Don't burn down our own communities! A call for unity
The enemy (devil) is not going to be pleased. I have exposed him.
Being a black man in the Twin Cities, I have experienced the racism of police officers and whites at large. Something needs to be done. However, I do not agree that Minneapolis (or any cities for that matter) should burn.
Historically, when America’s cities burn, they are primarily done in black neighborhoods. It could be disastrous for the black communities in the Twin Cities.
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Minnesota ranks in the top three in the country for the lowest unemployment rate among whites and the top three for the highest unemployment rate among blacks. It is a state full of disparities. It is among the worst in the nation.
I won’t even go into details about the Minnesota prison system. Over 50 percent of all black men in Minnesota are unemployed. Giving the COVID-19 situation, this rate has become higher.
If you closely look at the crowds that protest in Minnesota, they are mostly whites in black neighborhoods. This was the case with the Jamar Clark and Philando Castile shootings. Riots significantly depress the median value of black-owned property.
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), “Any American of a certain age remembers the race-related riots that tore through U.S. numerous cities in the 1960s. Between 1964 and 1971, civil disturbances (as many as 700, by one count) resulted in large numbers of injuries, deaths, and arrests, as well as considerable property damage, concentrated in predominantly black areas.”
Social scientists have studied the causes of the riots for a long time.
But, now two NBER papers by William Collins and Robert Margo instead examined the economic impact of the riots on African Americans and on the cities where they took place.
In the first paper, The Labor Market Effects of the 1960s Riots, they find that the riots had economically significant negative effects on blacks' income and employment. Further, according to the papers “those effects may have been larger in the long run – from 1960 to 1980 – than in the short run – from 1960 to 1970. ”
To this date, there are communities in Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Detroit that have not recovered from the MLK riots in 1968. That is over 50 years. You literally can still see the ruins and that is because they are in black neighborhoods.
If riots take place in white neighborhoods, you then have white flight and blacks then move in.
This is what happen to the South Bronx after the MLK riots of 1968. So even when rioting takes place in white neighborhoods, they eventually become black neighborhoods because of white flight.
Blacks end up paying in the long run.
I do not know what the solution is.
Racism is not going away until Jesus sits on his throne. It is a spiritual problem and it is deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of people. It comes from the pit of hell.
With the advent of technology, it is quite apparent that nothing has changed since the civil rights movement of MLK.
A friend of mine stated, "Racism isn't getting worse, it's getting filmed and exposed!!!"
For one human being (then Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin) to press his knee on another human being’s (George Floyd) neck on the ground without any regard for the human being that is on the ground screaming “I can’t breathe” is demonic.
Racism is a fight that cannot be won through sticks and stones, gun and knives, water and fire. Rioting only opens the door for criminal activity, destruction of property, looting, and in worse cases; rape, murder, innocent deaths, and relentless retaliation at the hands of the police or the National Guard.
The Word of God states in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (GNT): “It is true that we live in the world, but we do not fight from worldly motives. The weapons we use in our fight are not the world's weapons but God's powerful weapons, which we use to destroy strongholds.”
The stronghold of racism can only be handled by God.
The condition of this country and the world is an indictment against the church. As I stated racism is not going away, but it can be abated. If the church does its part.
The word of God states in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
The church (black and white) needs to repent and come together and pray for our country and world.
Pastor Colin S.G. Miller is the Founder and Pastor of the Christ Saving Grace Church of God In Christ in Crystal, Minnesota. Pastor Colin has served in ministry for over 25 years. His specialties are Preaching Ministry, Teaching Ministry, Believer’s Maturity, Missions, Evangelism, Revival, and Men’s Ministry. He has travelled to over 7 countries working as a missionary and evangelist. He is married to anointed soloist Mrs. Darlene Miller. They have two children: a son, Blake, and daughter, Mandelyn. Pastor Colin can be emailed at: [email protected] or https://christsavinggrace.com/.
