Jamar A. Boyd II is a graduate of the DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University.
Posts By This Author
'The Word of God Gives Us the Remedy Amid Crisis'
"I think that the word of God gives us the remedy for a lot when crisis comes. I think that the reality of our theology has to do with the theodicy of God — why does God allow bad things to happen? There’s the communicating, conveying, and teaching about managing crisis; 'How does God view crisis? Is he the author of crisis or is the crisis that we see an experience in our world as a result of something else or someone else?' So really, [ we are] educating our people teaching them the word of God, and using scripture as an example of how to survive, almost any kind of crisis."
The Power of Black Women in Politics
Barbara Jordan September 25, 1974. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Being black in America is a privilege coupled with unique challenges. The privilege is possessing a heritage authentic to only our diaspora no matter how littered and pained our history may be. As a black man, I did not understand the challenges wholly until I grew older. For black women, the challenges are similar but with added layers that exist because of our American male driven capitalistic based economic silo.
Resilience and Sacred Memory Are Tenets of Survival
Image via Wikimedia Commons
Amid the reality of racism, resistance, and restraint, I witnessed my grandfather commit his life to bettering the place he’s always known as home. The servant leadership of my paternal grandparents highlights my family’s legacy in South Carolina.
Pro-Gun Groups and the Lust for White Power
A vendor sells pins as gun rights advocates and militia members attend rally in Richmond, Virginia, U.S. Image via REUTERS/Jim Urquhart.
We must carefully observe and acknowledge that many black and brown people consistently witness the senseless deaths of individuals at the hands of racists, supremacists, and those inflicting direct harm on Christian and non-Christian houses of worship.
Plantation Weddings Erase a Legacy of Terror
Photo by Nathan Bingle on Unsplash
With picturesque homes and landscapes, plantations promote a false message of comfort and simplicity. But the people who worked the grounds, managed the home, and fostered their families enjoyed none of the supposed serenity.
Listening to the Language of the Disenfranchised
Image via REUTERS/Laurel Chor
The similarities here are not only due to the presence of death and violence, but high tensions between government and people. Here we’ve witnessed images of police exercising excessive force on protestors, extensive arrests of nonviolent demonstrators, and vile displays of militarization in neighborhood streets, much like in Baltimore, Compton, and other cities in the U.S.
Kanye's 'Sunday Service' Can't Replace the Work of Black Churches
Kanye West performs at the Way Out West festival on Aug. 13, 2011 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Credit: Shutterstock.
Kanye West draws upon the storied history of black communal worship and gospel music.
Chicken Consciousness: A Matter of Chicken or Wages
Credit: Shutterstock
Lost in the debate was concern about the employees preparing the sandwich, their hours, and compensation.
When the Youth Rise: How the NAACP's Youth & College Division Transformed Activism
Sit-in at Woolworth's lunch counter: Tallahassee, Florida Date: March 13, 1960
During the 110th National Convention of the NAACP in Detroit, Mich., thousands of delegates from the Youth & College Division attended. Convention enables moments of intentional innovation, erects bridges of generational understanding, forges highways of collaboration, paves paths of opportunity, and preserves the legacy of the ancestors.
The Importance of a Thriving Black Church
African Americans in church in Georgia. Image via Wikimedia Commons
Because of this immense history, power, and influence despite generations of ill treatment and racism, black churches need to thrive, continuing to speak truth to power and serve black communities beyond the sanctuary.
How the U.S. Treats Incarcerated People Is a Miscarriage of Justice
The continued demise of faith in this nation’s criminal justice system, elected officials, and government will increase wherever injustice is maintained in the name of “doing just enough”. If America is truly to be one nation, it must address and correct its patterns of injustice and persistent denials of full personhood for those who belong in this country and society.
The $40-million Morehouse Loan Payoff Illuminates Student Debt Crisis for Black Grads
The student debt crisis in America is currently at its worst, making it more difficult for minorities, specifically African Americans, to attend four year colleges — especially private institutions as Morehouse College. It is estimated the average full-time tuition at Morehouse was $25,368 in the latest academic year. But with other expenses like room and board, books, and fees, the total can be above $48,000.
Black Churches Are As Sacred As Notre Dame
The Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Opelousas, Louisiana, U.S. April 4, 2019 is pictured after a fire in this picture obtained from social media. Picture taken April 4, 2019. Courtesy Louisiana Office Of State Fire Marshal/Handout via REUTERS
The stark contrast in media coverage and social concern reveals the deep and isolated silos which humanity can and chooses to abide within, magnifying the complex avenues of empathy and sympathy while examining the enactment of independent agencies to ensure certain spaces and structures are protected or resurrected.
When White Privilege Is Disguised as Meritocracy
Images via DFree/Shutterstock
The idea that black and brown students possess the intellectual prowess to compete and succeed alongside their white counterparts is not a myth, it’s a fact. But, historically, black and brown students have not been allowed to showcase this intelligence in institutions of higher education.
Unashamedly Black
Photo by Jordan Whitfield on Unsplash
It is also from this rage and this discontent that Black people in America created and orchestrated their own culture, ensuring that legacy and heritage would exist for their children. They gathered in “hush harbors” to worship their God and Maker, absent of slaveholder religion and influence, tapping into the untampered presence of the Holy Spirit and the deities of the Motherland. They took the slop and remains of the plantation and created a delicacy now known as “soul food”.
It’s Only a Matter of When
Within American culture many have heard the phrase, “as a matter of fact,” utilized in moments of intense debate or discussion. Yet, today the phrase utilized is, “a matter of when?” When will the current trek of looming destruction reach its apex?
The Deadly Apathy of White America
America is still led by an apathetic majority void of compassion, empathy, and sympathy. A majority unable and unwilling to confess their biases, hate, phobia, and toxicity, making themselves apathetic to the reality of African Americans. From their perspective intentional and toxic discrimination, racism, and police practices is not their problem; they have no role in this plight and degradation.
America Still Doesn't Care About Black and Brown Bodies
Image via Shutterstock/ Lucas Maverick Greyson
America’s allegiance is not to black and brown bodies. It is bound to prejudice, racism, militarism, and violence predominantly against people of color. And while Black Lives Matter rose as a voice and movement for black lives, the NAACP’s Youth & College Division amplified its voice, and black Americans across this nation cried out, the American majority kept quiet.
America Watches Black Pain. Then We Move On
Metro Davidson County Police inspect the scene of a fatal shooting at a WaffleHouse restaurant near Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., April 22, 2018. REUTERS/Harrison McClary.
I mentioned these incidents not solely because I’m a black man in America, but because our attention is easily swayed away from these incidents. They are uncomfortable and authentic truths and possible realities for all minorities in America. They are most certainly the fear of most black youth, young adults, persons, and parents in this country. The possibility that you can/could be killed for being ‘Black in America’ is daunting.
The Sacred Space of the Mind
The sacred space of the mind in black men and women in 2018 must be reclaimed, reexamined, recalibrated, and reignited for the fight that is ours.