2 Americas

Recently Liz at Los Angelista had a tongue-in-cheek kind of post about the media hysteria surrounding an impending "race war". Check it out:

"This race thing… it’s dicey." "We’re on the brink of a race war."

I heard these statements on MSNBC yesterday morning before I took my kids to school. I peered outside to check out whether folks were giving each other beat downs on the corner, because you know, out here in LA, we seemingly know how to do "race war" very well. As you know, we will burn this city up over, oh, little things like white cops getting acquitted for beating down a black man named Rodney King. So who knows what LA would do in a situation where a politician's playing games and making racially charged insinuations about another candidate, and then blaming that candidate for the whole thing. Only a very heightened sense of superiority would allow an individual to believe that we will follow the marching orders and act like what we heard said does not mean what we think it means. You know we're crazy out here, right? We're so psycho in LA that we might continue to misinterpret, misunderstand and take some quotes out of context. And then what might happen? We might burn down this entire city, which would definitely mean no Oscars. And then, what the heck! We might call up our friends who moved up the 15 Freeway to Las Vegas in search of affordable housing and tell them to go ahead and destroy Las Vegas too. I mean, we are having a race war so we do need to live up to the hype. Burn, baby, burn!" (Read it all right here)

The following is what I said in response to Liz's post:
"I find it comical that people believe that race doesn't matter just because they say so. Race was part of this whole process long before Clinton's remarks. To think otherwise is to engage in delusion. Also the so called race war was declared long ago it is simply asymmetrical. Predatory lending, discrimination in housing, employment, health care, the criminal justice system, and education, police brutality, the epidemic of stress related diseases, the mass medicating and tracking into "special education" of our children, discriminatory implementation of "zero tolerance" policies, nooses popping up all over the country. There's a race war alright, it's against people of color and people of color are losing big time. We have to wake up from this "we are the world" narcotized state and see what is really going on in our country. The politicians are clueless and don't offer an ounce of leadership regarding these issues, not one of them. The propaganda of the so called "post racial" America is a dangerous opiate. This brother refuses to fall asleep."

Strong words? You betcha. This Baha'i blogger ain't playin'.

I've come to the conclusion recently that there really are two Americas, to borrow a phrase from a certain not-to-be-named politician. In one America, racism is no longer a problem. The real problem is people like myself who insist on talking about race. If we would just stop talking about it, everything would be cool, we could all just go about participating in our consumption driven, materialistic culture with joy! In this America, people like myself are accused of being "race pimps" and playing the "race card". This America proudly proclaims itself as "post-racial" and views those primitive inhabitants of the other America with a mixture of compassion and contempt. In the other America, racism is still a problem and plays far too much of a role in the quality of life of way too many people. People in this America know racism is a problem because their daily experiences provide ample evidence. You could say that we have reached a moment in our history where the meaning of the color line has evolved. Today it is not so much about the division between whites and people of color but between those who believe that the color line still matters and those who believe it doesn't.
Between these two Americas there is a borderland for people who believe that racism and the problems it breeds still exist but that things are not as bad as they used to be. I'd say that Algernon Austin and John McWhorter are good examples of this view, though they approach it differently. A fair minded person must acknowledge progress has been made regarding race in America. I disagree with those "soldiers of negation" who claim that nothing has changed for blacks since slavery or that things are worse today than during the period before the Civil Right era. However, no amount of statistical data showing that there are fewer black people living in misery and oppression than in the past offers comfort to those who are living that way right now. Telling the black child who will go to bed hungry tonight that there are fewer kids like her this year than last year will not fill her belly with food. I'm not interested in engaging in intellectual debates about whether the glass of racial progress is half-full or half-empty. I want a full glass period. Anything else is unacceptable to me. It is towards a full glass that we must all strive if we are to achieve a truly "post-racial" America. Until then, the idea that we have already arrived is at best wishful thinking and at worst a deliberate attempt to avoid our moral responsibility.

