The Friday Link for 6/19/20

Happy Friday and happy Juneteenth, the day which celebrates when the last slaves of the Confederacy were informed they'd been freed.  It happened in Galveston, Texas, a city on an island which had no bridges to it at the time, so the delay to get a Union representative to sail to Galveston, in what was at that point a sparsely populated Texas, is understandable.  The truth is some whites in Texas knew the war was over but purposely didn't release their slaves until they were told they had to.  

In the years after the Civil War, many communities outlawed Juneteenth Celebrations on public land, forcing the celebrations into the churches.  Today, the celebration is moved out of Texas and is being celebrated with renewed vigor and volume.  

The other day, I had an acquaintance who is white make the racist comment which drives a lot of bigots' mentality.  He said "they've gotten the SAME EXACT CHANCES as whites, but yet they don't get ahead."

This is a laughable statement.  Having spent a lot of time in the southeastern US, the true story of how the African American's were treated after the war ensured they'd NEVER get the same chances as the white community.  Immediately after the war, whites devalued the land the African Americans had rightfully earned, declaring it worthless.  The white community turned their back on the African Americans, not allowing them to live in many towns or to work good paying jobs.  The mentality was "they have their freedom, but I'll be damned if I'll help them get ahead in any way."  Black farmers were even prevented from selling their products to whites, unless there was no other option for the whites, and then the prices were cut from what white farmers were paid. 

The LONG history of keeping African Americans at a different level than whites is discussed impressively in this video from the creator of the VeggieTales series, Phil Vischer, called Holy Post.  This 17:52 second video gives you an exceptional understanding of how the suppression of African Americans went from slavery to Jim Crow, to the Law and Order movement, to the War on Drugs.  He does not pull any punches.

What also bothers me is how so few Christians are able to talk so bluntly about the racial discrepancies which exist on our society today.  If every Christian leader in this country made this their sermon one weekend, it would go a long way to ending the racist standards white America has allowed to fester for too long.

Happy Juneteenth everyone.  Have a great weekend!