Mammy didn’t want me. My father tell me if bush could a talk, it would tell me how much bush she take to get rid of me. If bush could a talk, if bush could a talk, he say, it would tell me the things my mother do to throw me away. Mammy didn’t want me and she tried to throw me away, but I was born here anyway, I was born here to live.
My mother was well able but my father was poor, and because he was poor my mother’s family did not want him for my mother, so when my mother pick up with him they shunned him. But, instead of my father horning my mother, it was my mother who turn around and was horning my father, and things in the family spin about just so when they realize what was what. It spin around just so when they realize that even though my mother was able and my father was poor and didn’t have a penny to his name, it was Mammy, Mammy who was the bad one.
After my mother give birth to me it was then that the marriage talk come up between she and my father, but Daddy didn’t want to get married to Mammy, he was afraid to get married to Mammy, because everyone in Grenada know that Clara Seunarayan was a hot woman. She was a hot one, Clara Seunarayan, hot so, but she told Daddy that if he didn’t marry to her she was going to kill sheself; kill sheself dead. Daddy was always a man to give up his rights for peace, so he went ahead and married to her hoping she would stay with him, hoping she would stay with us, but Daddy wasn’t strong enough for Mammy, man. Mammy did not stay.
Mammy didn’t stay with my father, she didn’t stay with her children neither; she pick up right there and left us alone. But Mammy was terrible, eh? She was a terrible arrogant woman. I was only a little child, but as a child you does remember things, you does remember them good. When you does remember it doesn’t be easy for you to forget it again, and I remember good that Daddy wasn’t strong enough for Mammy. Mammy didn’t want Daddy because Daddy loved her, he loved her too much, but she didn’t love him, and she didn’t love us, so she left him when he was in Aruba trying to make a way, she left him, and she left us too.
After Mammy left us I went to live with my great-grandmother, Mama Seunarayan. She loved me. Mama Seunarayan was a old lady but she loved me – I was the blue in her eye – she love me and bathe me and feed me and put me to bed. I always went to bed full, I remember that. I love being by my great-grandmother because she care for me and love me. I was the blue, the blue in her eye.
When I was fourteen I got my period, but because my mother wasn’t there I didn’t know about no pad and thing, because my mother wasn’t there to show me how to be a lady. Every thing I learn about sex and period I learn from my childhood friends who show me how to use the cloths and change myself and thing. But I didn’t know because I didn’t have nobody to show me and tell me and help me become a lady and so one day I went to school when I had my period and the blood had stopped flowing and it hadn’t come in the night, so the next day I went to school wearing nothing. I didn’t wear nothing at all, no cloth in my panty or nothing, because I thought the blood had finished after two days because nobody told me nothing and didn’t show me what to do, so that next day when the teacher began to ask questions the way they sometimes ask questions in the class, being respectful we had to stand to answer the questions, and I was fourteen and when I stand to answer the question
(whoooooooosh)
blood come out of me like a flood. But I didn’t have no cloth in my panty because I didn’t see it come the night so I thought it had finish, so when I went to school now it start coming through my panty and my skirt
(oh precious is the flow)
but the blood look like when you burn fabric. It look like a burn mark because my skirt was like this, a dark blue, so it didn’t look like blood, but it look blackish like when you burn cloth.
…
The gentleman and his wife used to give me a ride down to school and his name was Milton Dean but his hair wasn’t Negro, and so it must a been that he have a sort of a mix, and he had a child with his wife, a beautiful child. I used to go up there and visit them when I was about fifteen because his wife taught at the school I attended as a child, so they would give me a ride down to school. Whenever I would go up there and visit them I would play with their child, because the child was beautiful and had curly-like hair, but it wasn’t Negro. I was about fifteen, and at that age you young, and you vulnerable, and you go up there, and that’s how
(oh God oh God)
it have a time I went there and I was up there alone with him, and the baby was there too, but I didn’t have it in me to fight nobody and nobody ever say nothing about that kind of a thing then; you keep it hush-hush. He push me down and I was scared but I didn’t have it in me to fight nobody, and when he finished he didn’t put me out or nothing, but he didn’t say anything to me neither so I just went home. He didn’t say anything to me and I didn’t say anything neither. His name was Milton Dean and he was a black man but he had good hair, and is a lot of these black ones that does that to their own people. But at fifteen
(shhh)
I wasn’t expecting that kind of a thing, but now I know that you can’t just trust people the way they are because I didn’t know, so I just went home but I didn’t say anything though I was bleeding, bleeding, but they didn’t say anything to me when I went home because they thought it was my period so they didn’t show any interest. But I didn’t say anything neither
(shhh child)
because you know those days, people don’t talk about it, in days gone back, they don’t talk about it, because his wife used to teach at my school, and they used to give me a ride to go to school, but because she used to give me a ride, I used to visit there, but you don’t trust people just the way they are. I didn’t know, I young and stupid, I wasn’t expecting those things. But he was black and his name was Milton Dean, but I didn’t say anything. I went home, and I was bleeding, bleeding through my panty, but they thought it was my periods so they don’t show any interest or concern, but then after a while they saw what was happening and so they contacted my mother. When they hear, they didn’t ask anything but they decide to send me away to Trinidad to stay by my mother. My Auntie Lizzy must have discussed it with Mammy, Auntie Lizzy who is my cousin but old enough to be my Auntie. I remember it was Auntie Lizzy, on the day I was leaving, who gave me a blue dress with red polka dots; Auntie Lizzy who make the dress for me to go to my mother while I was making a child.
When I going to have the baby in Trinidad I was sixteen but I didn’t have no passage for the child because I was a child still, only a little girl, and my hips and womb was small so, so when I going to have the baby I didn’t have no passage. I didn’t have nowhere for this child to come out, but the nurses were so nice to me, eh? And they had me in the bed and they was beside me, and when the pain come, they sit there with me and talking to me to make me forget about the pain, and they were there beside me talking to me, they were so nice to me, eh, and when is time I go into labor, they call to the other nurses and say, ‘come, come, come! come see the child!’ because they know that I have no passage.
But there was a nurse called nurse Taylor who come with five nurses to circle around me and help me through, to help the child through; and they do what they can to help me have the baby, and they were there sitting by me and when the pain hit me they help me think about other things, and they help the child come out, it squeeze between, because when the baby coming, they push it back a little bit, push it back a little bit, push it back a little bit and ease the child through, even though I was sixteen and didn’t have no passage when I have the child. But is nurse Taylor and those five nurses that help the child born, and they was so nice because I was so young, and they do what they can for me and the child, and I was grateful to them, grateful because they was so nice to me and the child, so nice to me that they were all there when she died
(we are but little children weak
but have a little cross to take
there’s not a child so small and weak
but have his little cross to take)
Helen grew a nice child, a beautiful child. She had nice, fair skin and big curls, and the hair wasn’t Negro; she have big curls, and she grew to be a nice, beautiful child; a sweet, beautiful child...
…
My mother had a good friend called Mrs. Lake, and she and Mammy were best friends, and she loved Helen. And her husband used to work at Imperial Store in San Fernando and he had loved Helen too. He loved the child and he used to take her and play with her and give her banana and different thing, but Mrs. Lake and Mammy were best friends, best friends for a long time, and Mrs. Lake was a strong woman. She was a fair woman, but a strong woman. Yet one day, one Monday morning, a message came to my mother that Mrs. Lake had died, but Mammy said no, that it couldn’t be Mrs. Lake, the young Mrs. Lake married to Mr. Lake? because she was well days before...but the message said no, it is not the mother, it is Mrs. Lake and we all was shocked; Mammy was shocked. She ran over there, and they had Mrs. Lake on the bed with the sheet, but they have her covered, but Mammy had time before they took her to the morgue to open the sheet to see Mrs. Lake. Now she was a very fair-skinned woman, but as soon as Mammy saw her lying there, as soon as she saw the body, Mammy said something was wrong, she knew something was wrong because when she saw Mrs. Lake, the woman was black, even though she was a fair skinned woman, she was black, and the blood inside her had seeped onto the sheet; she saw it on the sheet, but the blood was blackish, like when something burn. But what we hear is that Mrs. Lake die because she try and throw away a child, and is bush she take to do away with another baby
(she take bush to throw the child away)
because Mr. Lake was giving her problems, and so she drink bush to throw away the child, and then she went to see the doctor because she was feeling ill, and the doctor give her an injection, and it was after she take the injection that she became restless, and the niece told us that all night, all night, after she take the injection, Mrs. Lake was up and down in the house, up and down, walking to the bathroom, lying down, getting up, restless, restless. Drinking water. She was restless all through the night, all through the night until in the morning she break out in bad blood, she breaking out in bumps all over her skin, the bad blood take her and when it take her Mrs. Lake take hold of her clothes, and they say she ripped down the nightgown she was wearing, she took hold of it and ripped it down from the pain that was tearing in her body. She and my mother were best friends, but when she died we couldn’t see her face because her face was black and twisted like an animal in pain, and when she died they had her coffin in a little room, and only one woman sat with her, the woman who gave her the bush medicine prepared her for burial. The casket was in a little sunroom, and the woman who gave her the medicine was sitting with her, but they say that Mrs. Lake’s face was like an animal with the pain, distorted and black, and as it was killing her she ripped down the nightgown she was wearing from the pain that was tearing her apart inside, and we never saw her face...
