BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
11 July 2025
07 June 2022
PRAYER IN SCHOOLS TO WHO'S GOD, SAINTS, DIETIES, IDOLS, DEMIGODS, DEMONS?????
THE U.S. Constitution keeps church and state separate for very good reasons. Nothing can prevent truly religious people from praying when they want or need to, they knows how to pray without making a scene while others know how to make a scene when praying.
20 April 2017
04 September 2015
Kim Davis' stunt demolished in one brilliant tweet 4SEP15
Fri Sep 04, 2015 at 04:44 AM PDT
Kim Davis' stunt demolished in one brilliant tweet
Originally posted to pfiore8 on Fri Sep 04, 2015 at 04:44 AM PDT.
Also republished by Three Star Kossacks and Anglican Kossacks.
03 November 2014
(VIDEOS) Watch "Duck Dynasty" Stars Rally the Christian Right for Tomorrow's Election 3NOV14
IF the American Christian community in Christian America wants to vote their faith a good place to start would be by looking in the mirror while reading Matthew 25:31-45. If you don't have it handy here it is "The Sheep and the Goats
31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' 41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' 44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' 46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." One should look in the mirror and ask if the beliefs, practices and the political platform of the person they are going to vote for best reflects in word and deed these words of Jesus Christ. Then each member of the Christian community in America who wants to vote their faith should look in the mirror again and read the 10 Commandments. If you need them, here they are from Exodus 20:1-17 ( there are actually 3 sets of Commandments in the Old Testament ) "The Ten Commandments
20 And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord
your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or
daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any
foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet
your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his
male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to
your neighbor." One
should look in the mirror and ask if the beliefs, practices and the
political platform of the person they are going to vote for best
reflects in word and deed these words of our God. Has the person you are going to vote for given false testimony against their opponent, against our government? Do they bow down before those with power and money? Does their political platform protect those who commit murder, who steal, and violate the Sabbath? Is their campaign committed to satisfying their own covetousness, as well as the covetousness of their wealthy and corporate backers, for riches and power at the expense of their electorate, their neighbors? If Christian America really wants to vote their faith they will pray and consider the Commandments of their God, the teachings of Jesus Christ. Watch the videos below and decide for yourself if they re true to the Scripture above, and VOTE on Tuesday, 4 NOV 14. From +Mother Jones .....
Last week, we reported on a coalition of influential conservative Christian organizations that are drumming up outrage over the Hobby Lobby
case and other recent culture war skirmishes. The goal of this
campaign—which involves closed-door briefings for pastors and rallies
simulcast to mega-churches around the country—is to mobilize Christian
voters by persuading them that their religious liberties are at stake in
tomorrow's election.
On Sunday, the coalition held another simulcast rally, at Grace Community Church in Houston. And this time Phil Robertson, the Duck Dynasty star who was briefly suspended last year after going on an anti-gay tirade, was among the speakers. (Watch the video above.)
The bearded patriarch strode onto the stage Sunday clutching a dog-eared Bible and told the cheering crowd America was founded as a Christian nation. "America, America, it cannot be said too strongly or too often that this great nation was not founded by religionists but by Christians," he declared. "Not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ." (Robertson attributed the quote to Patrick Henry; its origins are disputed). He then read a passage from Philippians about a Christian who was imprisoned for voicing his beliefs, and asserted that the same thing could happen in the United States. Robertson also likened the treatment of Christians today to the persecution Jesus faced: "They hated the son of God without reason, and now they hate us."
On Sunday, the coalition held another simulcast rally, at Grace Community Church in Houston. And this time Phil Robertson, the Duck Dynasty star who was briefly suspended last year after going on an anti-gay tirade, was among the speakers. (Watch the video above.)
