Dear Editor,
I read your recent article. I thank you for your open-mindedness.
History [American and Biblical] has factually proven there is only one race and that is the human race. Hence, I do not refer to myself as a “Black” man. James Baldwin states, “I am not your Negro.” I am an American of African descent. Hence, it is White Idolatry that created racism, which produce the classification of race based upon the color of ones skin tone. Hence, the first Europeans to arrive on the continent were not classified as white- that classification was created to justify the peculiar enslavement of humanity.
Hence, it is our “Humanity” and love of the True God and our neighbor that rejects White Idolatry. I wish, I could for a moment simply live as though white idolatry doesn’t exist. But for me, I cannot be a recipient of that kind of white privilege and to believe, so, would be utterly foolish.
I must remain keenly aware I am judged on the hue of my complexion with the most Innocent jester or comment. I am not given the benefit of the doubt. I am usually assumed guilty and even if I am proven 100 percent innocent, I remain tainted. Ironically, if someone of who is classified as “white” is wrong, they’re given the benefit of doubt and praised for their admission of guilt. Hence, that’s the systemic racist system that exist in the United States of America. In closing, I would like to include an article written by Brother James Wallis, President of Sojourners:
“As a faith leader I say no, resignation is not enough — we need to something further and deeper. We need repentance. What if Ralph Northam were to say something like this:
This incident around my yearbook page has revealed to me, and to the whole country, how oblivious and utterly clueless so many of us white people are when it comes to the hateful, violent, and sinful history of racism in our country. I will indeed resign, but that is no longer enough. I first need to repent of the sin of racism, on behalf of myself and on behalf of the state of Virginia of which I am the elected governor. I will practice that repentance as governor of the state of Virginia that was the cradle of the Confederacy, which was not only treason against the United States but a violation of the image of God by putting African human beings in bondage. On this year’s 400th anniversary of bringing slavery to the United States at Jamestown, Virginia in August of 1619, I will declare by executive order that all Confederate statues in the state of Virginia will now be removed from all public places — and their removal protected by the Virginia national guard. I believe this is the right way to recognize the 400th anniversary of human bondage for black people in America — which happened in my state. I will also declare the end of any more racialized voter suppression in Virginia, as well as the continuing racially unequal and unfair policing and mass incarceration in our state — with concrete policy decisions to make it so. After such repentance, I will resign.”
That would be an acknowledgement of the real state of the union in America and the right way to begin our repentance of the sin of racial bondage on the occasion of its 400th anniversary in America.
In my prayers,
M. Stephen Green
Houston