I just completed watching a short video sent to me by a black conservative Christian who has a proclivity for the ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) philosophy of US President Donald Trump.

Over the years, I have noticed a close affinity between black conservative Christians in the Caribbean and Africa and the white conservative Christian movement that constitutes the bedrock of the MAGA movement. The video captured my attention because it was posted by a black person and sent to me by a black conservative Barbadian Christian at the beginning of the second week of Black History Month.

Vince Everette Ellison, the black US-based conservative Christian who posted the video, endorses all that is said on the video but added that he thought the information would be more credible and believable to black Democrats in the US if presented by a white person. I will not even bother to deal with the obvious anti-black insult implied in that sentiment because there are much bigger fish to fry in the body of the video.

The white presenter starts off with a litany of moral failures on the part of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. In the interest of full disclosure, I cannot say that all the charges made against Dr King were calumnies. The disingenuousness of both Ellison and the black Barbadian who sent me the video is clearly revealed; however, by their support for Trump, a man who if he was ever arrested on the charge of being a Christian would have to be released due to the non-existence of any evidence.

President Trump, who is much more self-aware than most of his religious sycophants, has been forthright enough to admit that he may not be heaven material. I suspect that there is a special wing down below in the deep bowels of the other place with his name on it. I should not have to tell conservative Christians who are openly living in glass houses that they should not be throwing stones or showing bones.

Additionally, do conservative Christians really think that the more liberal-minded black people care deeply about what Dr King did with his genitals? Truth be told, liberal-minded black folk don’t care where the genitals of Dr King, Bayard Ruskin, or Don Lemon have been. We honour our heroes based on their contribution to the black struggle, not on how much pleasure on the side or on the other side they are privy to.

Perhaps one of the most inexplicable facets of the video is the charge that Dr King was a Jewish puppet. This charge is made in spite of the fact that even presidents of the US employ speechwriters. Peggy Noonan was a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan while Michael Person and Matthew Scully wrote speeches for George W Bush. I can’t make up my mind whether the white presenter in the video is pushing the racist trope about black people being as dumb as rocks or whether he his engaging in some good old-fashioned anti-Semitism.

Dr King wisely collaborated with Jews and others who were willing to work with black people against racists, white Christian nationalists, and other white supremacists. If the Devil himself had come along and offered Dr King some help in his struggle against the powerful racist forces arrayed against him, he would have been foolish not to accept the help.

Dr King had to break with white conservative
Bible-oriented religion to be of any use to his people. By jettisoning many of the major planks of conservative white Christianity, Dr King was able to hammer out a version of the doctrine of the Christ that coalesced with racial equality and justice. Black conservative Christians who swallow the
Bible and all the poison pills it contains will hardly ever be on the front lines of the struggle for black dignity. The version of Christianity that was crafted for black Christian conservatives makes them complicit in their own oppression.

Perhaps the one useful insight gleaned from the video was the revelation about Jewish control of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Black people should never be content with people of other ethnicities leading any black organisations or taking a leading role in any enterprises that are crucial for black survival.

Our esteemed elder, teacher, and scholar, the late John Henrik Clarke, reminded us that no group of people who have come among us have done so exclusively for our benefit. The co-opting of the leadership of the NAACP by Jewish elements and the benefits derived by Jews from their position of leadership should serve as a reminder to black people that we must both fund and lead our black organisations. The video’s rehashing of the Jewish leadership in the NAACP and how this leadership was used to advance the cause of Jews in America was perhaps the one redeeming point of value in the presentation.

That a black conservative Christian should post such a video and that a black conservative Christian in Barbados should have given oxygen and airtime to the video at the beginning of the second week in Black History Month speaks volumes. Black conservative Christian values are closely aligned to white conservative Christian values. The anti-black and even racist component that is undeniable in white conservative Christianity raises the question of loyalty to race among black conservative Christians.

Black conservative Christians are known for running with many of the talking points emanating from the Republican Party, which has positioned itself as the party of the
Bible. Republican posturing on religious and moral issues has not, however, stopped those faithful to the party from embracing a president who is either a serial monogamist or a serial cheater. President Trump’s multiple marriages, his alleged involvement with Stormy Daniels, and his claim about grabbing women by their genitals seem to have ingratiated rather than repelled the conservative religious crowd in America and elsewhere.

The hypocrisy of conservative Christians generally, and black conservative Christians specifically, opens up the latter group to the charge of being fifth columnists in black communities. This becomes glaringly obvious when black conservative Christians post anti-black videos attacking a civil rights legend like Dr King in Black History Month. The anti-blackness associated with the Trump Administration has emboldened white people with a fondness for white supremacy. The Trump presidency also seems to have embolden black conservative Christians, many of whom are falling over each other’s feet in a mad scramble to parrot toxic, racist, white supremacist talking points.

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka is the founder of Afro-Caribbean Spiritual Teaching Center and the author of Oreos, Coconuts and Negropeans. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or rodneynimrod2@gmail.com.

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka

Donald Trump

Dr Martin Luther King Jr (Photo: AP)