The All forgiving Negro

By Gary J. Lewis

I was raised in the “black” Baptist Church in the south. I was taught the traditions and the ideals of a proud people who have endured much tragedy and despair In America. Since Africans were captured, brought to these shores and enslaved we have caught hell. Chattel slavery, torture, rape, murder, destruction of the family, loss of religion and made to be illiterate. Even our transition from Africans to African-Americans has been tumultuous at best. We have compiled multiple name iterations and pseudonyms to try and find and/or connect to our lost heritage.

As our ancestors traversed this new and hostile environment they were also handed a book that tells these people to look for peace, prosperity, and salvation in the afterlife. It tells them to “Obey their masters” and to “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”.  Saddle that with the reality of brutality for those that even thought of revolt made for a very docile personality. I have often wondered why we, as the most persecuted, are asked to forgive and ironically seem so ready to do so. Is this from generations of acquiescence and capitulation? Are we still experiencing the remnants of a misguided religious doctrine applied to present day circumstances?

When the Walter Scott was gunned down in his back in Charleston, South Carolina by a police officer one of the first things his mother, who was grieving the unjust murder of her son, said was “I forgive him”.  When the nine church goers were murdered, also in Charleston, South Carolina, the community, the religious leaders and family members said, “We forgive them”. When the AMAZON driver, Jaylen Walker, was shot and paralyzed over a parking space while n his recovery he stated that he “forgives the man who shot him”.  These are just a few instances of African-Americans “turning the other cheek” and appealing to their higher selves. These are not meant to be disparaging recounts of the victims, they are just to give context.  There is a prevailing philosophical theory that we need to forgive not because of the transgressor but to heal ourselves. This ideal is also loosely based on religious doctrine; I.e. “Vengeance is mine saith the Lord”.

At what point in our sojourn in this country will African-Americans, so-called descendants of enslaved Africans stop identifying with a doctrine that makes us docile and amiable to abuse? Does a Jew forgive a Nazi? Does an Irishman forgive the British Empire for their transgressions?  This idea that we need to forgive and move on is a two-headed snake. On one hand, the call for reparations is dismissed and more even more sinisterly history is re-written and atrocities overlooked. Why is it wrong to remember? White southerners “remember the South” and fly their defeated flag proudly. Native Americans remember the Trail of Tears, Japanese remember internment camps, Jews remember death camps and ovens and they demand support for Israel.

Yes, there is a difference between forgiving and forgetting but unless the wound is recognized and treated there can never be healing and Malcolm X so eloquently stated.  African-Americans need to stop suppressing their anger, stop hiding their disdain for the mistreatment and disrespect we have endured. Let go of the ill-gotten gains of Christianity which teach conformity and ONLY “looking to the hills from which cometh our help”. Outrage is and contempt for miscarriages of justice is righteous.