opinion
The recent murders of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick Georgia, Breona Taylor in Louisville Kentucky and George Floyd in Minneapolis have once again removed the scab of America's racial divide. The video of a white officer with his knee on the neck of a prone and handcuffed black man that resulted in Floyd's death will haunt this nation for generations to come.
Floyd's dying words of, "I can't breathe," have caused many to cry out, "I can't sleep!" I can't sleep in a nation that has historically shown little value for black life. I can't sleep when Ahmaud Arbery is chased through the streets like a deer and then gunned down by a shotgun-wielding self-privileged assailant. I can't sleep when Breona Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT, lay dead on her hallway floor, shot at least eight times by plainclothes officers who had burst in to execute a "no-knock" search warrant at her home.
Recent events in our country precipitate the need for a "Call to Prophetic Action." In the Hebrew Scriptures, the prophet Jeremiah is called by God to challenge a wayward nation. The God of creation says to Jeremiah, "I have appointed you to uproot, tear down, destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."
It is long past time for America to uproot, tear down, destroy and overthrow the systems that uphold racism and white supremacy.
We need to "uproot" too many white people's belief that this is their country and that all non-whites can be told to "go back where they came from." America belongs to all of us, especially those who have been hung, murdered and dehumanized on these shores.
We need to "tear down" the justice systems that continue to disproportionately criminalize and incarcerate black and brown bodies, leaving in it's wake the rubble of broken families.
We need to "destroy" an economic system that has 41 million people living below the poverty level while the 400 wealthiest Americans now own more wealth than the bottom 64% of the U.S. population.
We need to "overthrow" what the Rev. William Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach calls, "the realities of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and the often false moral narrative of Christian nationalism."
The prophet Jeremiah is first called to uproot, tear down and destroy and then build and plant. For over 400 years, black people in America have been trying to build and plant in a country where the soil is fertilized with racial animus.
The system is tearing itself down, uprooted by its own broken and racist foundations. Now is the time to build. Build a justice system that does not criminalize and over prosecute black and brown bodies but treats all people as equals. A system that arrests, indicts, prosecutes and holds police officers accountable for their crimes against human lives. We need to support that justice system by creating a just economic system in America, one that provides all Americans the right to affordable housing, a living wage and affordable health care.
How do we accomplish any of this? Black people and their allies must come together with an agenda for change. The time for tearing down and building is now.
Rev. Damon Lynch III is pastor of New Prospect Baptist Church in Roselawn and president of Community Economic Advancement Intiative.
"time" - Google News
May 31, 2020 at 06:38PM
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Opinion: Time to tear down systems that uphold racism - The Cincinnati Enquirer
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