Sadly Racism is Alive and Well--even in the body of Christ

Disclaimer I don't normally write on slavery or racism---however, this had to be written tonight. 

If you know me, you know that I am a proud young woman who has a vested interest in Genealogy. You will know that I found cousins that I didn’t expect to find. You will know they are black and they are descendants of James Alfred Dula and Harriet Hershaw. If you know me, you will know that I am proud of my roots; I am proud to be a Dula Descendant and that I enjoy meeting new Dula cousins. If you know me; you will know that I take racism (white on black and black on white) very seriously—so seriously in fact that it breaks my heart. If you know me, you will have heard me say “It don’t matter if you are a Dula what that is Black or a Dula that is White, you’re family! We are called out to be a different people; to show our neighbors how to live.” If you know me, you will know that I don’t see skin tones; I see the body of Christ broken for you, and the blood of Christ poured out for you!

Today is April 1^st 2018 and a pastor friend of mine posted an extremely racist post—and this wasn’t the first time. At first I thought this was an “April Fools” joke; maybe someone had written a “book” and designed a couple of pages to look like the real thing. In my searching I found that this is a real book; that actually covers Colonialism and homosexuality in the colonies in the US, but mostly in French Colonies and in Australia. So I pointed that out to the people making extremely racist remarks. As you can see in the picture I was called a “WHITE DEVIL.” Seriously? Then the original author of the post used memes to get her point across instead of actually showing where “This book came from.” and also using Professor Robert Aldrich’s research.

This really saddens me because if I was to use a racist term to describe the ignorance today’s young people seem to vehemently demonstrate then I would be termed a racist; would possibly lose my job and would be considered a completely distasteful human being. However, I was attacked—had a racist slur thrown at me because I merely told the truth about what this book is about. I am not going to dwell on the racist slur that was thrown at me, instead I am going to educate some people because honestly, there are no “white devils” or “black devils” there are only HUMANS—and we are destroying ourselves with political garbage! I am going to throw some truth out that a lot of people won’t be able to stomach—they’ll immediately want to deny it, they’ll want to hate me for it, I will probably end up having a lot more racist slurs thrown at me…it’s okay.

Evidence of slavery predates written records, and has existed in many cultures. However, slavery is rare among hunter-gatherer populations. Mass slavery requires economic surpluses and a high population density to be viable. Due to these factors, the practice of slavery would have only proliferated after the invention of agriculture during the Neolithic Revolution, about 11,000 years ago. Slavery was known in civilizations as old as Sumer, as well as in almost every other ancient civilization, including Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, Babylonia, Ancient Iran, Ancient Greece, India, the Roman Empire, the Arab Islamic Caliphate and Sultanate, Nubia and the pre-Columbian civilizations of the Americas. Such institutions were a mixture of debt-slavery, punishment for crime, the enslavement of prisoners of war, child abandonment, and the birth of slave children to slaves.

As you can see slavery was known in the very first civilizations such as Sumer in Mesopotamia which dates back as far as 3500 BC, as well as in almost every other civilization. The Byzantine–Ottoman wars and the Ottoman wars in Europe resulted in the taking of large numbers of Christian slaves, especially amongst the Slavic peoples of Central and Eastern Europe. Slavery became common within much of Europe during the Dark Ages and it continued into the Middle Ages.  The Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, British, Arabs and a number of West African kingdoms played a prominent role in the Atlantic slave trade, especially after 1600. 

As a matter of fact, at the time of writing, it is the 3^rd night of Passover. A Jewish Feast that commemorates the freeing of the Jewish people from Pharaoh (the Ruler of Egypt, an African country). So for me to be attacked during Passover and called a racist slur isn’t unexpected—at least I know that if I am being persecuted, it’s because they first hated my Lord.

Reuter’s came out in 2007 with a Slavery Timeline.  You will notice that the first people to start abolishing slavery are “White European Christian Men” and it wasn’t Abraham Lincoln. The in 1948 - United Nations General Assembly adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including article stating “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”

So that should be it right? As of 1948, no more slavery? Sadly it’s not the last of slavery. Approximately, an estimated 35.8 million people are enslaved worldwide, according to a recent report by the Walk Free Foundation, a human rights organization. For those who are thinking “Well they are probably all white people still enslaving folks.” Only one of the countries is a “white, European country: Russia.”

This map shows where the nearly 38 million modern day slaves live…

So I know you are asking “is there anything that we can learn from one another?” Of course there is…we can learn to love. However, to do that we need to recognize that Jesus didn’t come to die for just white folks or black folks, free folks or enslaved folks. Matter of fact, Jesus came to set the captive free! People, I know you want to hold all “WHITE PEOPLE” accountable for whatever atrocities they committed; but I am not going to apologize for what my ancestors did—I am not my ancestors. You see, Satan is using this “Poor-me-I-can’t-get-no-where-because-of-white-people” mentality to keep you enslaved! If you want to believe that everything that some white person did or didn’t do to your ancestors—who may or may not have been enslaved—stolen from Africa, brought to America due to slavery—well that is on you! I choose to chalk ignorance up to the fact you didn’t have a teacher like my cousin(s); you haven’t read enough of your history to find out that you may be the product of an AMAZING family legacy—that includes all shades of skin-tones; but more than that, you don’t know that Jesus loves you, just as He loves me. 

When that Roman soldier held a hammer in his hands, and he nailed my savior to the cross, Jesus didn’t say “Well that girl is white, I can’t save her.”; He didn’t say “Well that guy is black, I can’t save him.” He flashed forward 2000 wondrous years and said “Because of that white/black girl/guy; I am going to endure the hate, hurt, anger, and sin that they will ever experience and I am going to pay their debt. Not so they have to say “I am sorry for what someone in the past did, but so they can forgive without apology and heal from those wounds.”

I don’t know about you, but that is pretty amazing stuff—the love of God doesn’t care if you are black, white, green, blue or red; it doesn’t care if you are  slave or if you are free; it doesn’t matter what your ancestors did or didn’t do—it’s right there for YOU! Still flowing down from that cross for over 2000 years—and it will continue to flow from the cross.