When There Is No Hope
Scriptures: Jeremiah 1:5; 29:11; Proverbs 29:18; Psalm 139:13-14
Introduction:
To the readers who are not members of my congregation: This message is to my congregation. What you will read is my message to the members God has placed under my spiritual care. I cast no blame or accusation on anyone involved in the incidents I will mention. However, as I am responsible for my congregation, I must make sure that they know what “we” must do to protect our children and increase their awareness of what is happening around and to them in hope that if they see the potential, they can negate it before it happens. That being said, I do not care what your color is, black, white, red or green, if you should read anything in this message that might apply to you, as the old folks used to say – “If the shoes fit, please feel free to wear them.” God bless!
As a member of the clergy in this community, I received an email from the mayor of this city requesting that I reach out to my congregation to be I prayer about the upcoming announcement from the grand jury decision to indict or not indict the officer involved in the death of Michael Brown. In his email he acknowledged that “the turmoil in Ferguson is an expression of division and mistrust that predates the recent shooting by several decades.” I am not standing before you to minimize or justify what has been reported as Mr. Brown’s actions during the incident or the actions and later statements of the officer involved. While we must understand that we will never know all of the truth pertaining to what led to this shooting, the fact that these shootings continue to occur more frequently towards people of color should be noted. (Last week a twelve year old black boy was shot and killed by police because they thought the gun he had was real.) There is a problem in our nation and there are some things that must change. Based on historical data, I can understand the outcry in Ferguson and potentially Cleveland. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean by historical data.
• Today people of color continue to be disproportionately incarcerated, policed, and sentenced to death at significantly higher rates than their white counterparts. Racial disparities in the criminal-justice system threaten communities of color—disenfranchising thousands by limiting voting rights and denying equal access to employment, housing, public benefits, and education to millions more.
• The incarceration rate in state or federal prison or jail for white men was 736 per 100,000 versus 4,789 per 100,000 for black men and 1,862 per 100,000 for Hispanic men.
• While people of color make up about 30 percent of the United States’ population, they account for 60 percent of those imprisoned as 1 in every 15 African American men and 1 in every 36 Hispanic men are incarcerated in comparison to 1 in every 106 white men.
• According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime. Individuals of color have a disproportionate number of encounters with law enforcement, indicating that racial profiling continues to be a problem. A report by the Department of Justice found that blacks and Hispanics were approximately three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop than white motorists. African Americans were twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.
• Students of color face harsher punishments in school than their white peers, leading to a higher number of youth of color incarcerated. Black and Hispanic students represent more than 70 percent of those involved in school-related arrests or referrals to law enforcement.
• According to recent data by the Department of Education, African American students are arrested far more often than their white classmates. The data showed that 96,000 students were arrested and 242,000 referred to law enforcement by schools during the 2009-10 school years. Of those students, black and Hispanic students made up more than 70 percent of arrested or referred students.
• African American youth have higher rates of juvenile incarceration and are more likely to be sentenced to adult prison. According to the Sentencing Project, even though African American juvenile youth are about 16 percent of the youth population, 37 percent of their cases are moved to criminal court and 58 percent of African American youth are sent to adult prisons.
• The war on drugs has been waged primarily in communities of color where people of color are more likely to receive higher offenses. According to the Human Rights Watch, people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, but they have higher rate of arrests.
• Once convicted, black offenders receive longer sentences compared to white offenders. The U.S. Sentencing Commission stated that in the federal system black offenders receive sentences that are 10 percent longer than white offenders for the same crimes. The Sentencing Project reports that African Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants and are 20 percent more likely to be sentenced to prison.
These are statistics that are available to anyone who cares to search for them. These statistics do not lie and point to a real problem within our system. Going to prison as a black male carries long term implications which could lead to their voices being silenced forever – and not just because of death. Consider these facts:
• Voter laws that prohibit people with felony convictions to vote disproportionately impact men of color. An estimated 5.3 million Americans are denied the right to vote based on a past felony conviction. Felony disenfranchisement is exaggerated by racial disparities in the criminal-justice system, ultimately denying 13 percent of African American men the right to vote. Felony-disenfranchisement policies have led to 11 states denying the right to vote to more than 10 percent of their African American population. If a state can control who votes, they can potentially control the outcome of the voting process.
