Friday, September 11, 2015

Losing their religion.

The Field Negro education series continues.

"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. " ~Ephesians 6:5 ~


"Donald Mathews explicated the connection between white supremacist lynchings and the religious milieu that existed among whites in the South in his article “The Southern Rite of Human Sacrifice” (2000). He concluded his manuscript by writing, “The primary focus has been to suggest a connection between the South’s most dramatic act of brutality and the pervasive drama of salvation preached from pulpits throughout the region.”

The connections Mathews highlights are certainly intriguing and insightful, but whatever the connections between lynchings and white Southern religion, the primary aim of lynchings and other forms of anti-Black violence can be simplified. Lynchings were about reinforcing white economic power and social control over Black lives. Ida B. Wells, the most renowned anti-lynching activist during the height of the lynching era, explains in her autobiography (Wells 1970) that lynching was simply “[a]n excuse to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property and thus keep the race terrorized and ‘keep the nigger down.’” In other words, lynchings were conducted to stymie Black economic progress and to instill fear in affected Black communities.

Economic power and social control are also implicated as the rationale for white extra-legal violence in one of the most influential movie pictures in the early 1900s: The Birth of a Nation. Released in 1915, the film depicted the Klan redeeming the white South from the clutches of “Negro rule” (Blum 2007). A white Jesus appears at the end to bless the machinations of the Klan, which, at first glance, dovetails nicely with Mathews’s thesis. But the appearance of white Jesus is not for the purposes of sanctifying a lynching or accepting a blood sacrifice. Instead, the white Jesus appears in order to bless the rise of the Ku Klux Klan which has wrested control of the South away from the depicted predatory black beasts and placed them under the control and authority of white men (Hutchinson 1996).

Near the end of the film, the horse-riding Ku Klux Klan sweeps into town to save white families besieged by Black Union army veterans (portrayed by a combination of Black actors and white actors in blackface). Klan members align themselves on their horses in the fashion of a blockade in order to prevent Black men from voting (as women were not yet allowed to vote). By blocking Black men from voting, white Klan members were solidifying and securing white political power for future generations. When the white Jesus appears on the screen, it is a divine seal of approval for white power and control.

Whereas Mathews describes how religion in southern white society helps to contextualize and explain lynchings, it may be that the reverse is also true. Perhaps it is truer that lynchings helped reveal the real religious impulse of white lynchers. In his book The Cross and The Lynching Tree, James Cone elucidates the connection between lynching and racial power even further:
Lynching was the white community’s way of forcibly reminding blacks of their inferiority and powerlessness. To be black meant that whites could do anything to you and your people, and that neither you nor anyone else could do anything about it.
This is illuminated further in Edward Blum’s W.E.B. Du Bois: American Prophet, where Blum discusses “white supremacist theology” and highlights a phalanx of white racist authors, clergy, and novelists who fashioned racism into virtual articles of faith at the beginning of the 1900s. He notes:
They had tried to sanctify the segregation of African Americans and widespread racial violence by characterizing “Negroes” as soulless beasts. …whites crafted a variety of religious and theological rationales for structures of exploitation…. By 1900, white supremacist theology was firmly rooted in white American mainstream culture.
Hence, white supremacist theology was rendered even “crafted” to justify racial violence, domination, and exploitation as “lynchings became acts of Christian service, black men became devils incarnate, and white women became angels”' (Blum 2007). [More]

What do you think?

*Pic from bytheirstrangefruit.blogspot.com






48 comments:

White Jesus said...

"Lynchings were about reinforcing white economic power and social control over Black lives."

No more lynchings and no more social control, and today chaos, violence and murder reign in black America.

Now we don't have go start lynching again, but a little more social control is in order, don't you think Mr. Negro?

Anonymous said...

Today is the anniversary of our country's attack by Muslim terrorists on America and innocent men and women just doing their jobs, like all of us do every single day. I remember the unity after the attack and love for America. The kindness to the police and firefighters and their families, even those who weren't downtown that day. The gentle condolences to families who died. The support for our fellow citizens.

I miss my friend in the South Tower today and everyday.

dinthebeast said...

I think I'm very glad to be the only member of my immediate family who was born in California, not Ardmore, Oklahoma...

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

"Lynchings were about reinforcing white economic power and social control over Black lives. Ida B. Wells, the most renowned anti-lynching activist during the height of the lynching era, explains in her autobiography (Wells 1970) that lynching was simply '[a]n excuse to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property and thus keep the race terrorized and "keep the nigger down."' In other words, lynchings were conducted to stymie Black economic progress and to instill fear in affected Black communities."

