Prophets in Our Hometown
Sean.
Those are the names I know right now. There are so many names we don’t know. Humans sacrificed by systems of evil; systems that protect Black bodies only enough to turn a profit. HeLa cells to private prisons.
Since this country’s inception, our Black bodies have been controlled and commodified. Life, liberty, inalienable rights, the right to bear arms, the guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment—these truths were never self-evident. This is why Reverend Wright stated like a modern-day Jonah, “God damn America.”
Black people’s bodies are a prophecy.
We are embodying truth in a land of lies.
Our continual mistreatment, exclusion, educational and health disparities, and state-sanctioned harassment, abuse, and murder declare ample evidence of hypocrisy. Our blood cries out. No, all are not created equal. Yes, the Founding Fathers and presidents owned people as they wrote about liberty. No, just because something is legal—like slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, medical experimentation, gerrymandering, tax rates and tax breaks—doesn’t mean it is just. Yes, crimes against humanity can also be “legal.”
Even Nineveh had the sense to repent and repair when offered the most meager prophecy from Jonah.
The state-sanctioned and supported murder of Black people (unlike “black-on-black” crime that racism apologists just love to mention out of supreme apathy) reinforces the truth that we are unprotected by the laws of this nation. Not only was Ahmaud Arbery murdered in broad daylight; afterwards, the systems of law enforcement and justice deemed his death unworthy of due process. Not even an arrest. Breonna was shot 8 times by the state because the officers that murdered her were comfortable and confident that 1) the state will protect them because her murder doesn’t count, and 2) this is the desire of the state. There are too many living, breathing white mass murderers and too many dead Black, indigenous, and brown unarmed people for anything else to be the case.
We’ve seen corrupt states throughout history, but this nation insists on marketing itself as Christian.
What’s Christian about an officer saying, “looks like it’s gonna be a closed casket, homie,” right after shooting Sean Reed?
What’s Christian about implying that Ahmaud Arbery deserved to be murdered by aggressive, armed civilians because he earlier walked into a home under construction?
What’s Christian about shooting an unarmed, innocent Breonna Taylor in her own house in an attempt to look for someone who was already in police custody?
Can y’all just stop smearing Jesus Christ with the blood of people made in His image?
Jesus was the one murdered by the state.
Jesus was the one who had no real trial.
Jesus was the one presumed guilty. He was the one being accused of being “no angel” because He didn’t toe the line with the Empire or the scribes and Pharisees.
Jesus was the one healing people from the immobilizing effects and indignities of cruel systems.
Jesus is the one who declared:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
and then, to make it plain:
“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
What Good News is this “Christian” nation bearing for the poor, the prisoners, the disabled, the oppressed?
What’s the Good News for Breonna, Sean, Ahmaud, and their loved ones?
Everybody loves the pretty words: Good News. Sight. Freedom. Until they realize they are the rich, the prison, and the oppressor. Then, like the listeners in the synagogue in Luke 4, America grits its teeth and clenches its fists at the thought of freedom for those on the outside.
They tried and eventually succeeded at murdering Jesus.
A nation cannot be Christian and put itself at such stark odds against Jesus Christ. And yet, so many continue to hold onto the myth and hold up systems of evil, with no fear of God at all.
Our Black bodies continue to prophesy the truth of this land:
All are not free.