Al Owski > Recent Status Updates

“The oligarchy of 300,000 slaveholders used the Montgomery Congress not only to proclaim the separation of the South from the North; it also exploited the Congress to overturn the internal system of government of the slave states, to completely subjugate that part of the white population which had still maintained some degree of independence under the protection of the democratic Constitution of the Union.”

“At the Louisiana state convention in New Orleans, which met on March 21, 1861, Christian Roselius, the states political veteran declared "the Montgomery constitution is not a constitution, but a conspiracy. It does not inaugurate a government by the people, but a detestable and unrestricted oligarchy. The people were not permitted to play any part in this matter." ”

“"Let him go, he is not worth thine ire!" This advice from Leporello to Don Juan's deserted love is now the repeated call of English statesmanship to the North of the United States–recently voiced anew by Lord John Russell. If the North lets the South go, it will free itself from any complicity in slavery–its historical original sin and it will create the basis for a new and higher stage of development.”

“While Paul is known for the inclusion of the Gentiles into the Christian community, it is important to state unequivocally that his letters have been used to justify systems of oppression, hegemony, patriarchy, bigotry, misogyny, and othering.”

“A connection could be made between American slavery's depravity and the belief that enslaved African people had no soul since they had been re-created as property."

“Racializing Jesus' gospel would segregate everything with two churches, two heavens and two hells, two Gods, two Saviors and two devils, which came in black or white.”

“Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey write, "The white American Jesus first rose to power and prominence in the early nineteenth century. This was an era of the expansion of slavery and the often fraudulent and violent grabbing of Native American lands. It was also a moment of nation building and defining. Whiteness became a crucial symbol of national identity and citizenship." ”

“Socially-colored white Christians will also need to address the coloring in of the face of God as white, in the person of Jesus, racializing the Trinity and in turn, divinizing whiteness and socially-colored white people who, not surprisingly, often struggle with a white savior (industrial) complex or syndrome.”

“Regarding the internal agreement that America's citizens must make, Thurman says, "In a free society, no law can endure unless it is accepted in the hearts of men." He describes segregation as a pattern, and it is no doubt woven into the fabric of American society.”

“In fact, the African American engagement with Christianity has not only shaped, consoled, and empowered a people caught in slavery for more than two centuries, it has also captured and emboldened their spirit in such a way as to engender profound social change across all of America.” -Anne & Anthony Pinn

“Created in response to white Christianity and white supremacist terrorism, the Black Church is the moral compass and prophetic voice of American Christianity.”

“How could American colonists fight for freedom from British oppression, claiming their natural rights, while participating in, supporting, and sustaining the oppression of Africans and African Americans?”

“Harsh laws were enacted … for those who attempted to educate enslaved Africans, as their illiteracy supported their limited agency and bodily autonomy.… Such regulations were intended to control the spiritual meaning and social implications of their Christian conversion. Christianity was good for the enslaved Africans' self-esteem, which proved problematic for those who wanted to keep them in … perpetual bondage.”

“This racist paternalism meant that African and indigenous people were unworthy of and unable to accept the Christian faith unless European colonizers' "civilized" and subordinated them. This produced a "two-ness," a double-mindedness for the European colonizers and a double-consciousness 81 for Africans and later African Americans.”

“Further, there exists a Black and White church in North America because of the social, political, and theological implications of American slavery, namely the European colonizers' view that their power over bodies racialized as black and forcibly enslaved carried over to their "non-white" souls.”

“The American curtain is color. White men have used this word, this concept to justify unspeakable crimes and not only in the past but in the present. One can measure very neatly the white American's distance from his conscience—from himself—by observing the distance between white America and black America. One has only to ask oneself who established this distance, who is the distance designed to protect…?” -Baldwin

“Socially-colored is a description I coined to denote the fact that human beings are not physically colored beige (mixed race), black, brown, red, yellow, and white. So-called white people remain the racialized majority because of laws passed by the US… the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Immigration Act of 1924…, and the Undesirable Aliens Act of 1929.”