The bearded patriarch strode onto the stage Sunday clutching a dog-eared Bible and told the cheering crowd America was founded as a Christian nation. "America, America, it cannot be said too strongly or too often that this great nation was not founded by religionists but by Christians," he declared. "Not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ." (Robertson attributed the quote to Patrick Henry; its origins are disputed). He then read a passage from Philippians about a Christian who was imprisoned for voicing his beliefs, and asserted that the same thing could happen in the United States. Robertson also likened the treatment of Christians today to the persecution Jesus faced: "They hated the son of God without reason, and now they hate us."
Robertson's son, Alan, later took
the stage and claimed that Satan was to blame for the firestorm
surrounding his father's homophobic comments: "The evil one is attacking
my family because we speak truth."
The speakers roster also included former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Todd Starnes of Fox News, as well as David and Jason Benham—the twin brothers who lost their planned HGTV show after the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way dug up audio of David railing against "homosexuality and its agenda that is attacking the nation." Like many of the speakers, the Benhams—who have compared their situation to the Christians being beheaded by ISIS—cast their treatment as flagrant religious discrimination. And they urged viewers to stand firm against the onslaught.
These impassioned accounts were interspersed with calls for believers to vote their "biblical values." During his speech, Huckabee asked the thousands of people in attendance to pull out their smartphones and look at photos of their children or grandchildren. "If you would die for the image on that screen," he said, "could you not at least vote so that they would not live in an America where they would be told that they could not pray and preach and worship and believe as their conscience would tell them to do?"
Texas pastor Rick Scarborough sounded a similar note during his closing remarks. "On Tuesday everyone here should act," he urged. "That's your day to vote your values." Addressing his fellow pastors, he added, "This is the hour, gentleman, when we'll either stand up and be counted or our country will be lost."
Many of the groups behind the event—among them Concerned Women for America, the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, and the National Organization for Marriage—are known for their fierce anti-gay rhetoric. AFA, one of the most influential conservative Christian organizations, has gone as far as blaming gays for the Holocaust. "Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler," Bryan Fischer, the group's director of issues and analysis, once wrote, "and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews." Fischer has also argued that the "homosexual agenda" endangers "every fundamental right" in the Constitution, including religious freedom, and has called for homosexuality to be outlawed.
For more on the scare tactics these organizations are using to get voters to the polls, see the I Stand Sunday promotional video:
http://youtu.be/m43xKTW_OTg
The speakers roster also included former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Todd Starnes of Fox News, as well as David and Jason Benham—the twin brothers who lost their planned HGTV show after the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way dug up audio of David railing against "homosexuality and its agenda that is attacking the nation." Like many of the speakers, the Benhams—who have compared their situation to the Christians being beheaded by ISIS—cast their treatment as flagrant religious discrimination. And they urged viewers to stand firm against the onslaught.
Chillin with @GovMikeHuckabee and look who #photobombed! Good ol' Phil Robertson :)
These impassioned accounts were interspersed with calls for believers to vote their "biblical values." During his speech, Huckabee asked the thousands of people in attendance to pull out their smartphones and look at photos of their children or grandchildren. "If you would die for the image on that screen," he said, "could you not at least vote so that they would not live in an America where they would be told that they could not pray and preach and worship and believe as their conscience would tell them to do?"
Texas pastor Rick Scarborough sounded a similar note during his closing remarks. "On Tuesday everyone here should act," he urged. "That's your day to vote your values." Addressing his fellow pastors, he added, "This is the hour, gentleman, when we'll either stand up and be counted or our country will be lost."
Many of the groups behind the event—among them Concerned Women for America, the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, and the National Organization for Marriage—are known for their fierce anti-gay rhetoric. AFA, one of the most influential conservative Christian organizations, has gone as far as blaming gays for the Holocaust. "Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler," Bryan Fischer, the group's director of issues and analysis, once wrote, "and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews." Fischer has also argued that the "homosexual agenda" endangers "every fundamental right" in the Constitution, including religious freedom, and has called for homosexuality to be outlawed.