(pain that was tearing tearing tearing her apart)
...
I would see Mrs. Lake in my sleep often after she died. After she died, Mrs. Lake would come to me in my sleep. She would come to me night after night, chasing me, chasing me, running me down, running me down because I had Helen in my arms. Mrs. Lake used to come to me in my sleep and try to chase me down for Helen in my arms, but she never catch me, never catch up with me, never catch up to me with the child. But that lady in my sleep would come night after night, night after night, running, running, running me down for Helen, running me down, running me down for Helen. She wanted Helen. On all the occasions she came to me, running me down, chasing me for Helen, and she never caught up with me, never caught up with me, and then finally, one time, she catch up with me, she catch up with me and grab a hold of me, and she take the child. I never forget that dream.
A few months later, I don’t know how, a few months later Helen was playing outside, she was playing on her bike behind my back, and she fell on her arm and I didn’t know, and her arm begin to swell, and when she had to lift the hand, she used to have to take one hand and used it to lift the other one, and so we took her to the doctor, but the doctor didn’t know nothing about that in those days. In those days they think is something else and give it a little treatment, but it wasn’t until too much later that they find out that the inflammation had gone right inside the bone itself, and when it went to the bone it was too late
(I bawl I bawl I bawl)
but Mammy made me go one night to a woman who cut card, and she made me go and told the woman to cut card for Helen, and the woman cut card for Helen while she wasn’t well, and the woman told me that she saw death in the card, and that Helen was going to die, and when I hear that I start to bawl, I start to cry, and I remember the dream. Helen died shortly thereafter, and at her funeral you would think a big person had died. Her grave was covered with so much flowers, and her funeral was beautiful; her grave was beautiful and covered with so much flowers, you would think it was a big person who had died......hmmm, yes. you would think so. I never forget.
...
My god my Mammy used to cuss me. All the time she used to cuss me. Before I have the child she cuss me, and even after I have the child she cussed me, telling me that I bring her a child without a father, and she used to beat me bad when I was pregnant. When I was pregnant, she beat me a lot, but I couldn’t say anything, I couldn’t say anything at all, and is one of Mammy’s friends who met me on the road one day in San Fernando after Helen died who say that child lying down in the cemetery there now is lying there because of the blows I get from Mammy when I was having her. Once I went to the back to bathe, and I forgot the soap, and by the time I went back to get it, some people had already taken it, and I got beat for that. Mammy used to beat me bad when I was pregnant, and once when I was having a bath behind the house when we were living in Prince Alfred Street, and after I bathe I forget the soap there, and Mammy find it and hit me up all in my head and thing because I forget the soap in the back, slapping me up so
(the child in the cemetery is lying there because of blows I get)
but Mammy wasn’t right. She head wasn’t right.
...
I wonder if God going to punish me for saying that about my mother? But from her, I didn’t get as much as a dollar to buy okro, not a dollar or dime to buy nothing. Daddy beg Mammy to come home to be with us and promise to pay her a salary, but she refuse. Mammy left us with nothing.
…
After Helen died, I begin thinking more about the Bible, more about where Heaven and Hell is. I know she wasn’t in hell. You know? But I use to cry a lot when she died. My neighbor once tell me that she have a dream: she used to say she saw Helen walking in a garden among flowers, beautiful roses and everything, and Helen told the neighbor she was worried because ‘Mummy is crying too much, too much.’ In the dream my neighbor say Helen pick two kinds of flowers; she pick two kinds of flowers to give to me, but she didn’t remember what it was. Sometimes it is the sleep that does make you forget things...
...
Before I got saved, I was feeling really miserable. I was just – I was – I don’t know how I was completely. It’s not until God showed me the right way, and I accepted Jesus in my life, and things begin to look different. And when I got saved, I don’t remember if anyone had invited me to go to church at Revival Time. I can remember no one. I started going there. First I bought a white dress, and then I said in my spirit that I wanted a Bible. I wanted to go back to the Presbyterian Church. I started contemplating.
Before I got saved, when I went into the church, you know they have loudspeakers? And they have a record player playing, and they were playing that song, Amazing Grace, and they have the speakers up on the poles so that people can hear. And I heard the words of it and I heard that song and I didn’t know the words of it but God began to work in my heart. God began to work in my heart. Girl, when I walked into that church, I was so miserable. You wouldn’t believe. But after I found Jesus Christ as my Savior, when Paul Olson preached, I was hungry to go up to the altar to accept the Lord. And it is there I found God my savior Jesus Christ in Paul Olson’s crusade in Revival Time Assembly. Yes. It had a time I was kneeling in a pool of tears because the hurt I get so many times hurt so bad inside the tears wash out of me, wash me out like a flood.
I accepted the Lord, and before it was over I told them I wanted to baptize. I accepted Jesus Christ, and I had a peace and a joy in the Holy Ghost. I got baptized in the sea with two hundred other people and for the first time my soul felt clean, clean without spot or wrinkle, clean and white as snow.
Before I got saved, when I heard the songs sing in Revival Time and I asked one of the ushers what was the song singing there, she told me, because I didn’t even know Amazing Grace. It touched my heart, and there was a peace and joy inside of me and I was at peace and so happy, and it is that that hold me through to this hour and this date, or else I would be a miserable soul.
I dream once that I was at a crossroad. I feel a very hot heat, but didn’t see the fire. I didn’t know where the heat was coming from. A woman come up to me and tell me to change the road, change the road I was on. Then a little while later, I dream that I was by a seaside, alone. The weather was gray and rainy, and the water look muddy, and somehow I knew I was standing by the Jordan River. But they say that the Jordan River is so clean? Someone come up to me and ask me, ‘child, you know where you are?’ I say no, and they say, ‘This is the River Jordan. This is where Christ was baptized.’ I saw the place where He was baptized, I saw a glow hovering over the place. I went in there and saw the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, born to die that I may live. There I beheld the Lamb without spot or blemish, there by the riverside. There, there by the riverside the Holy Spirit fell upon me like a flood; there I passed from death unto life. There I saw He who died, died that I might live, there by the riverside....
...
Who am I, who am I that you, a King, would bleed and die for? Who am I that you would pray not my will, thine Lord? The answer I may never know, why you ever loved me so, but to an old rugged cross you'd go, for who am I? But then I'm reminded of your words, ‘I'll leave thee, never’ so just be true, I'll give to you my life forever. I wonder what I could have done to deserve God's only Son, you, who fights my battles ‘til they're won, for who am I...
...Thou, O Lord, are the answer to my every need, from everlasting, to everlasting, amen.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
"The Line"
Reggie looked forward to 10:05am with great anticipation. Morning snack time was fifteen minutes before recess, an hour and fifty-five minutes before lunch, and five hours and twenty-five minutes before the end of the school day. Each of these moments gave Reggie reason for excitement. Lunch was his second favorite time of day. There was always the element of surprise with the opening of his lunch box at noon. What would be in there today? he wondered. Peanut butter and jelly? Fried bologna and cheese with mayonnaise? A honey bun or a cupcake? Apple juice or a dime to buy chocolate milk? During Mrs. Byrd’s morning lessons, Reggie would stare out the window and ponder these things. Although his mother’s low-paying job at the dry cleaners limited the possible combinations, Reggie liked to pretend to be surprised. When 10:05am rolled around, however, he dismissed such matters for the much awaited morning highlight: the distribution of milk and cookies.
Reggie patiently stood in line in front of the classroom with the other kids in his first grade class. He saw the black milk crate on Mrs. Byrd’s desk filled with blue, half pint cartons with pictures of cows on them. He could tell by the beads of sweat on the outside that the milk was cold. Reggie loved ice cold milk. He also liked to watch Mrs. Byrd hand out the oatmeal cookies in the slow, deliberate way she had, wrapping each one in a napkin the way they do for customers in the bakery. Mrs. Byrd made it an event.
Reggie watched as Joyce Woods stepped to the front of the line and accepted the delicious offering Mrs. Byrd extended to her. Joyce Woods was the only other colored kid in his class. She was coffee complected with eyes like ink and hair twisted into two braids. Reggie studied Joyce Woods every day with acute fascination, in part because he felt unspoken kinship with her as the only other beneficiary of Brown v. Board in the first grade, and in part because whenever she sat down, he could see under her dress.
Reggie knew he was colored, but wasn’t quite sure what that meant exactly. All he knew was that colored wasn’t white, and what wasn’t white, wasn’t wanted. Unlike Joyce Woods, whose African ancestry was obvious to the world in the concentration of her color, Reggie was light-eyed and light skinned, a testimony to the postbellum admixture of poor whites and the Saponi thread of the eastern Sioux with freedmen. He was of no single pure line, but rather the product of mixed folk taking up with mixed folk until all racial specifics were diluted to various shades of yellow.
The colored folks in the community kept secrets concerning the past to themselves. Folks just didn’t talk. “Boy, that’s none a yo’ business,” they said. There was a lot of shame surrounding the silence; it was commonly known that high-colored folk, particularly the “blue veins,” would pass for white whenever they could. Although people in the community knew, they never brought it up. A few folk were ashamed to be called Indian after all the white man had done to kill the Indian spirit of the Old World. Most others wanted no association with the likes of Negroes and actively sought, in marriage, to bleach the very histories that would condemned them. On the one hand, Reggie was told, “Boy, you’s got Injun and Massa in yo veins, you ain’t no Negro. You’s high society.” On the other hand, folks said, “Well, boy, you’s got Negro blood in you, so you’s jus’ that, a Negro. Don’t no amount a nothin’ else gone make no diff’rence..”
