A SUPERIOR RACE

The shooting incident in a church at Charleston in the USA has more than ever highlighted to the World the on goings of what seems to be the persecution of the black race in America. Though I hardly follow the news especially from mainstream networks and channels, the few times that I have turned on my television to catch a glimpse of, ‘the evils going on in the world’, have met me with very horrifying images of blacks being brutalized in America - young, old, children and mothers alike. Some concerned friends of mine and sympathizers have on one or two occassions schooled me through a countless series of gut wrenching videos on YouTube of what I call a disgraceful disregard and humiliation of another human life and potential, especially by use of state instruments like the police. What do I have to say to a people going through such trying times? Well first of all let’s not forget the examples taught us by Nelson Mandela; What Rev. Martin Luther King Jnr. taught us, and ultimately what Jesus Christ taught, that we should love those who hate us. If there’s one thing I have learnt from Mandela and Rev.  King, it is, that trials and persecutions are not meant to destroy anyone, they are actually meant for promotion! People who hate are weak and full of fear! The persecution of the black race in America is a call on all black people therefore to hone their spirituality, if slavery and all the persecution black people have faced in history could ever be perceived by them rather as an unparalleled opportunity to be promoted, to become the superior race - the race full of love and compassion and forgiveness, the race that does not hate; because the magnitude of one's trials determine the level of their greatness. For this to happen however, black people would have to stop being too predictable by looking at themselves always in the context of racial prejudices. I think if there is one thing Martin Luther king’s generation did not pass on clearly to that of today, it would be the way one viewed his own history. We see it in every black movie; everything that has to pass as black must make reference to black people in the context of their distasteful past, as underdogs and descendants of slaves. I always wondered when that was going to end; And to those who thought it wise that the more you said it the more people become aware, I say to them to fast forward to now and tell me if racial prejudices against black people in America are not even worse off, that is the result of over-trumpeting the aspects of one’s past that portrays them as bound to servitude. I am tempted to believe it’s exciting for some black people to go on about this identity of a victimized black person, perhaps because it’s a band wagon that gets corporate sponsorship, Hip-Hop and Hollywood as cases in point. As a matter of fact it is believed that things have become worse off than before, but life is not only lived for excitement, success is the application of tried and tested principles. Black teachers and scholars are also over-intellectualizing the black identity that the system also sponsors. As long as you will keep seeing yourself as a victim of circumstances you can never rise above your environment. The last time I checked from the good books about a race, it identified just three races on earth – Jews, gentiles and the newly born in Christ. There was no mention of skin color. In fact when will black people rise above racial identity and history? Even in the face of stark persecution. God did not create anyone black, he created man in his image and likeness – now would that instead be the vision of the black nation, because you see, what you talk is what you become; the gospel of Matthew teaches us that by a man’s words he is justified and by a man’s words he is condemned, to win this war against hatred black people must begin to talk about their God identity and take it very seriously than their black identity. Yes it’s brilliant and thrilling and also cool but many years of preaching black identity has not created a superior race.