This is what started it.
On February 18, the country’s new Attorney General, Eric Holder, the first African-American to hold that distinguished post, said, “In things racial we have always been and continue to be in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”
With that one sentence, he provided fodder for a hundred talk shows around the country.
He was right, of course. And I think I know why. Okay, one reason why.
A couple of days after he uttered those words, police in a Northeastern city shot to death a rampaging chimpanzee that had mauled a woman. That sad story made all the news programs.
Now, one thing editorial cartoonists love to do — it’s sort of a trick of the trade — is take some news item that deals with one thing and connect it to another, something entirely unrelated but which when juxtaposed makes an interesting point. So the cartoonist for the New York Post did that with the death of the chimp.
The cartoon — you’ve seen this, so I’m making no attempt to research the name of the cartoonist and the exact date it ran in the paper or even the precise quote — showed police shooting the chimp. One cop asks the other, “Now who are they going to get to write the next stimulus bill?”
This was clearly a reference to the slipshod bill which Congress was just dealing with and since passed. It was a slap at congressional leaders. Anyone who was up on his current events could see that.
Enter Al Sharpton.
Reverend Sharpton is a man who seems to get up in the morning in search of racial slights. If he cannot find someone making one, he invents one. And that’s what he did in this case.
It was a racial slur, he said. The chimp represented President Obama, Sharpton said, and brings to mind all the ancient racial stereotypes and putdowns of past generations in which Blacks were likened to apes or gorillas or monkeys.
If he was right, then it was a grievous and awful thing for the cartoonist and the New York Post to do. But he wasn’t even close.
Sharpton invented the slur, saw a putdown where none was intended or could be found by normal-thinking adults and concocted it out of whole cloth.
The editor laughed it off and stood by the cartoonist. A few days later, as the matter boiled and the controversy gained steam, publisher Rupert Murdoch spoke out, issuing a simple apology. (I’m confident Murdoch is telling his people that when these things happen, do not explain or rationalize or justify. Just apologize and go forward. But it’s a tough pill to swallow where one feels he has done nothing wrong.)
I wonder if Attorney General Holder saw the connection between his comment and the controversy over that cartoon. It’s a perfect illustration to the problem of why we are cowards regarding race.
Some among us do not want to talk or reason. They look for hidden meanings to the plainest statements and infer ulterior motives where none are present.
Do I think racism is a big issue that needs to be dealt with? I certainly do.
As the director of missions for a five-parish association of over a hundred churches, I’ve led discussions between our pastors on this issue. The first step, as anyone will admit, is discussing the problem and facing the racial divide that exists inside our own minds and hearts.
More than one of our churches has mixed-race staff leading them. Our pastors of different races meet on a regular basis and get along well. Many of them hug one another when they arrive. Much of this occurred as fruit of the post-Katrina reality in this part of the world. By that I mean, in 2005, when we were displaced from New Orleans for weeks and months, some of our African-American pastors were taken in and hosted and honored by predominantly Anglo churches in other parts of the country. Then, when church groups headed this way to rebuild churches and homes, the Christians who came in and those who hosted them were color-blind.
Our pastors met together for hours each week and worked on projects that blew away any remnants of racial prejudice or fears that still existed.
I’m not so na
During the days following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King some of the Pator’s in our Association were meeting and discussing the events. One Pastor related that some chuch in the area was having a small black boy attending some of the church activities. He wanted to be a part of the activities but the church told him no.
Another Pastor related that he had two black boys coming to the R.A. group in his church. Some in the church let it be known to the boys that they were not welcome.
The Parsonage and the church were located in a small community where I was serving at the time. On Thursday I stopped by the local store to get some gas or food. The assassanation of Dr. King was the topic that some were engaged in and discussing on the porch of the store. A worker had just finished putting gas in a car and made his comment about Dr. King. “Just another dead n……”. And “he deserved it”.
In preparing my sermon for Sunday I knew I could not keep silent. I referred to the above incidents in the sermon. I was talking about the events in relation to our community. After sharing the stories I stated, ” No man, regardless of the color of his skin, deserves to die at the hands of an assassains bullet. I went on and completed the sermon.
That was the beginning of the end of my ministry with the church. I learned a few days later that one of the Deacons on his way out of the church got to talking with some of the other men of the church. Said he, “I think our Pastor is a n…… lover. Don’t You?” I do not know what the others replied. After hearing the above stories I had to speak on the issue. And I would do it again if necessary. That sermon was for that particular time. I have used the illustrations in other sermons. The sermon led to my resignation a few month’s later.
This is a true story. Anna and I lived it. It was not easy but through it all God was with us
One of the things I pray for everyday is that my children will always be “color blind” and never speak hatefully about anyone, no matter what the color of their skin.