The people to whom it seemed to matter most were those whose features overtly betrayed them, offering no opportunity for choice; in the mind of a seven year old, however, it was a conundrum.
Reggie glanced again at the front of the line. He watched in disgust as Elizabeth Watkins assaulted Mrs. Byrd for her snack.
Elizabeth Watkins was a fat white girl who breathed loudly and had tight skin that shared the same flushed hue as the pink dress she wore daily. She was the nastiest person he had ever laid eyes on in his entire life. She sat in front of Reggie in class and sweat profusely. Initially, Reggie didn’t have anything against her other than the fact that she smelled so bad, he had to breath through his mouth. Last Thursday, however, when Reggie wasn’t looking, Elizabeth Watkins stole his cookie. One moment it was there on his desk, right next to his milk. The next moment, it was gone. Reggie was angrier then than he had ever been before, because it was the first time he had ever been robbed by a white person. Colored country boys never had much to begin with, and to have that little bit taken away, and by a mountain hick on top of it, was a personal offense. Reggie had to spend that snack time empty-handed while the other white kids in class ate their cookies, and all he got from Elizabeth Watkins was a heinously gapped, crumb-smeared grin. After that moment, Elizabeth Watkins was nothing more to him than a thieving, treacherous, redneck pig.
With the exception of Mrs. Byrd’s class, Reggie didn’t like Richard Anthony Elementary School. He didn’t care for school in general because it was a waste of good days. He would have much preferred to be running through the woods playing cowboys and Indians with Carl and Andre, starting fires with leaves and matches and shooting birds out of their nests with his bb gun. Richard Anthony was a worse school than usual, though, because it was mostly white - not northern white, as he had been accustomed to in New York, but Southern White, a whole different breed of man. Alamance County had undergone visible changes since his father’s recent return to North Carolina from military assignment at Fort Totten, then in Vietnam. 1966 had brought increased efforts to formally rid the South of the remnants of Jim Crow since the upset of the spring of 1954; it was an opportunity for the United States to expunge its record of all evidence of complicity in the division of “the Land of the Free” through the eighty-nine year sanctioning of de jure segregation.
Reggie was still a new kid, new to the strange thing called “integration” that made black kids get on buses with poor whites kids who took every opportunity to “remind them of their place,” and new to this place where his mother and father had their roots, a temperamental land west of the Blue Ridge Mountains comprised of country vastness and community smallness. It was different from the home he had known at Fort Totten, and it was also the same. Reggie had been born into a country at war on two fronts; in the East with the Vietcong against anti-communist forces in North Vietnam, and within itself, across a color line.
When Reggie reached the front of the line, he accepted his milk and cookie and returned to his seat, keeping a wary eye on the roaming sausages that were Elizabeth’s fingers. Moments later, Mrs. Byrd dismissed the class to recess. Reggie made his way to the playground and sat on a bench, content to mind his business and count the minutes to lunch. The sun suddenly disappeared as something cast a shadow over Reggie’s seat. He looked up at the white cloud that had settled over him.
“Hey nigger.”
Reggie found himself staring at the hard faces of Dick Reed and Dennis Sykes.
Dick and Dennis - “Double D,” as they were called - were rednecks who took pleasure in proving their quality by beating up on the weak. Dick was the ringleader, a first grader who had been held back twice; Dennis was his crony. The boys were homegrown, hateful and hardheaded, without an ounce of knowledge or sense about things in the world except what they heard at home. And what they hear at home was mostly about niggers.
“You’s that new nigger ain’t you,” Dick said. “You’s a funny lookin’ nigger as I ain’t never seed one as yeller as you, but my daddy said its happened because big black niggers gone and done the unspeak’ble with white ladies that didn’t know no better.”
Dennis, taking his cue from Dick, nodded.
“I don’t want no trouble,” Reggie said.
“He don’t want no trouble!” Dick exclaimed, revealing an eroded grin. Dennis laughed. “Aw, but you is trouble, lil’ nigger,” Dick said, instantly growing serious. “You’s at a white school where’s no niggers allowed. So you’s gotta do what I says or Dennis and I is gonna beat yo’ yeller hide into the ground.”
Reggie didn’t say anything. Dick jabbed him in the shoulder with his index finger. “You listenin’ to me, nigger? If you don’t do what I says we gonna beat you up.”
“Yeah,” Dennis chimed.
“You can’t beat me up,” Reggie answered, “because if you do I can’t bring you a present on Monday.”
Dick paused. “What kinda present?” he asked.
“A Tonka Toy,” Reggie lied. “A Mighty Yellow Dump Truck, as a matter of fact.”
“This nigger’s lying, Dennis,” said Dick suspiciously, wanting to hear more about the dump truck.
“He ain’t got no such thing.”
“Yeah I do,” Reggie said with exaggerated confidence. “It’s a brand new one I got for my birthday. Remote control for easy steering and everything.”
Dick thought for a moment. “Well then, you just mighta saved yo’ hide,” he replied. “You got till Monday to bring me that toy or else you’s dead.” Dick didn’t mind waiting a few more days before pounding his newest victim. As he saw things, it was the opportunity to get something for nothing and still beat somebody up. Either way, circumstances were on his side. He gave Reggie one last hard jab in the shoulder before walking away. “Monday!” he yelled.
Reggie was at an impasse. He had told Dick and Dennis that he would bring them something he knew he didn’t have. His family didn’t have money for things like Tonka Toys. When Monday came and Dick and Dennis saw that he didn’t have it, they would surely beat him senseless.
Reggie had only ever been in one fight in his entire life. It had happened in New York, with one of the other military kids on the army base. An older kid had walked up to Reggie and punched him. Reggie had tried to run home, but his father, who had been standing at the window observing what had happened, stopped him. “Boy,” he bellowed, “How dare you disgrace yourself like that. You musta forgot what your last name is. You don’t let yourself get slapped around and just take it. You fight or your fall, and if you fall, you sho’ as hell better be fightin’ on your way down. Now get back out there and defend yourself.”
More fearful of his father than anyone else, Reggie went back outside, found the kid and punched him back. He and the boy had it out, fighting until they were tired. To this day Reggie wasn’t sure who won. He fought hard and had been lucky. But he couldn’t count on beginner’s luck this time...
“Boy,” she said, feeling his forehead, “if your temperature really was a hundred and forty three degrees you would not only be dead, you’d be well done and ready to serve for Christmas Dinner. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with you. You goin’ to school.”
Sure enough, just as Reggie had predicted, Dick and Dennis found him as soon as he got off the bus.
“Where’s my toy, nigger,” Dick said.
“I don’t have it,” Reggie said, squinting.
“What do you mean you don’t have it?” Dick barked.
“I don’t have a Mighty Yellow Dump Truck.”
Dick looked violated. “You’s gonna regret that,” he hissed. “At play period, you’s dead, nigger.”
“Dead.” Dennis echoed.
Reggie spent all morning making his soul right with God. For the first time, he didn’t care about milk or cookies or Elizabeth Watkins’s sausage fingers. Those things no longer mattered, as he was about to die. Reggie wondered if this was how Jesus felt before he was crucified...naked.
At recess, Dick spotted him from across the yard, and with Dennis trailing, he made a beeline for where Reggie was standing. Reggie prayed the only prayer he remembered from Sunday school. Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. He wished he had paid more attention, but it didn’t matter now. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Reggie asked the Lord to forgive him for stealing his mother’s cigarettes and for blowing up that garden snake with gasoline. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. As Dick approached, Reggie closed his eyes and prepared for the impact. Amen.
As soon as Dick was within arm’s reach, Reggie reared back and let it fly. BAM! He landed a perfect right hook, socking Dick square in the nose.
Dick didn’t know what hit him. The impact caused him to reel backwards into Dennis, his nose gushing blood like a faucet. He fell to the ground, stunned. He looked down. Seeing his hands slippery and red, he screamed. Dennis ran for cover.
Dick began to cry hysterically. Reggie stared at him quietly, flexing his fingers.
Mrs. Byrd ran to the site of the commotion. She tried to make out what Dick was saying amidst his blubbering. He told her that Reggie had punched him for no reason.
“Did you punch Dick?” Mrs. Byrd asked Reggie.
“Yep,” Reggie answered, "With all my might."
“Say you’re sorry, Reggie,” Mrs. Byrd ordered. “What you did was wrong.”
“But I’m not sorry,” Reggie replied, “And I ain’t sayin’ it. Let him come near me again. I’m am'dextrous.”
Mrs. Byrd frowned at Reggie. She took a piece of white chalk, walked over to the blacktop, and drew a big circle. She told Reggie to stand in the middle of it for the rest of playtime. She told him that she would be contacting his mother and father immediately.
Reggie went and stood in the circle. He didn’t mind. After all, Mrs. Byrd wasn’t the only person who could draw the line.