For more on the scare tactics these organizations are using to get voters to the polls, see the I Stand Sunday promotional video:
Image of Duck Dyanasty star Phil Robertson: Mike Stone/AP
10 October 2014
Islam and the Mother Lode of Bad Ideas: The Bill Maher, Sam Harris, and Ben Affleck Debate & (VIDEO) Sam Harris vs Reza Aslan Full Unedited Video 9OKT14&27MAI12
verse of the day Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
- Colossians 3:14
voice of the day Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.
-Cornel West
CHRISTIANS are right to reject the beliefs of other religions, all believers of other religions reject the beliefs of Christianity and all other religions except their own. That is what makes a believer so. The problem is with those who twist and pervert their religion's tenants of faith to justify their bigotry, discrimination, abuse, neglect, and violence against those of other faiths and against those sharing the same faith but who don't believe as they do. These apostates, these hypocrites can be found in every religion, committing horrible sins in the name of their faith. True believers have the responsibility to call them out for what they are and to condemn their actions. Silence by true believers is complicity, and allows the fear of and ignorance of all other religions to grow and be manipulated, as shown in this video from +Bill Maher's Real Time. I have included the short clip from the show, a video from +The Young Turks on the Bill Maher show, a video with Sam Harris, Reza Aslan and Jonathan Kirsch from +C-SPAN and this all starts with this article from +Sojourners .....
Islam and the Mother Lode of Bad Ideas: The Bill Maher, Sam Harris, and Ben Affleck Debate
by Adam Ericksen 10-09-2014 | 9:58am
Bill Maher (left) and Ben Affleck. s_buckley / Shutterstock.com
The West is going to exhaust itself in its fight against Islamic terrorism, which Western arrogance has undeniably kindled.That Western arrogance was on display last weekend on Real Time with Bill Maher. The tense debate about Islam between Bill Maher, Sam Harris, and Ben Affleck has been shared multiple times over social media and provides a case study in Girard’s mimetic theory.
One element that mimetic theory illuminates in this discussion of Islam is the scapegoat mechanism. Scapegoating is a non-conscious way of reinforcing a group’s relationship by blaming another group of people for our problems. The scapegoating mechanism is non-conscious because we always think that we are innocent and that our scapegoats are guilty. The video below shows a great example of the scapegoating mechanism when it comes to Islam. (Warning: It's an HBO show — there is some foul language.)
It’s about Islamaphobia, or an irrational fear of Islam. Here’s how the debate begins:
Harris: The crucial point of confusion is that we have been sold this meme of Islamaphobia where every criticism of the doctrine of Islam gets conflated with bigotry toward Muslims as people and that is intellectually ridiculous.This debate about Islam is ubiquitous in the West and I think it points to Girard’s warning against Western arrogance. Sam Harris is very careful to say that he isn’t suffering from Islamaphobia when he critiques Islam. Maher even states that when they critique Islam it “truly isn’t” being Islamaphobic. But then Harris goes on to say that “Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas at the moment” and Maher reinforces the point by saying, “That’s just a fact.”
Affleck: … So you are saying that Islamaphobia is not a real thing?
Maher: Well, it’s not a real thing when we do it … It truly isn’t.
Harris: … Ben, we have to be able to criticize bad ideas.
Affleck: Of course we do!
Harris: But Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas at the moment.
Maher: That’s just a fact.
Affleck: That’s not a fact! It’s an ugly thing to say.
Personally, I agree that we need to criticize bad ideas, but to say that “Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas” and deny that you are Islamaphobic is, to use Harris’s own words, intellectually ridiculous. It’s an act of scapegoating Islam and Muslims.
And, as with all scapegoating, it is non-conscious. Maher and Harris genuinely believe that when they criticize the totality of Islam with a broad brushstroke that they aren’t being Islamaphobic. In fact, they believe that they are on the side of justice and peace and any fear of Islam is completely rational.
Maher and Harris are involved in double speak. They claim that they are just criticizing Islam and that they aren’t criticizing Muslims. But near the end of the debate, Harris states that the only good Muslim is one who doesn’t take Islam seriously. “ There are hundreds of millions of Muslims who are nominal Muslims, who don’t take the faith seriously, who don’t want to kill apostates, who are horrified by ISIS and we need to defend these people, prop them up, and let them reform their faith.”
