Abuse by the Ruling Class

 

The Conceit of the Ruling Class

Recent revelations of boarding schools for Native Children sent me searching for the reasons the US Government and their Christian partners used to justify this cruel practice. Focus now is on the mass graves of kids who were abused and tortured in the name of God. When they died from cruel neglect, they were buried without thought for their parents. But then, their parents were seen as inept and unimportant. The practice of separating children from their parents continued up to just a couple of years ago in South Dakota. In 2017 the ACLU reported since 2010, more than 1,000 Native-American children in Pennington County, home to Rapid City, have been removed from their families by state welfare workers and placed in foster care, disproportionately in non-Indian homes.

Oppression is always cruel

The colonizers justified their cruelty, their oppression, by invoking God’s will. They saw themselves as benevolent overlords. The enslaving of native people, the spread of smallpox, the barbarity of war, were all signs that God was on their side. It was pre-ordained. It was manifest destiny that this land was given to white Christians. Crystal Pardue brings the issue into focus.

It gets worse

"The European colonizers and conquerors did not misinterpret the bible. They did not twist the bible’s words. No, their actions were truly supported by biblical commandments, because the bible is violent and the Abrahamic god is “the most unpleasant character in all fiction,” fittingly described by author Dan Barker. The bible calls for, and Jehovah-God advocates for righteous violence — precisely what empowered the conquerors and colonizers to attack the First People."

Literal translation -A King James justification

Among conservatives in the Church is the desire to take the bible literally. The belief is, the words were all handed down through God to the men who wrote the books in the bible. The preferred translation among literalists seems to be King James Version. Conversely, I grew up in the Wesleyan tradition that encouraged interpretation of the bible through discussion and study.

Three Passages

“If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant, And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; . . . Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.”¹⁵ (Deuteronomy 17:2 KJV:)

Psalms 2:8 states “Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.”

Romans 13:2 says, “Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.”

 

Taking these children away from their parents, and then burying them in unmarked graves comes from the conceit of the upper caste. Their whiteness and ethnicity (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), they thought, gave them God’s endorsement. The Catholics were complicit in this lie by taking on the task of running these schools.

Maybe Christians aren’t listening

The bible is still used today to inflict widespread oppression and cultural cleansing throughout the world, all in the name of “saving souls.” Churches feel righteously justified to “spread the gospel” — but that will unavoidably mean the cleansing and eradicating of cultural practices that do not align with biblical doctrines (living in nakedness, matriarchies, and same-sex relationships, just to name a few). As a society, we need to talk about the ugly truth behind the world-wide spread of the gospel — a truth that includes genocide, a truth that includes oppression, a truth that includes racism, and a truth that includes silencing. - Crystal Pardue Christian Devils: How the Bible Was Used to Mobilize Oppression of Native Americans


The interpretations used to justify stealing children from their parents run up against contradictory passages within the Bible. The simplest is this one: "A new commandment I give to you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another." - Jesus of Nazareth  My understanding is, there are no exceptions.

Your COVID politics can be lethal

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. - Ephesians 4:25

 It Makes No Sense

We have a raging pandemic. Now is the time to put political differences aside for the health and well-being of everyone. But not if you've sipped the Kool-Aid of Trump's Republican Party. Loyalty to the Trump line is of paramount importance to these people. And...The needs of the individual trump all needs, even if such assertions are against their best interests. 

I didn't have to go back too far to find precedent for the desire to die of COVID for a political cause.

One of the key takeaways from the 2016 election was the frustration of a widening group of lower middle income white Americans. Trump's message was particularly appealing to this group. There is a growing unease as the middle class is excluded as more wealth is concentrated in the upper caste. The stress is having a negative effect. Life span expectancy has dropped two years for white males.

In the book Caste, written by Isabel Wilkerson, asserts the widening gap is causing an increasing group of disaffected Americans. 

From the book: 

"Exclusion cost lives, up and down the hierarchy. The physician Jonathan M. Metzel, who has conducted research into the health of disaffected whites in middle America, has measured the life and death consequences of state decisions to withhold benefits seen as helping undeserving minority groups. In the state of Tennessee he found restrictive health policies may haver cost the lives of almost 4,600 African-Americans between 2011 and 2015, but also cost the lives of as many as 12,000 white Tennesseans, more than double the loss sustained by black residents."

"In his book, Dying of Whiteness, Metzel told of the case of a forty-one-year-old white taxi driver who was suffering from an inflamed liver. His life obviously threatened. Because the Tennessee legislature had neither taken up the Affordable Care Act nor expanded Medicaid coverage, the man was unable to get the expensive, lifesaving treatment that would have been available to him had he lived across the border in Kentucky. As he approached death, he stood by the conviction that he did not want the government involved."

"No way I want my tax dollars paying for Mexicans or welfare queens, he told Metzel." Ain't no way I would ever support Obamacare or sign up for it. I would rather die."

"And sadly, so he would." 

We see the same sad consequences playing out in red states today. Refusal to wear mask, refusal to keep social distancing, and refusal to get the vaccine. The Delta Variant is making the unvaccinated very ill. Yet, so many are sticking by their decision to refuse being vaccinated. A decision reinforced by misinformation fired by social media posts and conservative 'news' outlets. The argument might be something like, "If they make us take the vaccine, they'll be coming for our guns next!" 

Even Mitch McConnell is alarmed. He urging his constituencies to get the vaccine or risk shutting everything down again. Missing from this quote is mention of needless suffering , and needless death. I don't think they're listening.