"Justice is, in this day, bewailing its plight, and Equity groaneth beneath the yoke of oppression. The thick clouds of tyranny have darkened the face of the earth, and enveloped its peoples."
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 92)

How Does It Feel To Be A Solution?

A black man counts the waves, Akka, Israel, 2006

There's a brilliant editorial in the Boston Globe today arguing for a reframing of the violence that recently broke out in Kenya. Take a look:

"FROM READING recent headlines about Kenya, one would think that the post-election violence is the result of tribal hatreds. But this assessment is wrong.

"Tribal violence spirals in Kenya," "tribal war," "tribal bloodletting" announced headlines around the world. A recent New York Times article said the mayhem in Kenya is a result of the "atavistic vein of tribal tension that . . . until now had not provoked widespread mayhem."

This is a facile explanation of Kenya's post-election violence. Yes, some people from different tribes are attacking one another. It's ugly and scary. But it's not inevitable; it's not part of the genetic makeup of the president's tribe, the Kikuyu, and the runner-up's tribe, the Luo or of any other tribes to both hate and kill one another.

Why the violence then? It's about politics and poverty. For their own gain, politicians exploit tribal differences and manipulate the poor and the destitute. It's no surprise that the perpetrators of "tribal violence" are usually idle young men who also loot and thieve while rampaging. Politicians often covertly hire or encourage them.

Don't think in terms of tribal violence. Consider, instead, "politically engineered violence," or "politically instigated violence." These are much more apt descriptions. And the difference is critical." (Read the whole thing here)

When I think about what this writer said, a basic theme comes to mind, "You know how those people are." What do I mean by this? Basically that there is a certain attitude reflected in the way that many of us (including myself sometimes) talk about behavior perpetrated by the members of certain groups, blacks in particular. Whether it's "ancient tribal hatreds" or "genetic intellectual inferiority", there are all kinds of ways of implying that when blacks engage in destructive behavior, that's what should be expected thus there are limits on what anyone can do about it. The origin of this attitude lies in the tendency to define blacks as a "problem" whether in America, Africa or anywhere else. W.E.B. Du Bois articulated this tendency in his classic work, The Strivings of the Negro People:

"BETWEEN me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it. They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.

And yet, being a problem is a strange experience, -- peculiar even for one who has never been anything else..."

One of the great contributions I believe that the Baha'i Faith makes to the advancement of people of African descent is that it turns this "black people as a problem" paradigm on its head and suggests that we are actually a "solution" to a problem. The problem in this case is a misguided, materialistic civilization, a "lamentably defective" social order.

"Bahá'u'lláh once compared the coloured people to the black pupil of the eye surrounded by the white. In this black pupil you see the reflection of that which is before it, and through it the light of the Spirit shines forth."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 68)

This simple but profound metaphorical description of black people as the pupil of the eye from which the "light of the Spirit shines forth" reverses centuries of racist propaganda equating blackness with "badness". Within the context of the legacy of racism it is truly an example of making the last first and the first last, of exalting those who were "brought low in the land".

In a recent letter to an individual Baha'i of African descent, the Universal House of Justice had this to say about black Americans:

"Yet it is clear, too, from the Teachings that every people, through its own inherent potentialities and particular range of experience, will make its own distinct contribution to the creation of a new civilization. To the extent that African-American who embrace the new Revelation arise to do their part by adhering to the Teachings will the gifts that are uniquely theirs be realized in the splendors of the Golden Age. The "pupil of the eye", Baha'u'llah's metaphoric reference to Black people, will no doubt acquire clear meaning as they conscientiously strive over time to fulfill the divine purpose for which the Blessed Beauty came. There can be no doubt that Americans of African descent can find in themselves the capacity, so well developed as a result of their long encounter with injustice, to recognize and respond to the vision of love and justice brought by the Promised One of all ages. Imbued with that vision, past and present sufferings are transformed into measures of patience, wisdom and compassion-qualities so essential to the effort to moderate the discordant ways of a confused world and aid the healing of its spiritual ills. What better than the transformed character of a bruised people to smooth the course, to offer perspectives for new beginnings toward world order!"