That statement is indicative of Western arrogance that alienates Muslims. Those hundreds of millions of Muslims who are horrified by ISIS, who don’t want to kill apostates, who stand up for the weak, poor, and marginalized, don’t do those things in spite of their faith. They do them because of their faith. But when the rhetoric of Islamaphobia tells us that Islam is necessarily violent, the implication is that Muslims are necessarily violent. Yet, as Ben Affleck points out, we have killed many more Muslims than Islamic terrorists have killed Muslims. Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University, makes a similar observation when he asked, “How many Muslims has the U.S. killed in the last 30 years?” In wars and violent conflicts during that period, Walt found that Muslims have killed about 10,325 Americans, whereas the U.S. has killed 288,000 Muslims.
Every death due to violence is one death too many, but the drastic disproportion of that comparison reveals an important aspect of scapegoating. When we scapegoat Islam for being violent, we become blind to our own violence. Despite the overwhelming facts of our own destructive violence, the rhetoric of Islamaphobia would have us believe that we who live in a secular society aren’t violent. It’s those theocratic Muslims who are violent!
Now, the fact that violence is found in any religion should not surprise us. I appreciate that Maher and Harris are equal opportunity critics of religious violence. There is a human element to every religion and we humans have a tendency to be violent with one another. Whether we justify violence in the name of God, religion, justice, peace, or power really doesn’t matter. What matters is that, no matter how we justify it, violence is a bad idea because it leads to a cycle of retributive violence. The problem Maher and Harris face is that they can’t see that their blanket critique of Islam is itself violent.
What should surprise us is when we find a critique of violence within a religion. And that’s what we find with Islam. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is one of America’s most outspoken Muslims. He begins his book What’s Right with Islam by claiming that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share the two great commandments. These commandments are familiar enough – the first is to love God and the second is to love our neighbors. But Imam Rauf explains the second commandment from an Islamic perspective. He claims that one of the core Islamic values is to “To love our neighbors—that is, our fellow human beings—regardless of race, religion, or cultural background as we love ourselves.”
Love runs throughout the religion of Islam and it provides an internal critique of hatred and violence. While not a pacifist, Imam Rauf claims that violence is not in line with the ethic of love that undergirds Islam. He states in his book that, “To battle the evil of others by responding in kind and exhibiting equally violent aggressive behavior is to flout the very ethic of our religious traditions.”
I agree with Bill Maher and Sam Harris that we have to criticize bad ideas. But the “mother lode of bad ideas” doesn’t come from Islam. That’s an arrogant claim that will only kindle the spirit of violence and scapegoating in us. The “mother lode of bad ideas” is scapegoating violence.
The best alternative to the “mother lode of bad ideas” is not more blaming and scapegoating. Rather, it’s to follow in the tradition laid before us by the Jewish, Christian, Islamic religions that commands us to “To love our neighbors—that is, our fellow human beings—regardless of race, religion, or cultural background as we love ourselves.”
Adam Ericksen blogs at the Raven Foundation, where he uses mimetic theory to provide social commentary on religion, politics, and pop culture. Follow Adam on Twitter @adamericksen.
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13 September 2014
Pennsylvania Teenager Simulates Oral Sex With Jesus Statue, Faces 2 Years in Prison 12SEP14
I think what this kid did is ignorant and blasphemy and if he, while being ignorant, broke the law in Pennsylvania and is being punished he has nobody to blame but himself. I included my interesting back and forth with a few others from the comments section. Just to give you an idea of the mentality of some of the people posting comments I offer this example (click the article title to go to Mother Jones and see all the comments)
Teenagers
are prone to dumb, tasteless pranks, but one 14-year-old is facing
prison time for his latest stunt. The teen, from Everett, Pennsylvania,
hopped on top of a statue of a kneeling Jesus—in front of an
organization called "Love in the Name of Christ"—and simulated oral sex with the statue's face. Naturally, he posted the pictures to Facebook, which made their way to authorities.
