(Allow me to challenge your patience. Read this to the end.)
All men are born free. They choose to live restrained. I see this in all communities, but definitely among black Americans. A strong argument can be made that we are the most powerful group in America, and have been for a very long time. Sadly, we don’t see it. We don’t see where our true power in this country lies. The black vote has the potential to turn the political system on its head every two, and four years. It is, and should be used as the swingiest vote in the nation. It’s not. We don’t seem to care or understand the amount of influence, and wealth we amass for those whom we elect to give our power by proxy. Unfortunately, we have been giving it to the same people over and over. They aren’t even “shucking an jiving” for it anymore. Instead, they are now telling us what it means to be black. It’s sad, but fair because they have invented the narrative of black identity. “Vote democrat. Support abortion. You need welfare. You can’t make it without us. Every white politician is a racist, except democrats. All white democrats are completely non racists.”
We bought this garbage. To the point where we silence any black person who disagrees. The individual doesn’t need to be a republican, just one who highlights hypocrisy. They can be of any other group, but if they are not echoing what the democrats told us to think, they won’t be heard. It’s revolting, and not unlike having a master. If we want change, it’s time to do something different. A change in us will bring a change to us. We must grow sickened, intellectually nauseated with being patted on the head before elections, but kicked in the seat after them. We cannot keep doing the same things and expecting different results. I am especially calling on Christians to move in unity towards a choice that brings real change.
We have been giving our power to one group for so long, they no longer respect us or it. Based on the history of the party, I truly doubt they ever did. They have their strategy. It works. They threw crumbs to some black people to appear inclusive, and garner the support of the rest. But they have not kept their promises to us. They constantly remind us how disadvantaged we, and our communities are. Yet, they have been the ones entrusted with the care of those communities through the power of our vote for decades. How could we still be in the same position when it was their responsibility to fix it? Truth is evident. Their leadership leads nowhere. It has made things worse. Despite the adoption of a slogan, black lives do not matter to them, only green does. We cannot continue empowering people who destroy us. Let the lives of those who fought for your right to vote mean something. Give it the dignity it deserves. Hold these leaders accountable for the promises they do not keep, and the lies they tell. It’s time to vote something other than democrat. If you do it just one time, they will realize that the black vote is not a guarantee. Nor can it be manipulated. They actually have to work for it. If they are shown they have to earn our support, they will change tactics.
And it’s the tactics that are most distressing. For the sake of political gain, this country gets ripped further apart every few years. There is big money in racism because it secures power. It unifies the loyalty and support of a swing voting bloc. Black folks. The media is complicit in this. They continuously tell us about the racism that is happening all around us. Don’t get me wrong, I want to hear about it. I’ll fight it, but I started to get a little concerned when I realized there were zero stories of white men being shot by white or black police officers. Am I to conclude that this never happens? Nowhere in the United States is a white man shot by a white or black police officer? Or a black man shot by a black officer? I guess there are no black officers in America, just white ones bent on lynching.
Interestingly, there is also no black on white crime in all the land. Black people never harm whites. It is always the other way around. Nor can I remember hearing one incident of discrimination towards whites. It never happens. Black people are either perfectly discrimination free, or something more sinister is at play here. Don’t be used. Be honest. We know better.
I’ve also watched breathless white reporters talk about the latest offensive statement by such and such. They were all just so “offended.” I was supposed to be outraged and “offended” too. They were appealing to that innate ignorance they think we all have. They have to tell black people when to be offended because apparently, we don’t know. We must be led. Aren’t you tired of being condescended to?
The media’s obsession with race is low, sick, and hypocritical. Which “reporter” is going to honestly look into the harm caused, and why abortion rates are higher in the black community? Especially since it, and organizations like Planned Parenthood were founded to reduce the black population. Facts. History. Not conspiracy theory like they want us to believe. Unfortunately, “the plan” has been successful. Black Americans are seriously outpacing all other groups in abortion statistics. That’s a real race issue. Which reporter is going to have the audacity to cover that story? Or who is going to report on crime rates in the black community? Crickets. Which one will examine democratic policies and the negative effects on the black community? I bet they would if democrats were having a remarkable success, or if republicans were failing as miserably as democrats are in minority communities. It’s all we’d hear of. Even as we are urged to vote for Joe Biden, a man who has been in politics long enough to change the world, longer than I’ve been alive, they won’t honestly challenge or investigate his record on race. He has been the vice president to a black president for eight years. Don’t tell me it was the republicans that stopped them. Democrats held both the house and senate in 2008. If Joe Biden cared about blacks, that was the time to show it. Don’t allow your intelligence to be insulted or violated. Joe Biden will not suddenly begin voting against the harmful policies he thought were good ideas and put in place. We need to stop being used and manipulated. They don’t care about us. They don’t know us. They never really did. They never took the time. They just know what we bought into, and what has worked for years, so they continue the game with our lives. It’s time we show politicians that the black community is about more than eating hot sauce, quoting a spiritual, or a Jay-Z concert. It is also more than voting for one party as Biden seems to suggest.
