America on the Brink

This graphic is a not for dummies individual exper important but sh our understandin kind of conversa change. Private conversations ab intelligence if w develop an unde are, how we got address the man

38 | This graphic is a reminder that racism is not for dummies. Opinions and individual experience are both important but should not monopolize our understanding of racism and the kind of conversations needed to bring change. Private and public conversations about racism require intelligence if we are ever going to develop an understanding of who we are, how we got here, and how to address the manifold ways racism impacts African Americans and this country. Therein lies a problem. How can you convince a very large group of citizens they have been miseducated as it relates to people of color? Our schools cannot do that by themselves. They need religious institutions to come alongside and give needed moral and spiritual attention to this. A third problem with us talking past each other on the issue of racism has a moral and spiritual dimension. This has been a neglected but bears mentioning. I recently shared my frustration with family and friends on my Facebook page. It encapsulates the frustration many in the African American feel. “One of the most frustrating things about being black and doing justice and advocacy work is the belief that racism does not exist. There are scores of people who really believe this. As a scholar, I spend my days and years conducting research, interpreting data in context, drawing reasoned conclusions, and sharing findings in lectures, courses, articles, and books. Any scholar or student in the fields of Black Studies knows the mountains of data out there on racial inequities. And then there is video evidence of micro-aggressions and violence that blacks encounter in the streets. Yet, in the face of all this data, many whites persist in the belief that racism is a myth. It is beyond frustrating. No matter how much data and evidence we give the same illogical conclusion is reached. So, centuries of slavery followed by the black codes, convict leasing, sharecropping, Jim Crow segregation, redlining and mass incarceration did not happen and doesn't impact African Americans?” I was recently talking with Dr. Kevin Cosby, President of Simmons College of Kentucky (HBCU) in Louisville, and told him that the Pauline concept of reprobation (KJV) or unproven (NIV) in Romans 1:28 & 1 Corinthians 9:27 helps me to make sense of a kind of ignorance that persists in believing that impacts African Americans and this country. Therein lies a problem. How very large group of citizens they have been miseducated as it relates to pe schools cannot do that by themselves. They need religious institutions to give needed moral and spiritual attention to this. A third problem with us talking past each other on the issue of racism has dimension. This has been a neglected but bears mentioning. I recently sha family and friends on my Facebook page. It encapsulates the frustration m American feel. “One of the most frustrating things about being black and doing ju work is the belief that racism does not exist. There are scores of p believe this. As a scholar, I spend my days and years conducting r data in context, drawing reasoned conclusions, and sharing findin articles, and books. Any scholar or student in the fields of Black S mountains of data out there on racial inequities. And then there is micro-aggressions and violence that blacks encounter in the street this data, many whites persist in the belief that racism is a myth. I No matter how much data and evidence we give the same illogica So, centuries of slavery followed by the black codes, convict leasi Crow segregation, redlining and mass incarceration did not happe African Americans?” I was recently talking with Dr. Kevin Cosby, President of Simmons Colle (HBCU) in Louisville, and told him that the Pauline concept of reprobatio (NIV) in Romans 1:28 & 1 Corinthians 9:27 helps me to make sense of a persists in believing that racism does not exist in face of overwhelming e reprobation is a dangerous corruption of the mind that should concern an agreed and said he thinks of reprobation as moral ignorance. “Mental ign don't know whereas moral ignorance is when you don't want to know. It i the will, the worst kind to correct.” He helped me to understand that the d white people do not even try to understand black experiences of racism is