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I write this post today in honor of the memory of Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. When I
have conversations with secular activists and activist Christians who have
fallen away from their faith, I become very thankful for Rev. King. Thousands (probably millions) of social
justice minded individuals in the world today have rejected Christianity
because of the way in which it has been misrepresented
over the centuries by countries and people who said they believed in Jesus but
who went ahead and segregated people based upon the color of their skin. I love pointing to Rev. King as an
example of a follower of Jesus who challenged this misrespresentation of
Christianity in the United States for the world, and generations, to see. As a prophet of God, he told America
that segregation was unbiblical and that “Jim Crow” was a violation of God’s
truth.
“Jim Crow” refers to the historical time period in between
the abolition of slavery in 1876 and the official dismantling of legal
segregation in the United States in 1965. During the era of Jim Crow, white society in America
felt that it had the moral and legal right to segregate African Americans,
Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, South Asian Americans, and others,
from itself. This segregation was
complete from cradle to the grave. It involved housing, education, health care,
public spaces like parks, pools, restaurants, movie theaters, and hiking
trails, and even mortuaries and cemeteries! If you were Latino in Pasadena during this time period, for
example, you were even restricted in the days you could enjoy God’s
mountains! As part of Jim Crow,
laws banning racial intermarriage remained legal on a national level until 1967.
Can you imagine what it was like to live in America during this time period? It
makes me so sick to even think about it.
What makes me even more sad was that the vast majority of Christians
remained silent during the battle to end segregation in the United States. Even worse, some Christians actually
twisted sacred Scripture to justify racial segregation. Thankfully, there were very notable
exceptions of Christians who stood side by side with Rev. King and denounced
Jim Crow segregation as unbiblical and antithetical to the message of Jesus
Christ. Under the leadership of Rev. King, they preached the simple biblical
message that all humans beings are created equally in the image of God (Genesis
1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them”), and are therefore worthy of equal treatment
in all aspects of U.S. society.
On this MLK Day, I celebrate this amazing legacy of Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, a follower of Jesus, who, together with millions of other
lesser-known but no less important revolutionaries, brilliantly upended Jim
Crow segregation in the Name of Jesus Christ. As we celebrate the second inauguration of our first Black
president today, I imagine that Rev. King must be smiling from heaven. I know I am.
Although “de jure” (legal) segregation ended some 48 years
ago in the U.S., “de facto” (in fact) racial segregation is still prevalent today. Jim Crow segregation produced
unequal conditions of housing, education, health care, legal services, etc.,
which have not gone away despite the official end to segregation in the
1960’s. Jim Crow segregation
produced segregated neighborhoods, schools, health care systems, etc., which have
continued to replicate themselves to the present day.
Public schools attended by millions of beautiful brown and
black children are vastly inferior to those in rich suburban neighborhoods
within the same school district.
These same children and their families lack access to quality,
affordable health care and legal services, and have few parks and safe public
spaces in which to play and just be a kid. The majority of Latinos and African Americans in the United States today continue to
experience the invidious lingering effects of Jim Crow segregation.
Lest you think I’m just some radical ethnic studies
professor and liberation theology pastor, let’s take a look at some staggering
statistics which bear this out: 1
out of every 3 valid legal claims of the poor in California is never heard in
court because no attorney will take their case (because they can’t afford to
pay); stated another way, 2/3 of the legal services needs of the poor are unmet
in this state and it would require $394,100,000 per year to close this profound
“justice gap.”
To make matters worse, 16 million kids currently live in
poverty in the United States. With
regards to educational access, 8% of low-income students graduate from college
sometime within their lifetime vs. 87% of students from affluent communities
who will graduate from college by the age of 24. Out of every 100 Chican@ students who begin elementary
school, only 8 will graduate from college, 2 will go on to earn a graduate or
professional school degree, and less than 1 will earn a doctorate! Sadly, similar statistics can be
reported for African Americans. In
2005-2006, only 47% of African American male students graduated from high
school. In 2007, only 56% of
African American high school graduates went on to attend college, and in that
same year the college graduation rate for African Americans was only 42%.
As for healthcare, close to 50 million people are currently
uninsured in the United States. 1
in 4 children go without healthcare in our country, and more than 23 million
kids go without adequate healthcare in any given year. About 30 percent of Latino and 20
percent of African American children lack a regular source of health care, and
brown kids are almost 3 times more likely than white kids to lack sufficient healthcare.
Millions of Chican@s, Latin@s, African Americans, Native Americans,
and others, are still segregated from equal opportunity in the United States. As
followers of Jesus we have an affirmative obligation to advocate on their
behalf and to work in His name to transform the inequitable socio-economic and
political policies and structures which reinforce this exclusion. If we don’t, then history, and,
most importantly, God, will judge us.
Let’s learn from the mistakes of the millions of Christians, who, half a
decade before us, failed to speak up against Jim Crow segregation. Let’s follow the example of Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., who, though an imperfect man, sounded a magnificent
clarion call for biblical equality in Jesus’ Name.
Much inspired,
Robert Chao Romero
@ProfeChaoRomero
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