Imagine if our public and private discourse, our social policy and personal behaviors were guided by this way of looking at black people? Imagine if we all began to ask them "How does it feel to be a solution?"

Generations of Captivity

Ghanaian kids pray at a Baha'i children's class, 2006. Children in prayer touches my heart like nothing else.

This past summer I spent a great deal of time reading about the history of the enslavement of Africans in North America. One of the amazing books that I read was by Ira Berlin called Generations of Captivity: A History of African American Slaves. Berlin chose to approach this historical treatise by organizing it into a series of "generations" of blacks who experienced slavery and its aftermath. This included the "charter generations", the "plantation generations", the "revolutionary generations", the "migration generations" and the "freedom generations". This in part inspired me to write about what I consider the other "greatest generation", those born in the immediate aftermath of emancipation. A piece in the Boston Globe seemed to harmonize with this overall generational theme, discussing apparent conflicts between the Civil Rights and Hip-Hop generations:

Nas announced in October that he would use a certain racial slur as the title of his 10th CD, which will be released in February - Black History Month. The news came a few months after the NAACP had shown its disapproval of the word by holding a mock funeral for it during its convention in Detroit.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and representatives of the NAACP quickly criticized Nas's decision. In response, Nas told MTV News, "If Cornel West was making an album called [racial slur], they would know he's got something intellectual to say. To think I'm gonna say something that's not intellectual is calling me a [slur], and to be called a [slur] by Jesse Jackson and the NAACP is counterproductive, counterrevolutionary."

Tension between the hip-hop and civil rights generations has been brewing since C. Delores Tucker began complaining about the content of rap lyrics in the 1990s. Lately these clashes have become more frequent. Some members of the younger generation criticize older leaders such as Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton for demonizing hip-hop and focusing on the use of the racial slur rather than addressing social ills, such as black-on-black crime or high dropout rates. The other side is represented by such people as actor and activist Bill Cosby, who in his 2007 book "Come On People" blamed the crisis in the poor black community on "the gangsta rap industry and their white enablers."

Recently, six local representatives of these opposing generations sat down at the Globe's request to discuss what's driving a wedge between them. During a three-hour conversation, they moved beyond the surface issues of acceptable words and the influence of hip-hop music to explore the changes in society that have brought the black community to its current state. They discussed the impact of a materialistic society, the effect of the urban public-education system on youths, and the lack of a common sociopolitical goal within the community. (Read the whole thing here)

My first thought is that it is interesting that debate regarding the use of the word "nigger" by some blacks would be framed by the author of this piece or anyone else as a "generational conflict". It may very well be that younger people are more comfortable with the use of this word in reference to each other but this implies that critical thought regarding this issue is only present among older blacks. I know many young blacks who see "nigger" as a problematic word. It's a similar issue with the debate regarding the lyrics in some rap music and the commercialization of black youth culture. There are plenty of young blacks who speak out about the corrosive nature of some of these songs as well as an industry that exploits them for profit, including Hip-Hop artists themselves. Critical reflection regarding the power for good and evil of both music specifically and language in general is less a generational issue than a spiritual issue:

"We, verily, have made music as a ladder for your souls, a means whereby they may be lifted up unto the realm on high; make it not, therefore, as wings to self and passion. Truly, We are loath to see you numbered with the foolish."
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 38)

The Universal House of Justice, the International Governing Council of the Baha'i Faith offers this observation:

