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My great, great, great, grandfather, who was given the name David Greer, was brought to this country after being stolen from the West Coast of Africa. The slave ship that brought him over the deadly Middle Passage landed in Charleston, South Carolina. The chains that bound him were made of iron. The chains that threaten to bind all of us are made of fear.
How do we respond in the wake of terror? Do we run and give up on a country that refuses to do anything about rampant gun violence? Do we arm ourselves and join in the madness of hate and fearful gun ownership? Do we give up and just resign ourselves to the reality that black people are endangered in this nation and that things won’t soon change? Or do we resist and stand with faith, hope, love and a peace beyond all understanding — like the nine martyrs of Emanuel AME Church?
During a week when what it means to black was debated, the beautiful souls of Emanuel AME showed us with a powerful clarity. Beyond the legal construction of blackness by courts and census, beyond the dangerous and inaccurate biological construction of blackness by racist scientists and ignorant scholars, beyond the social construction of blackness by media and popular culture, Emanuel showed us what history has proven. Blackness is not only about being of African descent/ascent.
