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Ambrose Olumuyiwa Faturoti
Kingdom of God In America
Black Rage
The term black rage paints in the mind of its hearer a picture of angry, violent black people, rioting in urban centers. The term brings to mind impulsive action unduly directed at white people in America, based upon some outdated notion of a need for civil rights. The concept puts white people on the defensive and other ethnic groups on the margins. Rather than ascribing to these narrow definitions of a complex American phenomenon, this paper seeks to rotate its viewpoint from the position of the now pressured majority to that of the exploited minority. This paper recognizes that this rage does not give the power to change society to the State or to persons that do not identify with its struggle. Black rage recognizes that, in an individual’s being lies the ability to change the world, in spite of society’s attempt to make the individual’s being into nonbeing.
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The true threat of black power lies not in impulsiveness, but in that it references a different set of values than that of society. A different set of values than that of white supremacy. Rather than to work within the current framework, which means to claim ownership over secondary status and appeal to whites for equality, black rage is a creative, loving force that gives its allegiance to thoughts and actions that teach black people to love themselves; simply because they are beautiful and inherently valuable. In this paper, I intend to examine the phenomenon of black rage, its inception, development, threat and usefulness. For these reasons, because black rage and power seek to make humans of the unlovable, these concepts are consistent with Christ’s advocacy for the marginalized. Through examining the aesthetics and politics that created this notion, we will discover why black rage is not only justified, but also necessary and life-affirming.
In order to proceed with a discussion of black rage, we must first understand the politics that shape its focus. We must engage in a discussion concerning Black Power, how and why it originated and particularly why many white people feel so threatened by these terms. The ideas that comprise Black Power in this country are as old as the slave system that first created a hierarchy based upon difference for economic gain. In the face of a society built to demonize the beings of black people, the kernel of Black Power has always questioned the legitimacy of white authority.
Through the 19 th
century voices of great race champions such as Sojourner Truth,
Frederick Douglass, David Walker, and Maria Stewart, black people have employed the framework of Christian ethics to undercut white authority at its supposed source, empowering themselves in attempts to alleviate their own suffering. Since that time, black people have recognized that to define themselves by a Western framework, the reality in which “the word white comes to be unconsciously the symbol of all virtues,” 2 is to devalue their own beauty and submit themselves to a tyranny of ideas.
For this reason, “New Negro” artists such as Langston Hughes thought it necessary in the 1920s to birth a frame of reference that would be authentic and uplifting
1 Black Theology and Black Power by James Cone. HarperCollins San Fransicso. 1989. Page 7.
2 “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” by Langston Hughes in Norton Anthology of African
American Literature. Henry Louis Gates and Nellie McKay, eds. New York: Norton, 1997. Page 1268.

2 to black people. Over time, this concept would grow to be called the black aesthetic .
Larry Neal described this redefinition of Selfhood on one’s own terms as an “ethical movement,” only through which can ethics and aesthetics “interact positively”, or agree, so that life can be “consistent with demands for a more spiritual world.” 3
Since ethics explain how we are to live and aesthetics are judgments of what we value and how we define ourselves, Neal essentially remarks; “We are striving to live and define ourselves by what we hold most dear”; our culture and our people. This concept of ethical and aesthetical congruence was one that not only informed everyday black people, but it creatively breathed fresh thought into the political movement for black rights. These new politics of aesthetics birthed the notion we know as Black Power.
The term “Black Power” was first used in 1966 at the March Against Fear during a stop in Greenwood, Mississipi by Stokely Carmicheal, a member of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In his speech, Carmichael did not call for
“love or forbearance”, but for “Black Power,” in response to pressure from those who found it necessary to go passively and indirectly toward equal rights, regardless of race.