"Bahá'u'lláh has extended the scope and deepened the meaning of self-expression. In His elevation of art and of work performed in the service of humanity to acts of worship can be discerned enormous prospects for a new birth of expression in the civilization anticipated by His World Order. The significance of this principle, now so greatly amplified by the Lord of the Age, cannot be doubted; but it is in its ramifications in speech that keen understanding is urgently needed. From a Bahá'í point of view, the exercise of freedom of speech must necessarily be disciplined by a profound appreciation of both the positive and negative dimensions of freedom, on the one hand, and of speech, on the other. Bahá'u'lláh warns us that "the tongue is a smouldering fire, and excess of speech a deadly poison". "Material fire consumeth the body," He says in elaborating the point, "whereas the fire of the tongue devoureth both heart and soul. The force of the former lasteth but for a time, whilst the effects of the latter endureth a century." In tracing the framework of free speech, He again advises "moderation". "Human utterance is an essence which aspireth to exert its influence and needeth moderation", He states, adding, "As to its influence, this is conditional upon refinement which in turn is dependent upon hearts which are detached and pure. As to its moderation, this hath to be combined with tact and wisdom as prescribed in the Holy Scriptures and Tablets.""
(The Universal House of Justice, 1988 Dec 29, Individual Rights and Freedoms, p. 7)

What I believe may be a significant factor in the apparent differences between the views and experiences of the Civil Rights and post-Civil rights generations (I prefer post-Civil rights to "hip-hop" as it locates us historically and socially rather than culturally) is the increase in the degree of materialism influencing the lives of black Americans in general. I have mentioned in the past that a limited view of the Civil Rights agenda was that it was about removing legal obstacles to the participation of blacks in a materialistic and consumer driven social order rather than "an organic change in the structure" of that order. If this view is correct then the challenges facing the post-Civil Rights generation represent the ironic fruits of a struggle for a larger piece of a defective and declining social order, an order largely organized around an ideology (materialism) that is just as dehumanizing as white supremacy. The pervasive and destructive influence of materialism, I believe is the greatest test facing the post-Civil Rights generation and must be confronted with systematic, collective action. Everything else, including the issues of music and language are symptoms of this deeper problem:

"Indeed the chief reason for the evils now rampant in society is the lack of spirituality. The materialistic civilization of our age has so much absorbed the energy and interest of mankind that people in general do no longer feel the necessity of raising themselves above the forces and conditions of their daily material existence. There is not sufficient demand for things that we call spiritual to differentiate them from the needs and requirements of our physical existence. The universal crisis affecting mankind is, therefore, essentially spiritual in its causes. The spirit of the age, taken on the whole, is irreligious. Man's outlook on life is too crude and materialistic to enable him to elevate himself into the higher realms of the spirit."
(Shoghi Effendi, Directives from the Guardian, p. 86)

Race Playas

As I prepare to attend the Black Men's Gathering in Michigan that I mentioned in my last post, it is ironic what is unfolding in my own back yard. Check this out in the New York Times:

BARNSTABLE, Mass. — More than a year after it convicted a black trash hauler of a shocking murder on Cape Cod, a jury returned to court here Thursday for an extraordinary hearing on whether racism influenced its verdict.

The defendant in that trial, Christopher M. McCowen, is serving a life sentence for raping and killing Christa Worthington, a white fashion writer from a wealthy family, at her bungalow in Truro in 2002. But three jurors now say that others made racist remarks during the trial; if Judge Gary A. Nickerson of Barnstable Superior Court finds those contentions credible, he could order a new trial.

Judge Nickerson questioned 7 of the 14 jurors on Thursday, calling them into the courtroom one at a time and asking whether the issue of race came up during their deliberations. Some of the jurors’ answers contradicted those of others, and many said their memories of the deliberations, which took place in November 2006, were vague.

Most of the testimony Thursday concerned comments that the only black woman on the jury, Roshena Bohanna, said she heard two white jurors make.

One of those jurors remarked that the bruises on Ms. Worthington’s body, as seen in evidence photographs, were consistent with “if a big black man hit her,” Ms. Bohanna testified. (Read the whole thing here).

