RACE… and the Impact of FEAR

by with 2 Comments Diversity & InclusionSocial Issues

In the popular 1997 hit, Up Jumps Da Boogie, rapper and producer Timbaland said, “See a Black man dead from a White man’s powder, see a White man scared from a Black man’s power.” The play on words is interesting when you think about the racial tension in our country today and the general fear of losing power. Individual or group power, however it’s attained, it’s usually not relinquished without a knock-down, drag-out fight… if not literally, then institutionally and policy-wise, and at the very least, rhetorically. 

With that being said, does the pigmentation of someone else persuade or alter the way you think about an entire culture or race of people?

What’s sad is that there are millions of people who won’t admit it; but in reality, their answer is yes to the aforementioned question. So why is it that people tend to find or search for fault in others that they don’t even know?

I wonder could it be that genetically some of us are embedded with a prejudice bone. Nahhhh that’s impossible. Reason being prejudice and racism is a disease that is taught… it’s a learned behavior. Young children are completely ignorant of prejudice and racism. Kids are naturally going to play with other kids because race or religion aren’t prerequisites for having fun. There should absolutely be no reason why 2 people can’t play or pray together. Unfortunately, by way of upbringing and media influence, kids are taught to recognize color in some form or fashion as their parents or community members do who uphold certain social beliefs and perspectives, which develops a pyramid of racial bias. It’s sad that the Caucasian race is perceived to be superior when, in fact, each race/ethnicity holds their own special qualities.

I believe it all boils down to fear. The fear of not knowing what one is capable of, or better yet the fear of accepting another for being different. Fear and power might be the main reasons behind the racial divide in the US, and throughout the world. Can you imagine being a slave in the Deep South and thinking about freedom, but the fear of being captured and lynched kept you from trying to escape? The daily fear of death or being separated from family, it’s hard to fathom such anguish.

My point is that as a society we’ve grown to accept people for being prejudice and racist. To make matters worst President Trump has added fuel to the fire of racial tension in our country. His inciteful rhetoric and actions impact us all, even those on the sidelines. Before we know it, we’ll be in a full blown Race War, which could set our country back hundreds of years.

As citizens, we need to come together and move beyond this Fear and Hate that looms over our country, and frankly, everywhere else as well. It’s not too late, but we’re running out of time.

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The Pepsi Challenge (Political Opinions & Social Progress)

by with No Comment Diversity & InclusionSocial Issues

Opinions should be innocuous and a matter of preference, and that has not been the case with political opinions. They’ve become so polarizing, that they’ve halted the political progression of this nation. Something no opinion should do. 

Have you ever been to a restaurant and the waiter asks for your drink order and you say, “I’ll just have a Coke?” The waiter sometimes responds, “I’m sorry, we only have Pepsi products.” With the exception of very rare sticklers to Coke products, almost everyone will simply order a Pepsi without giving it much thought.  Why? Because while most people prefer either Coke or Pepsi, it doesn’t prohibit them from enjoying a nice cold fizzy drink if their favorite isn’t available. No one is going to leave a restaurant for the protest of Coke products when the restaurant only has Pepsi products. You like Coke over Pepsi or Pepsi over Coke, yet your opinion on the soda is inconsequential and you have no problem drinking the similar alternative.

The current US political climate has allowed people to have political stances, stances that are quite damaging under the guise of “opinions.” 

Even more dangerous, opinions have superseded actual facts.

From the revisionist historical narrative that the American Civil War was fought over “states rights” and not slavery to holding dear to the belief President Obama was a Muslim (as if that would have been a bad thing anyway), their opinions have become shields for bigotry, thus the extreme polarization of issues. 

Related: Diplomacy and War: Know the Difference

Recent news has been filled with such opinions of Black Lives Matter vs all lives matter… maintaining confederate statues vs removing confederate statues… and the latest debate… how do people feel about Colin Kaepernick and the NFL player protests. “Opinions” on these issues mentioned above, specifically from those who identify as Conservative/Trump base, unequivocally go against a cause or people that have been wronged. 

“That’s just my opinion” simply isn’t valid for wanting to uphold honoring public places for a treasonous faction like the Confederate States of America. That “opinion” fuels the opposition and it’s a shield for an appreciation of the Confederacy, which you know… attacked the United States to uphold slavery. 

Yes, it seems as if this article is a dig at Conservatives/Trump base. For starters, you catch on quick; and second, yes, you are correct. Conservatives have become entrenched on opinions that side with the wrongdoing of marginalized people. Liberal or Conservative extremism is bad; however, Conservative extremism seems to be furthering the political divide in this nation for their relentless defense of bigotry and being anti-social progress. 

I want to do my part with those burning their Nikes… worried about Hillary Clinton emails… and seeing the need to honor Generals of a nation that went to war with their countrymen and attempted to secede from the United States. I offer you all a Coke and a smile… and if you don’t yell, “It’s disrespectful to the flag,” I’ll even see if I can get you a Pepsi. 

