AMERICAN COURAGE OR SILENCE???? 

Gary Norris Gray- Staff Reporter

OAKLAND,CA. Are we ready to battle the ugly monster called racism with Christian eyes?

As monuments to white supremacy are falling all across America, a great cloud of witnesses is gathering. African American citizens, and indeed the entire country, are waiting to see whether white Christians can finally find the humility and courage and love to face the truth about the long relationship with white supremacy and to dismantle the Christian worldview built to justify it.

Robert B. Jones

America must end this semi-caste system that allows individuals like Donald John Trump to thrive. We must end this system that allows one group to think and act like they are actually better than another group.

Brave men and women have to step up to the plate and smack a homerun for freedom and justice. Black people have done this for centuries it is time to pass the torch to our lighter toned brothers and sisters. It is time to do the right thing and fix the mistakes of our American ancestors.

ON THE LEFT IS A (ALLEGED) MURDER ON THE RIGHT (ALLEGED) BURGLAR

A LONGTIME FRIEND WROTE

UGLY PRESIDENT

“1/3rd of America, you are showing your “ugly face”, and the world is watching. When Trump disrespected a war hero, John McCain, you didn’t say he was disrespecting the military, you cheered. When Trump disrespected a fallen soldier, you didn’t say he was disrespecting the military, you cheered. When Trump announced he was banning “certain” service members from the military, you didn’t say he was disrespecting the military, you cheered. But, when black men exercise their 1st Amendment right to peacefully protest, which by the way is a CONSTITUTIONAL right that ALL military members raise their right hand to UPHOLD and PROTECT, so that those black men can silently protest, AND so that Trump can SCREEEEECH at crowds, and whine on Twitter, you jeer those black men, and say THEY are disrespecting the military. Why is it that you feel that Trump is not disrespecting the military, but feel that black men peacefully protesting racial injustices are???? The answer to that is as ugly as the “face” you are presenting to the world.” #TAKEAKNEE This attitude is not being a true Christian, not loving your brother and sister in need.

AT THE CROSSROADS

The United States of America is truly at the crossroads of history. The Late Congressmen John Robert Louis a devoted Black Christian showed us the way when he crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in March of 1965. The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. another devoted Black Christian showed us the way in August of 1963 with his March on Washington D.C. It is happening all over again in 2020, this time it is the rainbow coalition, the coalition that the Reverend Jessie Jackson envisioned in San Francisco in 1984, this time young people from every economic strada joining hands and saying “We Shall Overcome, this time it was different. This time the protesters did not blink when the local police showed up. This time they were shouting BLACK LIVES MATTER.

After the third night of burning, looting, and throwing objects. It stopped because they rooted out the individuals that did not belong to the group, that did not belong to the protest. They informed the malcontents to stop and rooted them out of the marches. The protest moved on and continued five more weeks without major incidents. Young America shouted back and confronted the President of the United States and the government.

HISTORY

White Christian America turned their heads and did not help Black men and women. They turned their heads in the American Revolution where Americans were fighting the British Empire for freedom yet held slaves in their own backyards. One of first Americans to die in the battle was Crispus Attucks, a Black man.

Our founding fathers wrote words of freedom and justice in their Constitution but could not see the hypocrisy of those words owning somebody else.

Christians turned their heads after the Civil War and were upset at President Abraham Lincoln for freeing their labor force (slaves). Instead they (South) enforced new Jim Crow Laws and started tenant farming keeping African Americans in debut, forever.

Our church attendees turned their heads when thousands of African Americans were hung in trees all over the south with night riders storming the countryside until the 1970’s. It is still not a federal crime, the question should be asked why not?

White Christians turned their heads when African American troops came home in World War I and World War II. Black heroes returned home having to set at the back of the bus, a second class citizen after defending this great nation.

This country’s racism is getting the best of it when the city police force arrest peaceful demonstrators of all colors, when infiltrators-agitators try to disturb that peaceful demonstration by destroying property, then blaming young African Americans for the damage. Infiltrating the Black Panther Party and the (SCLC), Southern Christian Leadership Coalition was part of the plan to keep white supremacy alive.

It is getting the best of you when you elect an openly blatant racist to the White House in 2016 and are proud of doing it. These same Christians are willing to elect this man again when it does not help them in any way, shape, or form.

Peoples Park-Berkeley, California

Your racism is showing when you let a white family walk down the street of Berkeley, California totally nude. In the middle of the morning a man, a woman, and a child with no clothes on strolling down Telegraph Avenue. Everybody thought that was cute and funny, people went on their merry way but the next day a Black male walks down that same street of Berkeley, the police force arrives to arrest him for being exposed in public. White Christians did not speak up.