“Quite apart from the economical law which makes the diffusion of slavery a vital condition for its maintenance within its constitutional areas, the leaders of the South had never deceived themselves as to its necessity for keeping up their political sway over the United States." ”

“American slavery was doomed to gradual extinction from the moment it should be deprived of its power of expansion. That "economical law" was perfectly understood by the slaveocracy. "In 15 years more," said Toombs, "without a great increase in Slave territory, either the slaves must be permitted to flee from the whites, or the whites must flee from the slaves." ”

“Anti-slavery England cannot sympathize with the North breaking down the withering influence of slaveocracy because she cannot forget that the North, while bound by that influence, supported the slave trade, mobbed the Abolitionists, and had its Democratic institutions tainted by the slave driver's prejudices.” -Karl Marx

“Race is a tool used to pit the majoritized and minoritized against each other, to make certain segments of the American population the problem. First, there was "the Negro Problem." "the Indian Problem," and "Yellow Peril." Today, there is the immigration debate and the feared "browning of America."”

“Once the oppressed started to become baptized believers, their oppressors could no longer identify with Christianity in the same way. Consequently, the latter felt they had to create a separate expression of the faith, a white Christianity. By racializing the gospel, the European colonizers had found a way to maintain power so as not to lose the Africans enslaved as chattel property…”

“Christians in North America embedded racial categories into Christian identity. The North American church was founded on exclusion, with English settlers claiming the Christian identity for themselves only. They, along with their Danish and Dutch counterparts, found the conversion of the enslaved Africans to be "incompatible with slavery" because it would render them equals, children of God and thus, their siblings”

“There was no mention of Galatians 3:27-28 or Colossians 3:9-11, wherein the power dynamics of culture, class, and gender are removed as baptized members join Christ's mystical body. However, there was the understanding that baptism changes one's social status. Consequently, the North American church became segregated "down by the riverside" at baptism. The first "whites only" sign was hung above the baptismal pool.”

“Africans who were enslaved were often required to recite a baptismal vow… You declare in the presence of God and before this Congregation that you do not ask for the holy baptism out of any design to free yourself from the Duty and Obedience that you owe to your Master while you live, but merely for the good of Your Soul and to partake of the Graces and Blessings promised the members of the Church of Jesus Christ.”

“The European colonists, however, knew conversion and specifically baptism for Africans who they had enslaved would prove problematic. They knew "they should, according to the laws of the British nation and the canons of the church' be freed (though) legally vague (it was) widely believed." It could…be used as an argument for manumission… colonists wanted…to keep Jesus' gospel and baptismal freedom for themselves.”

“It was a part of the natural order of things, the "Great Chain of Being," and for the European colonists, a necessity. Pro-slavery apologists argued for the enslavement of non-Europeans as a means of conversion, which was considered synonymous with civility. Being a Christian carried a measure of status and suggested that one possessed self-mastery. Conversion was the difference between the civilized and heathen.”

“At the same time none of the successive victories of the South was carried but after a hot contest with an antagonistic force in the North, appearing under different party names… If the positive and final result of each single contest told in favor of the South, the attentive observer of history could not but see that every new advance of the slave power was a step forward to its ultimate defeat.”

“Mrs. Stowe says: "The slave party, finding they could no longer use the Union for their purposes, resolved to destroy it." There is here an admission that up to that time the slave party had used the Union for their purposes, and it would have been well if Mrs. Stowe could have distinctly shown where it was that the North began to make its stand against slavery.”

“If it be true that the North, after long hesitation and an exhibition of forbearance unknown in the annals of European history, drew at last the sword not for crushing slavery, but for saving the Union, the South, on its part, inaugurated the war by loudly proclaiming "the peculiar institution" as the only and main end of the rebellion. It confessed to fighting for the liberty of enslaving other people…”