UNFORGIVEN tee

Elaine Brown Black Panther Party Chairwoman:

“What I did was look out across the country and I saw white people killing Black people. I saw them hanging Black people, raping Black women, beating Black children, bombing Black churches. And then I saw them turn around and tell me that I should be nonviolent…Until white America admits that they are complicit in the terror that is inflicted on Black people every single day, nothing will change.”

65-75% of Black Americans identify as Christian. Yes, Christianity was in Africa before it was in Europe, but let’s be more specific — it was in East Africa. 50-60% of Black Americans whose ancestors were part of the transatlantic slave trade were from West Africa, 30-40% from Central Africa, and 5-10% from Southeast Africa. It was in Africa, but it never came close to your ancestors. The Christianity most of us follow was forced upon us by the white conquistador colonizer, and it was altered and weaponized to keep us subservient, to benefit the white man and uphold his power.

I don’t have a problem with folks being Christian, but I do have a problem with folks using their Christianity to become so docile that they let white people keep undermining us, dividing us, killing us — all for the sake of forgiving them in the name of Jesus. People forget just how revolutionary Jesus was.

This was the same Jesus who flipped tables in the temple (Matthew 21:12-13), the same Jesus who warned against the greed of the rich (Mark 10:25), the same Jesus who called out hypocritical religious leaders (Matthew 23:27-28). But people get lost in the translation and in the pastors they follow. And, of course, the white pastors will preach about peace and love, about turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:39) to the issues they claim you can’t control. But what they’re really preaching is for you to stay docile, to stay asleep, to stay in line.

If they actually spoke on how revolutionary Jesus was, you’d realize that they’re playing a part in keeping you down in this world, just like the government does, just like capitalistic companies do, just like every other system that profits from your suffering and exploitation. They’ll feed you poison and call it a superfood and watch you not pay attention to the slow extermination they’re plotting against you. They’ll feed you lies just so you can keep typing away at that job that keeps you too tired to fight back, too distracted to focus on the real enemy.

They’ll give you temporary comfort, a false sense of security, just so you can think that everything is alright in life. But you and everyone else knows that’s far from the truth. It’s time to wake up and see who’s really preaching salvation and who’s preaching sedation. 

-CEO with a Fro’