Reggie patiently stood in line in front of the classroom with the other kids in his first grade class. He saw the black milk crate on Mrs. Byrd’s desk filled with blue, half pint cartons with pictures of cows on them. He could tell by the beads of sweat on the outside that the milk was cold. Reggie loved ice cold milk. He also liked to watch Mrs. Byrd hand out the oatmeal cookies in the slow, deliberate way she had, wrapping each one in a napkin the way they do for customers in the bakery. Mrs. Byrd made it an event.
Reggie watched as Joyce Woods stepped to the front of the line and accepted the delicious offering Mrs. Byrd extended to her. Joyce Woods was the only other colored kid in his class. She was coffee complected with eyes like ink and hair twisted into two braids. Reggie studied Joyce Woods every day with acute fascination, in part because he felt unspoken kinship with her as the only other beneficiary of Brown v. Board in the first grade, and in part because whenever she sat down, he could see under her dress.
Reggie knew he was colored, but wasn’t quite sure what that meant exactly. All he knew was that colored wasn’t white, and what wasn’t white, wasn’t wanted. Unlike Joyce Woods, whose African ancestry was obvious to the world in the concentration of her color, Reggie was light-eyed and light skinned, a testimony to the postbellum admixture of poor whites and the Saponi thread of the eastern Sioux with freedmen. He was of no single pure line, but rather the product of mixed folk taking up with mixed folk until all racial specifics were diluted to various shades of yellow.
The colored folks in the community kept secrets concerning the past to themselves. Folks just didn’t talk. “Boy, that’s none a yo’ business,” they said. There was a lot of shame surrounding the silence; it was commonly known that high-colored folk, particularly the “blue veins,” would pass for white whenever they could. Although people in the community knew, they never brought it up. A few folk were ashamed to be called Indian after all the white man had done to kill the Indian spirit of the Old World. Most others wanted no association with the likes of Negroes and actively sought, in marriage, to bleach the very histories that would condemned them. On the one hand, Reggie was told, “Boy, you’s got Injun and Massa in yo veins, you ain’t no Negro. You’s high society.” On the other hand, folks said, “Well, boy, you’s got Negro blood in you, so you’s jus’ that, a Negro. Don’t no amount a nothin’ else gone make no diff’rence..”
The people to whom it seemed to matter most were those whose features overtly betrayed them, offering no opportunity for choice; in the mind of a seven year old, however, it was a conundrum.
Reggie glanced again at the front of the line. He watched in disgust as Elizabeth Watkins assaulted Mrs. Byrd for her snack.
Elizabeth Watkins was a fat white girl who breathed loudly and had tight skin that shared the same flushed hue as the pink dress she wore daily. She was the nastiest person he had ever laid eyes on in his entire life. She sat in front of Reggie in class and sweat profusely. Initially, Reggie didn’t have anything against her other than the fact that she smelled so bad, he had to breath through his mouth. Last Thursday, however, when Reggie wasn’t looking, Elizabeth Watkins stole his cookie. One moment it was there on his desk, right next to his milk. The next moment, it was gone. Reggie was angrier then than he had ever been before, because it was the first time he had ever been robbed by a white person. Colored country boys never had much to begin with, and to have that little bit taken away, and by a mountain hick on top of it, was a personal offense. Reggie had to spend that snack time empty-handed while the other white kids in class ate their cookies, and all he got from Elizabeth Watkins was a heinously gapped, crumb-smeared grin. After that moment, Elizabeth Watkins was nothing more to him than a thieving, treacherous, redneck pig.
With the exception of Mrs. Byrd’s class, Reggie didn’t like Richard Anthony Elementary School. He didn’t care for school in general because it was a waste of good days. He would have much preferred to be running through the woods playing cowboys and Indians with Carl and Andre, starting fires with leaves and matches and shooting birds out of their nests with his bb gun. Richard Anthony was a worse school than usual, though, because it was mostly white - not northern white, as he had been accustomed to in New York, but Southern White, a whole different breed of man. Alamance County had undergone visible changes since his father’s recent return to North Carolina from military assignment at Fort Totten, then in Vietnam. 1966 had brought increased efforts to formally rid the South of the remnants of Jim Crow since the upset of the spring of 1954; it was an opportunity for the United States to expunge its record of all evidence of complicity in the division of “the Land of the Free” through the eighty-nine year sanctioning of de jure segregation.
Reggie was still a new kid, new to the strange thing called “integration” that made black kids get on buses with poor whites kids who took every opportunity to “remind them of their place,” and new to this place where his mother and father had their roots, a temperamental land west of the Blue Ridge Mountains comprised of country vastness and community smallness. It was different from the home he had known at Fort Totten, and it was also the same. Reggie had been born into a country at war on two fronts; in the East with the Vietcong against anti-communist forces in North Vietnam, and within itself, across a color line.
When Reggie reached the front of the line, he accepted his milk and cookie and returned to his seat, keeping a wary eye on the roaming sausages that were Elizabeth’s fingers. Moments later, Mrs. Byrd dismissed the class to recess. Reggie made his way to the playground and sat on a bench, content to mind his business and count the minutes to lunch. The sun suddenly disappeared as something cast a shadow over Reggie’s seat. He looked up at the white cloud that had settled over him.
“Hey nigger.”
Reggie found himself staring at the hard faces of Dick Reed and Dennis Sykes.
Dick and Dennis - “Double D,” as they were called - were rednecks who took pleasure in proving their quality by beating up on the weak. Dick was the ringleader, a first grader who had been held back twice; Dennis was his crony. The boys were homegrown, hateful and hardheaded, without an ounce of knowledge or sense about things in the world except what they heard at home. And what they hear at home was mostly about niggers.
“You’s that new nigger ain’t you,” Dick said. “You’s a funny lookin’ nigger as I ain’t never seed one as yeller as you, but my daddy said its happened because big black niggers gone and done the unspeak’ble with white ladies that didn’t know no better.”
Dennis, taking his cue from Dick, nodded.
“I don’t want no trouble,” Reggie said.
“He don’t want no trouble!” Dick exclaimed, revealing an eroded grin. Dennis laughed. “Aw, but you is trouble, lil’ nigger,” Dick said, instantly growing serious. “You’s at a white school where’s no niggers allowed. So you’s gotta do what I says or Dennis and I is gonna beat yo’ yeller hide into the ground.”
Reggie didn’t say anything. Dick jabbed him in the shoulder with his index finger. “You listenin’ to me, nigger? If you don’t do what I says we gonna beat you up.”
“Yeah,” Dennis chimed.
“You can’t beat me up,” Reggie answered, “because if you do I can’t bring you a present on Monday.”
Dick paused. “What kinda present?” he asked.
“A Tonka Toy,” Reggie lied. “A Mighty Yellow Dump Truck, as a matter of fact.”
“This nigger’s lying, Dennis,” said Dick suspiciously, wanting to hear more about the dump truck.
“He ain’t got no such thing.”
“Yeah I do,” Reggie said with exaggerated confidence. “It’s a brand new one I got for my birthday. Remote control for easy steering and everything.”
Dick thought for a moment. “Well then, you just mighta saved yo’ hide,” he replied. “You got till Monday to bring me that toy or else you’s dead.” Dick didn’t mind waiting a few more days before pounding his newest victim. As he saw things, it was the opportunity to get something for nothing and still beat somebody up. Either way, circumstances were on his side. He gave Reggie one last hard jab in the shoulder before walking away. “Monday!” he yelled.
* * *
Reggie was at an impasse. He had told Dick and Dennis that he would bring them something he knew he didn’t have. His family didn’t have money for things like Tonka Toys. When Monday came and Dick and Dennis saw that he didn’t have it, they would surely beat him senseless.
Reggie had only ever been in one fight in his entire life. It had happened in New York, with one of the other military kids on the army base. An older kid had walked up to Reggie and punched him. Reggie had tried to run home, but his father, who had been standing at the window observing what had happened, stopped him. “Boy,” he bellowed, “How dare you disgrace yourself like that. You musta forgot what your last name is. You don’t let yourself get slapped around and just take it. You fight or your fall, and if you fall, you sho’ as hell better be fightin’ on your way down. Now get back out there and defend yourself.”
More fearful of his father than anyone else, Reggie went back outside, found the kid and punched him back. He and the boy had it out, fighting until they were tired. To this day Reggie wasn’t sure who won. He fought hard and had been lucky. But he couldn’t count on beginner’s luck this time...
* * *
Monday morning came all too quickly. Reggie found the cloudlessness of the sky and the cheerfulness of the sunshine offensive. He went to the bathroom and found a thermometer. He ran it under the hot faucet for five minutes, then took some water and sprinkled it on his face. He went to his mother and told her he wasn’t feeling well and should stay home from school. He handed her the thermometer as proof.“Boy,” she said, feeling his forehead, “if your temperature really was a hundred and forty three degrees you would not only be dead, you’d be well done and ready to serve for Christmas Dinner. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with you. You goin’ to school.”
* * *
Sure enough, just as Reggie had predicted, Dick and Dennis found him as soon as he got off the bus.
“Where’s my toy, nigger,” Dick said.
“I don’t have it,” Reggie said, squinting.
“What do you mean you don’t have it?” Dick barked.
“I don’t have a Mighty Yellow Dump Truck.”
