what to say concerning other racial cultural norms or settings, but not be a racist. A racist is someone that is actively and consciously involved in the holding down, or in the attempt to eliminate another race of people, from the desire to control, to have power over a particular region, resource, or people.
Does Black Equal Democrat
With this thought in mind of the purest definition of racism, I would like to present to us the question and thought pattern, DOES BLACK = DEMOCRAT? This is the prevailing thought in the African American community. That if you are Black you should be Democrat because the other party is racist. This thought pattern and way of approaching a person or a people group is stereotyping. We are stereotyping ourselves.
Being Black and the political, social narrative of our struggle should, in the 21st century, equate to our ability, freedom and liberty to vote for whoever we want to vote for, to live wherever we want to live and to believe whatever we choose to believe. If we cannot vote, for whoever we want to vote for, if we cannot have our own thoughts and thinking, if we can’t live wherever we want to live, were still in slavery. And I’m afraid that Black people have levied upon ourselves a mental type of slavery, with the very idea that Black = Democrat, and that If were Black we’ve got to vote for the Democratic party, because the other party is racists.
My Democrat Party History and My Journey to a More Conservative Political perspective.
I have nothing against the Democratic party. The Democrat party and the Republican party both have virtues and vices that both accentuate and highlight Christs’ teachings, and are opposed to and against Christs’ teachings. Psalm 89:13 says, Righteousness and Justice are the habitation of God’s throne.
When we speak of righteousness were speaking of right standing, right living, right thinking, right ways, and mainly morality and relationship issues. Righteousness is a relational expression of Christ and His church. We are the righteousness of God in Christ because of what God did through Jesus on Calvary, we’ve been brought into right standing relational with God through the blood of Jesus.
Justice deals issues of both, spiritual, social and civic fairness. The throne of God is both righteousness and justice. However, notice that righteousness comes before Justice in Psalm 89:13. If we’re going to get Justice we must begin with righteousness. Righteousness is the essence of what is required for the release of Justice. And ultimately righteousness is innate in Justice. Justice is not complete until righteousness, or right standing is restored within the relationships that have been broken because of an injustice that has been committed on an oppressed people by their oppressors. The foundation of Justice is righteousness.
Over the years the Republican party has become known as a party that has emphasized righteousness, morality issues. And over the same number of years the Democratic party has become known as the party that has emphasized justice issues. Both of them are needed. In our governmental expression of the Eagle that has become symbolic of our nation’s identity, the two-party system of Republican and Democrat is the Right wing, left wing that is necessary for the bird to fly. And if you look over the years of the history of our nation, we have gone through seasons, and administrations where the left wing, democrat party is in power for a time, and then we go through seasons where the Republican, right wing party is in power. But you need both wings for the bird to fly. In the same manner, the throne of God needs both righteousness and justice to make up the nature of God’s rule in the earth.
For years I’ve had a proclivity towards the justice expression of government and social and civic engagement. And I still do have a justice bent. Growing up in the inner city where all of us were democrats. Coming up under the Civil rights movement and the stride toward freedom of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the Democrats in power were moved and swayed by the movement of non-violent, noncooperation with an unjust segregated system separate but equal in race relations. And though Dr Martin Luther King Jr, was a registered Republican all of his life, because he was justice warrior, putting before the nation, both democrat and republicans, the justice that Black people needed to be free in Democratic society that was founded on the constitution and ideology that all men were created equal, he placed the constitution before America and said, America you Must Be Born Again. You must do right by your own ideology and document of independence that you put on paper as your articles of freedom, life and liberty as pertaining to your citizens of African descent.
Consequently, because the Democrat party, the party that was in power when the Civil Rights movement hit its stride, yielded, surrendered and tore down the old archaic Plessy v. Ferguson, Jim Crow laws of segregation, they became the party of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, and Black people. And since the sixties that has been our leaning.
However, I began to have an awakening concerning some of the programs that the Democrat, liberals used to garner our votes. And that awakening came as I started reaching out to my community in the inner city from my Dad’s storefront church in Columbus Ohio. I was awakened to the fact that these programs were not necessarily helping us, as I was down in the trenches seeing our problems and how these programs were actually accentuating the problems not alleviating the problems.
As a young Pastor in the inner-City of Columbus Ohio, ministering to the needy, I received an epiphany and woke up to the devastation happening in our communities as a result of the social welfare poverty programs of the liberal Democratic agenda. I will never forget going door to door reaching out to our community with prayer, food, clothing, Turkeys, Christmas toys, and household items. We would have those items available at the church on special days to be handed out after service. At the end of the month the church would be packed with people looking for help with prayer, food, and clothing, etc. At the beginning of the month the church would be empty. When I would go visit those that were crying out for Jesus and help at the end of the month to see where they were at the beginning of the month, they would be flopped on their couches getting high, and drunk, watching the Ricki Lake show or Soap Operas.
