Black Robes



Since 1619, when a group of Africans was brought to the shores of Virginia on the White Lion, millions of enslaved Africans were later brought to these shores, almost always against their will. They were bound by chains and locks and whatever restraining instrument you can think of. The enslaved Africans were often starved for days. The enslaved Africans sat and slept in human waste for weeks. The enslaved African got sick and never got any treatment. Those who couldn’t survive were simply thrown overboard. Those who survived the long, arduous journey were sold as Slaves.

Once sold, the enslaved labored for their masters on plantations, farms, homes, mines, and any other areas of work that they were asked to. These enslaved Africans were beaten, whipped, starved, maltreated, and even killed. There is no way that you and I can ever recount the many ills that were meted out to the enslaved African in these United States.

The humiliating dehumanization of the enslaved African reached its zenith with the Three-Fifths Compromise. This was a Constitutional formula used to count enslaved Africans within a given area. Truth is, the cherished Constitution of these United States classified the enslaved African as being three-fifths of his White masters, overseers, and neighbors. We have been led to believe that this compromise was intended for the allocation of congressional seats. On the surface, that sounded reasonable to those who drafted, voted, and signed off on the Constitution and benefited from this arrangement.

But whether the compromise was for political purposes or not, those who believe in the plain text and reading of the Constitution, and still uphold the plain text of the language of the Constitution, haven’t forgotten that their African American neighbors, colleagues, parishioners, students, teachers, doctors, engineers, priests, janitors, and customer service associates were deemed to be Three-Fifths.

And because they haven’t forgotten, they take steps, concrete steps that take us back to the time when the Constitution was written. They take us back to make the point that the African American is still Three-fifths of a human, and that any effort by anyone or all of us to remedy that injustice would never fly.

Those who desire to take us back aren’t ordinary men and women; they are men and women in positions of power who come in Black Robes.

I have no doubt that the folks in Black Robes are good, decent, and honorable American citizens who have a job to do. More than that, they also desire the best for themselves, their families, and their countrymen and women. But we can all attest that our desires and wants are not always enough. There is more to life than the simple wants and desires that we have.

The more to life is the calling not to simply respond to our wants and desires, nor to feed them. Our calling is holy, our calling is sacred, our calling is to repair the breach, our calling is to usher in a new birth. Our calling is not to equity, because there is nothing like equity. Our call is to right wrongs and to lead the transformation of individual lives and that of communities. Our call is to agree with John Locke when he argues that “The strength of a society is its commitment to justice and equality.”

Here is an insightful thought for your consideration. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches this line “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Our prayer for the coming of the kingdom means that there shouldn’t be any difference between what is done in heaven and on earth-our call then is to make earth heavenly.

Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor who developed logotherapy write a powerful book Man Search for Meaning. In it, Viktor writes this:

“Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”

Viktor never visited the United States, but he knew of the Statue of Liberty and suggested another Statue of Responsibility. He was keenly aware that at the heart of true freedom lies the blessings of responsibility.

Responsibility is the gift we owe ourselves and our neighbors. Responsibility is the ultimate duty. For that reason, I believe that the true exercise of our freedom is to be responsible actors. And being responsible actors would mean that we look beyond our own parochial interest and politics for the sake of the common good-that's where the kingdom of God abides.

It therefore confounds me that despite all the trauma and suffering that the enslaved Africans and their descendants have endured in these United States, folks in Black Robes believe that they do not deserve some modicum of representation in Congress. For some strange reason, these folks in Black Robes believe that they serve some good by gutting part of the Voting Rights Act.

It wouldn’t surprise me that these folks in Black Robes probably believe that the attempt to right the wrongs of the past wasn’t necessary. And even if it was and still is, who cares? After all, the people we are talking about are Three-Fifths.

Over the past week, I have pondered the Supreme Court's decision. And I have asked myself multiple times, how does their decision serve the common good? How does their decision provide a voice to the descendants of the enslaved? How do we expect to hear the voices of the marginalized?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the folks in Black Robes simply affirmed what has always been said in the backrooms-they are three-fifths of us.

An author, Wayne Dyer, once said this: It is my prayer that some of us will learn the gift and blessing of changing the way we look at things.

Our sad reality is that things unfortunately remain the same-the more things change, the more they remain the same. Human behavior, unfortunately, remains the same. Habits, unfortunately, remain the same.

What needs to happen is to change the way we all look at things, not just the folks in Black Robes. 

Happy and Glorious Eastertide,

Manny+