WITNESSING A BLUEPRINT IN MEMPHIS

by with No Comment CultureDiversity & InclusionFeatured

Scribbled on notepads in his study are the contemplations of a young man with a heavenly calling. With a skylight shining through an overhead window, a modern-day pioneer surrounded by sneaker boxes sketches his vision for a city in the Antebellum South.  In the coming weeks and months, those scribbles will blossom into palatable messages that will inspire and challenge the lives in his adopted community. Often only remembered as the location for the final living moments of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Memphis is in dire need of a rebirth. Once a major slave trading post, in 1862 during the Civil War, the Union Army recaptured the city of Memphis in an effort to emancipate those in bondage. Similarly, Pastors Jeremy and Tasha Louison are poised to capture the city of Memphis on behalf of the church they have been called to plant, Pioneer Church.

As someone who has raged against the machine of celebrity Christianity for the greater part of ten years, I have had a peek behind the curtain of a few mega churches. In Memphis, however, I had the pleasure of witnessing the grunt work that goes on behind the scenes of bringing to life a young church’s mission of creating an “environment where passionate, diverse, and spirit-filled people experience oneness with God and oneness with each other.”

After collectively working 100-hour weeks in their full-time careers and raising an energetic one-year-old, the Louisons can be found on Saturday evenings discussing edits to their announcements or dripping in sweat from moving tables and chairs in the sweltering southern heat. Absent are the smoke machines, Broadway-style lighting, Grammy-nominated choirs, and over-inflated salaries of pastors who are exempt from paying taxes. In an era where celebrity pastors strategically plant churches using the same business model as Starbucks, the Louisons have instead decided to adopt the model of The Apostle Paul: bringing the Gospel to the forgotten Gentiles of downtown Memphis. While other churches have decided to plant churches in affluent communities, Pioneer planted their flag where their message is most needed, in downtown Memphis. In an area that is riddled with abandoned commercial real estate and illegal prostitution is rampant when night falls, Pioneer Church is embodying what the Christian church is called to do in a modern world that is so in need of a life-giving message.

In the face of various naysayers who have stood on the sidelines shouting that the young couple’s vision was destined to fail, they have pressed on with a steely focus on the lives they have been called to impact. The congregants they lead steal away on Sundays to meet just as the congregants in the early church did: a small group of young men, women, and children finding oneness in their faith. A group that can be found exposing their wounds to one another while finding community through encouraging one another with love.

In 1967, a year before his death, Dr. King delivered a speech to a Philadelphia middle school where he posed the question, “What is your life’s blueprint?” A speech that is not as heralded as some of his more notable speeches, King encourages students to determine their own self-worth, to always achieve excellence in whatever work they put their hands to no matter the scale, and that there should always be a commitment to beauty, love, and justice. And in the place where Dr. King exhaled his final breaths, Pioneer Church is exhaling new ones by embodying that blueprint.

I swell with pride to call Pastor Jeremy and Tasha Louison my family. And after spending time in their home, I am even more eager to see their divine Blueprint come to life. I left their home reflecting on Chance The Rapper’s song, Blessings, as a benediction for that area of downtown Memphis: “Are you ready for your blessing? Are you ready for your miracle?”

Ideas Make This Country Great

by with 2 Comments Diversity & InclusionFeaturedGen Z

As a Muslim-American, I spend a decent amount of time thinking about patriotism. This has become increasingly so as some far right politicians and “conservative media outlets” seem to be intent on suggesting that my citizenship and my religion are incompatible. So what does it mean to be a patriot? Does it mean blind support of everything the United States does? Does it mean that anything the government does, especially anything it does abroad, I have to support? Does not doing so make me unpatriotic?

My answer to all the above is no. American patriotism extends far past borders, political affiliations, and current administrations. It has nothing to do with any specific policy objective, and it has even less to do with politics. It is not nationalism. It is idealism.

Ideas make this country great. Concepts like diversity and pluralism. Values like freedom and liberty. The rights guaranteed to us in the constitution. Being a patriot means standing by these values; no matter the circumstance, no matter the time period, and regardless of what may be politically expedient.

Patriotism has nothing to do with unconditional support of the government. In fact, I would argue that unconditional support of anything is toxic, and unconditional support of the government is almost certainly unpatriotic. When the NSA violates the constitutional right to privacy and the Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable searches by conducting warrantless domestic surveillance it is unpatriotic to be unopposed. Thinly veiled attempts at retroactive justification by appealing to issues of National Security aren’t patriotic. They’re hypocritical and contrary to the ideals that this country was founded on. As Benjamin Franklin famously wrote, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

To make this more contemporaneous, when Donald Trump proposes a completely un-American Muslim Ban we can’t allow silence to take the guise of patriotism. Silence is not patriotism. Unconditional support is not patriotism. Standing up for American values is patriotism, regardless of who is in office and what their policies entail.