According to family lore, my dad once walked into a Sunday School class where most everyone was complaining about the fact that a popular and allegedly obscene film was currently being screened in Nashville.
A couple years ago, before CRT became the lightening rod it is today, I read Kendi’s “How to Be an Anti-Racist” and found it to be a challenging book. Didn’t agree with it all but two things stuck in my mind that have nothing to do with CRT. 1) Kendi is profoundly humble man — threaded throughout the book are his confessions of the racist ideas (most he just picked up from living) that he has been repenting of as he became aware. For someone so prominent in this zone, to document his journey in such detail is remarkable. He is not an ivory tour academic. 2) I found it a strikingly optimistic book. For all that he knows from writing “Stamped From the Beginning” and his own cancer survival … this is a man who believes we can overcome racism. And he convinced me too. Where there could be a bitter, “what’s the use” attitude … I heard a man who believes we can overcome. Remarkable.
I will definitely have to read this book. The saddest thing is that what Kendi's saying about no one group having a lock on any characteristic we consider good or bad ought to be so obvious as to go without saying. It's something young children know instinctively, until we manage to screw them up with our white supremacist culture. Understanding our history without considering the role racism has played is like trying to understand the structure of the human body while ignoring evolution. Unfortunately, the politicians and clergy who're stoking this CRT hysteria aren't interested in understanding but rather manipulation, and the rank-and-file who're lapping it up aren't self-aware enough to realize that the intensity of their reaction speaks volumes about the things they know but can't bring bring themselves to admit. All they hear is "Critical" and think it means the librulz and PoC are going to subject them to weekly Maoist-style shaming circles because of their skin color.
Thank you, David, for speaking up, speaking out about your experiences and how you are evolving in forming your beliefs and opinions. Would that we would all do that. You DO have some of what your dad had, thank goodness. I was just talking to someone who called it the "secret sauce." Keep speaking and writing in your saucy ways.
Thanks David -- I appreciate your thoughts. I'm so baffled that those who profess being made in the image of God are convinced that some of us aren't. Understanding the heart of God would seem to lead to an embrace of each of us. I don't think things will change until the Church rejects using fear as a tool to embolden their troops.
I was going to just write "well done!" and get on with my work but - though I am a bit late to this conversation - I would like to add something that I think is of value.
My parents grew up in DC during The Great Depression. It was a thoroughly segregated city. When I was about 2-3 years old, Dad said to me, "We are no prejudiced against colored people, or Jews or Catholics". I considered this carefully. I knew who the coloreds were - they had lovely brown skin and cute braids. My mother's parents called them by another name that Dad taught me to never say (I cringe eevn now when people call each other by that nasty name). I knew who jews were - or thought I did - because Jesus was one. If Jesus was a jews then certainly we loved them. I asked Dad, "What are Catholics?" He explained that "They are Christians that worship differently than we do". He meant different from Southern Baptists. I got the message 100%. We do not hate people because of their social group.
Living in DC, attending a "Leading" Capitol Hill S. Baptist church, I saw racism in its ugliest forms. I walked the talk. I stood at the door of the church to welcome black visitors during the civil rights NV actions of the 1960s, daring the ushers to turn people away. I spoke up at membership meetings and confessed to being prejudiced against people who are prejudiced. Long story short, I have been anti-racism all of my life.
As a resident of Capitol Hill in the 90's I was active with Mayor Kelly's administration, specifically on the public ssfety comittee. I was working for the FBI at the time. I saw the dark underbelly of DC> I sponsored boys from SW DC public housing for Young Marines. However, my sincerest and greatest effort could not impact the path that those boys were on due to a crack-head parent who destroyed the effort. (Of course, we must always keep the kids with the biological parents under all circumstances - until the parents die or the kids die or go to prison).
In short, I learned a lot about the root causes of racism and disparity. Too much to write here. In essence - and I do not by any means absolve anyone from repenting of their racist sins of oppression by writing this - the oppressed play a part in the oppression script. I learned this from Harry Martin who was a civil rights activist alongside John Lewis et al in DC. He explained to me about the Plantation mentality of DC. He explained how all involved play a part in perpetuating that mentality. One of the most important lessons I learned in DC (where I was usually the only "white" in the room) is that "racism" is rampant amongst the black community. Their disparagement of each other on the basis of skin color and hair texture is embarrassing to witness. Harry insisted that a large part of what happens in the black community is the responsibility of the black community. He insisted that poverty does not make people criminal, violent or addicts - rich people do all that also. Harry inisted that povery is not excuse. I could look at my parents, who grew up in Capitol Hill Poverty to know that was true. My dad leveraged himself out of poverty by joining the Navy and using the GI bill benefits to eduate himself. The same opportunity is available to everyone in USA.