Officials in Bedford County charged the teen (whose name hasn't been released) with desecration of a venerated object, invoking a 1972 Pennsylvania statute that criminalizes "defacing, damaging, polluting or otherwise physically mistreating in a way that the actor knows will outrage the sensibilities of persons likely to observe or discover the action." You'd think an appropriate punishment for a kid violating this seldom-invoked law might be picking up trash or, at worst, paying a fine. If convicted, he faces much worse: two years in juvenile detention.
Truth Wins Out, a LGBT advocacy nonprofit, has argued that the law is unconstitutional because it violates the establishment clause—"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"—and free speech rights—"Congress shall make no law abridging the right to hump a statue of Jesus."
Pennsylvania is not the only state with a "venerated objects" law—many states have some version of it, but most define "desecration" as vandalizing or otherwise physically harming an object of civic or religious significance. Alabama, Tennessee, and Oregon have laws like Pennsylvania's, which can be interpreted to punish individuals—like this bold, dumb teenager—who simply decide to do something offensive.
FROM THE COMMENTS SECTION
MORE FROM COMMENT SECTION
| Fri Sep. 12, 2014 1:39 PM EDT
Officials in Bedford County charged the teen (whose name hasn't been released) with desecration of a venerated object, invoking a 1972 Pennsylvania statute that criminalizes "defacing, damaging, polluting or otherwise physically mistreating in a way that the actor knows will outrage the sensibilities of persons likely to observe or discover the action." You'd think an appropriate punishment for a kid violating this seldom-invoked law might be picking up trash or, at worst, paying a fine. If convicted, he faces much worse: two years in juvenile detention.
Truth Wins Out, a LGBT advocacy nonprofit, has argued that the law is unconstitutional because it violates the establishment clause—"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"—and free speech rights—"Congress shall make no law abridging the right to hump a statue of Jesus."
Pennsylvania is not the only state with a "venerated objects" law—many states have some version of it, but most define "desecration" as vandalizing or otherwise physically harming an object of civic or religious significance. Alabama, Tennessee, and Oregon have laws like Pennsylvania's, which can be interpreted to punish individuals—like this bold, dumb teenager—who simply decide to do something offensive.
FROM THE COMMENTS SECTION
14 August 2014
When Terror Wears a Badge 14AUG14
"Our common humanity is more important than all the things that divide us."
- Mairead Corrigan
IT is not excessive to keep posting about police brutality, especially police brutality, killings and racial profiling in communities of color. It is wrong, and it is high time this nation has an open and honest dialogue about the racism that infects our country. And here is something for many Americans to think about, racism and religion are not compatible, you are can be religious or you can be racist, but you can not be both, a serious review of the teachings of your faith, no matter what that faith is, will tell you that. This from +Sojourners .....
- Mairead Corrigan
IT is not excessive to keep posting about police brutality, especially police brutality, killings and racial profiling in communities of color. It is wrong, and it is high time this nation has an open and honest dialogue about the racism that infects our country. And here is something for many Americans to think about, racism and religion are not compatible, you are can be religious or you can be racist, but you can not be both, a serious review of the teachings of your faith, no matter what that faith is, will tell you that. This from +Sojourners .....
When Terror Wears a Badge
by Ryan Herring 08-14-2014 | 10:34am
Over the past three weeks there have been four separate incidents
that have led to the deaths of four unarmed black men at the hands of
police. For many black people, myself included, the moments following
these tragic events are filled with despair, sorrow, anger, and
frustration. Each incident serves as a reminder that as a black man in
America, my life holds little to no value in the eyes of the general
public. To be young and black in the United States means to live under
constant pressure, something most non-black American citizens know
nothing about.
For the majority of black people, the police do
not represent protection or safety, rather they are a menacing force
that terrorize those they are supposed to serve. I have never felt safe
in the presence of law enforcement. In fact, whenever police are in
close proximity to me, I feel in danger. Whenever a cop drives behind me
or beside me I feel anxious, not protected.
