Thread by @DelanoSquires

My goal in responding is to be as charitable in my understanding of your positions and gracious in my response as befits two brothers in Christ. You didn’t have to say “all abt racist policies in the past”. What you left out of your assessment of black life says it for you.

https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/1419521296325648384

@DavidAFrench For example, you tie redlining to wealth disparities btwn groups. No one denies that inheritance passed down through generations contributes to wealth. So does income. Yet you never mention how differences in marriage rates & households impact income & wealth.

So if you don’t believe the issue is racist policy whites must remedy, please share what specific issues you believe black people are responsible for fixing ourselves.

Successful policy requires gov. &citizens to interact dynamically for a specific purpose. A gov may build new recreation centers in each part of a city but the health outcomes will be the same in each section will be based on factors outside of gov control such as exercise& diet.

Building wealth requires individual action. People can’t be carried to those outcomes, regardless of the good intentions of the ppl designing systems & policy.

W/respect to repentance & responsibility, why lift a principle from a historical text instead of referencing a text like Ezekiel 18 which clearly states that the soul that sins is the one punished, and that a son is not held responsible for his father’s sins?

Even as a legal matter, aren't a person’s debts paid out from their estate, not their next of kin? If God doesn’t punish me for what my grandfather did and the law doesn’t make me pay his debts, on what basis do you believe people today should be held responsible for remedying..

the centuries-old actions of people who merely LOOK like them? My main problem with this article and the thinking that drives it is that it flattens the complexities of life and prioritizes white benevolence over black agency when it comes to progress in the AA community.

White ppl act; black people are acted upon. White criminals are driven by white rage & privilege; black ones are reacting to an environment dictated by redlining. These themes also emerge from the writings of Kendi & Coates. I reject the notion that the church should join them.