So, in summary of the above: my Dudley Do-Right anti-racism met Harry Martin and the reality of DC majority black community (with a lage degree, though not complete, self-rule) and became more pragmatic. Current Reality with The Vision = Creative Process.
Fast Forward a couple of decades, I did a lot of good work in Iraq where I was brought face-to-face with American Evangelical occupation of Iraq, i.e. unrestrained corruption and thievery. That is when I began to realize that the trajectory of the Evangelical subculture that I had foreseen in 1980-82, when I left "the ministry", had gone in an even more evil direction than I expected. The rise of Trumpism shocked me, even while I felt validated in my early '80s forecast and decision to get out of the Evangelical culture. I admire those people who have managed to stay "in" but not "of".
Nowdays, I am married to a Kuwaiti Stateless person. He is a Muslims. (please see my book "A Christian Praying With Muslims") There are 100k+ Stateless people in Kuwait. They are same-same with other Kuwaitis except the paperwork didn't get done when Kuwait became a Constitution Monarchy in the early '70s. There are some similarities with some native Americans who are not documented, but different in that they are not an occupied people. The Kuwaiti Stateless are Arab Muslims Kuwaitis just exactly the same as other Kuwaitis. Yet they have no citizenship. In tracking this problem to the root, I have found and have written about the lack of citizenship rights amongst Kuwaitis. No Kuwaiti has a legal civil right to citizenship. Without going further into this specific issue, my conclusion is that people project their insecurities on "others". It is simple. But difficut to change because it goes to the heart of identity.
I have concluded that it isn't really "racism" that drives our hatred and oppression towards other groups. It is "other-ism". Insecure people always find a scapegoat to project their insecurities (sin) onto. Everyone involved must experience God's Love. There is simply no other way.
I’m a bit out of the loop concerning any CRT controversy, but I read How to Be an Anti-Racist last year. I expected to feel uncomfortable but I found myself relieved. “Of course! Of course!” I kept thinking. Kendi’s writing seemed incredibly gracious and founded in love.
Excellent post David. Jenn White's reporting on 1A on NPR this week dealt with the fact that there are really 2 CRTs that are manifest today. The Fox News version and the actual thing. That folks are migrating in droves from California to TN to escape the Fox News version (the one that's a fabrication) is like dystopian sci-fi stuff. Thanks for bearing witness... I'm trying to as well.
Thanks for doing so. Unless I'm standing among protesters when men and women with guns are present, I find that most of the felt threats to my life and livelihood come from people hiding behind anonymous Twitter accounts. Things are escalating though with "CRT," and I completely understand the desire to keep our heads down. I think we need to try really hard to not do that. Grateful to share a state with you, my brother.
Compelling, thoughtful and necessary words - thank you David! And I've been meaning to get Ibram Kendi's book. You have now truly motivated me to do so.
My late Father (Daddy) worked with a man who was a bachelor, living with his Mother. One of their co-workers thoughtlessly started joking about the single man being a homosexual. My Dad stopped him in his tracks by asking if the single co-worker had "come on to him." When the offensive co-worker said, "No." My Dad said, "Wasn't it wrong to accuse him of anything like that?" That definitely shut him down. I miss my hero. If I was half the man he was, I would be twice the man I am.
Short version: The enforcers of the current police (nation) state wish to replace the current USAn oligarchy with an oligarchy of their own choosing (current so called god based theocracy with a different so called god based theocracy?). Tangential aspects of CRT put a spotlight on their plans and plots before the insurrection mechanisms are fully matured.
Longer version comments: because Engels and Marx drew conclusions from the German Peasant War, and because some folks who study CRT also study Marxist political theory, they are capable of seeing class based economic systems / structures before many / most. The CRT adjacent are an existential threat to the putsch.