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Partly for its simple articulation of the only appropriate response to white racism and partly for its rhetorical usefulness, Carmichael and other likeminded individuals recognized that the “all deliberate speed” 5
mentality was precisely what threatened black survival in America. No longer were these black people willing to let white moral reasoning spell out how they would address their pain and anger. Simply put, Black
Power says: “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.” 6
The true usefulness of this type of approach is seen not only in its independence, if not rejection, of white help in solving the problems that black people face, but more so, in that it puts power in the hands of those who have never had it before. It makes
“beings” of black people, in spite of a society that sought to transform “black being” into nonbeing.
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It threatens the comfort of average Americans because it recognizes that at the
“micro-physics of power”, the point at which every member of given society surrenders their allegiance to the State and becomes an object of power, every individual has the ability to become revolutionary.
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This statement reflects the role each individual plays in remaking the social truth. Realistically, each member of society has the option to volunteer his or her cooperation to society or to withdraw it. However, people must first recognize they have this ability before they have the power to withdraw cooperation. This realization is important because, through this view, black power enlightens and liberates black people, making them agents in society, freeing them from the yoke of dependence on white help. This very notion of liberation is consistent with and central to the Gospel of Christ.
Even so, the chief problem that many white people have had with the idea of
Black Power stems largely from a misinterpretation of its purpose and, by the above terms, its implication of them as participants in an unjust and oppressive system. It finally
3 “The Black Arts Movement” by Larry Neal in Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Henry
Louis Gates and Nellie McKay, eds. New York: Norton, 1997. Page 1962.
4 “The Black Arts Movement: 1960-1970” in Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Henry
Louis Gates and Nellie McKay, eds. New York: Norton, 1997. Page 1794.
5 Black Theology and Black Power by James Cone. HarperCollins. San Francisco. 1989. Page 27.
6 Black Theology and Black Power by James Cone. HarperCollins. San Francisco. 1989. Page 22.
7 Black Theology and Black Power by James Cone. HarperCollins. San Francisco. 1989. Page 7.
8 Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault. Vintage. New York. 1995. Page 26.

3 identifies that whites gain privilege from the current system, and so are torn between true advocacy of blacks and a concern for their continued flourishing. Much like the Biblical mandate in Joshua, Black Power forces white liberals to choose on which side they will wholly serve. Again, it separates the wheat of true concern for the oppression of blacks from the chaff of fence-riding, which allows white liberals to benefit from an oppressive system while still appearing to sympathize with blacks.
For this reason, Cone’s conception of Black Power does not prepare to wait on white people’s cooperation. The idea behind this concept follows that when an individual has grown accustomed to being a master of things, he desires to be so all the time. The discomfort many whites experience with Black Power comes from this very same occurrence. Black Power does not depend upon white people for its existence. It does not seek their approval or aid. As such, it removes white people from their usual role in society: the role of mastery.
Instead of consulting whites, Black Power is merely purposed at fulfilling this need: the “complete emancipation of black people from white oppression by whatever means black people deem necessary.” 9 As such this power does not seek white approval because, in order to be effective, humanizing and empowering for black people, white people can and must not have any part in constructing how blacks choose to address their issues. To do so would be to remove blacks from complete creative agency over their resolution, which is essential to the purpose of black power. In this way, black power can truly become a “humanizing force” in the lives of black people.
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And perhaps, most important, is to realize that Black Power is motivated by an intense, unrelenting love for the lives and humanity of black people.
It is at this point that we must ask ourselves the question, in the year 2003: “Why rage?” In order to properly address this question, we must look at the story that black people are expected to accept in America today. America asks black people to work within the system, honestly believing that our current structure is conducive to success for all its participants. America assures blacks that if they adopt the Protestant Ethic of hard work and diligent perseverance over their own personal values, which society suggests are characterized by wantonness, life will improve .
However, the reality is that while blacks try their hardest to accommodate these viewpoints in being agents in recreating the system, they are still confronted with facts like how in 1989, only one percent of the American population owned thirty-seven percent of the wealth and ten percent owned eighty-six percent of the total wealth in America.