What happened at the beginning of the month that caused them to spiral back down into drugs and alcohol and away from God? Their welfare check, of course. I will never forget the revelation when it hit me from the bible in St. Luke 4:18 - He hath anointed ME (The Church), not the government, to preach the gospel (minister) to the poor. Then I had an idea that I thought originated with me. “What if the government gave those welfare dollars to the church and let us distribute the help to the needy as we minister the gospel to them?” Upon further investigation I found out that this was actually the Republican (conservative) plan for dealing with the poor. President Bush made it a vital part of his agenda called, the Faith Based Initiative Program to help the poor - Give monies to the church and let the help come from the people right in their communities.
For this, I have been voting conservative values ever since. Now are conservatives the answer on everything? No! Neither party has the complete answer for all of society’s ills. However, I kept seeing things God would reveal to me on how to reach our Livingston and Kelton community for Christ, lined up closer to what I was hearing from conservatives than the liberals. Not to mention I'm against abortion on demand, which is the highest in our communities. I am against re-defining marriage and biblical morality to fit the Homosexual agenda.
The Republican Party Historically fought to Free Blacks from Slavery
Many African Americans vote Democrat regardless of who is running or what they stand for, simply because they believe that African Americans should vote Democrat because the Democrats are on the side of African- Americans. This is a very strange viewpoint considering that the Republican Party has historically been the party that has fought for African American rights. As I stated earlier in my testimony of my Journey to conservatism, Abraham Lincoln, the President who signed into law the Emancipation Proclamation was a Republican. Consequently, the majority of African Americans from that time were republicans all the way up until the mid-20th century. It seems as if with many African Americans we believe that being a Democrat has always been our political party of choice. This is not true.
Democrats Started the Ku Klux Klan
From its’ founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party until today, the Republican Party has championed freedom and civil rights for African- Americans. However, it is the Democrat party that has been known for the four S’s., Slavery, Succession, Segregation, and Socialism. The Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan in 1866 to lynch and terrorize blacks and Republicans. Democrats fought to end Reconstruction after Slavery, which was started by Republicans. Its’ definitely odd that many African Americans believe that being a democrat has always been our party of choice. As I stated earlier, I vote values, not for a particular party. But I have not seen many values that Democrats have espoused that are for Africans Americans.
Bull Conner and George Wallace were Democrats
In addition to this, during the Civil Rights era, Bull Connor, the one who loosed the dogs and water hoses on Civil Rights protesters was a Democrat. Governor George Wallace, who resisted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama, and said, Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow and Segregation forever, was a Democrat. While at the same time during this era, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican. While this should not be the determining factor of whether or not we should vote either democrat or Republican, it is interesting to see how African Americans have ended up mainly voting on the side of the party that fought against most of our desires for freedom over the years. I’m just saying the history of the Democratic Party has been a history of racists’ stands against African Americans, and the issues that many African Americans stood for in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Root of our Community Problems
I am of the persuasion that the African American community’s problems are at heart moral and spiritual rather than economic. I have little faith in liberal or, for that matter, conservative policy solutions such as those that would achieve inner-city “empowerment” or create an “opportunity society.” Nor, unlike many conservatives, do I believe that black America would particularly benefit if cities put more police on the beat or if courts consistently handed out longer sentences to criminals. I do share with conservatives, however, hostility to the welfare system. On this subject, indeed, I am something of a radical, going so far as to compare the welfare state to Communist totalitarianism. Like Communism, welfare is predicated on a “bad concept of the human person,” one that “stresses individual helplessness and weakness,” undermines personal responsibility, encourages passivity, and strips the individual of the will to improve his condition.
I do acknowledge that once it was essential for African- Americans to look toward Washington—namely, when the goal was the passage of anti-discrimination laws. But now, this approach has come to impede the development of local, political institutions and community-based economic initiatives. By continuing to rely upon federal assistance, African American leaders only contribute to the dependency of the African- American poor, tying their future to the federal dole. At the same time, the African American political elite finds its own destiny linked ever more tightly to the perpetuation of welfare and other government-spending programs through employment in the social services cum welfare professions. I disagree with the African American political leadership—and in particular, the Democratic members of the Congressional Black Caucus—on practically every issue of the day, from affirmative action to foreign policy to abortion. Instead of representing what is the basic conservatism of the African- American middle and working classes, the Black Caucus has aligned itself with the white Left, whose cultural radicalism has had an especially harmful impact on African-America. Among the worst effects of this has been the creation of an intellectual climate within the African American community in which any departure from orthodoxy is interpreted as an act of racial betrayal.
