Thinking
Outside the Majority Culture Perspective.
I want to share a few reflections on the current crisis in
the States. As a Christian minister who has served in Africa since 2003, for me the Christian gospel of love and non-violence is the answer. However, we also need to better understand the context and the history behind the issues. The problems revolving around race relations in America is apparently going to require a kind of re-education. If Carter Woodson, the “father of black history” published in 1903 a book, “The Mis-Education of the Negro”, then today we probably need a
book entitled “The Mis-Education of the White American”.
My study of 'orality'
and 'preaching' in the African context eventually led me to study African
American Preaching. To understand the context of African American Preaching I was challenged to re-evaluate through study the little I knew and thought I understood about both African American history and African American Church history. The
books, documentaries and films listed below (and many others) have shed light on my majority culture perspective and have increased my awareness of the concept of 'white privilege’. By further studying the history I feel that I now have a better understanding of how Christian African American history was after the 'first great awakening' (1740-80). Regrettably, it also seems that my own white majority culture was in many ways hypocritical to its Christian consensus. This, in all likelihood, has contributed to the decline of the church in States and to the rise of the number of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated.
I recommend reading any of the books on the amazon list below or watching any of the documentaries and movies. My own white middle-class upbringing and somewhat one-sided education has been altered over the past five years through a difficult and challenging process or journey. What I now see as the mis-education of the majority culture, among other things, has hindered America from living up to Martin Luther King's dream that our nation would, “live out the true meaning of its creed… we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.”
Reverend Jay Stoms (June 2020)
Videos (documentaries)
1) The African-Americans: Many Rivers to Cross w/ Henry
Louis Gates, Jr.
2) Abolitionist in America
3) The Reconstruction Period: Post Civil War
4) Slavery by Another Name: Post Civil War Segregation
5) Eyes on the Prize: Civil Rights Movement in America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts10IVzUDVw&list=PLOwK3r1sMvSZVth7XGlcpfLSjS3tAp90T
6) Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise
6) Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise
7) The New Jim Crow and the 13th Amendment: Current issues including mass incarceration
List of Books on African American History, African American
Church History and African American Preaching (I don't advocate everything in these books, but I do need to hear their perspective).
Hollywood Films:
Amistad: In 1839 an African slave led a mutiny on
the slave-ship Amistad. These slaves fell into the hands of the American
justice system until former president John Quincy Adams takes up their cause.
12 Years a Slave: The true story of a free man who was kidnapped
and sold into slavery.
The Birth of a Nation:
In the antebellum South, Nat Turner
is a slave preacher who witnesses countless atrocities against his fellow
slaves and orchestrates an uprising.
Harriet: This is the inspirational story of Harriet
Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest
heroes.
Glory: The inspiring story of the first Black
regiment to fight for the North in the Civil War.
Free State of Jones: A defiant southern farmer leads an
extraordinary rebellion with farmers and slaves to secede from the Confederacy
during the civil war.
The Tuskegee Airmen: This is the story of the first squadron of
African American U.S. Army Air Corps, the 'fighting 99th', who were combat
fighter pilots in WWII.
Malcolm X: This film portray
the life and times of the visionary leader.
Selma: A story of courage and hope from the Civil
Rights movement that changed the world forever.
Ghosts of Mississippi:
An assistant DA seeks justice for the
1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
The Help: In 1960's Mississippi, a young journalist interviews
the domestic staffs serving the town's wealthy white families who have remained
largely invisible.I Am Not Your Negro: This film is about the book James Baldwin never finished. It is a journey into black history that connects the Civil Rights movement to #BlackLivesMatter.
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