Posted on 11/27/2013 4:45:00 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Im not a racist. But I do have a race problem. I finally owned up to it as I was anticipating seeing 12 Years a Slave. In the weeks leading up to its opening in my state of North Carolina, I tried to think of whom among my friends I could see this film with. I have a number of racially and ethnically diverse friends and acquaintances who would love to see it, and yet, I knew I could only see this movie alone or with another dark-skinned person.
This is hard to admit. I will hurt the feelings of people I love. But isnt confession the first step to being reconciled? I have good, healthy friendships with a range of people, but I could not think of one white person where I live with whom I would feel emotionally safe enough to see this particular movie about slavery. I did not want to have to entertain any of the likely responses from anyone who could not see themselves in the skin of the enslaved men and women on the screen. I had no desire to dissect the film politically and theologically, engage in well-meaning social commentary, marvel at the history conveyed through the movie, or grieve over what was done to black people.
I did not want the burden of the social translations that black people so often have to do automatically on so many internal levels while engaging in discourse with whites in this country. There are things we learn to do almost subconsciously in order to keep some whites comfortable enough around our blackness. Things like gauging their actual level of interest or understanding of black culture in order to know how far to take a particular conversation....
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
So every generation someone has to make a film to get black people all riled-up at whites for things that happened hundreds of years ago to other people?
Amen!
Maybe the writer would like to have a separate water fountain as well.
"I am not a crook."
A qoute from this “lady”:
“On Saturday, George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the trial for the murder of teenager Trayvon Martin. I was and have remained in shock. Nonot shockeddevastated and dumbfounded, at a loss for words. Thinking immediately of my two little nephews who are growing up black and unarmed in America. Thinking for the first time that maybe there is a silver lining to not having children...”
“I did not want to have to entertain any of the likely responses from anyone who could not see themselves in the skin of the enslaved men and women...”
Always the victim. Always.
Hey, YO! Enuma Okoro
I went to college in Japan. I studied side by side with for real AFRICANS.
When the subject of black Americans came up, the consensus was, “We exported them once, if they come back, they won’t be so lucky the second time.”
Anyone who knows, knows.
Hey, YO! Enuma Okoro, wanna see a RACIST? Go sneak up on a mirror.
Who even thinks of writing an article like this? Who even thinks of publishing such a thing? The whole white guilt / black victim thing is disgusting. Some slaves had it bad. Some didn’t. Many were much worse off after “emancipation,” nwhich freed SOUTHERN SLAVES ONLY. The last slaves were freed in frickin’ New Jersey. You know why I won’t see that movie? Because I am sick to death of having slavery rammed down my and my kids’ throats. Oh! Another history class on slavery! How delightful! When will you learn some MATH?
Disgusting, preposterous bullcrap. Pull your pants up.
Her white friends sigh in relief that this drama queens isn’t going to ask them to join her in viewing a guilt trip movie.
Maybe she should talk to a Jew.
Refreshing that bigots can now enjoy bright daylight .
She's got this excuse-me-foreign name that sounds like a bacteria strain found in someone's lung. And yet her writing is as pretentious, clumsily sarcastic, and illiterate as any native-born affirmative-action case teaching at an American college.
So, which of these things is phony? Her name? Or her whole being?
Our accomplishments do not matter when were randomly accosted by police (Henry Louis Gates). Our leadership (Obama), our strengths, our beauty, our innocence (Trayvon), ....
Enuma Okoro is a writer, speaker, communications consultant and an award-winning author of four books on the call and challenge to the spiritual life.
With a professional background in Communications, Psychology and Theology, and her uniquely diverse global and cultural experience, Enumas work embraces the dynamics of effective communication, the classic spiritual traditions, and the contemporary arts. She writes, speaks and consults on numerous issues and topics based off of four key areas:
1. Identity and Belonging in a diverse world
2. Women and the transformative power of personal narratives
3. Professional and social communities and the importance of a collective and shared narrative
4. Spiritual formation, growth and holistic wellness
She understands that our life journeys are fraught with dips and turns through unlikely sanctuaries and challenging valleys. Enuma works across countries and continents to communicate effective and transformative ways for engaging our life commitments, passions and responsibilities.
She is a widely sought-after speaker and communications consultant invited to colleges, universities, for-profit and non-profit organizations, religious institutions, and conferences across the United States, Europe, Africa, and Australia. She has been listed as one of seven top Young Influencers of the next generation by Catalyst. In June, 2012 Okoro had the honor of being the first woman of African descent to speak at the historic American Church in Paris. (Martin Luther King Jr. was the first man of African descent to preach there in October 1965)
Born in New York City, Enuma Okoro was raised in four countries on three continents. Her academic background and training is in Psychology, Communications, Theology and Counseling. She is a former Editor-in-Chief for SpotLight Quarterly Magazine, a certified Spiritual Director in the Ignatian tradition, and she holds a Master of Divinity degree from Duke University Divinity School of which she is the former Director for the Center for Theological Writing.
Her first book, The Reluctant Pilgrim: A Moody Somewhat Self-Indulgent Introverts Search for Spiritual Community, was recognized by USA Book News as a 2010 Best Books Award-Winning Finalist in Religion-Christianity.
In 2011, Reluctant Pilgrim received the 2011 National Indie Excellent Book Awards Winning Finalist in Spirituality and African-American Non-Fiction
Her second book is co-authored with Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove (December 2010): Common Prayer: Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, Zondervan Publishers.
Enuma released her third book, Silence, to much acclaim in September, 2012.
Enumas fourth book, Talking Taboo, was just released in October, 2013.
Enumas poetry is featured in At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in Ordinary Time compiled by Sarah Arthur (Paraclete Press, 2011)
In addition to publishing books and speaking, Enuma is a regular contributing writer to online magazines and print resources.
She is a regular guest contributor to The Washington Post.
She is a spiritual wellness contributor for Tonya Lee Lewis HealthyYouNow magazine for women.
Enumas work has been featured on ABCs Good Morning America, NPR, The Washington Post, CNN, The Guardian US, The Atlantic, AfroElle Magazine, The Michael Eric Dyson Show, The Huffington Post , Weavings Journal of the Spiritual Life, Sojourners Magazine, Burnside Writers Collective, Faith and Leadership, Christianity Today, Her.meneutics, and more.
She blogs now and then at Reluctant Pilgrim hosted on the Patheos website.
Being black in North Carolina means you can trample the hyacinths in the Governor’s yard with no retribution.
Don't ignore the author opening up about their feelings - they run deep in the black community - deeper than most whites will ever know.
Just sayin'...
As long as self-loathing whites continue to flock to these race-baiting, blacks-are-saints-white-are-devils movies, Hollywood will continue to make them.
“I wanted to sit in the pain and horror and soul-breaking sadness of a movie like 12 Years A Slave with another person like mesomeone who is reminded every single day that we are black in America.”
I believe the word she was looking for is “wallow”. She wanted to wallow in horrible things that happened to other people which she has never, and will never experience. She’s a vicarious, voyeuristic masochist.
For what? Knockout game pointers?
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