Thursday, August 23, 2018

Anti-blackness or oppression?


Quotations in this article are based on a new book titled Anti-blackness and Christian Ethics.
This book is reviewed by Edward J. Blum, an American historian.  His quotations are from that review in the August 15, 2018 Christian Century:

"The term anti-blackness is relatively new.  Some think it should replace racism and white privilege as the organizing concept for addressing the mistreatment of African Americans.  For them, racism is too general and malleable, as it can be deployed to discuss any form of differential treatments based on conceptions of race.  Though white privilege draws attention to the many benefits of being deemed a white person--like the reality that I don't feel anxious when I walk by a police car--it fails to account for the horrifying treatment of those regarded as black.  White privilege keeps one person from being shot by the police, but it does not explain why other individuals are far more likely to have bullet holes riddle their bodies.  Anti-blackness clearly names the problem: the personal, cultural, social, legal, and structural attacks on people called black."

I prefer using a biblical term when possible.  Racism is not a biblical term; race is not a biblical category.

Oppression is a biblical term.  It is found 555 times in the Old Testament.  I think it is a better term than either white privilege or anti-blackness.  Oppression can include the oppressor and the oppressed.  So it could refer to the white oppressor and include white privilege as a benefit of white oppression.

Here is my paraphrase of Isaiah 10:1-2 which could be applied to the white oppressor:

"Woe [doomed to hell] are those who make oppressive laws to deprive the poor of their rights, and withhold justice from the oppressed widows and orphans."

And the oppressed are included in the biblical usage which could be applied to anti-blackness.  Biblical definitions of oppression have the following meanings: crush, humiliate, animalize, impoverish, enslave, and kill.  We could also include anti-Indian, anti-Mexican, anti-Asian under the biblical concept of oppressed.

A second quotation from the review by Blum:

"Anti-blackness and Christian Ethics shows how American religion and Christianity have been creators, shapers, and legitimizers of anti-blackness."

"By pointing to the inheritance of anti-blackness, Anti-blackness and Christian Ethics is a wonderful conversation starter.  On the question of how anti-blackness can be overturned, the book has less to say.  The editors acknowledge that although 'the problems are clear, the solutions are often less so'."

Again this is where the Bible can come to our rescue.  The Bible has a clearer theology of justice and the kingdom of God.  Justice is the only way to end oppression.  The Old Testament prophets are full of justice.  Amos declares in 5:24 [The Message]: "I want justice--oceans of it."

Though not apparent in any English translation of the New Testament, any French, Spanish, or Latin translation of the New Testament contains about 100 references to justice.  So in reality, the New Testament is as justice oriented as the Old.  Though one would not know this reading the King James which has zero references to justice and the NIV which only has sixteen.

So I urge all my readers to develop considerable biblical expertise on both oppression and justice.




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