Somehow tangential #1: Like the Judaizers in Galatia, some USAn evangelicals suppress the temporary role of the law / law [ Gal. 3:19-29 ] because some of their leadership have become greedy for their priestly portion of the sacrifices, income from indulgences, naughty taxes as fees for doing business in a form of neofeudal crony capitalism. Indentured servitude and prison slavery / forced labor profiting the current oligarchy is the status quo, and is likely assumed to be the preferred status quo of the next oligarchy.
hmm... very good doctor Dark. When I first looked at this I thought you were more from the ilk that you are not of....truly thoughtful really good stuff I'm glad i came across this and look forward to more
Isn't it a bit presumptuous to assert that all cultures are expected to produce similar levels of economic output? Is it not conceivable that different cultures and subcultures will weight various traits and values differently, and that might lead to broad discrepancies between them? What of the famed German thrift, the east-Asian obsession with education, or the "laid-back" lifestyle of pacific islanders? Each of those traits has pros and cons, costs and benefits, but they will certainly result in people from those cultures performing differently in terms of material wealth. It's always good to examine and root out any unjust systems of oppression that unfairly disadvantages one group, but if the measure of success is equal economic distribution among all races, that will never happen unless all races share one universal monoculture as well. That seems like an impossible goal, given the reality of human diversity and culture-making capabilities.
Perhaps "assert" was indeed too strong of a word, but Kendi has elsewhere said that "when I see racial disparities, I see racism." Most commonly, the disparities I've seen cited are things like the racial wealth gap or differences in income levels. Perhaps when he said "All cultures, in all their behavioral differences, are on the same level" he meant it on the basis of moral potential instead of economic potential, but either way I have a hard time agreeing with that statement. Are we not all broken in different ways, some worse than others, both as individuals and as groups of likeminded individuals, with implications for both our material well-being and our spiritual well-being?
Overall I appreciate Kendi's humility and tone, and he does raise some good points that are worth considering. The zeal and ignorance of many anti-CRT crusaders are disturbing, as are the legal implications for all the attempted bans on "divisive speech" by state legislative bodies. But reality is complex, and my worry is that in trying to compensate for one unhealthy, one-dimensional way of thinking about racial issues, CRT proponents have just introduced a different, one-dimensional way of thinking about racial issues in a way that is even more polarizing and exclusive than the old perspective. From what I've observed in my personal spheres of interaction, the fruit has been more bitterness, distrust, and resentment than healing, grace, and understanding.
*nods* I'm less and less comfortable with the kind of question you pose at the end of your first paragraph. You're of course free to ask it, but the "Are we not all..." move often seems to skip over the question of where we're speaking from and why, who we're inclined to credit and why, and who holds the microphone and why.
A couple years ago, before CRT became the lightening rod it is today, I read Kendi’s “How to Be an Anti-Racist” and found it to be a challenging book. Didn’t agree with it all but two things stuck in my mind that have nothing to do with CRT. 1) Kendi is profoundly humble man — threaded throughout the book are his confessions of the racist ideas (most he just picked up from living) that he has been repenting of as he became aware. For someone so prominent in this zone, to document his journey in such detail is remarkable. He is not an ivory tour academic. 2) I found it a strikingly optimistic book. For all that he knows from writing “Stamped From the Beginning” and his own cancer survival … this is a man who believes we can overcome racism. And he convinced me too. Where there could be a bitter, “what’s the use” attitude … I heard a man who believes we can overcome. Remarkable.
Yes indeed.
I will definitely have to read this book. The saddest thing is that what Kendi's saying about no one group having a lock on any characteristic we consider good or bad ought to be so obvious as to go without saying. It's something young children know instinctively, until we manage to screw them up with our white supremacist culture. Understanding our history without considering the role racism has played is like trying to understand the structure of the human body while ignoring evolution. Unfortunately, the politicians and clergy who're stoking this CRT hysteria aren't interested in understanding but rather manipulation, and the rank-and-file who're lapping it up aren't self-aware enough to realize that the intensity of their reaction speaks volumes about the things they know but can't bring bring themselves to admit. All they hear is "Critical" and think it means the librulz and PoC are going to subject them to weekly Maoist-style shaming circles because of their skin color.
Thank you, David, for speaking up, speaking out about your experiences and how you are evolving in forming your beliefs and opinions. Would that we would all do that. You DO have some of what your dad had, thank goodness. I was just talking to someone who called it the "secret sauce." Keep speaking and writing in your saucy ways.
Thank you!
Thanks David -- I appreciate your thoughts. I'm so baffled that those who profess being made in the image of God are convinced that some of us aren't. Understanding the heart of God would seem to lead to an embrace of each of us. I don't think things will change until the Church rejects using fear as a tool to embolden their troops.
Agreed.
I was going to just write "well done!" and get on with my work but - though I am a bit late to this conversation - I would like to add something that I think is of value.
