What is Seeing Heaven in the Face of Black Men about? It is about why so few Whites and so few Blacks expect to, want to and actually see heaven (dignity, strength and honor) in the face of Black men. It’s about what I see, think I see and feel about race as it crops up and pops up on a daily basis. It’s about my inner struggles, inner dialogues and daily experiences trying to make sense of it all and understand it. It’s about my hard-gained understanding that the only way toward racial unity and justice in this country, or any country, is to recognize the essentially spiritual nature of the problem/disease of racism and to apply spiritual, yet practical, solutions. I call it the “practicality of spirituality.” Because religion and spirituality are sensitive subjects, let me explain what I mean by spirituality and the practicality of spirituality. In a broad sense, spirituality is motivated by the core or common purpose of all major religions of the world. It is the desire and willingness to think and act in a noble, honorable and spiritual or what some call transpersonal (beyond personality) manner. However, choosing to live life from a spiritual or transpersonal frame of reference does not require that individuals claim allegiance to one or the other of these religions. Spirituality is defined as that quality and depth of consciousness that realizes interconnectedness with all humanity. When drawn upon, it impels us to act and react from our noble and better selves and live in integrity, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. We each have within us, access to a quality of consciousness that, when chosen, allows us to sense and be guided by our highest and noblest self and to be conscious of the sacredness of our life’s purpose; specifically how we are intended to act toward and react to others. Spirituality has more to do with the quality of principled responses, first in thought and then in action, than it is does with any material, emotional or physical outcome. In short it is about the ability to conquer our lower nature with our higher nature and thus to sacrifice our baser egocentric needs and responses, to a higher and more profound self; a self that believes, as succinctly stated by Dr. Eunice Gifford, co-director for the Institute of Self Transcendence in Atlanta, Georgia, “when deep speaks to deep, deep responds.”
It is spirituality that, in the heat of our daily challenges and inner struggles with race, provides us with a transformative way of responding, lifting us through, out and above our emotional and protective impulses. It can lift us through the emotional pain and anger associated with race and transform it into motivation, will and strength to build unity and justice. All too often we admire that demonstration of character in others, yet fail to choose it for ourselves. Spirituality then has more to do with how we live our faith than it does with what we call ourselves.
That, however imperfectly stated, is my understanding of spirituality. Each and every one of us can tap that spiritual or transpersonal (beyond personality) self. It is the practicality of spirituality that will lift us from the pain of racial antagonism to the glory of racial unity and justice.
So this book then is about the battle that confronts me as I try to manage and balance my anger and frustration about racism and prejudice and tap that transpersonal spiritual self that has faith and hope that good will conquer evil if I persevere with the right spirit. (Barack Obama’s run for presidency is one major, but not the only, reason for that hope.) It’s about the battle to stick to spiritual principles and to avoid responding, or acting, based on ego and anger. It’s about the effort it takes to stay focused on the positive and not let the hypocrisy and double standards I see consume me. It’s about the struggle to avoid putting excessive blame on White folk for so many of the challenges in some African American communities. It’s about the struggle to balance empathy for the cumulative and crippling impact of racism in so many Black communities and neighborhoods with the need to hold those same communities accountable.
It’s about figuring out which of the battles to fight and which to let go, how hard to push and how to maintain the right spirit during the push. It’s about the struggle to call upon my higher self to transform my pain into spiritual strength. As important as anything else, it’s about my hope that Black folk, with all the challenges in some of our communities, will continue to stand tall and see the beauty and strength in ourselves. And from that vantage point, continue to overcome the impact of racism and related challenges in our communities and in the nation at large.
Similarly it’s about my hope, that White folk, with all the strengths and challenges in their cultures and communities, will manifest a fuller measure of their beauty and continue to fight racism within themselves, their communities and the nation at large.
In the spirit of the spirituality that has sustained so many of us in our lives, I ask my Black brothers and sisters to fight the fight for family and for our legacy. Realize deep down that, like our nation and our own community, the world needs the latent and manifest gifts we have gained through culture, creativity and crucifixion. I ask that we realize without resentment that we can learn from our White brothers and sisters and that we have much to share with them as well. I ask that we all realize that sharing, Black to White and White to Black can only happen at an intersection in our lives where we can create a sacred, new reality, on fresh ground. That intersection is where our deeper consciousness, our deeper spirit resides.
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