Dick looked violated. “You’s gonna regret that,” he hissed. “At play period, you’s dead, nigger.”
“Dead.” Dennis echoed.
* * *
Reggie spent all morning making his soul right with God. For the first time, he didn’t care about milk or cookies or Elizabeth Watkins’s sausage fingers. Those things no longer mattered, as he was about to die. Reggie wondered if this was how Jesus felt before he was crucified...naked.
At recess, Dick spotted him from across the yard, and with Dennis trailing, he made a beeline for where Reggie was standing. Reggie prayed the only prayer he remembered from Sunday school. Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. He wished he had paid more attention, but it didn’t matter now. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Reggie asked the Lord to forgive him for stealing his mother’s cigarettes and for blowing up that garden snake with gasoline. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. As Dick approached, Reggie closed his eyes and prepared for the impact. Amen.
As soon as Dick was within arm’s reach, Reggie reared back and let it fly. BAM! He landed a perfect right hook, socking Dick square in the nose.
Dick didn’t know what hit him. The impact caused him to reel backwards into Dennis, his nose gushing blood like a faucet. He fell to the ground, stunned. He looked down. Seeing his hands slippery and red, he screamed. Dennis ran for cover.
Dick began to cry hysterically. Reggie stared at him quietly, flexing his fingers.
Mrs. Byrd ran to the site of the commotion. She tried to make out what Dick was saying amidst his blubbering. He told her that Reggie had punched him for no reason.
“Did you punch Dick?” Mrs. Byrd asked Reggie.
“Yep,” Reggie answered, "With all my might."
“Say you’re sorry, Reggie,” Mrs. Byrd ordered. “What you did was wrong.”
“But I’m not sorry,” Reggie replied, “And I ain’t sayin’ it. Let him come near me again. I’m am'dextrous.”
Mrs. Byrd frowned at Reggie. She took a piece of white chalk, walked over to the blacktop, and drew a big circle. She told Reggie to stand in the middle of it for the rest of playtime. She told him that she would be contacting his mother and father immediately.
Reggie went and stood in the circle. He didn’t mind. After all, Mrs. Byrd wasn’t the only person who could draw the line.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Pro-Life!
A friend of mine recently wrote me and asked me what I would say to Christians who declared that they couldn't vote for Barack Obama because they simply "can't get past the abortion issue." He told me that he tried to point them to the larger picture, but unfortunately they seem unmoved regarding the killing of innocent life.
I got to thinking on this point, and decided that I am pro-life. that's why I am voting for Barack Obama.
To the people who have difficulty seeing past abortion, I would ask you, is Barack Obama is "pro-abortion"? Let me answer the question for you: he isn't.
Obama is pro-choice, which he should be as a political figure in this country. For those who saw the sit down conversation he had with the pastor of the Saddleback Mega-church, Rick Warren, we are believers in Jesus but within a democratic society. Within a democratic society, one belief cannot, should not be held above another. We all too often make the mistake of assuming that the "world" mentioned in the Bible refers to all those who function outside of the "Christian Bubble," and is dark and evil, and their secularism somehow makes them pro-Satan.
But, as the saying goes, the worst kind of evil is evil disguised as virtue, and as John 3:16 goes, "For God so loved the world..."
In a country that is home to people of all races, ethnic traditions, languages and belief systems, In a country where there are people who truly don't believe that, scientifically, a baby's life begins at conception, we cannot impose on them a moral belief that stems directly from God's word, even though it is a truth we hold dear to us.
The reality is that our country has to be free for everyone, and within that free society, we as believers, as the champions of Jesus' message are then responsible for loving the world and preaching the Gospel through our actions. By living the life the Jesus did, with the sacrifice and humility he exemplified, those who are not believers can come to know him, and then come to redefine life for themselves within this knowledge of Jesus. And if we really did our jobs, they would.
I, as a Christian, am anti-abortion, and if faced with the decision of whether to abort a pregnancy, would choose not to, because I am killing a child. But, I remain pro-choice, because America is about choice, just as believing in Jesus is a choice.
So, I ask the people who are concerned with the abortion issue: What does it means to actually be pro-life? Are you pro-life only in the womb of a woman, or are you also pro-life when the black or brown child comes into the world without options and opportunity? Are you pro-life enough to pour funding into the fight against poverty, the way Jesus was "pro-life" for the poor? Do you believe in being "pro-life" enough to come out against the injustice of the death penalty and its abusive applications? Are you "pro-life" enough to raise taxes on yourselves to help inner city kids get better educations so they can lead better lives? Are you "pro-life" enough to give money to Darfur, and Ethiopia, and India so that people can have food and water? More simply, how about to Katrina victims? Are you "pro-life" enough to teach sex education in schools so that people who don't know (and who are not going to stop having sex, in the "world" and "in the world of religion" as we plainly see) can be smarter, and decrease the chances of HIV and unwanted pregnancies? Are you "pro-life" enough to increase the minimum wage so that people can consider keeping a child that they could actually care for financially? Are you "pro-life" enough to provide universal health care so that the infant mortality rate among urban African-Americans decreases and so that parents can actually offer their children a healthy entry into the world?
I ask you all of these things because the Bible talks a great deal about faith with works, and like Jesus, we are to be advocates of the orphans, the widows, and the oppressed. So, I tell people that if they want to talk about being pro-life with me, then we are going to talk about being pro-life across the board, for everyone. All people. And right now, the "dark world" we are so quick to label demonstrates greater compassion and empathy than those of us who claim to bring a message of true healing and reconciliation.
So wait...they are more like Jesus that those who are called by his name and declare themselves to be his followers?
Shame on us.
I got to thinking on this point, and decided that I am pro-life. that's why I am voting for Barack Obama.
To the people who have difficulty seeing past abortion, I would ask you, is Barack Obama is "pro-abortion"? Let me answer the question for you: he isn't.
Obama is pro-choice, which he should be as a political figure in this country. For those who saw the sit down conversation he had with the pastor of the Saddleback Mega-church, Rick Warren, we are believers in Jesus but within a democratic society. Within a democratic society, one belief cannot, should not be held above another. We all too often make the mistake of assuming that the "world" mentioned in the Bible refers to all those who function outside of the "Christian Bubble," and is dark and evil, and their secularism somehow makes them pro-Satan.
But, as the saying goes, the worst kind of evil is evil disguised as virtue, and as John 3:16 goes, "For God so loved the world..."
In a country that is home to people of all races, ethnic traditions, languages and belief systems, In a country where there are people who truly don't believe that, scientifically, a baby's life begins at conception, we cannot impose on them a moral belief that stems directly from God's word, even though it is a truth we hold dear to us.
The reality is that our country has to be free for everyone, and within that free society, we as believers, as the champions of Jesus' message are then responsible for loving the world and preaching the Gospel through our actions. By living the life the Jesus did, with the sacrifice and humility he exemplified, those who are not believers can come to know him, and then come to redefine life for themselves within this knowledge of Jesus. And if we really did our jobs, they would.
I, as a Christian, am anti-abortion, and if faced with the decision of whether to abort a pregnancy, would choose not to, because I am killing a child. But, I remain pro-choice, because America is about choice, just as believing in Jesus is a choice.
So, I ask the people who are concerned with the abortion issue: What does it means to actually be pro-life? Are you pro-life only in the womb of a woman, or are you also pro-life when the black or brown child comes into the world without options and opportunity? Are you pro-life enough to pour funding into the fight against poverty, the way Jesus was "pro-life" for the poor? Do you believe in being "pro-life" enough to come out against the injustice of the death penalty and its abusive applications? Are you "pro-life" enough to raise taxes on yourselves to help inner city kids get better educations so they can lead better lives? Are you "pro-life" enough to give money to Darfur, and Ethiopia, and India so that people can have food and water? More simply, how about to Katrina victims? Are you "pro-life" enough to teach sex education in schools so that people who don't know (and who are not going to stop having sex, in the "world" and "in the world of religion" as we plainly see) can be smarter, and decrease the chances of HIV and unwanted pregnancies? Are you "pro-life" enough to increase the minimum wage so that people can consider keeping a child that they could actually care for financially? Are you "pro-life" enough to provide universal health care so that the infant mortality rate among urban African-Americans decreases and so that parents can actually offer their children a healthy entry into the world?
I ask you all of these things because the Bible talks a great deal about faith with works, and like Jesus, we are to be advocates of the orphans, the widows, and the oppressed. So, I tell people that if they want to talk about being pro-life with me, then we are going to talk about being pro-life across the board, for everyone. All people. And right now, the "dark world" we are so quick to label demonstrates greater compassion and empathy than those of us who claim to bring a message of true healing and reconciliation.
So wait...they are more like Jesus that those who are called by his name and declare themselves to be his followers?
Shame on us.
Christianity vs. Christ
Christianity and Barack Obama. The challenge to this statement is something with which I greatly struggle.
For the past several years, I, as a strong believer in and follower of Jesus Christ, have become increasingly more put off by the institutionalized church. Evangelical Christianity and Christ's Gospel have become divergent messages, a glaring paradox very much mirroring the divide between the religious leaders and their temple on earth and the Kingdom that Jesus brought with his message...the same message that got him crucified.
Again, we are living at a time at which we are witnessing the slanderous killing of the message of the Gospel by the religious order in power. I never would have thought that I would see the day when the Evangelical Church would become the perpetrator of the evil of this present day.