Now, at this point you are probably thinking, “Why make this political if you claim to be a Christian?” Simple. In the name of politics an entire group of Americans have been systemically and systematically oppressed by the democrats. No, I do not think republicans are blameless. They allowed the democrats to corner the market on the black vote. Through their silence on black issues democrats managed to advance the message that any group other than itself, is racist. Black Republicans can’t even speak. White ones are running scared. They won’t even talk about race for fear. Their opponents have done a masterful job at messaging. “Republicans are racist.” blacks who vote republican are not really black. Insert designated plantation mentality accusation or insult here.
Meanwhile, democrats abused, ignored, and exploited the black community. They instituted the policies that have killed our children, robbed us of growth, wealth and success. I will not be quiet because this is “a political issue.” It is a human issue, and democrats owe us an apology for treating us like a lot less than. They should be ashamed to ask for our vote despite failure, after failure, after failure. They should be ashamed to accuse other whites of being racists despite their proven record on the issue. They should be ashamed of pretending they understand blacks despite never addressing or offering anything other than handouts in the decades they’ve had our votes. They have no plan for us other than to keep us enslaved to their empty promises, and self-defeating ideas. No plans for building anything, just maintaining the status quo at best.
In their quest for power they have shamelessly gone after our preachers, and into our houses of faith. They have perverted the only compass left among us, and our own leaders have prostituted themselves and positions for their advancement. Therefore, I will not be silent in the face of such brazen disregard for the soul of our community, and the cruel impacts their agenda has had on it. They are the ones who owe us an apology. They need to repent for continuing the evil handed down, and imposed upon our communities for far too long. Eugenics. Genocide. Stagnation. The criminal injustice system. Ghetto confinement via poverty. Mass black incarceration- an unprecedented, unprovoked attack on our families. This is their legacy. They shouldn’t be asking for our vote. They should be asking for our forgiveness. The scriptures teach, God loves justice. Unless they repent, theirs will come.
God wants more for the black community. We matter greatly to Him. We are more. We can do, and be more. We need to return to the only ruler who has ever demonstrated care for us. Jesus. His Word and teachings will never lead us of course. Let’s stop choosing the death culture that is the democratic legacy, and return to the whole truth.
I get the outrage in the streets. It is real, but it is directed at the wrong people. There may be bad cops, but there are far more powerful, and influentially terrible politicians. Their policies lead to the failure and death we see in the neighborhoods around us. They pledge great and lofty things, but they will never deliver.
Why should they? We have taught them we are satisfied with their words. They do not need to do the work, just say the right words. At some point we need to start looking in the mirror, and accepting our role in this. Our unwavering support for the demise of our communities via democratic inaction must end. We have chained ourselves to one political ideology, and our refusal to examine it critically has led to malignant complacency, and bold inaction on the part of those whom we have chosen as our perennial leaders. I ask you, what is the point of freedom if you return to, or elect bondage? What power does a vote hold if we are so predictable in its application that it has become something to anticipate, and work around instead of working for? Ask yourself what has happened to us in the last decades? What will happen to us if we continue on this path? What will become of our communities should the Lord allow us to continue fifty years from now? How much longer can we afford to be used, and how much more can we tolerate? Again, they are literally playing games with the power of our votes, while we die from their policies.
Our time to hold their feet to the political fire is running out. They will eventually move on to other groups. Our voices will begin to matter even less and less as they court and attract those groups. Let’s act now.
It’s time we come together. Flip our destiny. The one they chose for us. We have nothing to lose by trying. Democrats have proven they will not budge without strong incentives. If republicans are really the boogeymen out to get us, then we will finally see democrats confront them, earn our votes, and be the heroes of the black community they claim they are. No more acceptance of inaction in the face of great evil. We cannot afford policies that lead to even more hopelessness. Ones that have taken black men outside the home, fast tracked them to prison, mass incarceration, with little hope of rehabilitation and perpetuated disastrous cycles within communities. We cannot continue to advance the party that embraces and advances a death culture like abortion and infanticide among us.