This is only partly accurate.

Yes, lynchings were used to punish "uppity blacks" who tried to assert legal or economic equality with whites in some way. But lynchings were also part of the general fabric of vigilantism that characterized early America's response to crime.

Back in the day, crime rates were ridiculous compared to today, and people had a general lack of respect for the justice system. Angry mobs often responded to major crimes by meting out "frontier justice." It was not uncommon for a posse of enraged townsfolk to overwhelm the local police, drag an accused suspect out of jail before he could face trial, and hang him in the public square. Determining guilt was not considered particularly important; rumor and innuendo were good enough reason for punishment.

Figures from the University of Missouri, KC, on lynching (which are, no doubt, incomplete) show that lynching of both whites and blacks was common, although the black numbers were far higher:

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingyear.html

One big reason that blacks were lynched for crimes more often than whites is that it was believed blacks were naturally more violent and therefore could be allowed no leniency. I'm sure that this prejudice about black propensity for violence originated during slavery (why wouldn't blacks be violent in that situation? they did not want to be slaves!), but it easily outlived the end of slavery.

There's no need to look for some ulterior motive on white people's part, in those cases. Whites genuinely believed blacks were naturally dangerous and that extreme violence was necessary to keep them in line.

Obviously, you can still see vestiges of this in police attitudes toward blacks, and these prejudices are only reinforced by the genuinely high levels of violence that does go on in black inner-city neighborhoods today.

Oklahoma Joe said...

@Doug in Oakland:

The people in Ardmore fee the same.

Anonymous said...

dinthebeast said...
I think I'm very glad to be the only member of my immediate family who was born in California, not Ardmore, Oklahoma..
---

The Red Dirt Brewhouse in Ardmore is pretty cool.

Anonymous said...

You use a film made exactly 100 years ago as an example and proof of current race relations? Field, you have emotional problems, a mental illness. You need help with your persecution complex.

482 and counting said...

"You use a film made exactly 100 years ago as an example and proof of current race relations?"

Why talk about what's really happening today, when it's easier to live in the past?

538.com took a look at murder rates for the 60 largest US cities. Data for Anaheim was unavailable, limiting the data set to 59. In these 59 cities, the total number of homicides in 2014 through approximately August 8, 2014 was 2,955. Through the same period this year, the total number of homicides has been 3,437 for an increase of 482 more dead human beings.

How much of this has been the fault of the campaign by #BlackLivesMatter, the Justice Department, the Soros Foundation, and the national media to demonize police as white racists out to murder black baby bodies? We can get some idea by looking at the two cities most focused upon by the Great and the Good: Baltimore and St. Louis (next door to Ferguson).

In absolute terms, the biggest increase in dead bodies in 2015 came in Baltimore, the 26th biggest population town, with an increase in homicides of 77 from 138 to 215. That’s an increase of 56%.

The second biggest increase in absolute number of dead bodies was in St. Louis, which is only the 60th most populous municipality. But it happens to be next door to Ferguson, where the Eye of Soro came to be so malevolently focused from August 2014 onward. Before Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, there were 85 homicides in St. Louis in 2014. Over the same stretch in 2015, there have been 136, for an increase of 51 dead bodies or 60%.

So, just in the two cities where the media obsession with #BlackLivesMatter has been most ferocious, there has been a year to year increase from 223 to 351: that’s 128 incremental homicide victims. That 128 represents 27% of the total increase of 482 dead bodies across the 59 biggest cities.

A lot of highly respectable institutions have some statistical blood on their hands.

Anonymous said...

With the Obama Administration Justice Department announcing that they are finally going to focus upon white collar crime, it’s worth taking a look at the FBI’s Most Wanted List for white collar criminals:

https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wcc

White collar crime, it appears, is today a vibrantly diverse field, with native born American whites having been relegated to a small minority of the most wanted offenders.

White people just can't do anything anymore.

Happy Times said...

Trump is polling better among Blacks than any other Republican candidate in memory (25% support against Hillary).

The anti-White left, which is very real and almost exclusively Jewish (Sirota, Wise, Ignatiev, Millbank etc.), supports open borders to hurt the old-stock White Americans they hate, but in the process there is immense collateral damage for Black, American Indians and long established Hispanic and Asian families.

Ironically, an implicitly pro-White platform is helping Trump among all minorities groups – except, of course, the Jews.

