What do we do when people are determined to continue banging their heads against the wall?
Like, imagine walking up to someone who is repeatedly head-butting concrete…
If you didn’t find him completely strange and just walk away…if you felt compassion for that man, and wanted him to not hurt himself…
What would you do?
He can’t hear you gently calling for him to stop. He can’t feel you tapping and shaking him to catch his attention.
He’s too busy banging his head against the wall. He’s determined to band his head against that wall.
But you know the danger of that process. So you forcibly restrain him. But as soon as you think he’s calm and you let him up, he returns to banging his head into the wall…
What do you do?
That’s what it feels like to minister to Black people. No matter how often our way fails to bring about the mattering of Black Life, we remain committed to that approach – banging our heads against the wall.
I realizing that’s not a slight against our people. Rather, it requires perspective and understanding…something I’ve learned from my failures as a father, which I shared after our episode. But, I think it helps give some perspective on where I’m coming from, so I share it (just) with you…
But there’s some things I’m learning about all of this, for those of us that strive to help Black folk find that Promised Land where Black Lives Matter. And that’s what Pr. Jimmie and I discuss in this episode of Blacks with Power.
Check it out and let us know: 1) how do you give Black people the grace to bang their heads against the wall of White Supremacy, and 2) what do you think has to happen for Black folk to stop banging their heads against that wall and be ready for something new – even if unproven?
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