A good friend of mine said something years back that I’m still chewing on. He mentioned that through the Supreme Court, white conservatives are positioning themselves for apartheid rule well into the future. This was another brick in that foundation.

A name that isn’t stigmatized because of its association with Blackness.

There are a lot of debates about Affirmative Action, most not in good faith. But this is truly about race, and most truly about racial resentment, and ultimately anti-black racism.

Even beyond education. White folks have always had Affirmative Action. The G.I. Bill: Affirmative Action. The Homestead Act: Affirmative Action. Tax Breaks and Subsidies: Affirmative Action.

When the government as it always has helps white people that help gets a fancy name.

A key ingredient to today’s SCOTUS ruling is that this isn’t about Affirmative Action, it’s about Affirmative Action that helps Black people and other people of color. White Folks have always had Affirmative Action, it’s just called legacy admissions.

Breakthroughs are not always about a new word we need to hear, they’re sometimes about an old word we need to heed.

We all deserve space to say, I’m finished.

You deserve space to say, I’m finished.

A new affirmation, “even if it ain’t all done, I deserve to decide when I’m finished.”

Thinking that exhaustion is a pre-requisite for rest reveals how much we have been spiritually formed by capitalism.

This is why boundaries are crucial. A boundary is your decision that even if the work is not done (which it never will be), you’re still finished.

On the seventh day The Great Spirit rested from his work of creation, not because he was tired but because he was finished.” Genesis 2:2 (First Nations Translation)

As humans created in God’s image, rest is something we deserve to have the agency to do BEFORE we’re tired!

Dr. King was killed before he could preach a sermon entitled “why America may go to Hell.”

America may in fact actually BE hell. It is Hell. For so many.

And hell remains hell, regardless of who brings it. Changing the gatekeepers, does nothing to change what is at the gates.

On April 7, 1968, Dr. King was scheduled to preach a sermon entitled “why America may go to Hell.” He would be assassinated 3 days before.

It’s 2023, and we must confront the reality that America may in fact actually BE hell. It is Hell. For so many.

There is a room to be inspired by an individual, and honest about their full impact in the world. Life is nuanced and we can be too.

Barack Obama greatly inspired me, and also earned the title deporter in chief, launched hundreds of drone attacks that killed innocent civilians, and he bombed Doctors Without Borders. He was awarded the Nobel peace prize. We can be wrong about who’s a peacemaker sometimes.

Just because a person carries themselves with grace, etiquette and elegance, doesn’t mean they cease to be the leader of an empire that crushes bones and breaks teeth. It’s true of Barack Obama, and it’s true of Elizabeth Windsor.

It continues to be true that many are more offended by peoples responses to injustice, than the actual injustice itself.

Several things are clear today

Empire and the violence done in its name create separate realities for people to live in. One a reality of agony and suffering, and one a reality of glory and nourishment supported by that suffering. We are witnessing those realities.

White Supremacy has programmed many of us to be more outraged by the RESPONSE to injustice, than the ACTUAL injustice itself.

More outraged over pointed WORDS, than pointed WEAPONS!

I don’t know who needs to hear this but if Beyoncé can’t please everybody, you for SURE can’t please everybody!

Go ahead and do what you gotta and let them people be mad at you!

Maybe I’ll preach this for President’s day, or next July 4th.

Though a deist and not a Christian, the same invitation that went to the Rich, Young, ruler, I believe The Spirit of God was giving to Thomas Jefferson. Much like the rich young ruler, he walked away from it, as does White America.

Jesus answered by saying essentially; “if you want to experience Heaven on earth, begin by alleviating the Hell on Earth that your wealth and Power are dependent on and perpetuating.”