My parents grew up in DC during The Great Depression. It was a thoroughly segregated city. When I was about 2-3 years old, Dad said to me, "We are no prejudiced against colored people, or Jews or Catholics". I considered this carefully. I knew who the coloreds were - they had lovely brown skin and cute braids. My mother's parents called them by another name that Dad taught me to never say (I cringe eevn now when people call each other by that nasty name). I knew who jews were - or thought I did - because Jesus was one. If Jesus was a jews then certainly we loved them. I asked Dad, "What are Catholics?" He explained that "They are Christians that worship differently than we do". He meant different from Southern Baptists. I got the message 100%. We do not hate people because of their social group.
Living in DC, attending a "Leading" Capitol Hill S. Baptist church, I saw racism in its ugliest forms. I walked the talk. I stood at the door of the church to welcome black visitors during the civil rights NV actions of the 1960s, daring the ushers to turn people away. I spoke up at membership meetings and confessed to being prejudiced against people who are prejudiced. Long story short, I have been anti-racism all of my life.
As a resident of Capitol Hill in the 90's I was active with Mayor Kelly's administration, specifically on the public ssfety comittee. I was working for the FBI at the time. I saw the dark underbelly of DC> I sponsored boys from SW DC public housing for Young Marines. However, my sincerest and greatest effort could not impact the path that those boys were on due to a crack-head parent who destroyed the effort. (Of course, we must always keep the kids with the biological parents under all circumstances - until the parents die or the kids die or go to prison).
In short, I learned a lot about the root causes of racism and disparity. Too much to write here. In essence - and I do not by any means absolve anyone from repenting of their racist sins of oppression by writing this - the oppressed play a part in the oppression script. I learned this from Harry Martin who was a civil rights activist alongside John Lewis et al in DC. He explained to me about the Plantation mentality of DC. He explained how all involved play a part in perpetuating that mentality. One of the most important lessons I learned in DC (where I was usually the only "white" in the room) is that "racism" is rampant amongst the black community. Their disparagement of each other on the basis of skin color and hair texture is embarrassing to witness. Harry insisted that a large part of what happens in the black community is the responsibility of the black community. He insisted that poverty does not make people criminal, violent or addicts - rich people do all that also. Harry inisted that povery is not excuse. I could look at my parents, who grew up in Capitol Hill Poverty to know that was true. My dad leveraged himself out of poverty by joining the Navy and using the GI bill benefits to eduate himself. The same opportunity is available to everyone in USA.
So, in summary of the above: my Dudley Do-Right anti-racism met Harry Martin and the reality of DC majority black community (with a lage degree, though not complete, self-rule) and became more pragmatic. Current Reality with The Vision = Creative Process.
Fast Forward a couple of decades, I did a lot of good work in Iraq where I was brought face-to-face with American Evangelical occupation of Iraq, i.e. unrestrained corruption and thievery. That is when I began to realize that the trajectory of the Evangelical subculture that I had foreseen in 1980-82, when I left "the ministry", had gone in an even more evil direction than I expected. The rise of Trumpism shocked me, even while I felt validated in my early '80s forecast and decision to get out of the Evangelical culture. I admire those people who have managed to stay "in" but not "of".
Nowdays, I am married to a Kuwaiti Stateless person. He is a Muslims. (please see my book "A Christian Praying With Muslims") There are 100k+ Stateless people in Kuwait. They are same-same with other Kuwaitis except the paperwork didn't get done when Kuwait became a Constitution Monarchy in the early '70s. There are some similarities with some native Americans who are not documented, but different in that they are not an occupied people. The Kuwaiti Stateless are Arab Muslims Kuwaitis just exactly the same as other Kuwaitis. Yet they have no citizenship. In tracking this problem to the root, I have found and have written about the lack of citizenship rights amongst Kuwaitis. No Kuwaiti has a legal civil right to citizenship. Without going further into this specific issue, my conclusion is that people project their insecurities on "others". It is simple. But difficut to change because it goes to the heart of identity.
I have concluded that it isn't really "racism" that drives our hatred and oppression towards other groups. It is "other-ism". Insecure people always find a scapegoat to project their insecurities (sin) onto. Everyone involved must experience God's Love. There is simply no other way.
Meanwhile I continue to fight the good fight :)
Thank you so much for this, Dana. I'm so grateful to have your words on this site.
I’m a bit out of the loop concerning any CRT controversy, but I read How to Be an Anti-Racist last year. I expected to feel uncomfortable but I found myself relieved. “Of course! Of course!” I kept thinking. Kendi’s writing seemed incredibly gracious and founded in love.
Agreed.
Excellent post David. Jenn White's reporting on 1A on NPR this week dealt with the fact that there are really 2 CRTs that are manifest today. The Fox News version and the actual thing. That folks are migrating in droves from California to TN to escape the Fox News version (the one that's a fabrication) is like dystopian sci-fi stuff. Thanks for bearing witness... I'm trying to as well.