• Studies have shown that people of color face disparities in wage trajectory following release from prison. Evidence shows that spending time in prison affects wage trajectories with a disproportionate impact on black men and women. The results show no evidence of racial divergence in wages prior to incarceration; however, following release from prison, wages grow at a 21 percent slower rate for black former inmates compared to white ex-convicts.
One person wrote that “These racial disparities have deprived people of color of their most basic civil rights, making criminal-justice reform the civil rights issue of our time. Through mass imprisonment and the overrepresentation of individuals of color within the criminal justice and prison system, people of color have experienced an adverse impact on themselves and on their communities from barriers to reintegrating into society to engaging in the democratic process. Eliminating the racial disparities inherent to our nation’s criminal-justice policies and practices must be at the heart of a renewed, refocused, and reenergized movement for racial justice in America.” Well said - but where do we start? How can we impact change to secure the future of our young men and women of color? I do not profess to have all of the answers but I want to offer up a place to start – at home!
Rev. Dr. Martin L. King said “A riot is the language of the unheard.” People riot when their voices have been silenced and they feel that they are being ignored and their voices muted. When you consider the facts that I just mentioned then you understand our need as a people to ensure that our voices are never silenced and when we speak our voices are heard. This will not be accomplished from behind prison walls or from the grave. To ensure that the voices of the next generation is heard, we must prepare them now to speak.
I. Instilling Value
Everything that I am and all that I have done started with what was instilled within me in the home that I grew up in. I faced racism on a level that many of you have not ever witnessed. I grew up in the south during a time when some things were still segregated. I remember having “special” areas to sit in at the movies or stepping to the side to allow a white person to pass by on the sidewalk. I remember the racial slurs and the ideas that because of the color of my skin I was less than others. I lived through those times and made it through with a sense of self because of what was placed within me. My parents and grandparents were not college educated, but they knew enough to instill in us an understanding of our environment and what it would take for us to make it in this world at that time. One thing that I learned later to appreciate about them is that they stood for what they believe in. While they worked within the system to force change, sometimes it took more than that. Regardless, they never accepted that they were less than any man they encountered and that was instilled into all of my siblings. While some things have changed, in the eyes of some the value of a man is still based on the color of their skin. This has led to many of our children not believing that they can accomplish their dreams in life. Some of this comes from the home as some parents today are so focused on living “their” dream that their children’s dreams are being crushed under the weight of the parents living theirs. This is not a put down on all parents who are struggling in this world financially to make ends meet. This is not about status, it’s about what is in our inner core – what we believe about ourselves and what we are placing within our children. We have to make sure they see value within themselves. If a child is not being instilled with a sense that they are valued, they will grow up with the mentality that they are not important and therefore what they do or don’t do does not matter. Consider the following Scriptural references:
Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans that I have for you’, declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not calamity to give you a future and a hope.”
I believe our heavenly Father feels the same towards us today as He did when these words were spoken to Jeremiah. God is our heavenly Father who knew us when before He formed us in our mother’s womb when He placed His calling upon our lives – even though we have the choice to accept and walk in that calling or not. He knows us and He knows what He has planned for us – good, not evil, so that we will have a future and a hope. This is what God has given to us. Should we not do the same for our children? Should we not instill within them a sense of their own personal value? Imagine what will happen when parents start talking to their babies while they are still in the womb telling them that they are valued. Imagine that child growing up with restrictions in their lives that focuses them on their future even though they can barely grasp “their future” as a child. Imagine that parent constantly telling them that they are worth something and they can accomplish anything. Can you see this child growing up with a sense of purpose? The child will still make mistakes, but they will not grow up with a sense of hopelessness that some of our young black men (and women) are experiencing based on what is currently happening in society. When I say we must start at home, I am saying that we must take ownership of our future generation so that we will have a future generation. We must teach them that even though we are striving for equality, it has not been obtained yet in every sense of the word and therefore they have to understand how to walk in this world as it exists today. They have to understand that in order to affect change they must be in a position to do so. They cannot affect change by being locked behind bars or dead. We must instill that understanding into them now while we still have a chance to save them! We must instill within them to strive for greatness as mediocrity will not help them get to a point of instilling change. God has a plan for us and our children – we have to ensure that we recognize it and that they do also.