The nation as it is currently constituted has never dealt with a yesterday or tomorrow where we were radically honest, generous, and tender with each other. - Kiese Laymon, Heavy (2018)

God Mourns George Floyd's Death

 The Palatable Lie

A piece from SOJO by Britinni Palmer rails against the idea that George Floyd's death somehow proves that our justice system works. It's short. Please read it when you get the chance.

God does not will black people to die for justice

"Those of us who consistently deal with inequities are expected to suffer or die for the sake of making the world a more just place. This causes God’s heart to ache and humanity’s blood to scream out from every corner of the earth. When pain and suffering become the primary means to achieving human rights, many begin to believe Black people suffering and dying for these rights is either God-ordained or a natural part of history. This is a lie. It is what James Baldwin might call a “palatable” lie, as it is “more palatable than the truth” — the truth that would have us fight back against injustice."

You see what she's saying, right? We are to stand up for the oppressed. We are to fight back against injustice. We are to protest. We are to work togetgher to make change. We are not supposed to sigh and say, "Well at least, in the end, justice is served." George Floyd's murder over a bad 20 dollar bill is not justice.

The Peacemaker

 

It's what you say and how you say it.

She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.  - Proverbs 31:26

To create is to relate.  - Corita Kent, Footnotes and Headlines (1967) ___________________________________________________________________ A time for peace. I swear it's not to late.  - Pete Seeger, Turn, Turn, Turn None of this happens unless we're willing to start.  -me Be Still!  Listen!

How to Apply Critical Race Theory

A Real World Problem 

To find out what is causing all the hubbub in America, I went Britanica. Why? Racism is real. It still exists. Yet, a large portion of our population doesn't want us to know about it.

 Critical Race Theory (CRT), intellectual movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour. Critical race theorists hold that the law and legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans.

Bias?

As an example of the unconsious bias that permeates our society, the job numbers for June were really good. According to an article by Kristan Broady and Carl Romer of the Metropolitan Policy Program, the Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report for June, released earlier this week, showed a continuation of the steady economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Nationally, 850,000 jobs were added last month. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly, to 5.9%, after falling from 6.1% in April to 5.8% in May.

The numbers are robust, but the gains are uneven. Blacks continue to have the highest unemployment rate, an established trend. 

A Racist Trope

A lot of jobs are opening up. Yet, many postions are going unfilled. I know people who would say, "They're just lazy." "Black people have no incentive to look for work because of government payouts." Both statement are based on bias. If they are true, there are plenty of white people who would take those jobs. Please ask yourself, why haven't they? 

Rational Reasons

The article from The Brookings Institute, "Despite June’s positive jobs numbers, Black workers continue to face high unemployment", points out mitigating circimstance. 

While June’s 850,000-job increase is promising, the number of people who are not in the labor force but who currently want a job is at 6.4 million—up by 1.4 million since February 2020. These people are not counted in the unemployment rate because they had not actively looked for work within the last four weeks. Racial disparities in unemployment also continue, with Black workers—particularly, Black teens—experiencing the highest unemployment rates. As the recovery continues, employers, government officials, and policymakers must continue to consider Americans who will be impacted by expiring enhanced unemployment benefits, as well as those who are not actively looking for work due to problems in transportation access, a lack of child care, or other issues.

The situation is not as simple as some would have us believe. 

Critical Race Theory would have us start the discussion from a point of an informed conversation, taking into account all of the factors that have led us to this point. In other words, we need to take in perspectives that have been suppressed or withheld for more than four centuries and apply them to today's problems.

Fighting Racism

You're a Racist!!!!

Uh...that might not work.

Even white supremiscists don't like being called a racist. Their rsposne might be, "you're a racist!" It reminds me of the second grade.

Standing idly by is not an option, but how do we approach this? How can we call people out without a confrontation? Perhaps, we need to start with unconscious biases and unintentional racism. And a great place to start might be ourselves. The first thing you should get over is an almost automatic response, "I haven't got a racist bone in my body!"

Last year, NPR's Eric Deggans came out with a post on Life Kit, 'Not Racist' Is Not Enough: Putting In The Work To Be Anti-Racist. You may know him as NPR's TV critic. He's also spent years exploring how systemic racism affects media and society. He's written a book about it, called Race-Baiter, and built a TEDx talk around how to talk about race across racial lines. Deggans says, "As a Black man who speaks often on these subjects, I find race, racism and anti-racism to be things people think they know but often don't – at least, not as well as they think they do."

Deggans came up with four tips to help us deal with these issue. 

If you have an issue with Tip#1, you have a lot of work to do if you're really serious about this.

Tip #1: Accept that we've all been raised in a society that elevates white culture over others. Being anti-racist will mean first challenging those notions inside yourself.

There's a whole political party that wants to keep you from discovering Tip#2. Somehow, learning the truth is anit-patriotic.

Tip #2: Learn the history of racism and anti-racism, especially in America, to educate yourself about the complexities of the issues you'll be confronting.

Broadening your experience, being open to new ideas (Tip #3), can be enlightening.

Tip #3: Seek out films and TV shows which will challenge your notions of race and culture and dive in deeply, learning to see anti-racism in new ways.

Instead of leading the charge, ask how you can help. Reinventing the wheel only /causes tjose wheels to spin.

Tip #4: Find local organizations involved in anti-racism efforts – preferably led by people of color – and help uplift their voices and ideas.