Rhetoric Race and Religion
by Paula Penn-Nabrit
*This first appeared on the Telos Training blog
We Sunday School Sisters met as we do each week, but this last Sunday was the Sunday after the “not guilty” verdict rendered by a jury of white women in the Zimmerman trail. I’ve taught and baked for this class for the past seven years, and I try to be conscious of the personal biases I bring to our discussions, especially the ones fraught with emotional energy. I’m a 1981 graduate of The Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University, but in this instance I did not feel led to give a legal analysis. I’m a 70’s era graduate of prestigious (and predominantly white) Columbus School for Girls and Wellesley College, so you know I know a thing or two about rhetoric and white women, but I didn’t feel led to give an intellectual, feminist analysis. I have been an entrepreneur since the mid-80’s and homeschooled through the 90s, but I didn’t feel led to give a purely DIY analysis. I’ve also written a few books, but I didn’t feel led to give a literary analysis. It’s not that those components of my life are empty tropes, it’s just that I’m not a 1st generation anything. My late husband and I come from families with parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who were native-born, college-educated U.S. citizens, people who owned businesses and often educated their own children, and all of it happened in and around the construct of the black church. That’s my orientation, deeply layered within what many 1st generation everythings dismiss as the cult of respectability, so that’s where I always begin my quest for answers.
Like most Sunday morning Christian congregations across America, last Sunday ours was segregated-and truthfully, I was glad. I didn’t have the energy to moderate my feelings must less explain to any kind, generous and well-meaning white women how this verdict really, truly and honestly was in fact about race. Or to quote the vernacular “ain’t nobody got time for ‘dat!” So we black women who exist as wives, mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, aunts and cousins of black men and black boys came to Sunday School and talked about what most of America was talking about, but we talked about it within the very distinct and very personal constructs of experience, faith and understanding. We are not academics, pundits, politicians, psychologists, sociologists or television personalities armed with brilliant books and intellectually intriguing, critically important but as yet untested theories.
We are “just” black women working to navigate the multi-dimensional currents of class, color, gender and race. Some of us have fully grown sons, some have baby boys not yet weaned and some have never birthed any sons of our own-but we are black women who love black men and black boys. We are black women who love black men and black boys who love the Lord, the ones who serve as ministers, trustees, deacons and elders; the ones who drive the vans, lead praise and worship, teach Sunday School and volunteer as church camp counselors; the ones who pay tithes and offerings and set up the grill for the church picnics while they talk smack about game in basketball and checkers. We are black women who love black men and black boys who love us back, fiercely! who kiss us and hug us, who tease us and work very hard to care for us knowing all the while, often in unstated denial, that none of us are truly safe in these black bodies because we are indeed strangers in a strange land; a land we helped colonize, cultivate and develop from agrarian to industrial and finally high-tech sources of capital. We are black women who struggle to find the balance between respecting the space the black men and the black boys we love need while always worrying about their safety. We are black women who see and try to assuage the anger in the eyes of the black men and the black boys we love after they’ve faced yet another unwarranted “Step out of the car”, “Show me some id” or “What are you doing in this neighborhood?” insult from police, home-owner association patrols and sadly sometimes even neighbors.
We are black women who wonder when it might be the last straw, when the black men and the black boys we love might forget about our angst and our worry and our waiting and respond with fury, with rage and with righteous indignation. We wonder when they might pull a Moses at Pharaoh’s daughter’s house. Remember when he killed that Egyptian? Exodus 2: 12-14 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. We wonder about the consequences to their black bodies if the black men and the black boys we love suddenly snap, “stand their ground” and “smite” somebody.
My familial roles of grand-daughter, daughter, sister, widow, niece, cousin, aunt and mother of 30+ black men and black boys brought an intensity to the conversation that quite frankly, I’m convinced only other black women could understand. And even with baking, community and prayer-the proverbial eat, love, pray, peace is still elusive because Trayvon Martin’s murder is not new. My maternal great-grandmother was born in 1872 and died when I
was 11. My paternal grandfather was born in 1891 and died my freshman year in college. I grew up with black parents, black grandparents and a black great-grandmother plus lots and lots and lots of very old black people in the church my family has attended for over 100 years. I learned much of American history through hushed, but overheard conversations and stern lectures about conduct given in anger to mask the fear. I was 9 in 1963 when the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was bombed in Birmingham killing 4 little girls in Sunday School so I knew we weren’t safe even in church. It wasn’t until 1977, I was 23, married and in law school before anyone was convicted of the murders of those little girls thus validating the Victorian-era’s four-time British Prime Minister William Gladstone’s adage “Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied.” (Yes, the same Gladstone who argued in Parliament against the abolition of slavery, proving once again that even a broke clock is right twice a day!) All of which is to say that the Zimmerman verdict was disturbing but not surprising in the trajectory of British common law, American jurisprudence and domestic terrorism.
was 11. My paternal grandfather was born in 1891 and died my freshman year in college. I grew up with black parents, black grandparents and a black great-grandmother plus lots and lots and lots of very old black people in the church my family has attended for over 100 years. I learned much of American history through hushed, but overheard conversations and stern lectures about conduct given in anger to mask the fear. I was 9 in 1963 when the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was bombed in Birmingham killing 4 little girls in Sunday School so I knew we weren’t safe even in church. It wasn’t until 1977, I was 23, married and in law school before anyone was convicted of the murders of those little girls thus validating the Victorian-era’s four-time British Prime Minister William Gladstone’s adage “Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied.” (Yes, the same Gladstone who argued in Parliament against the abolition of slavery, proving once again that even a broke clock is right twice a day!) All of which is to say that the Zimmerman verdict was disturbing but not surprising in the trajectory of British common law, American jurisprudence and domestic terrorism.
