Thread by @theboyonthebike

Here is a non-hot take: you don't need the narrative of what happened between the Covington students and Nathan Phillips to fall any particular way to discern the larger truth about race in America. Short clips. Long clips. Do we still need a particular Perry Mason moment?

If you want to have a conversation about nuance, context, & long-form critical thinking...please! Apply that principle to this claim: we have a justice system so bent against black & brown bodies as to be a literal continuation of a slave economy. Is the jury still out on this?

How much more evidence precisely is needed to show that white supremacy is the central galvanizing energy behind a vast political & spiritual phenomenon that is- not just historically but currently-in the main artery of public life in America? Completely in the mainstream?

What context, nuance or perspective explains Steve King to you? Or the surge in hate crimes in both rural & urban communities since 2016? "Give it time." Have we had time to consider the recorded murders of Alton Sterling & Philando Castille yet?

Has enough time passed to critically examine America's track record with indigenous peoples yet? Or do we need another couple of hundred years to make sure we are fair to all sides of the story?

Look: the dangers of reactionary thinking in a digital age, etc., etc...I hear you. But I hate the weight that gets placed on something like this, as if it is up in the air whether or not white supremacy in America is both our founding sin & the central plague of our time.

50 years after MLK, have we had enough time, context, perspective--are we "nuanced" enough--to take seriously his critique of economic injustice, war, & white Christian moderates? Or maybe a longer clip will come out that might exonerate us?

I'm not saying we don't need to have a broader conversation about responsibility/reactivity in social media. What I am saying is that this has ZERO bearing on the truth that people on the underside of history bear witness to, lament over, & then prophesy to us EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Let's not kid ourselves into thinking that people under the dominion of principalities & powers would be persuaded if they only had proper access to better facts, data, information. That foul spirit just hisses back in response: "But WHAT ABOUT WHAT THIS PERSON SAID OR DID?"

I'm partly wound about this because MLK day is seriously a holy day to me (yes, like Christmas, Easter, Pentecost!) a serious time for deep reflection, soul-searching, repentance. Tomorrow is a day for repentance, & WE NEED IT. I don't want that lost in the rubble.

I'm not the pope so I don't write encyclicals on everything; I'm not a political commentator so I don't riff on all the news of the week. I'm a preacher. And I'm saying the Spirit raised up prophets like MLK to warn us. We didn't listen. God help us if we don't now. FOCUS.

There is so much venom projected onto marginalized people right now, an ocean of hate. Even the bodies of people of color do not testify to us. "Unfortunate." "There was probably more to the story." But the worst thing I can conceive of? A WHITE PERSON UNJUSTLY ACCUSED OF RACISM.

If systemic injustice is a difficult concept for you to grasp, here it is embodied in a single sentence: 12-year old Tamir Rice gunned down is UNFORTUNATE. Potential damage to the reputation of a white student is AN OUTRAGE.