Is my paranoia justified?
I have no criminal record, however I have had numerous run-ins with the police, none of which my actions provoked. The most common of course is being followed around a store. I have never committed a traffic violation, but I have been pulled over several times. A few of those times I was asked to step out of my vehicle to be frisked and forced to sit on the curb in humiliation while being verbally intimidated and having my car searched. The reasons I was given as to why this type of action was necessary or to why I was even pulled over to begin with were always made up out of thin air.
Several years ago I lived in the suburbs of Louisville, Ky., where my parents had purchased a home in a newly developed subdivision. We lived there for a couple of years when one day, while driving out of the subdivision, I was signaled to pull over by two police cruisers. I was accused of burglarizing the home of a white neighbor. Being the only black kid in the entire subdivision, it came as no surprise that I was singled out. A few years after that, in the same subdivision, my brother and my best friend had their cars broken into outside of our house. When the police arrived, I was obtained and questioned as if I was a suspect.
Constant harassment is dehumanizing, but I'm thankful to God that those are the worst of my experiences as many black Americans have had similar ones that resulted in arrest, injury, and/or even death. I'm well aware of the experiences of others and they add to the trauma. Oscar Grant, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, or John Crawford could have easily been me ... or my brother ... or my father.
Cornel West once said, 9/11 was "the first time that many Americans of various colors felt unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hated." Since then, through the "war on terror" and the influence of xenophobia in the mainstream media, the face of terrorism has been Muslim extremists. But as Dr. West also mentioned, "To be black in America for 400 years is to be unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hated."
The terror that I experience as a black person in 21st century America is nothing new. Black people have been exposed to domestic terrorism for centuries. Slavery was a form of terrorism. Jim Crow was a form of terrorism. Lynching was a form of terrorism. The prison industrial complex/mass incarceration is a form of terrorism. Police brutality is a form of terrorism.
More Americans have lost their lives at the hands of police since 9/11 than in acts officially classified as terrorism. A recent study showed that one black man was killed every 28 hours by police, security guards, or self-appointed vigilantes in 2012. The militarization of police departments nationwide and the over-policing of urban neighborhoods have had terrorizing effects on the black population. There are also programs like stop-and-frisk that make racial profiling and over-policing legal. At its peak in 2011, 685,724 people were stopped. Of those stopped 53 percent were black, 34 percent were Latino, and 9 percent were white. Eighty-eight percent of all people stopped were innocent. Gang injunctions are another method of enforcement that lead to racial profiling and the over-criminalization of youth.
What am I to do? What are we to do? Often I'm reminded by others of respectability politics. I should dress nicer and talk more proper. But, I grew up with images of upstanding citizens in suits and ties being dragged by police dogs and hosed down during peaceful protests. The same people that think that my appearance will keep me safe also tell me that I should focus my outrage at blacks killing other blacks (as if I'm not already) because that's what's really harming the black community. But that only serves to derail the conversation at hand. Black-on-black violence is a myth. As Jamelle Bouie notes, "Yes, from 1976 to 2005, 94 percent of black victims were killed by black offenders, but that racial exclusivity was also true for white victims of violent crime — 86 percent were killed by white offenders. Indeed, for the large majority of crimes, you’ll find that victims and offenders share a racial identity, or have some prior relationship to each other. What [others] miss about crime, in general, is that it’s driven by opportunism and proximity."
The reality is that we (black men and women) have multiple sources of forced coercion coming at us. The psychological and emotional toll this has on black folk can no longer be downplayed or ignored. My paranoia is justified. Our paranoia is justified. It doesn't matter how we dress, how we talk, what our socio-economic status is, if we are unarmed, or even if we are injured and seeking help, we are still seen as threats. We must protect ourselves. We must protect our communities. We must stand up in the face of brutality and fight to change the unjust conditions we are forced to live in.
Ryan Herring is Marketing and Circulation Assistant for Sojourners. You can find more of his writing at The Ghetto Monk .
