Listening to an interview on the news, a black American stated that many people in his community “feel like” they are cursed. They are routinely stopped by police, and called out by the Karen’s walking her dog, calling 911 because an African American asked her to leash her dog. The protests and riots which are nation is now engulfed is just another manifestation of a people who feel they are cursed.
Are black people cursed? Yes. Not by God nor by Scripture but by a worldwide racist pandemic. I have travelled to over fifty countries and the things I have seen and heard, how the nations treat black people, is a testimony of the curse on blacks. In India I taught an exchange student from Kenya. Eating supper with his family I asked the question, “How do Indians treat you.” He hesitated, smiled and replied, “Not well. Of course, here at the seminary they are very kind. But whenever I go off campus the first thing Indians perceive me to be is low caste because of my dark skin. When they see my hair is different they realize that I am African and not always treated kindly.”
Without question how some people treat, what my dad use to describe as “colored people,” in this country is unforgiveable. But travel with me to Moscow and get on the metro when an African student boards and hear, as I have, the slurs that is thrown at them, which I won’t repeat in this post. Go with me to South America and witness the disdain they have for the African immigrants as being the laziest people in their country. I will not defend the bigots of our nation, but understand this is not a uniquely American problem. Indeed, Africans throughout the world are culturally cursed.
The Shulamite woman in the Song of Solomon said, “Do not gaze at me because I am dark,” not because she was in the lineage of Cush but because her work in the fields made her dark. In south Asia, skin lightening cream is a major beauty product, it’s the Shulamite woman affect. In Africa they describe their own as black or brown, brown being the preferred skin tone. Families in India searching a suitable groom for their daughters will describe her as “fair.”
I have lived most of my adult life living and working in Africa. My kids grew up in Africa and I have one daughter presently working in West Africa. We have started schools, distributed food and clothing and shared the Gospel to those we have worked with. So, for me to say the black race is cursed is not out of the mouth of a bigot, but a sad reality of culture.
You would expect me to say the following, so I will. The root of today’s chaos of burning, looting and police brutality is not social, political or economic. The curse is not really the black man, but the black heart, which resides in every man and woman. It was Jeremiah who said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” The black man is cursed and every white and non-white person is cursed because of sin that resides in every heart. Christ Jesus took the curse of every race on the Cross.
I don’t expect racism to be eradicated in my life time. I don’t ever expect Haiti to get out of poverty no matter how many more billions of dollars we thrown at them. I will not walk in solidarity to the plight of those who feel injustice. It’s a futile effort. But what I can do is, like Philip, come alongside the Ethiopian and explain the words of Jerimiah who was reading, “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” When people understand this, the curse will be lifted.