I am reminded of Romans 2:17-24:
"You who call yourselves Jews are relying on God's law, and you boast about your special relationship with him. You know what is right because you have been taught his law. You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind and a light for people who are lost in darkness. You think you can instruct the ignorant and teach children the ways of God. For you are certain that God's law give you complete knowledge and truth. Well then, if you teach others, why don't you teach yourself? You tell others 'do not steal' but do you steal? You say it is wrong to commit adultery, but do you commit adultery? You condemn idolatry, but do you use items stolen from pagan temples? You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it. No wonder the world blasphemes the name of God because of you." (NLT)
The secular population curses God because of what "Christians" have done. I think about how cynical Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann were yesterday as they played clippings of Palin declaring the war in Iraq as God's will...a pipeline as God's will...Alaska's role as a post-Rapture refuge as God's will...Her election as God's will...
God help us.
Because of the abuse of Christianity once again, we have a world that is hostile to the message we, as believers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, bring. And it's our own fault. I can't blame them for hating us. How those "Christians" justify their faith and their refusal to vote for a black man is astounding to me. I am honestly in shock at how "Christians" cannot see Jesus in his message...but then again, I'm not, because in the days of old the religious were so sealed in their self-righteousness and self-proclaimed holiness, they either missed the prophets or killed them, and they missed and killed Jesus. All because of their prejudices and their hunger for power. God sent messages through people who didn't fit stereotypes. And because they didn't come in the form or face expected by the majority, they were disparaged and ultimately dismissed.
Obama truly exemplifies the message Jesus brought to the world, exudes a humility that makes me ashamed of my own pride, is a man of integrity, he speaks truth, and he believes in a change that can bring healing to a nation, and beyond that, restore peace and reconciliation in the world. And he has done it all while refusing to compromise his values, by running a clean campaign, by holding to values and not budging, even in the face of pressure...and he happens to be black, a fact that is as difficult for this country to swallow as it was for people to believe that a carpenter from the ghetto town of Nazareth was the Messiah and King for which they had been waiting.
In drawing this analogy, I am not likening Obama to Jesus. But I am saying that what we learn from the past, in the words of the prophets, is that the voice of truth is usually the minority voice (in this case, pun intended). The truth is sharp and divisive and it forces darkness to expose itself. What this election race has awakened in this country are the powerful demons of hatred and racism that hold America in a headlock. The emergence of a figure like Obama is forcing people to confront what has been so easy to hide. Racism and prejudice are resurfacing, and we are seeing them for the nasty forces that they are. I believe that this election is also a supernatural battle - we are on the cusp of a defining moment in history - for us as Americans, and for Christians. If McCain and Palin win, they will surely declare that Jehovah was on their side in helping them "defeat evil." This statement will serve to then diminish us further in the eyes of an observant world that is weighing the American message of democracy and her actions of hypocrisy against each other. After that, I believe the secular world will be numb to anything remotely sounding like Christianity, and we will have seen one of the most flagrant acts of injustice committed in our age, and by Christians, of all people.
Conversely, Obama's election would be a moment that could redefine what it means to be a believer in a God who so loves the world - not just America, and not exalting one man above another. He would be a tool of uplift for all people and for black people, because they would no longer be able to walk throughout their lives with their heads bowed at their own insignificance. Children of color would have a reason to fight harder, and we as black people will be able to pause in history with a pride unmatched in time. As Americans, we could once again dream of being respected instead of hated and feared, And we as believers would be able to push back against the traditional definitions of "the church" as laid out by the demonic, hateful forces at work on the Evangelical Right. We could return to the example of the church in the book of Acts, that wasn't a building but a community of people, and whose message was simply about who Jesus was, what He said, and what He did.
We can believe God for peace, for a world of restoration, and for a way into people's hearts who would have otherwise been closed to the Gospel. It's an amazing an anxious time to witness; while I do not know what's in the future, I remind God of His word. I tell him that His name is very much at stake in this election, on both sides. God is going to have to show that He is God above all classification, abuse and definition, and that no principalities in heaven or on earth or amount of evil in the hearts of men can stop what He has set in motion. And I don't know God's will for Obama. But as my sister heard a pastor say last Sunday, "faith is the currency of the supernatural and with it miracles happen." The God of Gideon who defeated the Midianite army, as numerous as the sea, with 300 men, some trumpets, lamps and clay jars, is the same God believers serve today. Those of us who have made the choice not to subscribe to the religious label that is butchering faith in this country, but to take up our crosses and actually follow the rocky road in Jesus' footsteps, have to continue to fight for what we believe in, and trust that God will take our little bit and make it more than enough.
For the past several years, I, as a strong believer in and follower of Jesus Christ, have become increasingly more put off by the institutionalized church. Evangelical Christianity and Christ's Gospel have become divergent messages, a glaring paradox very much mirroring the divide between the religious leaders and their temple on earth and the Kingdom that Jesus brought with his message...the same message that got him crucified.
Again, we are living at a time at which we are witnessing the slanderous killing of the message of the Gospel by the religious order in power. I never would have thought that I would see the day when the Evangelical Church would become the perpetrator of the evil of this present day.
I am reminded of Romans 2:17-24:
"You who call yourselves Jews are relying on God's law, and you boast about your special relationship with him. You know what is right because you have been taught his law. You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind and a light for people who are lost in darkness. You think you can instruct the ignorant and teach children the ways of God. For you are certain that God's law give you complete knowledge and truth. Well then, if you teach others, why don't you teach yourself? You tell others 'do not steal' but do you steal? You say it is wrong to commit adultery, but do you commit adultery? You condemn idolatry, but do you use items stolen from pagan temples? You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it. No wonder the world blasphemes the name of God because of you." (NLT)
The secular population curses God because of what "Christians" have done. I think about how cynical Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann were yesterday as they played clippings of Palin declaring the war in Iraq as God's will...a pipeline as God's will...Alaska's role as a post-Rapture refuge as God's will...Her election as God's will...
God help us.
Because of the abuse of Christianity once again, we have a world that is hostile to the message we, as believers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, bring. And it's our own fault. I can't blame them for hating us. How those "Christians" justify their faith and their refusal to vote for a black man is astounding to me. I am honestly in shock at how "Christians" cannot see Jesus in his message...but then again, I'm not, because in the days of old the religious were so sealed in their self-righteousness and self-proclaimed holiness, they either missed the prophets or killed them, and they missed and killed Jesus. All because of their prejudices and their hunger for power. God sent messages through people who didn't fit stereotypes. And because they didn't come in the form or face expected by the majority, they were disparaged and ultimately dismissed.
Obama truly exemplifies the message Jesus brought to the world, exudes a humility that makes me ashamed of my own pride, is a man of integrity, he speaks truth, and he believes in a change that can bring healing to a nation, and beyond that, restore peace and reconciliation in the world. And he has done it all while refusing to compromise his values, by running a clean campaign, by holding to values and not budging, even in the face of pressure...and he happens to be black, a fact that is as difficult for this country to swallow as it was for people to believe that a carpenter from the ghetto town of Nazareth was the Messiah and King for which they had been waiting.
In drawing this analogy, I am not likening Obama to Jesus. But I am saying that what we learn from the past, in the words of the prophets, is that the voice of truth is usually the minority voice (in this case, pun intended). The truth is sharp and divisive and it forces darkness to expose itself. What this election race has awakened in this country are the powerful demons of hatred and racism that hold America in a headlock. The emergence of a figure like Obama is forcing people to confront what has been so easy to hide. Racism and prejudice are resurfacing, and we are seeing them for the nasty forces that they are. I believe that this election is also a supernatural battle - we are on the cusp of a defining moment in history - for us as Americans, and for Christians. If McCain and Palin win, they will surely declare that Jehovah was on their side in helping them "defeat evil." This statement will serve to then diminish us further in the eyes of an observant world that is weighing the American message of democracy and her actions of hypocrisy against each other. After that, I believe the secular world will be numb to anything remotely sounding like Christianity, and we will have seen one of the most flagrant acts of injustice committed in our age, and by Christians, of all people.
Conversely, Obama's election would be a moment that could redefine what it means to be a believer in a God who so loves the world - not just America, and not exalting one man above another. He would be a tool of uplift for all people and for black people, because they would no longer be able to walk throughout their lives with their heads bowed at their own insignificance. Children of color would have a reason to fight harder, and we as black people will be able to pause in history with a pride unmatched in time. As Americans, we could once again dream of being respected instead of hated and feared, And we as believers would be able to push back against the traditional definitions of "the church" as laid out by the demonic, hateful forces at work on the Evangelical Right. We could return to the example of the church in the book of Acts, that wasn't a building but a community of people, and whose message was simply about who Jesus was, what He said, and what He did.