Thanks for doing so. Unless I'm standing among protesters when men and women with guns are present, I find that most of the felt threats to my life and livelihood come from people hiding behind anonymous Twitter accounts. Things are escalating though with "CRT," and I completely understand the desire to keep our heads down. I think we need to try really hard to not do that. Grateful to share a state with you, my brother.
Compelling, thoughtful and necessary words - thank you David! And I've been meaning to get Ibram Kendi's book. You have now truly motivated me to do so.
Racial groups are equal
My late Father (Daddy) worked with a man who was a bachelor, living with his Mother. One of their co-workers thoughtlessly started joking about the single man being a homosexual. My Dad stopped him in his tracks by asking if the single co-worker had "come on to him." When the offensive co-worker said, "No." My Dad said, "Wasn't it wrong to accuse him of anything like that?" That definitely shut him down. I miss my hero. If I was half the man he was, I would be twice the man I am.
Short version: The enforcers of the current police (nation) state wish to replace the current USAn oligarchy with an oligarchy of their own choosing (current so called god based theocracy with a different so called god based theocracy?). Tangential aspects of CRT put a spotlight on their plans and plots before the insurrection mechanisms are fully matured.
Longer version comments: because Engels and Marx drew conclusions from the German Peasant War, and because some folks who study CRT also study Marxist political theory, they are capable of seeing class based economic systems / structures before many / most. The CRT adjacent are an existential threat to the putsch.
Somehow tangential #1: Like the Judaizers in Galatia, some USAn evangelicals suppress the temporary role of the law / law [ Gal. 3:19-29 ] because some of their leadership have become greedy for their priestly portion of the sacrifices, income from indulgences, naughty taxes as fees for doing business in a form of neofeudal crony capitalism. Indentured servitude and prison slavery / forced labor profiting the current oligarchy is the status quo, and is likely assumed to be the preferred status quo of the next oligarchy.
Somehow tangential #2 resource: The Doctrine of Discovery https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/
hmm... very good doctor Dark. When I first looked at this I thought you were more from the ilk that you are not of....truly thoughtful really good stuff I'm glad i came across this and look forward to more
So well said. Thank you for putting this care and attention down so thoughtfully.
Very well said. Thank you!
Well said seems many white people have become a little like vampires fearing to look into mirrors thh
Isn't it a bit presumptuous to assert that all cultures are expected to produce similar levels of economic output? Is it not conceivable that different cultures and subcultures will weight various traits and values differently, and that might lead to broad discrepancies between them? What of the famed German thrift, the east-Asian obsession with education, or the "laid-back" lifestyle of pacific islanders? Each of those traits has pros and cons, costs and benefits, but they will certainly result in people from those cultures performing differently in terms of material wealth. It's always good to examine and root out any unjust systems of oppression that unfairly disadvantages one group, but if the measure of success is equal economic distribution among all races, that will never happen unless all races share one universal monoculture as well. That seems like an impossible goal, given the reality of human diversity and culture-making capabilities.
Who asserted that, David?
Perhaps "assert" was indeed too strong of a word, but Kendi has elsewhere said that "when I see racial disparities, I see racism." Most commonly, the disparities I've seen cited are things like the racial wealth gap or differences in income levels. Perhaps when he said "All cultures, in all their behavioral differences, are on the same level" he meant it on the basis of moral potential instead of economic potential, but either way I have a hard time agreeing with that statement. Are we not all broken in different ways, some worse than others, both as individuals and as groups of likeminded individuals, with implications for both our material well-being and our spiritual well-being?
Overall I appreciate Kendi's humility and tone, and he does raise some good points that are worth considering. The zeal and ignorance of many anti-CRT crusaders are disturbing, as are the legal implications for all the attempted bans on "divisive speech" by state legislative bodies. But reality is complex, and my worry is that in trying to compensate for one unhealthy, one-dimensional way of thinking about racial issues, CRT proponents have just introduced a different, one-dimensional way of thinking about racial issues in a way that is even more polarizing and exclusive than the old perspective. From what I've observed in my personal spheres of interaction, the fruit has been more bitterness, distrust, and resentment than healing, grace, and understanding.
*nods* I'm less and less comfortable with the kind of question you pose at the end of your first paragraph. You're of course free to ask it, but the "Are we not all..." move often seems to skip over the question of where we're speaking from and why, who we're inclined to credit and why, and who holds the microphone and why.