Anonymous said...

As I read the article I'm making the analogy of the actions of the lynchers then and the actions of the police now...

Anonymous said...

Happy Times said...

Trump is polling better among Blacks than any other Republican candidate in memory (25% support against Hillary).

11:01 PM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My thoughts are that unless someone comes along that can talk a better game to the vast silent majority that he's appealing to,he's gonna get the nomination, and who knows, as coo coo as America is now, anything is possible, even that!

(the unspeakable) hehehe

Anonymous said...

Field, "What do you think?"

Well, Whites have proven their dominance over Blacks and Native Americans by violence. Blacks could never be that violent. If they were, the history of America would have been quite different.

The history of Whites has been nothing short of evil and they justify their violence by blaming others. Whites are shameless, lack morals and doomed to hell. There is no other way to put it. No good can come from their inhumane actions.

Anonymous said...

re: White Jesus: Jesus has been White for such a long time that he has become a reality. Any black church, any White Church will show Jesus as White, wearing a beoutiful robe and long hair that certainly belongs to a wm.

As a bm I cannot imagine Jesus NOT being White. Also, all Blacks in America worship a White Jesus, and are devoted followers of his religion.

I say all of this to say as Blacks we are mentally, emotionally and spiritually tied to the wm. There is no other way to put it. As Blacks, we have accepted white dominance and superiority.

Just last week a brother who was shopping like everybody else, was beaten unmercifully in Whole Foods in Oakland by a black security guard. The brother was just a customer in Whole Foods. But he was not treated as a customer.

Of course, Doug in Oakland remains mute about it, as if nothing happened.

You know why? Because the beaten man was Black and doesn't count in Oakland. It just isn't news in Oakland.

BTW, the beating took place in a very safe part of town where Whites live.

The security guard who beat the brother within inches of his life was Black. You see, Blacks see Blacks as inferior too. And a white Jesus operates in the mind of Blacks at an unconscious level that it's alright to kill Blacks.

It's disgusting, despairing, defeating and very much depressing for a bm in America, esp in the bay area.

Anonymous said...

"No good can come from their inhumane actions"

Except cable TV. And the internet. And pizza.

Come on, man said...

"BTW, the beating took place in a very safe part of town where Whites live."

That's why it's safe.

Whites live there.

And there are security guards who will beat negroes who get out of line.

It's called civilization.

White Jesus said...

"Also, all Blacks in America worship a White Jesus, and are devoted followers of his religion."

I gave you basketball, so there's that.

Anonymous said...

Here's the link with the sad story at Whole Foods in Oakland. What happened to this bm was unbelievable. Yet, it's been kept quiet on FN. Why?

In any case, it won't be quiet for very long now because Burris is taking the case and filing criminal charges against the Security Guard, the Security outfit and Whole Foods. When John Burris finishes with them, it's going to cost a lot of money for all of them.

I hope they all rot in hell.

Doug in Oakland, you are always mouthing off about injustices. Why haven't you said anything about this outrageous event? What's the matter, aren't you black enough?

http://abc7news.com/news/protest-over-customer-beating-forces-oaklands-whole-foods-to-close/977998/

Anonymous said...

anon12:18am, I know you are upset at Doug in Oakland for not informing FN about this terrible incident. However, Doug lives in East Oakland and those folks don't know what is going on in the rest of the city. They are too busy dodging bullets and avoiding gangland style killings.

You have to understand that Oakland is one of the most dangerous cities in America, next to Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit and Philly, which by the way, has surpassed them all as THE MOST DANGEROUS CITY IN AMERICA. Field should enlighten us about Philly...the truth Mr Field, please.

So I beg of you, cut Doug in Oakland some slack. He probably has not ever been in a Whole Foods store. They don't have any in east Oakland.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_28792870/oakland-after-attack-customer-protesters-shut-down-whole

Anonymous said...

"My thoughts are that unless someone comes along that can talk a better game to the vast silent majority that he's appealing to,he's gonna get the nomination, and who knows, as coo coo as America is now, anything is possible, even that!"

Nah.

I think it is highly improbable that Trump will take the Republican nomination. Once more people start paying attention to the presidential race and Republican elites fire up their slime machine to attack him, he'll be yesterday's news. Then he can go back to being an obnoxious reality TV clown.

But if by some miracle he manages to snag the nomination, there is a zero percent chance he'll get elected president. He will drag his party down like an anchor and the Democrats will all pop champagne corks and let the good times roll.