We can believe God for peace, for a world of restoration, and for a way into people's hearts who would have otherwise been closed to the Gospel. It's an amazing an anxious time to witness; while I do not know what's in the future, I remind God of His word. I tell him that His name is very much at stake in this election, on both sides. God is going to have to show that He is God above all classification, abuse and definition, and that no principalities in heaven or on earth or amount of evil in the hearts of men can stop what He has set in motion. And I don't know God's will for Obama. But as my sister heard a pastor say last Sunday, "faith is the currency of the supernatural and with it miracles happen." The God of Gideon who defeated the Midianite army, as numerous as the sea, with 300 men, some trumpets, lamps and clay jars, is the same God believers serve today. Those of us who have made the choice not to subscribe to the religious label that is butchering faith in this country, but to take up our crosses and actually follow the rocky road in Jesus' footsteps, have to continue to fight for what we believe in, and trust that God will take our little bit and make it more than enough.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Sucker
"...a look at the ancient west African kingdom of Ghana. Read chapter 13 aloud with a partner and then complete the reading notes I have handed out to you. Make sure you-"
"No." I said sharply, holding up my finger in their direction. "You stand right there at the door and do not move. My class started fifteen minutes ago and you are late."
The boys backed themselves up against the door.
The boys backed themselves up against the door.
"W-w-we were he-helping Miss V-Veronica," Chasen stammered.
"Then go get a note," I said, pointing to the door. Chasen and Anthony almost fell on each other in an attempt to hurry out.
I examined the note. It was a tiny piece of torn paper taken from the edge of paper from a writing ledger. Scribbled in squiggly childlike pencil letters was the following message:
I squinted at the paper. I glared at Chasen and Anthony. "Who wrote this!" I said.
"This is not an adult's handwriting!" I said angrily. "Are you telling me Miss Veronica failed spelling? Who forged this note!"
"Both of you, out!" I said. "Follow me right now!"
I marched them down the hallway. "We are going to go call both your mothers right now!"
Anthony spun around and grabbed my arm.
"No-no-no w-wait, Miss B-bass, P-p-please," he said. "We are gonna c-c-confess r-right now."
Chasen turned to him with a look of shock on his face. "Aw!" he squeaked indignantly, shaking his head at Anthony.
"No," Anthony said, "We gonna confess." The fear of his mother, stronger than the fear of God, was flooding his eyes with water.
"Wh-wh-what had happened was," Anthony gulped, "I went to get my backpack outside, see, and then I decided to help Chasen find his - "
"Yeah," Chasen said, nodding. "And after we found my backpack we then forgot about class and began eating our chili suckers, you know the ones I sell for twenty-five cent during nutrition-" Chasen looked up at the ceiling and smiled to himself, "that sucker was good too-"
"Chasen!" I snapped. "First of all, you are not supposed to be eating candy-"
"Oh I know," Chasen said nodding at me, sending a dazed stare through my body. "I know but I forgot because that sucker was out cold-"
"Chasen! I don't want to hear about any more suckers!" I hissed. "I want to know who forged Miss Veronica's handwriting!" I looked at Anthony, who had shrunk against the wall and was looking sideways at Chasen, waiting for him to say something.
"Oh yeeeah," Chasen said with a grin, "About that. It was actually both our ideas, but mostly Anthony's."
Anthony gaped at Chasen.
"But I wrote it," he said proudly, "Because I figu-" he paused. "Because we both figured that you would think a child would write in cursive, so we wrote the note in print to throw you off, and make you think we was Miss Veronica because she ain't about to write us no note for eating chili suckers. Wasn't that a good idea, Miss Bass?" he tapped his temple. "Smartness."
I stared at Chasen, speechless. He grinned at me. I looked at his partner. Anthony slumped on the wall, looking betrayed.
My mind raced with possible courses of disciplinary action. Parent-teacher conference? Over lollipops, hard to justify. Detention? Wouldn't exactly help. Call parents? The boys had confessed, even bragged about what they saw as a successful diversion. They confessed nonetheless, and the infraction was not all that serious in the grand scheme of things.
"You both have janitorial duty in my classroom for a week!" I fumed at them. "I better see you in my classroom after school every day this week to clean it up. And if you are late, I promise you I will immediately call your mamas."
Chasen and Anthony nodded gratefully.
"Now get back to class!" I ordered.
* * *
After school, I was outside on the yard watching the kids in the parking lot when I realized that I had forgotten my phone on my desk. I ran upstairs to my classroom, just as Anthony and Chasen were leaving. I nodded my approval, acknowledging the responsibility they took to come to my classroom on their own without my having to find them. "Bye-bye Miss Bass," they said in unison.
"Goodbye," I returned, eying them suspiciously. I walked into my clean room and around to the back of my desk. I picked up my phone and noticed "new photos" stored in the camera.
"Huh," I said, puzzled, as I opened the files. I found myself staring at Chasen's grinning face as he was cranking dat souljaboy. I gasped and ran out the room. "Chasen!!!!!!!!!!!" I yelled down the empty hallway. "Chasen!!!!"
All I saw was a shirttail scoot around the corner.
I marched them down the hallway. "We are going to go call both your mothers right now!"
Anthony spun around and grabbed my arm.
"No-no-no w-wait, Miss B-bass, P-p-please," he said. "We are gonna c-c-confess r-right now."
Chasen turned to him with a look of shock on his face. "Aw!" he squeaked indignantly, shaking his head at Anthony.
"No," Anthony said, "We gonna confess." The fear of his mother, stronger than the fear of God, was flooding his eyes with water.
"Wh-wh-what had happened was," Anthony gulped, "I went to get my backpack outside, see, and then I decided to help Chasen find his - "
"Yeah," Chasen said, nodding. "And after we found my backpack we then forgot about class and began eating our chili suckers, you know the ones I sell for twenty-five cent during nutrition-" Chasen looked up at the ceiling and smiled to himself, "that sucker was good too-"
"Chasen!" I snapped. "First of all, you are not supposed to be eating candy-"
"Oh I know," Chasen said nodding at me, sending a dazed stare through my body. "I know but I forgot because that sucker was out cold-"
"Chasen! I don't want to hear about any more suckers!" I hissed. "I want to know who forged Miss Veronica's handwriting!" I looked at Anthony, who had shrunk against the wall and was looking sideways at Chasen, waiting for him to say something.
"Oh yeeeah," Chasen said with a grin, "About that. It was actually both our ideas, but mostly Anthony's."
Anthony gaped at Chasen.
"But I wrote it," he said proudly, "Because I figu-" he paused. "Because we both figured that you would think a child would write in cursive, so we wrote the note in print to throw you off, and make you think we was Miss Veronica because she ain't about to write us no note for eating chili suckers. Wasn't that a good idea, Miss Bass?" he tapped his temple. "Smartness."
I stared at Chasen, speechless. He grinned at me. I looked at his partner. Anthony slumped on the wall, looking betrayed.
My mind raced with possible courses of disciplinary action. Parent-teacher conference? Over lollipops, hard to justify. Detention? Wouldn't exactly help. Call parents? The boys had confessed, even bragged about what they saw as a successful diversion. They confessed nonetheless, and the infraction was not all that serious in the grand scheme of things.
"You both have janitorial duty in my classroom for a week!" I fumed at them. "I better see you in my classroom after school every day this week to clean it up. And if you are late, I promise you I will immediately call your mamas."
Chasen and Anthony nodded gratefully.
"Now get back to class!" I ordered.
* * *
After school, I was outside on the yard watching the kids in the parking lot when I realized that I had forgotten my phone on my desk. I ran upstairs to my classroom, just as Anthony and Chasen were leaving. I nodded my approval, acknowledging the responsibility they took to come to my classroom on their own without my having to find them. "Bye-bye Miss Bass," they said in unison.
"Goodbye," I returned, eying them suspiciously. I walked into my clean room and around to the back of my desk. I picked up my phone and noticed "new photos" stored in the camera.
"Huh," I said, puzzled, as I opened the files. I found myself staring at Chasen's grinning face as he was cranking dat souljaboy. I gasped and ran out the room. "Chasen!!!!!!!!!!!" I yelled down the empty hallway. "Chasen!!!!"
All I saw was a shirttail scoot around the corner.
Prudence
At the end of the day on Tuesday, I gave my first period class free time to work on their homework.
"Productive work!" I declared. "This is not kick back time. If you are going to talk quietly, it better be while you are taking care of your business."
Upon instruction, chatter filled the room as my kids began sliding their desks together into groups, pulling work out of their backpacks, groaning about how mean I am because I give more homework than any other teacher.
"Yeah, yeah," I said, amused. "Sit down and get to work."
I pulled out my book and started to read. DeShay, who sat in front of my desk, got up and grabbed my Word Teaser box. "Can I look through this, Miss Bass?" he asked.
I looked up at him. "DeShay, I know you have work to do," I said.
"But this is vocabulary building," he said. "I am trying to become more articulate."
I stared at him. "Fine," I said.
I went back to reading. Ten minutes later, I feel someone staring at me. I glanced up and DeShay is standing right next to me. I jumped.
"DeShay what are you doing!" I said, exasperated. "What do you need?"
DeShay shrugged.
"Then why are you standing next to me?!" I exclaimed.
DeShay handed me the Word Teaser card in his hand. It read:
PRUDENT
"Pronunciation: prOOd'-nt
Function: Adjective
Definition: Thoughtful or wise; careful in making decisions or taking action."
I flipped the card over.
"Go stand next to the most prudent person in the room," the directions read.
DeShay stared at me and pointed to the card. "I am just following the directions," he said.
"DeShay-" I began. I sighed. "Thank you very much but I need you to go sit down now and do your work."
He dragged his feet back to his seat.
