Black Liberation Theology

Race is there, it's a constant. You're tired of hearing about it? Imagine living with it as a constant." Jon Stewart concludes his deft analysis of the Ferguson shooting and its implications for race relations in America. Addressed to a primarily white, liberal audience, Stewart's comments raise poignant questions. One of those questions is raised by racialized police shootings like the one in Ferguson. As Seitz puts it, "different rules apply" to whites and blacks in America. "White people just aren't as likely to get shot by police," notes Seitz.

Stewart had described the disheveled white guy getting past security guards, with the sharp-dressed black man ahead of him getting stopped. This scenario plays itself out regularly, often with terrible and fatal implications. The Zimmerman case also illustrates how race matters, and unless America faces its dark racist core, it will continue to witness social problems. James Cone's black liberation theology attempts to bring together, as he states, the Civil Rights Movement with the Black Power movement.

What Cone means is that black self-empowerment is equally as important as shifts in dominant culture norms and laws. According to Cone, King did not place his black identity at the core of his movement. Malcolm X, on the other hand, did place black identity at the heart of his political activism. The difference is crucial when it comes to self-empowerment in the black community. Unifying Malcolm X's political philosophy with his Christian worldview motivates Cone to propose a Christian brand of Black Power.

Drawing from classical liberation theology, black liberation theology centers itself on interlocking structures of race and power. Cone blends King's Christianity with Malcolm X's racial pride. With blackness central to black liberation theology, Cone's model closely resembles the classic liberation theologies of South America because of its recognition of class injustice and structural inequities based on race and ethnicity. Religion, rather than being cast aside as a vestige of the dominant culture, becomes the universal salve for empowering the subjugated communities.

Cone notes that religion has been historically abused by persons in power to subjugate others. In other words, religion has been a political tool to reinforce social hierarchies. Yet ironically, religion also serves as the means of resisting, subverting, and overcoming subjugation. Thus, liberation theology can draw directly from the teachings of Jesus as they are written in the Bible. Cone points out that Christian theology holds keys to unlocking potent political empowerment.

The crucifixion of Christ, the central motif in Christianity, can be reframed in ways that are relevant to the black American community. Cone points out the symbolic connection between the crucifixion of Christ and the lynching of blacks in the American south, as a lynching is visually similar to the crucifixion with a person hung from a tree. The central theme is victimization, and violence, which is central to the Christian faith.

Cone notes that meditating on the crucifixion shows how God assumes and assuages the pain of those who suffer. The crucifixion can be embraced as a central symbol of the black community. There is also an ethical imperative to continually identify with the victim to embrace truly Christian principles. Cone's perspective remains relevant to those.