Anonymous said...

I essentially agree with this commentary from Nate Silver, the Left's electoral guru (with an impressive track record for analyzing polling and predicting elections):

"A Trump nomination would be more of an existential threat to the Republican establishment. He bucks the establishment’s consensus on issues as fundamental to the GOP as taxation and health care, and he’s wobbly on abortion. Splitting with the party on any one of those issues might ordinarily disqualify a candidate. Trump potentially destabilizes the Republicans’ 'three-legged stool': The coalition of fiscal, social and national security conservatives have dominated the party since 1980 or so. But on the issue on which Trump is most conservative — immigration — establishment Republicans worry that he might be so reactionary as to cause long-term damage to the party brand.

Meanwhile, Trump has picked fights with sacred cows like the Club for Growth and Fox News. Most of the conservative media — from the National Review to RedState to Glenn Beck — is anti-Trump.

In certain respects, Trump is engaged in an attempted 'hostile takeover' of the Republican Party. Because the downside of nominating him might be so enormous — lasting beyond a single election — the GOP establishment may fight to the death to prevent him from being chosen, even at the price of a brokered convention and a fractured party base.


Trump is the GOP's Frankenstein monster. They played with racism, they thought they could control it, but now racism is running amok through their village, smashing things. Regaining control is going to be a very painful and expensive process for them.

field negro said...

Well said Anon@5:48.

Anon@12:38, the Pope is coming to Philly, not your backwater town. We will get lots of prayers.

White Jesus, black Jesus was a better point guard than u will ever be.

"It's called civilization".

Nope, it's called Mayberry RFD.



Bill said...


Roscoes Chicken and Waffles sued for racial discrimination of a Black man?

Jury Awards Ex-Employee Of Roscoe’s Chicken N’ Waffles $1.6M In Race Discrimination Suit
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/09/09/jury-awards-ex-roscoes-chicken-n-waffles-employee-1-6m-in-race-discrimination-suit/

What's next, NAACP lifetime achievement awards for donald sterling.

Oops.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe Serena lost to the Italian player!

I dunno...I'm thinking she took a fall...because...how could that be?

This better not be the case...

I'm really pissed!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

He bucks the establishment’s consensus

5:48 AM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Honestly, maybe that's why I'm beginning to like him,he bucks the establishment and that's a good thing.

Bill said...


Wow, what a coincidence.

Iran says finds unexpectedly high uranium reserve
Iran has discovered an unexpectedly high reserve of uranium and will soon begin extracting the radioactive element at a new mine, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation said on Saturday.

The comments cast doubt on previous assessments from some Western analysts who said the country had a low supply and would sooner or later would need to import uranium, the raw material needed for its nuclear program.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/iran-says-finds-unexpectedly-high-uranium-104622948.html

It's almost as if Iran played Obama.

Bernal said...

Trump is the GOP's Frankenstein monster. They played with racism, they thought they could control it, but now racism is running amok through their village, smashing things.
---

Things need to be smashed. Progressives like you and Silver call it "racism" because you fear it, and you call everything you fear "racism". You know that if the corporatist GOP is overthrown by a new populist GOP establishment, the Republicans will steamroll their way back into power.

Despite the media campaign to stick the "racist" label on Trump because he wants to slow down the demographic change of America, he polls higher among blacks and Hispanics than any Republican in generations. A lot of blacks and Hispanics look at the social disruptions and economic atrophy brought on by waves of third world immigrants as a threat, and they respond positively to a white man who is finally brave enough to stand up and say so.

Things are changing. The Republican base is in full revolt against a party establishment that has ignored their interests for decades. The Democrat coalition of young, angry brown people and old hippies is fracturing as well. Middle class blacks have interests that coincide with middle class whites, and they have gotten little from a Democratic party engaged in whipping up riots and rewarding their crony capitalist funders.

Trump is a lot of things, but the thing I like is that he is a threat to the status quo.

Let the smashing begin.

field negro said...

Frankly, I am more afraid of his hair. (TRUMP)

field negro said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

@ 11:56

I would be afraid of someone like John Kasich, because he is very electable, even though the Republicans probably won't nominate him, because he's sensible and bit boring.

I would be very afraid of someone like the despicable Scott Walker, who, while by no means a smart guy, is still savvy enough to keep his contempt for the poor and minorities just below the radar -- unlike Donald Trump, who alienates three voters for every one he brings in.