Police train guns over protest of the shooting death of Michael Brown on Aug. 13 in Ferguson, Mo. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Is my paranoia justified?
I have no criminal record, however I have had numerous run-ins with the police, none of which my actions provoked. The most common of course is being followed around a store. I have never committed a traffic violation, but I have been pulled over several times. A few of those times I was asked to step out of my vehicle to be frisked and forced to sit on the curb in humiliation while being verbally intimidated and having my car searched. The reasons I was given as to why this type of action was necessary or to why I was even pulled over to begin with were always made up out of thin air.
Several years ago I lived in the suburbs of Louisville, Ky., where my parents had purchased a home in a newly developed subdivision. We lived there for a couple of years when one day, while driving out of the subdivision, I was signaled to pull over by two police cruisers. I was accused of burglarizing the home of a white neighbor. Being the only black kid in the entire subdivision, it came as no surprise that I was singled out. A few years after that, in the same subdivision, my brother and my best friend had their cars broken into outside of our house. When the police arrived, I was obtained and questioned as if I was a suspect.
Constant harassment is dehumanizing, but I'm thankful to God that those are the worst of my experiences as many black Americans have had similar ones that resulted in arrest, injury, and/or even death. I'm well aware of the experiences of others and they add to the trauma. Oscar Grant, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, or John Crawford could have easily been me ... or my brother ... or my father.
Cornel West once said, 9/11 was "the first time that many Americans of various colors felt unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hated." Since then, through the "war on terror" and the influence of xenophobia in the mainstream media, the face of terrorism has been Muslim extremists. But as Dr. West also mentioned, "To be black in America for 400 years is to be unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hated."
The terror that I experience as a black person in 21st century America is nothing new. Black people have been exposed to domestic terrorism for centuries. Slavery was a form of terrorism. Jim Crow was a form of terrorism. Lynching was a form of terrorism. The prison industrial complex/mass incarceration is a form of terrorism. Police brutality is a form of terrorism.
More Americans have lost their lives at the hands of police since 9/11 than in acts officially classified as terrorism. A recent study showed that one black man was killed every 28 hours by police, security guards, or self-appointed vigilantes in 2012. The militarization of police departments nationwide and the over-policing of urban neighborhoods have had terrorizing effects on the black population. There are also programs like stop-and-frisk that make racial profiling and over-policing legal. At its peak in 2011, 685,724 people were stopped. Of those stopped 53 percent were black, 34 percent were Latino, and 9 percent were white. Eighty-eight percent of all people stopped were innocent. Gang injunctions are another method of enforcement that lead to racial profiling and the over-criminalization of youth.
What am I to do? What are we to do? Often I'm reminded by others of respectability politics. I should dress nicer and talk more proper. But, I grew up with images of upstanding citizens in suits and ties being dragged by police dogs and hosed down during peaceful protests. The same people that think that my appearance will keep me safe also tell me that I should focus my outrage at blacks killing other blacks (as if I'm not already) because that's what's really harming the black community. But that only serves to derail the conversation at hand. Black-on-black violence is a myth. As Jamelle Bouie notes, "Yes, from 1976 to 2005, 94 percent of black victims were killed by black offenders, but that racial exclusivity was also true for white victims of violent crime — 86 percent were killed by white offenders. Indeed, for the large majority of crimes, you’ll find that victims and offenders share a racial identity, or have some prior relationship to each other. What [others] miss about crime, in general, is that it’s driven by opportunism and proximity."
The reality is that we (black men and women) have multiple sources of forced coercion coming at us. The psychological and emotional toll this has on black folk can no longer be downplayed or ignored. My paranoia is justified. Our paranoia is justified. It doesn't matter how we dress, how we talk, what our socio-economic status is, if we are unarmed, or even if we are injured and seeking help, we are still seen as threats. We must protect ourselves. We must protect our communities. We must stand up in the face of brutality and fight to change the unjust conditions we are forced to live in.
Ryan Herring is Marketing and Circulation Assistant for Sojourners. You can find more of his writing at The Ghetto Monk .
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