There is so much that could be said about the issues raised in this case but I'll only comment on a couple of things. First, like the iconic black, unwed, teenage mother I mentioned in a previous post, the sexually predatory black male is a similar fixture in popular culture and the psyche of more than a few white Americans. This caricature of black masculinity has been prominent in racist fantasies since slavery. While it is certainly possible that this brother committed the heinous crime that he has been accused of, there is just too much history tangled up in this situation to ignore the possibility that his race may have played a role in his guilty verdict. That the court is at least willing to consider the legal implications of this possibility is encouraging whatever the outcome. It is an opportunity to put racial discrimination in the criminal justice system on trial so to speak. Second, is the accusation that the African American female juror who challenged the alleged racial remarks made by fellow jurors was "playing the race card". This is one of the more irritating phrases that has crept into public discourse regarding race in the past few decades. It's a bit like "reverse discrimination" an equally irritating phrase. What exactly are people saying when they refer to so called "playing the race card"? I think that the implication is that someone is manipulating race to gain some kind of advantage. Let's examine this for a moment. Ever notice that playing the race card is something that only minorities are accused of? As if whites don't also manipulate race to their own advantage! Secondly, the race card rhetoric implies that racism is not really so bad anymore so if someone refers to it in discussing a problem that they are just playing some kind of game. There is simply too much evidence to the contrary to accept such a viewpoint. This is not to deny that there are people, black, white and every other color who play games with race in our society. However, such people are simply a symptom of a deeper problem, which is that we are still living with the legacy of white supremacy. Race is not a card to be played but is deeply embedded within the structures of our society in such a way that a person's skin color continues to influence their quality of life. Changing this situation will involve at least the following:

"Let neither (whites nor blacks) think that anything short of genuine love, extreme patience, true humility, consummate tact, sound initiative, mature wisdom, and deliberate, persistent, and prayerful effort, can succeed in blotting out the stain which this patent evil has left on the fair name of their common country."
(Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice, p. 40)

"Let there be no mistake. The principle of the Oneness of Mankind -- the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh revolve-- is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. Its appeal is not to be merely identified with a reawakening of the spirit of brotherhood and good-will among men, nor does it aim solely at the fostering of harmonious cooperation among individual peoples and nations. Its implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the Prophets of old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable not only to the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human family. It does not constitute merely the enunciation of an ideal, but stands inseparably associated with an institution adequate to embody its truth, demonstrate its validity, and perpetuate its influence. It implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced."
(Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 42)

Black Mens Gathering, Michigan

Brothers get their praise on in New Jersey 2006

On Friday I'll be headed out to Michigan to participate in a local Black Men's Gathering. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Black Men's Gathering, it simply refers to groups of men of African descent who come together throughout the year to learn how to apply the teachings of the Baha'i Faith to the moral and spiritual transformation of themselves and the world. The Universal House of Justice, the International Governing Council of the Baha'i described the purpose of the Black Men's Gathering in this way:

"...the Gathering is a distinctive activity with a different agenda. It does not concern itself chiefly with race unity in the Bahá'í community as such. It addresses itself to a special situation faced by a minority that has suffered severe social and spiritual afflictions imposed upon it by the majority. The program of the Black Men's Gatherings is unique and exemplary as an avenue for transcending the legacy of anguish, frustration and social pathology that is peculiar to black men in the United states; it urges them towards a fullness of life within the spirit and principles of the Bahá'í Revelation."
(The Universal House of Justice, 2000 Mar 14)

Over the many years I've participated in the Black Men's Gathering, I have marveled at the extraordinary sensitivity and support shown by the Universal House of Justice for the plight of black males in the United States. It should be remembered that the House of Justice is a body that governs a global, multi-racial faith community and not a predominantly or exclusively black one. It offers powerful evidence that it is possible to create a multi-racial context in which the spiritual and psychological needs of black people can be taken seriously.

