Statement from the Black Caucus
of Evergreen on Race, Equality
and Black Lives Matter (BLM)
It has been 401 years since the first enslave Africans numbering about 20 were brought to the Eastern shores of what would become the United States of America. There are numerous theories why but the most accepted one is that it was a matter of commerce. In other words the Americas needed cheap dependable labor, Africans needed weapons and to get rid of their vanquished enemies as a matter of protection and the West Indies needed labor as well. The selection of the African was also an economic decision because the indigenous peoples of America were not able to hold up working all day in the blazing hot sun but Africans were thought to be uniquely qualified for such a task as this.
Those Africans must have expected the worst because many jumped overboard on the voyage over rather than succumb to their terrible fate. But how could they have known when they had never been off the continent of Africa nor seen a white man before. Was it something about these strange pale people that gave the Africans a feeling of foreboding?
And now we know that sense of foreboding was well founded. After 401 years the African still finds themselves in a form of bondage, lesser than, and thought to be inferior. You might ask why but I think the answer is simple. Fear! Where does this fear begin? Does it begin in the psyche of people worried about a loss of dominance? The Bible says that God made humanity in their image and that they would have dominion over all living things. What it didn’t say is the one human would have dominion over another.
Why is America so caught up in race? Race is defined as follows: “Race” is usually associated with biology and linked with physical characteristics such as skin color or hair texture. “Ethnicity” is linked with cultural expression and identification. However, both are social constructs used to categorize and characterize seemingly distinct populations. The use of race is nothing but a construct that perpetuates this idea of dominion one man over another. This was never God’s plan.
Equality means that we are all equal. Are we not all equal in the eyes of God? Jew, Gentile, Asian, Black, White, Brown, LGBTQ, and others are all God’s children. If we are all equal in the eyes of God how is it that we are not all equal in the eyes of man? If you are operating under the misconception that you are somehow better than your brother or sister you need to read your Bible more.
But we are not done. We can’t leave out Black Lives Matter (BLM). BLM is not just a movement it is another plea for understanding and acceptance. How many times do Black people have to ask for and yet be denied acceptance. Crispus Attucks, a black man was the first person to die in the Revolutionary War but that didn’t do it. Black people have shed their blood in every war America has fought but that didn’t do it. Blacks have given their blood, sweat and tears to build this nation but that didn’t do it. The death of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and other black leaders didn’t do it. The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments didn’t do it. And black people have sacrificed many of our young people to police violence and that didn’t do it. And now we have to be subjected to an American slogan Make America Great Again. Well when was America great for Black People? During the Harlem Renaissance the poet Langston Hughes penned the poem “Let America Be America Again.” We will leave you with his words.
Let America Be America Again
Langston Hughes - 1902-1967
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
Those Africans must have expected the worst because many jumped overboard on the voyage over rather than succumb to their terrible fate. But how could they have known when they had never been off the continent of Africa nor seen a white man before. Was it something about these strange pale people that gave the Africans a feeling of foreboding?
And now we know that sense of foreboding was well founded. After 401 years the African still finds themselves in a form of bondage, lesser than, and thought to be inferior. You might ask why but I think the answer is simple. Fear! Where does this fear begin? Does it begin in the psyche of people worried about a loss of dominance? The Bible says that God made humanity in their image and that they would have dominion over all living things. What it didn’t say is the one human would have dominion over another.
Why is America so caught up in race? Race is defined as follows: “Race” is usually associated with biology and linked with physical characteristics such as skin color or hair texture. “Ethnicity” is linked with cultural expression and identification. However, both are social constructs used to categorize and characterize seemingly distinct populations. The use of race is nothing but a construct that perpetuates this idea of dominion one man over another. This was never God’s plan.
Equality means that we are all equal. Are we not all equal in the eyes of God? Jew, Gentile, Asian, Black, White, Brown, LGBTQ, and others are all God’s children. If we are all equal in the eyes of God how is it that we are not all equal in the eyes of man? If you are operating under the misconception that you are somehow better than your brother or sister you need to read your Bible more.
But we are not done. We can’t leave out Black Lives Matter (BLM). BLM is not just a movement it is another plea for understanding and acceptance. How many times do Black people have to ask for and yet be denied acceptance. Crispus Attucks, a black man was the first person to die in the Revolutionary War but that didn’t do it. Black people have shed their blood in every war America has fought but that didn’t do it. Blacks have given their blood, sweat and tears to build this nation but that didn’t do it. The death of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and other black leaders didn’t do it. The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments didn’t do it. And black people have sacrificed many of our young people to police violence and that didn’t do it. And now we have to be subjected to an American slogan Make America Great Again. Well when was America great for Black People? During the Harlem Renaissance the poet Langston Hughes penned the poem “Let America Be America Again.” We will leave you with his words.
Let America Be America Again
Langston Hughes - 1902-1967
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
Affirmed at the Evergreen Annual Meeting, October 9-10, 2020