17 MARCH 2019 BODY OF CHRIST NEWS Black Rage O.J.Simpson was the new Afrikan model of the American dream, running from ghetto walls to hallowed halls. Now, O.J. has been charged with first- degree murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her associate, Ronald Goldman, on June 13. The court of public opinion has already convicted O.J. of the crime, whether he is guilty or not. Dare I mention the typical nature of this situa- tion for New Afrikans who are presumed guilty without due process? Same stuff, different day, and again socioeconomic status did not mat- ter though some of us thought it would. U n f o r t u n a t e l y , my colleague has taken the shameless position that O.J. Simpson, by way of his actions, should be condemned or rejected by the New Afrikan com- munity. He believed that we should distance ourselves and refuse to defend people like O.J. because they do not deserve our support. He also asserts that as we support these kind of New Afrikans, it makes the rest of us guilty by association. Must the fallen gladiator’s ghetto pass be revoked for the worship of success, being a menace to society and the dreaded jungle fever? I, on the other hand, suggest that we accept and support O.J. with- out qualification. If New Afrikans rejected every person who hap- pened to be convicted with a crime, then 25 percent of all New Afrikan men would have to be dismissed. We would have to dismiss Malcolm X, George Jackson, Assata Sakur, Kahlid Muhammad, Angela Davis, Bobby Seal, Hewy Newton and Eluah Muhammad — just to name a few. Not to mention the great number of New Afrikans vilified for being black and strong. None of us is without sin so who should decide to qualify and disqualify our people? O.J. Simpson is not valuable because he serve our agenda but because he has value to God. Who knows what purpose this incident may serve for the redemption of human personality or this culture. Many of our youth need to under- stand the false love expressed for these prima donnas anyway. America created the juice and now they want to destroy it. We should have learned more from the Frankenstein series about creat- ing supernatural beings. All to often the American dream has been just that — an illusion. When O.J. woke up he discovered black rage. Many middle and upper class New Afrikans have become disil- lusioned after arriv- ing at the mundane good life of America. Read a book called, Rage of A Privileged Class by Ellis Cose. Most New Afrikans and many Americans of the baby boomers generation are finding that power, profit, and pleasure are overrated commodities. Bookstores are now reporting gross sales on spiritual growth books, inescapably a cul- ture in search of the truth. O.J., like many New Afrikans, has real- ized now what Malcolm X said, when wailed “We’ve been had, bam- boozled, led astray, hoodwinked, etc.” MLK called it “The struggle for human dignity.” While Cornel West called it, “deal- ing with the contingency of being human and no supportive net- works.” And lastly, Grier and Cobbs called it “black rage.” Understanding come with self-knowledge. O.J. first began his marital mission with a new Afrikan wife named Marguerite and had three beautiful New Afrikan children when he set to divorce in 1979. A wise man once said that self-knowledge is to be discovered in the action of relationships —not NFL rushing titles or Superbowl rings. And to me unenlightened col- league, balance is not a matter to be judged by the frustrated. To deny reality prevents self-discovery. It’s Not a Black Thing The much-publicized O.J. Simpson case is not a black issue of repeat- ed domestic violence. Every year in America, domestic violence ends in 2,500 deaths, crossing all racial, social and economic lines. Yet here we go again crying “racism” and allowing those with their own agendas to exploit racial tensions. Seemingly the most confused group of people on planet Earth today, African Americans tend toward self-denigra- tion, then project their own defeat- ism onto people of other races. As an example, many are dropping their white western slave mas- ters’ names and adopting, instead of African names, those of their former Arab slave masters. Many times, when we become angry with one another, we verbally attack our own with, “you black ‘this’,” and “you black ‘that’,” as if to say that to be black is demeaning in and of itself. You never hear whites calling each other “you white so and so.” Black kids make fun of other black kids who elect to stay inside their homes during their schoolwork by saying, “you’re trying to be white,” or “you talk white.” Comments like these all imply that the opposite, that is not studying, not speaking traditional english, and not striving to be educated are the quali- ties that define being black. We also exhibit self-defeatism by continuing to elect black politicians who, once in office, do everything they can to not represent us. These politi- cians appoint whites and Hispanics to positions to run programs in our communities, as if to say blacks aren’t capable of governing themselves. More police and jails seem to be the only solution to these politicians because black people must be animals, and keeping them at bay makes the white masses feel more at ease. In the 60s we used to call black men who wore three-piece suits and left the black communities “Uncle Toms,” because they didn’t do any- thing to improve or help those who were left behind. What about those young black men today who sell drugs on the corner to black boys and girls, destroying their lives, robbing them of their possibilities? Aren’t they also ”Uncle Tom's” selling out in a much bigger way? We say black men and women who marry outside of their race want to be white. How can a person of anoth- er race make someone change their color? John 8:36 says, “if the son therefore shall make you free,” ye shall be free indeed. That means free completely. Free in your body, free in your spirit, free in your mind and free in your heart. Freedom of the heart is one of the most important expres- sions of freedom to love whomever one chooses to love. We run to the theatre to view “Jungle Fever,” a movie whose story line suggests that black men must be “sick” to date outside of their race. Are we animals who can’t think for ourselves, or a people unable to become individuals? You would never see a movie enti- tled “Bagel Fever” or Rice Fever.” People of those races wouldn’t stand for it. But we “confused” African Americans just continue to grin and scratch our heads, believing that everything is okay, saying, “No problem, man…” but there is a problem. Even black native Africans who attend school in America see the prob- lem. They make it a point to distinguish themselves from black Americans, too ashamed to be associated with “confused” black Americans. At the turn of the century, black men were physically beaten and/or hung from the nearest tree just for looking at white women or for wearing a nice suit and looking better than the white man. At that time, many black men started wearing bow ties as a form of protest to the lynchings, since black men were and grabbed and lynched by their long ties. Today our children are wearing clothes that are falling off their bod- ies showing their buttocks, as if to say to their great-grandparents that that white racists were right — that we black Americans should dress like Sambo’s because that’s all we are. We came from nothing, are nothing and never will be more than nothing and that those black men who were beaten and lynched for being well-dressed and articulate were wrong for getting out of their place. Some young black girls actually look forward to getting pregnant so they can receive welfare. Get their own apartment and move away from their A.F.D.C.- receiving moms. Having learned from the example set by for- mer generations of welfare mothers, they think they are adults. Young black males listen to music with a funky beat and lyrics that tell them to kill other black males and to beat black women, calling them out of their name. Now with all of this inconsistency, confusion and self degradation in the black community, are we supposed to band together for a man accused of a violent crime just because he is black? We do not have to rescue every black person who “falls from grace” in order to save ourselves from damna- tion. We are not all responsible for the actions of an individual. If we start yelling “racism” and black people without having heard all of the facts, it will undoubtedly dam- age our credibility both as individuals Body of Christ News Archives — AUGUST, 1994 The Question: Is The OJ Simpson Trial a Racial Issue? Randy M McCowan Randy Craven By Randy M McCowan By Randy Craven We would have to dismiss Malcolm X, George Jackson, Assata Sakur, Kahlid Muhammad, Angela Davis, Bobby Seal, Hewy Newton and Eluah Muhammad — just to name a few. 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