"I Was Telling Him What A Different Kind Of White Man I Was?"
This Is The Heart Of The Problem
Official "Faulk" Transcript: "I remember sitting out on a wagon tongue with this old black man — completely illiterate — down here near Navasota a plantation there and I was telling him what a different kind of white man I was. I really … I really a getting, come educated on blacks and their problems, except we called 'em colored folks. I said, 'You know, you might not realize it but I'm not like the colored — the white folks you run into down here. I believe in giving you the right to go to school, to good schools. Now, I know you don't want to go with white people — I don't believe in going overboard on this thing — but I believe colored people ought to be given good schools. And I believe you ought to be given the right to go into whatever you qualify to go into, and I believe you ought to be given the right to vote.'
And uh, I remember him looking at me, very sadly and kind of sweetly, and condescendingly and saying, 'You know, you still got the disease, honey. I know you think you're cured, but you're not cured. You talking now you sitting there talking and I know it's nice and I know you a good man. Talking about giving me this, and giving me that right. You talking about giving me something that I was born with just like you was born with it. You can't give me the right to be a human being. I was born with that right. Now you can keep me from having that if you've got all the policemen and all the jobs on your side, you can deprive me of it, but you can't give it to me, cause I was born with it just like you was.'
My God it had a profound effect on me. I was furious with him. You try to be kind to these people, you see. 'You give them an inch and they'll take an ell.' But the more I reflected on it, the more profound the effect. I realized this was where it really was. You couldn't give them something that they were born with just like I was born with. Entitled to it the same way I was entitled with it." Top
John Henry Faulk was one of the scholars who audio recorded his interviews with former slaves. His work was deposited in the Library of Congress and in the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. In the interview above, Faulk describes a conversation with a former Black slave that made him think long and hard about race prejudice. In the conversation, Faulk came to understand that in fact he still had "THE DISEASE", that a White man could not give a Black man the "right to be a human being" and that Black Americans were "entitled" to legally recognized and constitutionally protected personhood the same way he was "entitled" to it. In the end it was clear (very clear) how easily "PREJUDICE" sets the stage for "INSTITUTIONAL RACISM", "BIGOTRY" and the "DISSIMULATION OF LOVE". Top
Questions …
- Are you infected?
- Is your love without dissimulation?
- Why do you want to reach communities of color with your message?
- Why should communities of love listen to your message?
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION:
SCRIPTURE: Romans 5:5; 8:39; 12:9,10, James 2:9,15-18 …
Love that is academic, abstract and|or abstruse is not real love. It can sound good, but it lacks the power to change lives. Christ-Like "love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails (1st Corinthians 13:4-8a)." James 2:9 puts it this way: "But if you are treating one person as more important than another, you are sinning. You are guilty of breaking God’s law." Top
"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." — Theodore Roosevelt's words ring true now, don't they?