Why I Speak Racism with White People

Tiktok’s @jolly_good_ginger shared a video that resonated deeply with me. In fact, if he grew up in an abusive environment and was raised in a cult, I’d think we were the same people. I’m not as good looking as he, but there are some physical similarities. We are both veterans. We are both poetic. And, it seems, we both have a unique insight into race, racism, anti-racism, and the part we’ve played in this very American problem.

Like @jolly_good_ginger, I wasn’t raised around racists, I was raised by them. I was them. And by God’s grace I escaped them, and continue to escape them. It is why I speak about racism with white people. My privilege, my insight, my experience—but especially my whiteness—grants me an open door to discuss these dehumanizing issues with people who refuse to even listen to the “other.” Those who—as Toni Morrison once pointed out—would rather these awful, horrific, and detestable acts of evil against our humanity be kept “drawn behind the veil” to protect our sensibilities.

It is not just our fellow humans who look differently from us that we mistreat. No. Those that are different—whose religion, race, ethnicity, sexuality, identity, poverty (that is, their poorness), family make up, etc., etc., etc. are “wrong”—we treat with the utmost indignity.

Let me draw the veil completely open. That which I shame are the same things I practiced. I speak to white supremacy with intimate knowledge which no amount of propaganda can ever dissuade—which can no longer dissuade.

And before any accuse me of suffering from “white guilt” caused by “CRT,” as some who cannot even spell “CRT” have already accused me, let me offer this:

Repentance is the turning away from something—an act, behavior, habit, etc.—in agreement that the thing from which you repented is wrong. This boldness of bigotry and racism in the American 21st century is wrong—is evil—and if I say nothing, do nothing, then I am equally culpable in that evil. If I go on pretending not to notice it because it doesn’t “hurt me directly”—which it does—then my repentance is nothing and my growth as a human being is a sham.

Those who have experienced, and repented from, the side of the aggressor like @jolly_good_ginger and myself, have an obligation to speak up not only of the blatant racial and bigoted injustice that plagues America, but of the tactics and strategies used by whites to further sustain and uphold white supremacy.

Racism, and all the other prejudices borne out of white supremacy, is not solely the problem of its victims. White supremacy dehumanizes all of us—transforms us into animals and a means of profit for a system which benefits only a few. This problem is a problem for all of us.

Christless Christian Nationalism on the Homefront

The Adventure Church/Tower District battle in Fresno, California has been, and continues to be, a glaring example of evangelical Christianity’s relationship with white supremacy, colonialism, and American nationalism. There were a number of red flags in this situation from a moral, ethical, and theological perspective.

One problematic example which stands out is that particular cult’s relationship with the white supremacist group ‘Proud Boys.’ When the modern KKK comes to defend your cause, it would do well to review and analyze your cause. One might ask, “why is a hate group so interested in supporting me?” Or perhaps it would be worth the time to consider what a designated terrorist group finds so attractive about the church in question.

Secondly, Adventure Church’s hostility, belligerence, and cruelty demonstrated a behavior which might arguably be called ‘the spirit of the antichrist.’ At the very least, it appears to indicate an absence of Christ among both the congregation and its pastor.

For example, the excessively loud and obnoxious ‘Christian music’ blasted through oversized speakers to harass the homeless seems to be far from any sort of Christ-likeness. The unwillingness to love the community and the intentional injury caused to the Tower District’s community echo more the behaviors attributed to the Sadducees and Pharisees in the Gospel of Matthew than of Christ.

Honestly, I suspect the whole stunt was an attempt to follow through with a decades long wet dream of area wide evangelical (nationalist) churches to slip into the Tower District and clean it up “for GEEZUS.”

I don’t understand how the irony of Christian nationalists continues to baffle me, but it does. How in Christ’s name do they claim to be disciples of Jesus while actively doing ALL OF THE THINGS he condemned of the religious elite in the Gospels?

In short, the whole burning dumpster fire serves as another example of the generally Christless Christianity practiced by specific segments of American culture.

What hurts personally is that I think about how similar Adventure Church is to the cult in which I was brought up—Calvary Chapel. The same symptoms were, and frankly, are, present in that place. Elitism. Us vs. Them perspectives. Isolationism. Ends-Justify-the-Means public motivation. Dangerous indoctrination by uneducated, ill trained, and ill equipped individuals. Fascist and authoritarian sentiment and philosophy. Toxic masculinity. Fragile masculinity. Sexism. Mysogyny. The list of abhorrent similarities goes on.

The worst of it, for both Adventure Church and the cult I escaped, is all the suffering was caused “for geezus.” As if nailing Christ to a tree wasn’t enough.

Reading Assignment: “Adventure Church Issues Response after City’s Recent Agreement to Purchase Tower Theater.”
-Fox26 News

God Save Ukraine

A woman and child peer out of the window of a bus as they leave Sievierodonetsk, the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

The whole Ukraine thing hits different. Not only is this a mirror of Hitler’s pre-WW2 invasions, but a number of our own citizens and elected officials have been primed for pro-fascist action.

Texas and Florida are not accidents. Trump’s support of Putin’s action is strategic—his filthy hands still rest on the rotting crotch of the GOP, among whom he is considered by many to be a god. His comments will be echoed by GOP loyalists and his own fractured and morally bankrupt base.

Cold War memories have kept our fingers close to The Button, but the promise of Mutual Destruction has prevented us from pressing it.

This is not America’s fight alone, but the world’s. The world’s governments must come together to present a unified response.

But, too, I recognize my own trauma responses firing up. I can hear the voice of my sperm donor screaming in slurs and white supremacy, cheering on a new ally brought into the mainstream by his own political, fascist, racist heroes. I see the war mongers licking their chops and growing with arousal at the sight of so much death.

I am certain we will fail as a nation to condemn this atrocity with a unified voice as this violence becomes another marker of division. To support the violence is loyalty to the right; to condemn it is loyalty to the left. In the middle is a growing river of blood.

God save us.

When History Repeats

https://unsplash.com/blog/march-on-washington/

An observation:

During the fight for Civil Rights in America, confederate statues and flags were raised throughout the South to intimidate the communities demanding Civil Rights for all. Community leaders swore black people would never be equal with white people.

Today, as we continue the fight for equality and equity for the marginalized (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, women, disabled, poor, etc.) schools are under attack as demands for books and lessons which weaken white supremacists systems and power be removed.

Additionally, the same powers which resisted all paths to allowing diverse voices to be included in the American conversation during the Civil Rights Era, are now actively trying to strip away those gained seats through voter suppression, community intimidation, and substituting education with propaganda.