In addition to coming together for prayer, study of the Baha'i writings, consultation and fellowship, the men of the Gathering are actively involved in the activities Baha'is around the world are engaged in aimed at unifying the human race. These include the spiritual education of children, youth, and adults and the promotion of grassroots, informal, collective worship that welcomes people of all backgrounds. You can check out some of my previous posts about the Black Men's Gathering here, here, here, and here. I encourage you if you have never attended to seek out information about how to do so, whether you are currently a member of the Baha'i community or someone who is exploring that possibility. Gatherings are currently held all over the continental U.S., the Caribbean and most recently, South Africa.

"This is not a Cause which may be made a plaything for your idle fancies, nor is it a field for the foolish and faint of heart. By God, this is the arena of insight and detachment, of vision and upliftment, where none may spur on their chargers save the valiant horsemen of the Merciful, who have severed all attachment to the world of being. These, truly, are they that render God victorious on earth, and are the dawning-places of His sovereign might amidst mankind."
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 84)

Sticks, Stones and Fire

Near Cape Coast, Ghana, 2006. Cape Coast was a major hub of the transatlantic slave trade.

"Ye observe how the world is divided against itself, how many a land is red with blood and its very dust is caked with human gore... Nay, even worse, for flourishing countries have been reduced to rubble, cities have been levelled with the ground, and many a once prosperous village hath been turned into ruin. Fathers have lost their sons, and sons their fathers. Mothers have wept away their hearts over dead children. Children have been orphaned, women left to wander, vagrants without a home. From every aspect, humankind hath sunken low. Loud are the piercing cries of fatherless children; loud the mothers' anguished voices, reaching to the skies. And the breeding-ground of all these tragedies is prejudice: prejudice of race and nation, of religion, of political opinion; and the root cause of prejudice is blind imitation of the past -- imitation in religion, in racial attitudes, in national bias, in politics. So long as this aping of the past persisteth, just so long will the foundations of the social order be blown to the four winds, just so long will humanity be continually exposed to direst peril."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 246)

I wonder about those final moments in the fire, in the smoke of that burning church. What anguished prayers were uttered from chapping lips, what desperate thrashings against unyielding wood or broken glass or entanglements with the dead did this group of mostly women and children endure as they roasted or suffocated their way out of "a strangely disordered world"? Does anyone know? Does anyone care? Kenya has descended into tribal based homicidal madness. This was supposed to be an exception, a stable nation, a welcomer of refugees from failed states, an East African economic powerhouse. What went wrong? From the news the violence appears to have been prompted by the disputed outcome of an election of questionable integrity. However it is the tribalism involved that hurts my heart. As a descendant of enslaved Africans brought to the New World, I am the product of tribal divisions that were manipulated by Europeans to facilitate the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Africans selling Africans to fund their wars on each other. Closer to home, cities and small towns bury black men, women and children sacrificed to the gods of gang warfare, an American version of tribalism. I find myself asking the same question that Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Baha'i Faith asked:

"How long will humanity persist in its waywardness? How long will injustice continue? How long is chaos and confusion to reign amongst men? How long will discord agitate the face of society?... The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appeareth to be lamentably defective."
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 216)

At the dawn of the 21st century, the urgent need for a new world order could not be more clear. Partisan politics, self-interested nation state action, military might, economic globalization, the proliferation of narrow special interest group agendas, ethnic nationalism, religious fundamentalism and liberalism, "all about me" spirituality, none have proven themselves conducive to the creation of a new civilization. The unity of the human race is our only viable option. It's time is way overdue.