II. Plant The Vision
When God delivered the Children of Israel out of Egypt at the hands of Moses, He told Moses teach the people about obedience and to ensure that the people taught their children. In Deuteronomy the sixth chapter Moses encourages the people to teach their children about God so that when they come into the promise land they will not forget and follow after strange Gods. God told Moses to teach them in such a way that the teachings will forever be a reminder to them and before their eyes at all times. Again, this was being done so that in “their future” they would remember and act accordingly. This message was about being obedient to God. Obedience starts in the home and is fulfilled in actions outside the home. God instructed Moses to teach them people to teach their kids about obedience. This is a lesson we need to be teaching our children, but I am getting off track.
We must teach our children about their history, not just from the viewpoint of what took place, but the impact that it had on how people think today. They learn some aspects of black history in school, but it only touches the surface. They must learn about the impact of those times and our current times and choose to be a part of the change that must still come to past. If we only teach them about the negative things that have happened that will forever shade their view of the world around them. We can’t condemn a whole race of people because of the actions of some, but we must own up to our roles and choose how to be a part of the change we desire to see. To do this, we must instill within our children that there is hope and that there is a vision that can come to past – but it will require work. Our children need to have a sense of the many who have gone before them who paved the way for what we have access to today. Many (both blacks and whites) shed their blood and died for the freedoms we all enjoy. There was a price that has been paid to get us here and it is up to us to continue to move forward through our children. Our children must believe that they can achieve success in whatever field they choose and that belief starts with us as parents. We must teach our children that although we have been victimized as a race of people, we do not have to be victims within our own minds. We must see beyond the walls of hatred, especially in circumstances like what Ferguson is experiencing since many believe the foundation of the incident is racism.
Proverbs 29:18 says “Where there is no vision the people are unrestrained. But happy is he who keeps the law.” Some translations say “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” In the context of the message I am trying to deliver this morning this is lived out daily in the lives of some of our youths. They do not have any hope of a future so they live each day as if their lives do not matter. Even if we as parents have not reached our goals, we must push our children to see and realize theirs. Our children are perishing emotionally, mentally and physically because they cannot see a future. They have no vision of what their lives could be like. All they see is what they are experiencing right now, today! We must plant the vision before our children and speak it into existence. We must confirm their presence. We must keep them (the visions) alive in those days when our children might feel like giving up. This is the only way we will begin to change the course of our nation.
III. Instilling Pride And A Sense Of Self
Stephen Biko made several statements that I think is appropriate for our young people today. He was an anti-apartheid activist who founded the Black Consciousness Movement which empowered and mobilized much of the urban black population is South Africa. He was killed while in police custody. One the goals of his movement were to change how the black man (and woman) thought about his/her situation. Here are a couple of things that he said that if we did these things today with our children we can start implementing change:
“The greatest weapon in the hand of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”
“…..As a prelude whites must be made to realize that they are only human, not superior. Same with Blacks. They must be made to realize that they are also human, not inferior.” (1977)
“You are either alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can’t care anyway.” (1978)
“Being black is not a matter of pigmentation – being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.” (1978)
“It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realize that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality. The first step therefore is to make the black man come to himself; to pump back life into his empty shell; to infuse him with pride and dignity, to remind him of his complicity in the crime of allowing himself to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in the country of his birth.” (1978)
If we take the time and examine these quotes (some of which I am sure many of you have heard for the first time) you will find that he was speaking to how the “black man” thought. His goal was to change how the black man saw himself and thus how he responded to the situation around him. He tried to get people to understand that they could rise above how they were being treated – it was about how they saw themselves. If you ever have a free evening, watch the movie “Cry Freedom” which starred Denzel Washington as Stephen Biko. The movie did a very good job of explaining what he stood for. And for those of you who do not know the story, his story was only made public because of publisher/writer who was white and one of Stephen’s close friends. When he started his movement, he was not being “anti-white” or a racist, he was seeking equality which started with how the black man saw himself.
