Racism Cannot Drive Out Racism

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Dr. Martin Luther King

It is one thing to oppose racism and injustice but replacing one form of racism with another solves nothing. Only racial reconciliation and biblical justice will work.

Zuby, the British rapper and podcast host, expressed it well, when he wrote on Twitter, “To whom it may concern, it is possible to uplift a group of people without denigrating another.”

Today we see the demonizing of blacks with the demonizing of whites. And, as history has shown, whenever hatred arises, there will be the demonizing of the Jews.

The demonizing of white people isn’t new as detailed in a 1993 article, Melanin, Afrocentricity, and Pseudoscience. ” A component of the Afrocentric movement,” according to the author Bernard Montellano, “has incorporated a theory that black people, including ancient Egyptians, have superior mental, physical, and paranormal powers because they have more melanin both in their skin and in their brains. By extension it is also claimed that black people have more melatonin and P-MSH in their systems and that these compounds also contribute to the superiority of people of color over whites.”

In similar fashion, Nick Cannon is quoted in an article at the Dail Mail saying that he was fired for comments he made on a podcast where he claimed that black people were the true Hebrews; Jews usurped their identify; and that “white people of the past were ‘savages’ and ‘barbaric’ because they lacked the ‘compassion’ that comes with melanin or skin pigmentation,” adding that those without melanin were a “little less.”

Cannon added that Jewish people, white people, Europeans were “closer to animals and the ones that are actually the true savages.”

It is true that blacks have been oppressed, sold by their own people into slavery to whites. It is also true that they were for the most part mistreated, degraded and demoralized. So, some may say that it is understandable, maybe even forgivable, that they respond to hatred with hatred. Understandable maybe but that doesn’t justify it.

To rephrase the sentiments of Zuby, you can regain your own self-esteem without trashing others. You can elevate your own status without damning everyone else. As St. Paul exhorted the believers in Rome, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

We’re very familiar with the widespread nature of the historic white racism of the south, as epitomized by the Ku Klux Klan but less familiar with how influential Farrakhan and his Islamic movement have been.

As reported by the Forward, “Several prominent Black celebrities attended anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s July 4 public address, the Anti-Defamation League revealed Wednesday, citing the Nation of Islam’s own newspaper.

“Among those in attendance included actor Nick Cannon and former NBA basketball player Stephen Jackson, both of whom had been criticized in the past week for making anti-Semitic statements, as well as music artists TI, 2Chainz, Rick Ross, Jay Electronica, Stephanie Mills and Syleena Johnson.”

So, while there may be context and history to Cannon’s hatred. And, even while claiming love for all people, including the Jews, Jackson said, “I’m a fan of minister Farrakhan because nobody loves black people more than him and that’s just facts. I’m my own man. I believe what I want to believe and I love everybody else. But I love the minister. … He’s teaching me how to be a leader. He’s teaching me more about my people and how to do what’s right.”

Not surprisingly, when the legendary NBA icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar issued a warning in the Hollywood Reporter about unchecked antisemitic rhetoric, the rapper and actor Ice Cube (himself accused of antisemitism) was not happy. He tweeted, “Shame on the Hollywood Reporter who obviously gave my brother Kareem 30 pieces of silver to cut us down without even a phone call.

But Abdul-Jabbar was spot on his comments, writing, “When reading the dark squishy entrails of popular culture, meh-rage in the face of sustained prejudice is an indisputable sign of the coming Apatholypse: apathy to all forms of social justice. After all, if it’s OK to discriminate against one group of people by hauling out cultural stereotypes without much pushback, it must be OK to do the same to others. Illogic begets illogic.”

Exactly so.

And he closed with this: “The lesson never changes, so why is it so hard for some people to learn: No one is free until everyone is free. As Martin Luther King Jr. explained: ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.’ So, let’s act like it. If we’re going to be outraged by injustice, let’s be outraged by injustice against anyone.”

It is the only way to move forward. And if positive change is going to come wherever it is needed, it will only come by replacing racism with respect, not replacing one form of racism with another.

Racism anywhere, against anyone, is a malignant and infectious disease. It must never be cultivated or condoned. It can only be uprooted, anywhere and everywhere.

source: ViacomCBS Is on the Wrong Side of History says Nick Cannon, Daily Mail;

Dr. Michael Brown

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