If you are a believer, I’m asking you to humble yourself before God and examine this. There is no way we could honestly consult Heaven on the issue of abortion, and conclude God is okay with it. By the masses we vote for the party that literally celebrates a law permitting an abortion at nine months. They won’t even support laws that call for doctors to provide aid should a human be fortunate enough to survive an abortion attempt. And we strongly support them. We give them this power to set laws that harms children. Mostly, our children. Is it then any wonder that we are the percentage of the population choosing abortion, and death to a staggering degree? If we choose the wisdom of man over the wisdom of God, then we shouldn’t be surprised if He hands us over to that choice.
I don’t understand, when did black people become okay with this? We, of all people should be moved by mercy toward injustice. To the black church: who said this was acceptable? What lies and leaders have you chosen to listen to over the God who redeemed you? Why do the lives of so many black children matter so little to us? Why do we dismiss this as “an issue?” We harden our hearts, trip over conscience, and the Spirit of God to swallow this great injustice. Why?
At this point I can hear the eyerolls, and all the accusations about me being a single-issue voter, and a Trump supporter. Yes, a Trump supporter! I was left with no choice, but to run to the loud mouth, non-politician screaming through policies, “black children matter!” As evil as they cast him, president Trump is still the only man in the ring putting up a fight for black people. I do not endorse his every action or thought. I do not endorse all of my own. He is just a man. In the face of mounting evil, I voted for the best man for the job. I see what he’s done, and attempted to do for blacks. I would have fought off a rabid dog to get to any candidate offering hope. Unfortunately, not one democratic candidate, black or white will stand for life.
Resist the urge to dismiss these thoughts as being over simplified, by a single-issue voter. Instead, consider humanity. What issue is more paramount than life itself? The whole reason why we can even bicker about “single issue voting” is because someone first allowed us to live to do so. Our hope to create change is in the lives we allow to exist. The foundational issue of any society is, and has always been life. From it flows all other concerns and conditions. Good and bad. We must then value life, or live with a cancer that will cruelly destroy us from the inside out. If life is not sacred then nothing is, or ever will be. It then becomes a contradiction to fight for racial justice or any other form of justice, because in denying the humanity of our children, we have decided that some lives matter more than others. And, no matter how much we say it, we will never achieve justice as long as we make an exception to murder some for the benefit of others. It’s futile to try. Even if we deny, or recharacterize the nature of the injustice, the contradictions live in our actions based on those beliefs. As a result, the consequences remain. No excuse for a practice, will ever pacify the holy ramifications of injustice.
Even in poverty, death should not be the default option for us? Before you explode in outrage, know that I am not hardened to the needs of the poor. I was “the poor.” Lack shaped my life. If we really want to help those in poverty, don’t offer them an easy means to kill their children. Offer them help raising them. Hope. I’m not talking meager handouts. I’m talking good schools, training, trades, quality programs, that produce quality in life. If “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids” then maybe you shouldn’t agree to plop, and fund abortion clinics in their neighborhoods Mr. Biden. Do we do this among the wealthy in society? Not a chance. Sure, they can fund their own abortions, but do we aggressively offer “family planning” to the wealthy? Not at all. Instead abortion has been made accessible to blacks like good schools should be.
To the poorest among us we offer the hope of death. Death of themselves, and their legacy. Think about that. It is injustice veiled as aid. It is wrong to take someone in poverty, offer them something as heinous as abortion, and expect it to bring positive changes, or hope to their lives. It sends poor people further down the path of self-destruction. With little counsel before, and no counseling provided after, these barbaric practices catapults people further into low self-worth, anger, depression, and a host of abuses and tolerances. Simply, life gives us a reason to fight. Death sends us into mourning, hopelessness, and disasters. It is life that calls us to persevere. To try. To rise up. To fight. As life leads to life, death also replicates itself. Abortion doesn’t help the poor. It takes advantage of them. Abuses them. It robs them of hope, and gives them less of a reason to live. To borrow from Joe Biden’s flub with one of my own, poor parents can raise a successful child just as well as white parents.
