A response to Ekemini Uwan

This is a response to Ekemini Uwan’s article titled “Eschatology and the Black Lives Matter Movement” which can be found here.

Uwan starts with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr with the idea that his sentiments at that time in 1964 can still be wholly applied to America 2015. The end of the quote says, “If one doubts this conclusion, let him search the records and find how rarely in any southern state a police officer has been punished for abusing a negro.”

To pretend that we can compare what was going on in 1964 with what is going on in 2015 is utterly absurd. Yes, in 1964, there was massive injustice occurring. Yes, in 1964, you can make a strong case that officers frequently got away with abusing black people with little or no repercussions. That is simply not the case in 2015 and to imply that it is not only does a disservice to those black men and women who actually suffered injustice in the 60’s, but it also does a disservice to many of the hard working police officers today who have never had a hand in treating any black person any differently than any other race.

Uwan says, “How is it in 2015, the plight of black people is still one of restricted agency, subjugation, vulnerability and oppression at the hands of those who have sworn to ‘serve and protect’?”

You see I’ve noticed this sentiment among most (not all) black people that it is a GIVEN that police officers as a whole are still committing wholesale injustice against black people. There’s never any actual thought put into the assumption. There’s never any fact checking to see if it’s actually true. Nope, it’s just automatically assumed as an undeniable truth. Those few brave black Christian leaders who challenge this false assumption such as Saiko Woods and Voddie Baucham are immediately scoffed at as Uncle Toms or as just being plain ignorant.

I find this assumption ironic. Because isn’t that exactly the same kind of attitude that black people rightfully abhor when people make assumptions about them? Don’t they strive to be judged, not by the actions of black people as a whole, but by their individual actions? Aren’t we supposed to be denouncing stereotypes and collectivism? Then why is it acceptable to stereotype police officers? It’s not acceptable actually, yet I see it happening ALL. THE. TIME. and hardly anyone speaks out against it except for the families of police officers.

But what about the Rekia Boyds, Eric Garners, Dejerria Bectons, Kalief Browders, Aiyana-Stanley Jones’, and Tamir Rices of America? Isn’t that proof enough that there is widespread oppression by the hands of the police?

No, not at all. In 2012, 12 million people were arrested in America. Of those 9.3 million arrested people, 426 were killed by justifiable homicide. That’s JUSTIFIABLE homicide. Even if all 426 were acts of outright, cold blooded murder, that’s still 0.0035% of 12 million arrests that went down without a problem. But again, those 426 were JUSTIFIABLE killings. How many were unjustified? I’m not sure, but the only story I’ve even heard that remotely fits the profile would be the Scott Walker story in South Carolina where he shot a black man who was running away from him evading arrest after trying to wrestle the officer’s taser away from him.

Yet somehow, despite this EVIDENCE, the assumption that police officers today are really no different from those of the 1960’s or even the late 1800’s goes completely unchecked.

Are there police officers that abuse black people today? Of course. We live in a fallen world. But it’s hardly the single biggest plight of black people in America today. In fact it might not even register as a blip on the radar compared to other things that plague black communities like fatherlessness, abortion and a rampant crime rate including black-on-black crime.

Now that this idea that police officers are the biggest threat to black livelihood has been debunked, I want to address Uwan’s endorsement of the hateful, racist Black Lives Matter movement (hereto referred to as BLM). BLM may have started with good intentions, but after the justified shooting of Michael Brown, it quickly spiraled out of control and evolved into something hateful, racist and violent.

Deray McKesson, probably the biggest proponent of the movement, and someone who has been referred to as the new Al Sharpton (an insult if you ask me), wants to free a woman named Assata Shakur who killed a police officer, grievously assaulted another, and was charged with murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, bank robbery and kidnapping. Why does Deray (and the rest of BLM) want her freed? Because she’s black and she “stood up to the man.” No other reason, really. Who cares that she killed another human being, escaped prison and fled to another country. All of that’s forgiven I guess.

And it’s not just Deray that loves this cop killer, nope, Assata Shakur is a beloved figure for all of the Black Lives Matter movement. Just look through the Twitter feeds of their leaders and members and you’ll see them wearing shirts that say “Assata Taught Me”. I’m not sure what Assata taught them to do, perhaps it was the murder of police officers, escaping prison, robbing banks or fleeing the country, but make no mistake BLM loves them some Assata Shakur.

Now listen, I have no issue with Uwan and others if they want to support groups that promote equality and justice, but BLM is not such a group. It may have started innocently enough, but now it exists solely to cause division, engender hatred towards white people and police officers, and promote violence to that end. That is a fact. And no professing Christian should stand behind such a movement, in fact they should be loudly professing their disagreement with it.

I will give Uwan credit in one regard. She hit the nail on the head when she said sin is the root cause of all injustice. Unfortunately, she singled out white people and cops when she said, “Sin has permeated our entire being, and it is the sole source of white supremacist violence, anti-black sentiment, systemic racism, and subjugation.”

Yes, sin IS the sole source of white supremacist violence, anti-black sentiment, systemic racism and subjugation. No disagreements there. My issue is with how one sided this article is. There is no mention of sin being the sole source of fatherlessness among the black community, or abortion, or the fact that 13% of the population commits around 50% of violent crime. As usual, the entire article has a “black people are completely innocent of everything and white people are to blame for all of our problems” vibe to it.

It’s like she’s saying, “White people need to repent of their sin and their supremacy and their privilege and their oppression and their racism and then all will be right with the world, because let’s face it, all of our problems stem from that, so once they repent of all their wrongs then we can usher in the ‘Age To Come’ and black people will no longer be oppressed and they can finally thrive.”

To which I would quote Matthew 7:3-5 “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

The log: fatherlessness, abortion and black-on-black crime.
The speck: police oppression and “white supremacy.”

While we’re in the book of Matthew, let’s turn to Chapter 6, verses 14-15 which say, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Ms. Uwan, it’s clear to me that there is a bitter unforgiveness in your heart towards white people and police officers. Yes, white police officers committed atrocities to your people in the past. A white cop may have even committed an atrocity towards you personally (although I have a feeling we’d be hearing all about that if it were true). Regardless, you have to let that hatred and bitterness go. Forgive, so that you can be forgiven, before it’s too late.