In the past few weeks, the facts about the senseless murders of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arberry have flooded the media. Even as we were grieving their deaths, America’s legacy of racism showed itself again when we viewed, in horror, the brutal murder of George Floyd at the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. […]
Is racism mostly a reality of the past? Has America largely overcome its fixation with skin color? Have we become post-racial? The signs of progress inundate our society. We have seen black people and other people of color enter all segments of life from blockbuster movies, to the Supreme Court, to billionaire-level wealth. It appears […]
I remember two married couples from my church—one couple was black and the other was white—who became friends. They had very different views on politics, vastly difference experiences in life, but they bonded over conversations about their children. One day the black couple told the white couple about “the talk.” No. Not the “birds and […]
While activists have initiated remarkable progress when it comes to race in America, the struggle for black freedom continues. The reality is that racism remains. It is sometimes hidden in the walls and rafters of the nation’s institutions but even so, like an un-killable cockroach, racism still frequently scurries back into the light. No matter […]
This letter is a preface to protests. Its’a a disclaimer prior to anticipated discord. I’m sitting inside my Southside DC apartment as I write this, unsure of what this weekend might bring, but the grip of anxiousness is just strong enough for me to stop what I’m doing and write. Because I am black, because […]
American citizens should not be surprised at the paucity of character we are currently seeing in our politicians.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download Tyler and Jemar discuss the white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia and the need to consistently and explicitly confront the everyday racism that permeates the church and society.
On Friday, white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville in a rally full of racist iconography. They marched at night, carried torches, and chanted “We will not be replaced!” But deplorable incidents like this rally are only the most visible displays of the white supremacy that are allowed to flourish in mundane ways all across the country. […]
June 17 marks the anniversary of the murder of the Emanuel Nine. A white supremacist sat through a Bible study at the historic Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina and then he started firing. In the end, nine black believers lay dead. We say their names: Rev. Clementa Pickney (41) Cynthia Hurd (54) Rev. […]
Someone spray-painted ni**er on the front gate of a home in Los Angeles belonging to LeBron James. In a moment of intentional vulnerability he let his feelings about the event be known before the watching world. Most people reacted to James’s situation with empathy. Not Jason Whitlock. On a FoxSports 1 television show, Whitlock said […]
On the eve of the NBA finals conversations typically hover around how long the series will go, whether a certain player will come through in the clutch, and which sportscaster’s predictions will play out. But in an interview on Wednesday, the conversation veered from basketball to racism. Someone scrawled the n-word across the front gate […]
Officials across the South have decided to remove Confederate monuments in several cities amid heated rallies and demonstrations. In New Orleans, the city council voted to remove four monuments prominently displayed in the city. The contractors who removed the statues had to wear masks and flack jackets under the cover of night due to threats […]
Dr. Carl Ellis, Jr. explains how neither racism nor personal responsibility by themselves can explain the current racial tension in American. We must address the “culture of dysfunctionality”.
Jemar Tisby directs us to a seven-part series entitled, “Race and the American Church”, by Otis Pickett that surveys the U.S. church’s interplay with racial dynamics.
In this final segment of a 3-part series on the Image of God in the African American experience, we see how Christ gives us an identity realer than race.
In part of the Image of God and the African American experience we explore how slavery, Jim Crow Laws, and subtler forms of racism today diminished but did not destroy the image of God.
What we are seeing in Ferguson is a modern manifestation of Adam’s ancient sin. True resolution can only be found through faith in the new Adam, Jesus Christ.