Sacramento, California

America is showing it’s true colors when white armed men can walk up the stairs of a mid-western state capitol building with loaded AK47’s, not a uniform policemen anywhere on the ground in 2020. While the Black Panthers went to Sacramento, California in 1972 with unloaded rifles and shotguns and were stopped at the front door of the state capitol. Then Governor Ronald Reagan passed a gun law (Mulford Act) within 24 hours after the Panthers walked the hallways of the state capitol.

Racism runs rampant when county, state, and city police forces employ members of the Ku Klux Klan to join the local police it is an open invitation to enforce racist policies in that county, state, town, or city. This is done with the blessing of the white Christian church with the sound of silence.

CHRISTIANS IN SPORTS

In sports white Christians remained silent when Colin Kaepernick protested for racial justice and freedom. Kneeling before 49er games. Sports fans all over this nation burned African American player’s jerseys in protest for their plea for justice and equality. These fans wanted their sports without politics, without race, too late.

Kitty’s Sports Bar and Grill across the street from the Cincinnati Bengals stadium had an owner placed a trash can outside his establishment to throw football jerseys in to burn. Americans burned JaMarcus Russell-Oakland Raider,  Isaiah Thomas-Detroit Piston, LeBron James-Cleveland Cavalier, Kevin Durant-Oklahoma City Thunder jerseys. In Pittsburgh grown men burned thousands of Steeler jerseys.

A Lake of the Ozark bar owner in Missouri made the news by taping to the foot of the bar’s front door a jersey of Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch adjacent to Kaepernick’s 49ers’ jersey, effectively spelling out “Lynch Kaepernick.”

How much time and energy did that take? The owner would later rearrange the jerseys after it was brought to his attention by various news agencies, like he did not know it already. This is not a Christian act.

This past weekend at a Navy seals training camp. One of the trainers put on his protective gear then covered it with a Colin Kaepernick jersey. He instructed the trained police dogs to attack him. The United States Navy is currently investigating the incident. Question why would this trainer do this? We all know that answer. This is not a Christian act.

Question, how many jerseys of white players did fans burn, a grand total of three in seventy years. This year Tom Brady of the New England Patriots because he went to Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a free agent and Drew Brees for his comments on justice protest this spring. Four years ago Gordon Hayward has the distinction of being the first, as a free agent of the Boston Celtics felt the wrath coming from the departed Utah Jazz fan base.

GREG POPOVICH                                                    STEVE KERR               

We need more courageous people like San Antonio Spur head coach Greg Popovich and Steve Kerr head coach of the Golden State Warriors to speak out on race because it seems like Caucasian Christians are either too scared or too comfortable with the current racial condition in the United States.

Over the weekend Popovich stated

Instead of getting straight to the point when asked about Belinelli on Sunday morning, Popovich opted to deliver a powerful statement on racial injustice in the United States — something that has been at the forefront of the NBA restart at Walt Disney World. 

“Our number one priority as far as the country and society is concerned is racial justice, actually racial injustice, that exists in our country and trying to make everything just for all people,” Popovich said, via ESPN’s Royce Young. “Just as a reminder, in this world a lot of people really do not understand the breadth and depth of this horrific situation that Black people have been in for so long.”

Popovich then gave an example, citing a North Carolina constitutional amendment that was approved 120 years ago that required Black people to pass a literacy test in order to vote but did not require white people do the same. 

“There was a former Confederate officer, William Guthrie, who on the eve of the election made a statement and basically said, ‘This was very necessary to protect the white women, that they can’t go out in the streets and don’t feel safe when they’re alone. We have to keep the quote-unquote colored people away from them,’” Popovich said.

“So he emphasized this on the eve of the election, to make sure that their way would be the rule that people had to live under. This sort of activity went on over and over and over again, for all this time.

“And again, it’s about education and culture, and none of us knew these kinds of things, none of us were taught these things. Black, Brown, Asian, Native American — it doesn’t matter. None of us were taught these things. Hopefully if people understand how gross this situation really is and how long it’s been this gross, maybe we can make some headway.”

That’s when Popovich circled back to the original question asked of him. 

“Marco Belinelli is out tonight,” he said. 

CONCLUSION

African Americans have carried the burden of race relations in the United States for too long and too hard. It has cost the African American community too much. It is time to share the cost of freedom, the cost of justice, the cost of liberty.

My Caucasian Christian brothers and sisters it is your time to shine, your time to voice your opposition, and your influence to make it right. Just like basketball coaches Greg Popovich, and Steve Kerr have done the past few years.

Are we ready to battle the ugly monster called racism with Christian eyes?

God Bless the United States of America

Thanks YahooSports.com-The Root.com

Gary Norris Gray – Writer, Author, Historian, Gibbs Magazine-Oakland, California and New England Informer- Boston, Mass. THE GRAYLINE:- The Analects of A Black Disabled Man, The Gray Leopard Cove, Soul Tree Radio In The Raw, and The Batchelor News Radio Network, Disabled Community Activist. Email glcgray@gmail.com

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