Easter Sunday: Reflect on the hoodie that Christ wore
OPINION - The hoodie Christ wore can be observed in the literal sense, and the one He wears in the metaphorical sense, in that He identified and identifies with those who are oppressed, stopped and frisked...
Innocents indicted and executed were Amadou Diallo, Johnny Gammage, Tyisha Miller, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant and Ramarley Graham.Their indictments, and the general indictment of our communities–along with the continued distribution of guns within our communities fromwithout our communities–has justified the occupation of our communities by law enforcement for generations, and shaped the dominant culture’s stereotypes and profiles of people of color.
Stop-and-Frisk and Stand Your Ground enable both this profiling and the extrajudicial executions of young people of color.
All of us, but especially our young men like Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, are deemed criminals, outlaws and are hunted and constantly pursued for arrest, thus, likening our experiencing to that of Christ and His experience to ours. The hoodie Christ wore can be observed in the literal sense, and the one He wears in the metaphorical sense, in that He identified and identifies with those who are oppressed, stopped and frisked, and with the ongoing tension that always exists between the oppressed and their oppressor.
Cone writes that “knowing God means being on the side of the oppressed [and] becoming one with them. We must become black with God!” Being black, so to speak, is to dwell in the house of God with the oppressed, essentially becoming Christ.
I would argue that becoming black, becoming Christ, today is a lot easier if you are among those who are also oppressed: the poor, women, Latinos, LGBTQ’s, and if you are a senior or a part of the working class, you also are getting closer to blackness everyday. Paradoxically, becoming black and becoming Christ today is also a lot easier if you are Muslim, not to mention being an already black President believed to be Muslim.
But becoming one with God and the oppressed also requires living with the imminence of death by violence, as Christ did and as most of our youth do everyday. Jesus knew his violent death was certain, and horrifically, our youth, too, have that knowledge.