"Productive work!" I declared. "This is not kick back time. If you are going to talk quietly, it better be while you are taking care of your business."
Upon instruction, chatter filled the room as my kids began sliding their desks together into groups, pulling work out of their backpacks, groaning about how mean I am because I give more homework than any other teacher.
"Yeah, yeah," I said, amused. "Sit down and get to work."
I pulled out my book and started to read. DeShay, who sat in front of my desk, got up and grabbed my Word Teaser box. "Can I look through this, Miss Bass?" he asked.
I looked up at him. "DeShay, I know you have work to do," I said.
"But this is vocabulary building," he said. "I am trying to become more articulate."
I stared at him. "Fine," I said.
I went back to reading. Ten minutes later, I feel someone staring at me. I glanced up and DeShay is standing right next to me. I jumped.
"DeShay what are you doing!" I said, exasperated. "What do you need?"
DeShay shrugged.
"Then why are you standing next to me?!" I exclaimed.
DeShay handed me the Word Teaser card in his hand. It read:
PRUDENT
"Pronunciation: prOOd'-nt
Function: Adjective
Definition: Thoughtful or wise; careful in making decisions or taking action."
I flipped the card over.
"Go stand next to the most prudent person in the room," the directions read.
DeShay stared at me and pointed to the card. "I am just following the directions," he said.
"DeShay-" I began. I sighed. "Thank you very much but I need you to go sit down now and do your work."
He dragged his feet back to his seat.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Living With Cancer
There is nothing easy about following Jesus. Any person Jesus calls He calls to death, as He died - death to self. No believer ever completely dies though, because there is that thing residing in every human that fights submission in all forms. It is the right to life as we please and choose, the right, as the Addams' Family Remix goes, to:
Do what we wanna do
Say what we wanna say
Live how we wanna live
Play how we wanna play
Dance how we wanna dance
Kick and we slap a friend...
Admittedly, it is easier to talk about the arrogant lowlife you just can't stand behind her back and wallow in feelings of schadenfreude when she breaks out in a rash that makes her face blow-up, or loses her job or gets dumped by her lower-life boyfriend instead of compliment her for what's good about her; It's easier to push the "instantly to voicemail" button on your phone when that annoying, needy, talkative friend that insists on telling you every detail of his mundane existence calls to tell you about the variety of vegetables he purchased at the supermarket last week; It's easier to pretend you don't notice the dishes in the sink and let your roommate wash them...again; It's easier to tell your family that unfortunately there is absolutely no cake left and then gorge on the gigantic piece you hid for yourself in the back of the fridge when they all go to bed; It's easier to yell and scream and throw a tantrum when someone offends you than to patiently hear the opposing perspective; It's easier to give an incompetent driver the bird instead of a friendly wave; It's easier to give the homeless person on the corner the number to a Job Hotline than lunch; It's easier to read books about imaginary people rather than deal with real ones; It's easier to cut ties with an insensitive loser you mistook for a friend than fight for a worthwhile relationship; It's easier to say "shut the fuck up" to a culturally illiterate ignoramus who tells you that you are unusually smart for a black person rather than just smile and walk away; It's easier to pretend you didn't notice that the cashier didn't charge you for the Snickers you added to the conveyor belt last minute; It's easier to drive just fast enough so that that car that's had its blinker on for a quarter mile can't merge into your lane; It's easier to resent than to love; It's easier to step on weak someones in pursuit of your own happiness than help them in the direction of theirs; It's easier to be selfish than selfless; It's easier to give in to what we naturally are, however dysfunctional, than to conform to a higher standard.
I cannot help but wonder what makes me so inclined to be wicked...
Living as a follower of Jesus is to have help living. It's me understanding that I have many problems that have origins in a part of me that I can neither reach, nor fix. As I am, I am ruled by what I feel; what I feel, however, often distorts reality.
Thanks to sin, humanity as it involves desire, appetite and feeling is now like a cancer. There is nothing wrong with desire, appetite and feeling by themselves, because they make us human beings. Cancer cells, in like manner, are by themselves good, life-sustaining elements of our existence.
The problem is when good things malfunction.
Cells begin to proliferate out of character and out of control, against imperatives issued by the brain. They operate at a high level of dysfunction and then take over the human body, eventually killing the host. Likewise, Love becomes lust, self-love becomes hatred, pride becomes arrogance, anger becomes abuse, hunger becomes ravishing greed, pain becomes malice, etc. These things, left unchecked and unregulated, damage people, causing them to distort, corrupt and self-annihilate. And so, now, we live in a world with third world countries and urban ghettos, drought and famine, gun possession, slavery and starvation, war and bloodshed, extravagance and poverty and 10,000% profit, prostitution and exploitation, gluttony and incarceration, racism and genocide, drug overdoses and husbands beating their wives, failed marriages, broken homes and boys and girls living without fathers. This is the world cancer has created.
Jesus (represented in the presence of the Holy Spirit), therefore, is the treatment for the human cancer, sort of like an antidote that overrides abnormal cell proliferation. The Jesus vaccine does not completely eliminate the cancer cells, though, at least not in this lifetime. Instead, he gradually carries a person through a healing process that begins with regulation and moves towards wholeness.
So, believers in Jesus are nothing more than sinners just like everybody else, who have chosen to accept the free "vaccine" offered by God, a treatment powerful enough to control abnormal expressions of what He created to be good in the first place. The Holy Spirit living in each patient, guiding and convicting each patient, is disease regulation.
Thank Heavens! :)
The problem, though, is that most people don't know that they're sick...
Do what we wanna do
Say what we wanna say
Live how we wanna live
Play how we wanna play
Dance how we wanna dance
Kick and we slap a friend...
Admittedly, it is easier to talk about the arrogant lowlife you just can't stand behind her back and wallow in feelings of schadenfreude when she breaks out in a rash that makes her face blow-up, or loses her job or gets dumped by her lower-life boyfriend instead of compliment her for what's good about her; It's easier to push the "instantly to voicemail" button on your phone when that annoying, needy, talkative friend that insists on telling you every detail of his mundane existence calls to tell you about the variety of vegetables he purchased at the supermarket last week; It's easier to pretend you don't notice the dishes in the sink and let your roommate wash them...again; It's easier to tell your family that unfortunately there is absolutely no cake left and then gorge on the gigantic piece you hid for yourself in the back of the fridge when they all go to bed; It's easier to yell and scream and throw a tantrum when someone offends you than to patiently hear the opposing perspective; It's easier to give an incompetent driver the bird instead of a friendly wave; It's easier to give the homeless person on the corner the number to a Job Hotline than lunch; It's easier to read books about imaginary people rather than deal with real ones; It's easier to cut ties with an insensitive loser you mistook for a friend than fight for a worthwhile relationship; It's easier to say "shut the fuck up" to a culturally illiterate ignoramus who tells you that you are unusually smart for a black person rather than just smile and walk away; It's easier to pretend you didn't notice that the cashier didn't charge you for the Snickers you added to the conveyor belt last minute; It's easier to drive just fast enough so that that car that's had its blinker on for a quarter mile can't merge into your lane; It's easier to resent than to love; It's easier to step on weak someones in pursuit of your own happiness than help them in the direction of theirs; It's easier to be selfish than selfless; It's easier to give in to what we naturally are, however dysfunctional, than to conform to a higher standard.
I cannot help but wonder what makes me so inclined to be wicked...
Living as a follower of Jesus is to have help living. It's me understanding that I have many problems that have origins in a part of me that I can neither reach, nor fix. As I am, I am ruled by what I feel; what I feel, however, often distorts reality.
Thanks to sin, humanity as it involves desire, appetite and feeling is now like a cancer. There is nothing wrong with desire, appetite and feeling by themselves, because they make us human beings. Cancer cells, in like manner, are by themselves good, life-sustaining elements of our existence.
The problem is when good things malfunction.
Cells begin to proliferate out of character and out of control, against imperatives issued by the brain. They operate at a high level of dysfunction and then take over the human body, eventually killing the host. Likewise, Love becomes lust, self-love becomes hatred, pride becomes arrogance, anger becomes abuse, hunger becomes ravishing greed, pain becomes malice, etc. These things, left unchecked and unregulated, damage people, causing them to distort, corrupt and self-annihilate. And so, now, we live in a world with third world countries and urban ghettos, drought and famine, gun possession, slavery and starvation, war and bloodshed, extravagance and poverty and 10,000% profit, prostitution and exploitation, gluttony and incarceration, racism and genocide, drug overdoses and husbands beating their wives, failed marriages, broken homes and boys and girls living without fathers. This is the world cancer has created.
Jesus (represented in the presence of the Holy Spirit), therefore, is the treatment for the human cancer, sort of like an antidote that overrides abnormal cell proliferation. The Jesus vaccine does not completely eliminate the cancer cells, though, at least not in this lifetime. Instead, he gradually carries a person through a healing process that begins with regulation and moves towards wholeness.
So, believers in Jesus are nothing more than sinners just like everybody else, who have chosen to accept the free "vaccine" offered by God, a treatment powerful enough to control abnormal expressions of what He created to be good in the first place. The Holy Spirit living in each patient, guiding and convicting each patient, is disease regulation.
Thank Heavens! :)
The problem, though, is that most people don't know that they're sick...
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