1.1) In the City for Good Now (INNOW) is a coalition of concerned African American Lutheran ministries dedicated to speaking out against, resisting, and transforming (for the common good) institutional, structural, and cultural racism inside and outside the Metro Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (MCS/ELCA) and inside and outside the City of Chicago.
1.2) We are organized for advancing the historically rightful cause of racial and social justice of, by, and for the African American/African world community, other communities of color, and for the general public good inside "mainline" Euro-American denominational Christianity
especially but not exclusively.
2) Against Institutional Racism Under the Guise of Higher Education.
2.1) As we write, from University of Missouri to Yale to Virginia Commonwealth and others, a Black student led movement to "Help Bring an End to Campus Racial Injustice" is unfolding and building momentum.
2.2) According to NBCnews.com's Mashaun Simon (11-17-15) "Student activist from across the globe will hold a day of action to further the movement of ending racial injustice."
2.3) Simon's piece goes on to report "Organizers are calling the latest movement #StudentBlackOut-a collective day (11-19-15) of action where student leaders are encouraged to organize events that...uplift Blackness."
2.4) Simon quotes U Conn student leader Ms. Yamiesha Bell: "We hope that Black Students organize and participate in actions that really challenge white supremacy and anti-blackness on their campuses. Bell is further reported to say: "We know that oppression (our emphasis) takes place at every institution in this country and white supremacy is embedded all through Higher Education."
2.5) The day of action is promotionally organized by a national student coalition headed Black Liberation Collective. According to Democracy Now!(the independent TV news project) some of the more than 30 campuses where Black students are organizing actions are: "Yale University, Harvard University, Dixie State University in Utah, the University of California-Berkeley, Tufts University, and Stanford University."
3) Against Institutional Racism Under the Color of Law.
3.1) More, also as we write, the Trayvon Martin spawned and Michael Brown nurtured BLACK LIVES MATTER youthful (chronologically and at heart) new social movement has emerged as a factor in the 2016 Presidential campaign of the Democratic Party forcing both front runners to incorporate a developing African American agenda, inclusive of addressing institutional racism, in their stump speeches and interview conversations-as integral to their appeal to the Party's Black electorate.
3.2) But hear the voice of Ms. Alicia Garza, Co-founder of BLM: "When we say Black Lives Matter, we are talking about the ways in which Black people are deprived of our basic human rights and dignity-it is an acknowledgement that Black poverty and genocide is state violence. (Wikipedia)"
The current breaking news story of inner-city Chicago street protests, on the eve of the conventional Thanksgiving Day opening of the 2015 Holiday Season, and following the CPD release of the heretofore suppressed video tape recording the clearly extra judicial police murder of Black teen Laquan McDonald, reflects wide spread Black community-led agreement with Ms. Garza's statement. (CNN, Chicago Tribune, & Democracy Now!)
More, the current BLACK LIVES MATTER-Minneapolis demonstrations, against that City's police killing of 24 year old Jamar Clark just Sunday past, are also clearly in agreement with their national spokesperson's viewpoint. (Democracy Now!)
4) Against Institutional Racism Under the Guise of Organized White Liberal Protestantism.
4.1) The above said, institutional racism, structural racism, cultural racism, in the form of top-down, White liberal Lutheran denominational devaluing of Black Lutheran congregational and pastoral lives, are also very much active and well in the Metro Chicago Synod of the ELCA. Said racism by no means stops, nor can it ever, at the MCS door.
4.2) As a third party witness, hear the words of the independent September 10-12, 2015, MCS African American and African Descent Retreat Report held at Indiana's Cedar Lake Ministries. "No leader in any ministry setting should ever feel that the Bishop's office is an adversary and nor should the Bishop or any of his staff feel that they should have an adversarial relationship with any of its leaders particularly those who are leaders of color."
4.3) The independent MCS Report goes on to say: "But it is clear at this moment that a relationship has been broken and is in need of repair."
4.4) The report concludes with the following recommendation (among others): "This is why it will be critically important for the (Synod)Bishop (Rev. Wayne Miller) and Rev. Legania (Bishop Miller's African American/African Descent Ministries staff person) to enter into an intentional conversation with this group of leaders without being defensive, without trying to rationalize prior activity but simply to listen, to acknowledge where mistakes have been made in order for trust to be restored and this broken part of the relationship can be healed."
4) For an Afrocentricity Definition of Institutional Racism.
Introductory Note: For clarity, we conclude this post with the following lengthily definition of the concept of racism sourced from Introduction to Black Studies, Fourth Edition, 2010, by Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, California State University at Long Beach and Social Ethicist. Both the initial and closing itemized breakdown of Dr. Karenga's definition below are ours. It is aimed at making his comprehensive explanation a more easily digestible blog read.
4.1) "Racism is essentially a system of denial and deformation of a people's history, humanity and right to freedom based exclusively or primarily on the specious concept of race (Karenga, 1981, 1985).
4.2) "Stripped of all its cultural and pseudo-scientific mystification, race is a socio-biological category designed to assign human worth and social status, using Whites as the paradigm.
4.3) "Racism, then, which begins with the creation and mystification of race, is social thought and practice which expresses itself in three basic ways, i.e., as: (Dr. Karenga's numbering going forward)
"1) imposition, i.e., conquest and oppression of a people, and interruption, destruction and appropriation of a people's history and productive capacity in racial terms;
"2) ideology, i.e., an elaborate system of pseudo-intellectual categories, assumptions and contentions negative to peoples of color and serving as justification of the imposition and reinforcement of the institutional arrangement; and
"3) institutional arrangement, i.e., a system of political, economic and social structures that insure White power and privilege over peoples of color.
-Our itemization of Dr. Karenga's definition of racism continued-
4.4) "Racism, thus, becomes a continuing problem, not only for social inquiry, but also for the quality of social life and ongoing quest for human freedom and human flourishing.
4.5) "And it is a problem (our emphasis) that tends to appear at every level and in every area of social life (Karenga: Seltzer and Johnson, 2009)."
Respectfully submitted: On Leave From Call (OLFC/MCS/ELCA/2012-to-date) Pastors: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma) and Rev. Anthony W. Williams for Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's community organizing sanctuary") and The Millennium Project respectively, 11/26/15-Updated.
Text contacts:
Rev. Washington (Sangoma): 773-499-3323.
Rev. Williams: 708-439-1626.
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