Sunday School was wonderful, but hard all at the same time. We spoke candidly about our feelings-and yes, we know God is still on the throne. We spoke about our fears, and yes we still believe 2 Timothy 1:7, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. We spoke about our hopes for the admittedly remote possibility that maybe, just maybe some prominent Christian leader or two might respond the admonition in Isaiah 58:1, Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, but alas that didn’t seem to have happened in too many places.
Apparently we Christians, including our mostly white Evangelical brothers and sisters can only deviate collectively from the “Christ and Him crucified” hermeneutics when abortion, homosexuality and immigration are the topics on the table. But we Sunday School Sisters challenged ourselves beyond the dreaded church talk conflation of sentiment, civic religion and empty bromides and stopped at this question “Why are we at a loss as to what to do in the face of so much anger, disappointment and distrust?” We agreed with the declaration in Psalm 48:2 that God’s word is indeed beautiful for situation and by consensus agreed that this institutionalized racism is indeed a situation. We reminisced about our viewing of “Pray the Devil Back to Hell”, a documentary produced by Abigail Disney detailing how Leymah Gbowee organized Christian and Muslim women in prayer to end a bloody civil war in Liberia back in 2003 and were inspired anew. So we wiped the last crumbs of the deliciously Iced Cinnamon Buns I baked (I’m not braggin’-they were delicious!) from our faces, held hands in prayer and left class committed to seek wisdom and the spirit of discernment about how to address the cancer in our land, of which the Zimmerman verdict is just a symptom.
So back to Psalm 48:2’s declaration of beautiful for situation. Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away when I was a young woman in college, one of my majors was Philosophy. I grew to love the thesis, antithesis and synthesis trajectory of the Hegelian dialectic, but my first love, my original orientation, is much more straight-forward and it is the simple question, “What does God say about that?” For a response I went to Proverbs 6:16-19. These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” Hmmm…so I know without controversy God is not pleased with our situation, the cancer of racism (devising wicked imaginations) that led the armed adult George Zimmerman to murder the unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin (hands that shed innocent blood), the sloth and reticence of the Stanford police and prosecution team (he that soweth discord among the brethren), the condescending and patronizing defense counsel (a proud look, a lying tongue), the Zimmerman supporters (a false witness that speaketh lies), the jury (feet that be swift in running to mischief) or the verdict. The trial and its verdict illuminated Isaiah 59:4, No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil. And Isaiah 30:12-13 Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. So yes indeed, Virginia, the Bible is a very big book, the Old Testament does not end in Leviticus and a great many things are an abomination to God!
Over a decade ago, my dear friend and mentor, the late, great Harvard then NYU law school professor Derrick Bell sent me the following email: “I wonder. Were the conditions under which the Biblical Israelites lived under Roman rule really worse than those which so many of us experience in America today? There was much denial then and
now, and then and now, those who sought to speak the truth faced punishment from the rulers and distancing from those they wanted to help.” Because he was such a serious scholar, so far removed from the cloying and compromising cult of personality that seems to periodically overtake many of those in the academy, his work always seemed to come from a genuine and holistic place of inquiry, so I wasn’t really surprised that his intellectual rigor included biblical references. Taking his inquiry to heart I began to think not just about relative oppression but how oppressors control and attempt to annihilate the oppressed-and that took me to Hebrews 11, one of my favorite books in the Bible. In the 23rd verse we’re told “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.” The commandment referenced was that the male children of the Hebrews should be drowned, and apparently many parents obeyed that edict. Now this is where most church folks will jump up and shout “But God!” Maybe we should also say “But his parents!” since they were the ones brave enough to stand their ground. There’s a second reference to the same protective parental role cited in Acts 7:20, In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months. That fearless hiding of Moses by his parents in his father’s house made me think of another scripture, 1 Peter 5:8, Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Which led me to Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. And Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. And then 1 John 4:4, Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
now, and then and now, those who sought to speak the truth faced punishment from the rulers and distancing from those they wanted to help.” Because he was such a serious scholar, so far removed from the cloying and compromising cult of personality that seems to periodically overtake many of those in the academy, his work always seemed to come from a genuine and holistic place of inquiry, so I wasn’t really surprised that his intellectual rigor included biblical references. Taking his inquiry to heart I began to think not just about relative oppression but how oppressors control and attempt to annihilate the oppressed-and that took me to Hebrews 11, one of my favorite books in the Bible. In the 23rd verse we’re told “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.” The commandment referenced was that the male children of the Hebrews should be drowned, and apparently many parents obeyed that edict. Now this is where most church folks will jump up and shout “But God!” Maybe we should also say “But his parents!” since they were the ones brave enough to stand their ground. There’s a second reference to the same protective parental role cited in Acts 7:20, In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months. That fearless hiding of Moses by his parents in his father’s house made me think of another scripture, 1 Peter 5:8, Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Which led me to Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. And Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. And then 1 John 4:4, Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
We black women who love black men and black boys know their worth and know they are worthy of our collective, threefold cord protection, regardless of the commandments and codifications from various rulers in this land. We black women who love black men and black boys know we must continue to be sober and vigilant. We black women who love black men and black boys know there are those operating in collusion with the devil, as roaring lions, walking/stalking and following black men and black boys to devour them. And yes, we know some of those roaring lions are other black men and black boys. So, we black women who love black men and black boys will continue to stand in the full armor of God in community, fasting and putting forth intercessory prayer knowing that greater is He that is in us than he who is in the world. But that is not all we will do.
Next Sunday, we will meet again to finish the Song of Solomon and discuss what else God is leading us to do about the Zimmerman verdict and all these roaring lions seeking death and destruction. I’m certain it will be more than Eat, Pray and Love. Stay tuned!
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