That is my story. Born to a woman struggling to pay the bills, I thank God there was no abortion clinic in our neighborhood. With four kids, my mother knew she couldn’t have me. By her own admission, I was meant to be aborted. Praise God someone spoke life to my mom. I won’t pretend that all aspects of my journey has been easy. As a family we had our struggles. As an adult I have my own. That is the beauty of life. It’s the blessed opportunity to learn and to grow. It’s precious, not perfect. Still, with all of the ups and downs, I would not trade one moment of pain for the ability to be in the land of the living, and declare the goodness of God. He saved my life in so many ways. He is my only hope, and I am not ashamed. Many need this hope. My mom found it. She came to know God. He walked her through raising five kids, and every reason society said abortion was the answer.
I’m calling on all pastors to preach hope. Don’t shrink away from it in the day of adversity. I’m particularly asking black ministers to stand firm. Be strong and courageous. God almighty is with you. I’ve actually heard from black ministers who say their church “isn’t ready for this conversation.” Lord have mercy. Who are you following sir? Who will be your judge? People or God? With the rate of abortion in the black community, the wounds of this sin are in your church, buried in the hearts of the people who show up every Sunday, and serve there. How long will you allow them to suffer? How long will you withhold hope, and healing from those who desperately need to hear “abortion is not the unpardonable sin. God forgives. Go and sin no more.” Be the light sir. Connect them to counseling programs that heal, and end the inner condemnation that leads to behaviors that eternally condemn. You watchmen must watch the flock, and be on your knees before the Lord at the first sign of danger. Do hard things. Say hard things. Please God. Any congregation of any color, not willing to stand against evil is NOT following God.
The issue of abortion gets treated as a symptom, but it is not. It is the total manifestation of complete spiritual decay. I spent much time addressing it because for anyone looking to fight racism, and injustice, abortion is ground zero in the fight. We often overlook the intersectionality of sin, but it is no less there. Poverty, neglect, sexual immorality, abuse, crime, trafficking, revenge, racism and more all show up at the abortion clinic trying to solve its problem through ending the life of another. We must hold ourselves accountable for our actions and inactions. Children shouldn’t pay for the choices of their parents. They have an identity separate from us, and we know it. That is why we seek to “solve this problem” with murder. Don’t allow our children to become consequences of our sloppy habits or pain. Life is beautiful. It is not a political issue. It is a kingdom of God issue. We should defend it wholeheartedly. It will go along way in healing our land and communities.
Pastors. Believers. Leaders. Words fail me. Turn to the God to whom you will one day give an account. Let Him inform what you say and do. I do not think He will support your silence against life. May the Lord grant you all the wisdom to choose Him in this world, so that you may enter rejoicing in the next.
Finally, America is a great nation. Full of promise and hope. It has made major mistakes in its past, but it also has major victories. I urge all black Americans to embrace this country like never before. Get very familiar with the constitution. Despite its reputation, when applied, it is for us. Don’t reject it. There are immeasurable opportunities here for anyone who knows and exercise their rights. If you will not hear it from me, that’s fine. I’m no scholar. Just a citizen who loves the beauty, and strength I see in a people who have been exploited, and used as political pawns. The point is, I’m not the only one saying these things. People much smarter than I are out there, and saying it with more eloquence and facts. Listen to Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Voddie Baucham, Larry Elder, Candace Owens, and more. Be open. Hear them out. Then investigate. You have nothing to lose. It’s unfortunate that these voices are the ones dismissed. Marginalized. They are the ones who actually care.
I know it’s hard to hear the truth sometimes, but only the people who love you will dare tell it to you in the way these people are doing. At great personal risk they speak. They are not superior. We are all in this together. Resist the urge to think they are talking down to you. They are not. They are talking up to you because they believe you can understand. The ones selling you the same lines every election, but making no difference are the ones talking down to you. They are confident in your ignorance. That’s irreconcilably disrespectful. Demand more for yourself, your children, and generations of black people to come. If we continue on this path, we will leave nothing but the crumbs of freedom to our children. Live unrestrained. Vote like life depends on it. Indeed, ours do.
I welcome honest criticism, but name calling will not move me. Nor can I be silenced or cancelled by anyone but the God who made black, and called me to truth. I seek to be a person of integrity and stand before my maker obedient. I won’t all always do help well, but I’ll try to do the best I can. May the Lord have mercy on us all.
– Shanda
Shanda is a vital member of the Triad Coalition for Life team. Writer, mom, wife and prayer warrior are just some of the many titles that she wears. She can be reached via email: shanda@tc4.life