So let me ask you this question. How do you think some of our young people see themselves? What do you think is going through their minds when they barely finish High School and can’t find a job because we as parents failed them? What do you think they are thinking when they are duck walking down the street because they are wearing their pants so low that their underwear shows and they must walk that way to keep their pants up? What do you think they are thinking when their role models wear gold bridges across their teeth and calls young ladies the “b” word versus a man who works a job and takes care of his family? What do you think they are thinking when those around them don’t care, don’t work and live off the system – or doing something illegal to earn a living? If we do not change how some of our young people are thinking we will continue to see what we are seeing now – the prison walls filling up with more and more people of color or their blood being shed in the streets because of fear and/or outright racism.
When our kids are small we should have them learn and quote on demand Psalm 139:13-14 which says “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works; and my soul knows it very well.” If we can get our children to understand that they were fearfully and wonderfully made and that they have a future, we can make a difference with them. If they continue to see themselves at the bottom with no hope of success, then the battle is already lost.
Conclusion
At the beginning of this message I told you about the email I received from the mayor prior to the announcement being made by the grand jury in Ferguson, Mo. I have talked with several people about this situation (both black and white) and the sentiments are the same – this was a senseless killing which underlines deeper racial issues and distrust in that community. But it’s not just that community – there have been protests across our nation because of this incident and several others which in my opinion was even worse. There have been several cases in the last two years where white police officers have shot and killed boys of color because they believed the toy guns they were holding were real. The most recent case was a situation in Cleveland, OH. There is a problem in our nation that needs to be addressed. I told you that I did not have all of the answers, but I do have the starting point. That starting point is home.
I am not saying that the parents of Michael Brown failed in any way or the parents of other young black males who were killed by police failed. What I am saying though is that we have failed as a group to prepare our most vulnerable members to fulfill their dreams. We have allowed them to walk away from the promise that our ancestors fought and died for hoping that one day our lives would be better. We have allowed them to think that this is all that there is. If we are going to change the future, we must start in the home. We must make sure we have a seat at the table when decisions are made and that can only happen when we have fulfilled our jobs.
As I close I want to share these final words from Stephen Biko: “Double consciousness is knowing the particularity of the white world in the face of its enforced claim to universality. Double consciousness is knowing the history offered up to black people – its many interpretations and echoes of white superiority and black inferiority, of white heroism and black cowardice, and even the temporal and geographical location of history’s beginning as a step off of the African continent – is a falsehood that blacks are forced to treat as truth in so many countless ways. Double consciousness, in other words, is knowing a lie while living its contradiction.”
Our children are living with a double consciousness today that Stephen Biko was describing about the blacks in South Africa before his untimely death. You see, some of our children, based strictly on their conduct and lack of hope, see themselves inferior to others as it relates to opportunities and their ability to achieve. Because they believe things are stacked against them, they accept the restrictions, many of which are of their own doing. Deep down they know it’s a lie (that they are inferior) but it does not stop them from living the contradictions. We must bring our children to a single consciousness – that they can achieve and they can do it in this nation.
So if you want to know my thoughts and what is happening in Ferguson, MO, I will tell you that I agree with what the mayor said in his email. “The loss of any life is a tragedy that should bring us together for the common good, not divide us further.” While I do not know all of the specifics, my heart goes out to both families. Both families will be dealing with this tragedy for years to come. And for all of us sitting on the outside and looking in; while we are assimilating opinions based on what the reporters and telling us which will never be full disclosure, I just want to ask you one question: “What would you do if you knew this could happen to your child and you wanted to prevent it?” Then please go do it now!!! Whether you’re black, white or any other color, today this could happen to any of our children!
To prevent these tragic incidents in the future and to protect our children, we have to prepare them in the home. If they are going to be part of the change, their voices must be heard. If they go to prison for a felony and lose their right to vote, their voice is now silenced! If they are killed, their voice is silenced! Let’s keep their voices alive!
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
