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God,
I thank you for your compassionate comprehension of our humanity, so much that you don’t condemn us, but console us with concern and caution rooted in unconditional love.
Scripture says that vengeance is yours, but, to speak freely, I sometimes question the timing of your judgment and your system of justice as a whole because Black people are still experiencing vestigial suffering precipitated by hundreds of years of slavery in addition to the slave codes and Jim Crow laws that proceeded them.
Contrary to the gospel song, “I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired”, rooted in Black Church culture and sung at various times in Black churches, WE ARE TIRED. We’re hurting—physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially, and financially.
Scripture also says that you don’t put more on us than we can bear, but we’re not superheroes and this isn’t Wakanda. So, I have to ask you: When will we receive a reprieve? When will the pain be eliminated at the root and not just numbed on the surface so that we can sleep through the night? When will we be extended the benefit of the doubt? When will we be compensated for our losses and reconciled with the financial capital that our ancestors created through the toil of sweat-saturated soil in the killing fields of Antebellum America and now through slavery by another name and that name being the prison industrial complex? When will we be fully enfranchised as American citizens not just on paper, but on community sidewalks, playgrounds, and professional sports fields, at our places of employment whether we are being paid pennies or millions of dollars, at community pools, in city streets, shopping centers, neighborhood parks, rental properties, and more recently, in the privacy of our own homes? When, God? When will justice be served for Black people?
I ask that you brood over us, especially those who are passionately committed to their cognitive dissonance and remind us all expeditiously that we are one and the same. That we are created in your image which reflects only light and love. That if we kill another we have, in essence, killed an aspect of ourselves because we are intrinsically connected and the universe that you created adjudicates karmic consequences with no respect of personality or person effective in this lifetime and the next.
Thank you in advance.
Amen,
A Rebel With A Pen
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This post was originally published on rebelwithapen.com, and is republished here with the author’s permission.
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Photo by J’Waye Covington on Unsplash