"The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established."
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 286)

The Great Debaters

Photo of James Farmer Jr., who as a youth was one of the Great Debaters.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I went to see the film, "The Great Debaters" on New Years Day (Gregorian that is). For those who have not seen it, the summary goes like this: In 1935 a group of students at a Black College in Texas form a debate team under the guidance of a Professor Tolsom, a black poet of great distinction who was also involved in organizing unions among rural workers at that time. The group of four students are trained with near martial arts vigor in the "blood sport" of debate and go on to defeat every black college they are matched with (save Howard) and are then invited to debate at Harvard (historically it was UCLA) and of course triumph over the best debate team in the country to loud acclaim. On this journey they face not only the challenges of 1930's Jim crow racial terror (including a graphic scene of a lynching) but teenage angst, crushes, raging harmones, and substance abuse. Watching this film was like eating a bowl of oatmeal, warm, wholesome and predictable (save the lynching which was disturbing on many levels). Given the resurgence of the "noose" as a form of intimidation (if not yet homicide), including that scene was both timely and necessary. By the way, I encourage you to check out a recent Bill Moyers interview with Black theologian James Cone about the Cross and the Lynching Tree. You're gonna love it. My favorite part of this film was seeing a celebration of black intellect rather than artistic or athletic abilities which are what is often celebrated in the popular culture where blacks are concerned. Yes, we can rhyme, dance and dunk with near god-like abilities but we can also "think". This movie is even more meaningful at this precise moment when the time honored game of questioning black intelligence is making a comeback just like the noose. What a coincidence, right? It reminds me of the great emphasis in the Baha'i Writings placed on the power of the mind:

"The intelligence of man, his reasoning powers, his knowledge, his scientific achievements, all these being manifestations of the spirit, partake of the inevitable law of spiritual progress and are, therefore, of necessity, immortal. My hope for you is that you will progress in the world of spirit, as well as in the world of matter; that your intelligence will develop, your knowledge will augment, and your understanding be widened. You must ever press forward, never standing still; avoid stagnation, the first step to a backward movement, to decay."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 90)

"'What is the purpose of our lives?' 'Abdu'l-Bahá. -- 'To acquire virtues. We come from the earth; why were we transferred from the mineral to the vegetable kingdom -- from the plant to the animal kingdom? So that we may attain perfection in each of these kingdoms, that we may possess the best qualities of the mineral, that we may acquire the power of growing as in the plant, that we may be adorned with the instincts of the animal and possess the faculties of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste, until from the animal kingdom we step into the world of humanity and are gifted with reason, the power of invention, and the forces of the spirit.'"
(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 177)

"O thou whose years are few, yet whose mental gifts are many! How many a child, though young in years, is yet mature and sound in judgement! How many an aged person is ignorant and confused! For growth and development depend on one's powers of intellect and reason, not on one's age or length of days."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 142)

"The investigating mind is attentive, alive; the callous and indifferent mind is deaf and dead. A scientific man is a true index and representative of humanity, for through processes of inductive reasoning and research he is informed of all that appertains to humanity, its status, conditions and happenings. He studies the human body politic, understands social problems and weaves the web and texture of civilization. In fact, science may be likened to a mirror wherein the infinite forms and images of existing things are revealed and reflected. It is the very foundation of all individual and national development. Without this basis of investigation, development is impossible. Therefore, seek with diligent endeavor the knowledge and attainment of all that lies within the power of this wonderful bestowal."
(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 50)

"The principles of the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh should be carefully studied, one by one, until they are realized and understood by mind and heart -- so will you become strong followers of the light, truly spiritual, heavenly soldiers of God, acquiring and spreading the true civilization..."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 22)

"Praise and thanksgiving be unto Providence that out of all the realities in existence He has chosen the reality of man and has honored it with intellect and wisdom, the two most luminous lights in either world. Through the agency of this great endowment, He has in every epoch cast on the mirror of creation new and wonderful configurations. If we look objectively upon the world of being, it will become apparent that from age to age, the temple of existence has continually been embellished with a fresh grace, and distinguished with an ever-varying splendor, deriving from wisdom and the power of thought. This supreme emblem of God stands first in the order of creation and first in rank, taking precedence over all created things. Witness to it is the Holy Tradition, "Before all else, God created the mind." From the dawn of creation, it was made to be revealed in the temple of man."
(Abdu'l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 1)