Race, Religion, and Politics: The Black Christian Perspective

This is an old article I did during the primary season that I posted on another blog of mine that you may want to check out.

The historic nature of this year’s election season, in particular the Democratic race, can be described in one word: historic. Politics may not be your “cup of tea”, but when a democratic national debate can effectively compete with the viewers of the ever-popular “American Idol”, it assures us that we are living in an extraordinary, if not unparalleled moment in our nation’s history.

With respect and due deference to the African-American plight in America and how much further we have yet to go, let’s pause for a moment and “smell the flowers” as it were, and look at how far we’ve actually come: for the first time in America we have two traditional minorities, an African-American male and a white female, one of which will have the opportunity to be a candidate for President of the United States. This is not to discount the enormity or importance of what Jesse Jackson accomplished in 1988, (Barack and Hilary are both standing on his shoulders), but the meteoric rise of two non-traditional candidates in an arena largely dominated by white males is exceptional and unmatched in our nation’s history. Call it what you want, but this is history in the making.

This year’s political race has even injected new vernacular into our everyday conversation. We’ve become more familiar with words like divisive, incendiary, and substantive, just to name a few. We’ve witnessed a genuine interest from the college demographic, not seen since the 70’s. Sitcom and reality favorites have had to take a back seat to presidential debates featured on the same night. Voter turnout has skyrocketed to historic highs while major sporting events have played second fiddle to breaking news in the current political arena.

It has been the “War of Words”, as each candidate is forced to choose each word so carefully as not to offend or become an affront to current or future supporters. They are constantly under microscopic critique, assessment, and evaluation each primary and caucus as voters are faced with decisions that will undoubtedly change the course of American history.

So as we thankfully, yes thankfully, come to the close of yet another Bush era, what roles do race and religion play in a society that is set to make a paradigm shift that certainly will become the reference point of gender and race progressivism for generations to come?

As African-Americans I think that it is extremely difficult to see ourselves outside of the experience of slavery, educational and economic genocide, societal prejudices, and years of social injustice. It has been just 44 years since we were given the right to vote. Black executives (men or women) in the public and private sector are as noticeable as growing grass, the disparity in public education in minority vs. white neighborhoods has actually increased since Brown vs. Board of Education, and housing in minority neighborhoods, in particular African-American neighborhoods is so disproportionate to that of whites living in the same city, is egregious and unacceptable in this day and age.

And so it is a natural response that we begin to look for a savior of sorts, someone like us who looks like us, but has been chosen to rise above the issues that have tyrannized us for years, someone who is brazen, bold, and gallant, who will lead the way to freedom and justice. The African-American has had many “saviors.” Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, (yes, even Malcolm ya’ll), Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King, Jr., just to name a few, and I do mean just a few. The question now is where does Barack Obama fit into the scope of African-American “deliverers?” Is he the one? Is he our Neo? Can he deliver us from this matrix of monotony and ennui?

Drum roll please…

Sadly, the answer is no.

The answer would be the same if we were talking about Kwesi Mfume, Al Sharpton, (don’t laugh) Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas, (again, don’t laugh) J.C. Watts, Condoleezza Rice, Roland S. Martin (start watching CNN for crying out loud), or any other black leader for that matter. None of them could provide the permanency of freedom, equality, and justice that we as a black nation are looking for.

None of them.

None of them have the power to stop racism. None of them have the power to bring about true justice and equality, and fellowship among all men and women. Admittedly, they have the power to change the laws of the land, but they don’t have the power to transform the human heart.

As we remember our struggle in light of what lies ahead the words of Frederick Douglass seem to reverberate louder than ever when he stated, “Without struggle, there is no progress.” And even more pointedly the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whom we know as the Strong Deliverer, when he said, “In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)