Years ago, my line brother, Pastor Lee Turner, used the story of crack in Detroit to explain a valuable lesson at an APRI Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. He discussed how people were angry with this epidemic of crack use, because it created murder, robbery, rape, and poverty in the community. This was the thinking of many not from specific areas in Detroit. Rev, Turner said, Crack did not create these issues, it exposed these issues to people who were naive enough to not realize they were always there. A wide array people (multi-racial audience) are disgusted with Ferguson and think that all blacks cannot think for themselves and jump on a bang wagon for racism. Blackness is not JUST a skin thing, nor is it a monotonous story that everyone of a darker hue agrees to partner on. Blackness is a relational experience that is as diverse as the many interpretations of God. Its not JUST skin that brings people together to protest what they believe is wrong. It is a experience of feeling someone wants to rob you of your humanity or better yet, rob you of the goodness in your humanity. Those who experience that robbery more than others, band together to say this is not going to continue because you are naive to our experience. Ferguson is not a platform to rant. It is a crack epidemic that did not create the hatred, pain, violence, and separation we see today. It exposes feelings that are already there among people of different hues, socio-political backgrounds, genders, etc. to show what their real feelings are towards a subject they usually disregard. Ferguson didnt start nothing that was not already there, it poured out the isms that people do not want to notice. It made people acknowledge the elephant in the room and now we must find a way to make it evacuate the premises. Ferguson is an example of America if it does not deal with deep sentiments of severed human relationship that can be reconciled if we would deal with problems. Stop thinking that Ferguson makes your city look good when your city is just one life away from being the crack that exposes all the trash under your proverbial beds and your secret bedfellows. Stop worrying about only ridding yourself of the crack and not dealing with fact of why is it here and what makes people think its needed? Get to the real source and stop pretending it does not exist. Because the situation is very telling...
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 12:35:59 +0000
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