In America today, Jesus is black.

These past few days I’ve been watching at the news from Minneapolis and Louisville and grieving. I’m not an emotional person, but the sense of anguish and anger is strong. But it’s hard to know what to do, and posting can feel like pointless exercise. However, this morning these issues have been distracting me from my work, and I need to write. 

James Cone wrote, “To know God is to experience the acts of God in the concrete affairs and relationship of people, liberating the weak and the helpless from pain and humiliation. For theologians to speak of this God, they too must become interested in politics and economics, recognizing that there is no truth about Yahweh unless it is the truth of freedom as that event is revealed in the oppressed people’s struggle for justice in this world.” Too many of us, especially those of us who are white, have bought into the myth that political neutrality or being in the middle ground is the Christian way to be in the world. But knowing and joining with God means working and fighting on behalf of God’s people, those who are oppressed, forgotten, neglected, and diminished. This does not mean God only cares about these people; it means God uniquely cares for these people. God has always been a God who “chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor. 1:27). Working for God means advocating for the weak. These are inseparable. 

The first time I read the late theologian quoted above, I was most impacted by his assertion that Jesus is black. Cone wrote, “Christ’s blackness is both literal and symbolic. His blackness is literal in the sense that he truly becomes One with the oppressed blacks, taking their suffering as his suffering and revealing that he is found in the history of our struggle, the story of our pain, and the rhythm of our bodies.” Jesus was black because when he was on earth he occupied a social position analogous to American blackness. And Jesus is black because today he is with and he suffers with American blacks. While it is true that Jesus can relate to us (see Heb. 4:15), as I white person it is important that I admit that Jesus is not exactly like me. Jesus does not look like what I look like. And Jesus does not agree with everything I think. Jesus does not affirm every inclination I have. But, joyfully and thankfully, Jesus calls me to become more like him and to join him in his causes. Cone admits that the christological title of blackness may not be appropriate in every human culture today or in the future. But in America today, Jesus is black. 

I believe that Jesus is with the black community today. And I believe that Jesus is with the protestors today. I believe that Jesus would go into the police precincts of Minneapolis and overturn their tables while proclaiming that it should be a house of justice for all people. And while I am grieved to see the destruction happening in our cities, I am more grieved that it has come to this. For too long have particular communities lived under injustice. These communities have engaged in peaceful protests for decades, and now they are at wits end. After years of peaceful protests and advocacy, they see no other way to fight for the justice they seek. It is hard to see the chaos, but I understand it. And, it is still right to condemn those who opportunistically use these protests for material gain.

The most important issue is not people stealing TV’s. It is the fact that black people all over the country are being killed and they are not receiving justice. Black people are three times more likely to be killed by police than white people, and 99% of the time police kill someone they are not charged. The problem is deep, and the system helps it continue. Ever since the 1989 Supreme Court case Graham v. Connor, police are allowed to use violence as long as it is deemed “reasonable.” The courts have repeatedly interpreted this to mean that if an officer is scared, they have the right to use deadly force (I highly recommend the podcast episode “Mr Graham and the Reasonable Man” by More Perfect to understand this case and its effects). This system must change. The use of deadly force is so extreme that an officer should only be able to use it if they are actually under threat, not simply if they feel under threat. I’d rather dozen of shoplifters go free, than another black man with a cellphone be shot. George Floyd was cooperating, was not resisting, was telling the officer he couldn't breath, and he was killed. Breonna Taylor was in her own home sleeping, and she was shot. Ahmaud Arbery was going for a jog. These three are only some of the most recent in a long line of injustices. Jesus is with them. Will we be?

By Devlin McGuire