Religion and the Killing of Innocents

This is not a post about the current situation in the Middle East. This is about the religious roots of the recent events in Ferguson, MO. I am not saying that the killing of Michael Brown was directly motivated by religion. I see it as a somewhat racist event. Why would a white policeman feel it necessary to shoot an unarmed black man six times in order to stop a perceived threat other than the fact that he was black?

In order to see some of the religious roots of racism in America, one needs to
look back into history. When the slave trade began, the whites who bought the slaves already looked upon people with differently colored skin as less than human or otherwise inferior to themselves. Since this was to be their labor pool for the manpower hungry agriculture the were doing, they needed to teach them english. They also went about forcibly converting the slaves to their brand of christianity in order to "civilize" them. Of course they used the bible verses that backed up their worldview that the slaves were inferior, and that god wanted them to be slaves and do what they were told.
After a century of this kind of brainwashing and indoctrination, the slaves were set free. Now the whites faced a problem. They could either accept the blacks as equals and go against what they had been taught for generations, or continue to oppress the blacks and continue teaching their children that they were the superior race because "god said so". They took the second option because it was much easier to continue what they knew instead of thinking for themselves and changing their worldview. Meanwhile the blacks learned to read and found the verses in the bible that contradicted what they had been taught by their former masters. The began to demand equal treatment. It took a hundred more years to bring about equality in the law, and we are not done with that task.

The divisions that christianity in America makes today are far more subtle, but one only needs to look at the white extremists who say that god is on their side to know that the religious roots of racism are still there. It is part of the reason that black men in particular are seen as dangerous by many whites in this country.

More signs in the South

Today, I was driving through Alabama and Mississippi. Today was primary
day in Alabama, so I saw a large number of political signs. Nearly all
of them were promoting various Republican party candidates. No surprise
there. Not even surprising that a few of them were supporting the
re-elecion of Justice Moore.

However, there were a few signs that were a bit disturbing. These signs
were reminding people of the voter id law. In Alabama (as well as
several other states) one must present a government issued photo id in
order to be allowed to vote. The right wing supporters of laws like that
will tell you that the purpose is to prevent fraud at the polling place.
I have never heard of an actual case of fraud at the polling place.

The real reason is mainly to prevent as many minorities from voting as
possible. The billboards simply stated "you must have photo id to vote"
in very large letters. The message was accompanied by an image of an
attractive young black woman holding out an id card. The message is
clear. If you are a minority, don't bother trying to vote unless you
play by the white man's rules.

The other signs that I found a little off-putting were the ones for
various locally owned motels. They emphasized the fact that they were
"American owned". It is probably a safe bet to say that these motel
owners were white, overwhelmingly religious, and politically
conservative. They are advertising that they do not originally come from
some other place like India or Pakistan. They do not really understand
that the Indians and Pakistanis have likely been in the US long enough
to have become citizens, and are therefore just as American as they are.
It is even possible that these "non-american" owners are second
generation, having been born here to immigrant parents. Every single
white person in the South is either an immigrant or has immigrant
ancestry. This is hypocrisy. This is the subtle but pervasive racism to
be encountered in the American South.