There was a time in my life when I did not have much tolerance for White folk. My anger for them would often seethe because of the racism and bigotry I experienced as well as the oppression I saw them dole out on others of my kind. I didn’t hate them, but I did not trust them either. I really didn’t want to hang around most of them for any length of time. Because I knew sooner of later they would do or say something to offend me or my people. The irony of that is that there have been times in my life when Whites have come to my aid. And they did so even when my own people were too afraid to offer me any assistance.
Our State and Status
If you want to know the state of the so-called Negro in this country, check out the local news in any decent-sized urban area. For it is there that you will find us. Fighting, robbing, killing. Embarrassing ourselves on TV for the world to see and marvel…all around the globe we are mocked and scorned.
It’s as if White folk don’t commit crimes. If you watch local television it seems that way. Now I know that’s not true. Whites commit more crimes on an absolute basis than Black folk. But that’s because there are more of them. On a percentage basis Black folk perpetrate a higher percentage of reported crimes than anyone else. And we are paraded in the news before the nation and the world every day as a testament to that fact. White folk commit all kinds of crimes for which they are never arrested or prosecuted, especially for drug crimes. They get a pass because of their skin color. That’s their get-out-of-jail-free card.
It’s no surprise that more Black people are brutalized or killed by cops in the U.S. than any other group of people. Black homicides by cops are well documented. Most of us know that the war on drugs was a war on Black folks and that it still is. Whites sell and use more illicit drugs than Blacks, but the majority of drug abusers in prison are Black. Why is that?
“According to a 2013 Pew Research Center study, Black men are six times as likely as all white men to be incarcerated in federal, state and local jails. In virtually every statistical category that measures the welfare of a people, Black folk rank at the bottom. Why?
Did you know that the percentage of Black wealth in this country is the same as it was before the Civil War—1/2 of 1 percent? We make up about 14% of the population but control less than 1% of the wealth. The median net worth of Whites in 2010 was $139,800, for Blacks $21,900. Or on another note, did you know that 73% of all unmarried births in the U.S. were Black children. What gives?
I often used to sit and think to myself, “How could a just and righteous Creator allow our oppressors to have such a grip on our lives?” Were we somehow cursed? Or, were these people just too powerful to be contended with? These were burning questions that I needed answered. Yet I received the answers I needed when I came into the knowledge of the truth. One of the first things I learned from Brother Yahya Bandele at the COFAH Network was that we needed to acknowledge and accept our punishment for the things we and our ancestors have done.
He urged me to read Deuteronomy 28 until I understood it. And I did. And there, right there were the answers to all my questions about my treatment, our treatment in this America. Deuteronomy 28 lays out the oath we swore to the Sovereign, the Most High, YAH. It lays out the blessings that would follow us if we kept our oath. But it also set forth the punishment we would suffer if we violated this oath. On Mt. Gerezim and Mt. Ebal our ancestors basically made vows to the Great Sovereign.
It is one thing for a person to break a vow to his/her spouse but to break a vow to the Most High, well that’s another matter altogether. Heaven and earth were our witnesses the day we stood before the Almighty and made those promises. And it did not take us long to violate our vows and prostitute ourselves to the gods of this world. We have no excuse and no defense for our actions. Like common criminals we must throw ourselves on the mercy of the Court—and on the mercy of the Great Judge himself.
I praise YAH, that there was an “out clause” in our covenant with Him. A clause that could get us out of jail, dust us off and present us back to Our Father. That “out clause” is Yahusha. Our Rock and our Savior, the atonement for our wretchedness. However, in order to exercise the “out clause” we must first accept our punishment and then repent. This is what Shaul says about repentance over in his letter to the Corinthians:
“2 Cor. 7:10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. “
Accepting our punishment means acknowledging that we broke our wedding vows. It means believing in our brother and MessiYAH Yahusha and then changing our minds and turning back to YAH. Repentance is an action, because it makes us do righteous deeds. Acts 26:20 says: “but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.” So the end of repentance is right deeds.
Shalom,
http://inequality.org/racial-inequality/
http://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/75_fig1.jpg
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/07/18/chart-of-the-week-the-black-white-gap-in-incarceration-rates/