I am not remotely afraid of Donald Trump. He is a disaster for his party. There will never be a President Trump.

Anonymous said...

"I would be very afraid of someone like the despicable Scott Walker, who, while by no means a smart guy, is still savvy enough to keep his contempt for the poor and minorities just below the radar"

You are probably afraid of your own shadow.

What's it like to look at other people and project your own dark thoughts into their heads?

SMDH...

Anonymous said...

Trump,Lilacpr 2016!

Bill said...


lilacpr2000 said...
Trump,Lilacpr 2016!


You've got my vote.

Bill said...


field negro said...
Frankly, I am more afraid of his hair. (TRUMP)


Personally, I'm more concerned about you.

Your problem is double posting. This is a pattern that has been going on for a while now.

Please get some help before you start posting 3 times. Double posting is not a problem that is going to go away on it's on.

Anonymous said...

Dear Bill, thanks for mentioning about Brother Field's pattern of double posting. I used to think those things didn't happen to owners of their own blogs.

Anyway, I was too afraid to say something. However, I am so glad you did because who else would have the nerve to tell Field. Let me tell you no Negro would.

We are a fearful lot...it goes way back to slavery, then Jim Crow, and now out and out police brutalizing and killings. I have got to admit that Whites know how to keep a N-Word down.

For the first time in my life you have shown me the benefits of White Privilege for Blacks.

field negro said...

I am double posting, and you are missig a "w". So there is that. ;)

Lili said...

Bill said...
lilacpr2000 said...
Trump,Lilacpr 2016!

You've got my vote.

6:02 PM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yaaay! Well,that's one! and you know what they say, in this business, one means hundreds!

I'm gonna wiiin, er..I mean we're gonna win!!!
x)

Bill said...


Wield negro said...
I am double posting, and you are missig a "w". So there is that.


If you say so.

Anonymous said...

Hey Bill, got anything for the caption post? I'll vote for ya! ;)

Anonymous said...

"Trump,Lilacpr 2016!"

President Trump's first act would be to deport his vice president to Bolivia.

And don't try arguing that you are an American citizen and aren't from Bolivia. Those are details and The Donald isn't interested in details those are for the little people and you sound foreign and who cares anyway?

Anonymous said...

You're right. Lilac does have an accent. Thanks for pointing that out. I never noticed before.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

You're right. Lilac does have an accent. Thanks for pointing that out. I never noticed before.

12:06 AM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yaass! Ju arrr zo rright! Ju yus nebel notizzz befoal! But he vill not sen me to Bolivia becozz I vill maike maiselv endespensable. and rremenbel de Donal like de foren womens too much! ;) Buuuaajajajajajajaja!

Ohmigosh said...

Don't be concerned folks, just a picture of the Holloween Lynching Crew. Black puts these creeps into a tizzy. Turns them in he biggest killers on the planet. No one has to worry but the people of the darker persuasion. Everyone else, the fake supremacy rolls along.

Anonymous said...

"Yaass! Ju arrr zo rright! Ju yus nebel notizzz befoal! But he vill not sen me to Bolivia becozz I vill maike maiselv endespensable. and rremenbel de Donal like de foren womens too much! ;) Buuuaajajajajajajaja!"

Haha, that is some pretty good Spanglish right there, Lilac.

How can Trump resist you? You may be safe from La Migra after all.

Mack Lyons said...

No more lynchings and no more social control, and today chaos, violence and murder reign in black America.

Now we don't have go start lynching again, but a little more social control is in order, don't you think Mr. Negro?


Because the only way your poor white trash ass can get leg up is by stepping on a black man's back. Pretty damn pathetic, but it sums up a lot about white America's gains thus far.

By 1900, white supremacist theology was firmly rooted in white American mainstream culture.

Firmly rooted by 1900, but embedded within the very fabric of this nation's being ever since the first planter imported the first batch of slaves to this land we (sadly) call home.

When the house is rotted down to the foundation, there's no other choice but to tear it down. Otherwise, it'll continue to collapse on itself until there's nothing left.

Mack Lyons said...

It's called civilization.

This is what hypocrisy looks like when practiced by a bunch of neanderthals.

Neil Anderthal said...

Mack Lyons said...
When the house is rotted down to the foundation, there's no other choice but to tear it down.
---

Nihilism is easy to start, but hard to finish.

PilotX said...

Dehumanization of blahs is nothing new and Birth of a Nation type language is still being practiced, just read some of the comments here.