My father was a gracious man, born in Mobile, Alabama in 1917. My grandmother, a Bible believing Christian, at times used racial slurs to refer to people of color without a pause or sense that such language typecast groups of people as “other than us.” The South, with its “Southern Gentility,” replaces an overt tirade with a smiling, “I love your dress!” and a head-turned, “But I hate your guts.” “Woke!,” “DEI Hire!,” and “Illegal!” reflect the neobigotry of genteel racism.
Neobigotry’s genteel racism walks a path racism one step removed. This was the same scorched earth policy launched by the U.S. Army following the Civil War as it then waged war against the Plains Native Americans with a “one step removed” eradication of the Buffalo. Without one shot fired at Native Americans, they took away their food and life essentials by killing their symbol of life — the Buffalo!
The attack against the “Woke,” the “DEI Hires,” and the “Illegals” is nothing short of “Buffalo Hunting” that creates disparate treatment and harassment for protected classes of race, gender, sex, religion, age, and orientation. Before eradicating human groups, humans like to ascribe subhuman names to them that lessen the guilt of eradicating real people. The genteel terms given to “Woke”, “DEI Hires” and “Illegals,” while one step removed from historic racial slurs, are symbiotic with protected classes of people. Those seeking eradication of these classes may boast they shot not one word of hate against people of color, age, or sexual orientation, while at the same time these neobigotry attacks result in the scorched earth destruction of the sources that feed a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace and culture in a truly fair and free America.
The attack against the “Woke,” the “DEI Hires,” and the “Illegals” is nothing short of “Buffalo Hunting” that creates disparate treatment and harassment for protected classes of race, gender, sex, religion, age, and orientation.
Pastor Jim
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[c]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d]”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Read Luke chapter 10 for the parable.
– Luke 10
“…l’d love to wear a rainbow every day
And tell the world that everything’s okay
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back
Until things are brighter
I’m the Man In Black.”
~Johnny Cash
Woke Up!,
Pastor Jim