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Furthermore, in 1994, one in every two black children lived in poverty; what Cornell West calls the “tragic plight of our children.” 12
So as struggling lower and middle class black families strive to be good citizens, the system that is supposed to empower them through their hard work, more thoroughly cements them on the floor of society. In response to these common facts and to Larry Neal’s concept of what is necessary for a “more spiritual world”, emerges the question: “What happens when I do everything right, by working diligently within the system and society still spits in my face?” What happens when I try to access power in all
9 Black Theology and Black Power by James Cone. HarperCollins. San Francisco. 1989. Page 6.
10 Black Theology and Black Power by James Cone. HarperCollins. San Francisco. 1989. Page 7.
11 Race Matters by Cornell West. Vintage. New York. 1994. Page 10.
12 Race Matters by Cornell West. Vintage. New York. 1994. Page 12.

4 the right ways, and the structure continues to devalue my worth, because it does not line up perfectly with the structure of a system created to perpetuate white supremacy?
This experience frustrates many blacks into believing they have no agency over their own existence. They are forced to conform their complex ethics and aesthetics to the narrow rubrick of live by a Western, aesthetical definition, even though they do not identify with how this society defines what is of value. Essentially, they are not allowed to live according to what they value and how they define themselves, which Larry Neal concludes is “symptomatic of a dying culture.” 13
The unfortunate side-effect of not having the ability to live and prosper by those things which one holds as valuable results in a hopeless existence that West describes as “nihilism”.
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It is necessary to engage in a conversation about nihilism in that this concept is the polar opposite of rage in relation to ethics and aesthetics, though society tries hard to conflate their truth. More so, through examining the work of this trend in black communities in response to the absurd realities that confront black people, one can begin to understand why black rage in America is absolutely necessary.
West begins that this nihilism is “not a philosophical doctrine that there are no rational grounds for legitimate standards or authority; it is, far more, the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and (most important) lovelessness.” 15
West goes on to say that the result of this phenomenon is “a numbing detachment” from others and a “self-destructive disposition” toward the world. He concludes that the end result of a life without meaning, hope and love produce a
“coldhearted, mean-spirited outlook that destroys both the individual and others.” The significance of acknowledging this phenomenon in black communities is that it finally articulates the outcome of living in a society bent on unmaking a positive sense of Self in black people. Through recognizing how society victimizes black youth with a constant battery of negative images, whether through movies, television shows like “Cops” or music, we may now understand why it is so easy for black people to respond with a
“mean-spirited,” “hopeless,” “self-destructive” outlook on the world. Society tells black people from birth that this is who they are.
The marvel of American culture is how seamlessly it has woven unnatural ideas about the nature of blackness, as untamed and self-destructive, into the fabric of society; so much so, that not only white people, but some blacks themselves begin to believe that these impositions are truth. American society essentially tells black people that they cannot love themselves because to do so would be a crime against the order in the world.
In essence, America asks black people to drop all ties to their blackness in favor of recreating the current social organism. The reality of a world where it is detrimental to one’s well-being to be his or herself sheds light on why West believes that “the selffulfilling prophecy of the nihilistic threat is that without hope there can be no future, that without meaning there can be no struggle.” 16
This self-destructive web of possibilities, the narrow framework of either black nationalist or accommodationist, either “Great
Society Democrat or “self-help Republican” is precisely why rage is imperative in
13 “The Black Arts Movement” by Larry Neal in Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Henry
Louis Gates and Nellie McKay, eds. New York: Norton, 1997. Page 1962.
14 Race Matters by Cornell West. Vintage. New York. 1994. Page 22.
15 Race Matters by Cornell West. Vintage. New York. 1994. Page 22-23.
16 Race Matters by Cornell West. Vintage. New York. 1994. Page 23.

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American society.
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Since the current system does not produce the type of outcomes it suggests it should, we can understand why rational thinkers would desire new options to our current socio-economic structure.
In strark contrast to the slim possibilities and bitter hopelessness of nihilism, black rage is that element in the black psyche that, after recognizing how absurd it is to live in a society where the black individual is constantly confronted with contradictions, chooses to respond through an intentional affirmation of one’s own truth in spite of society. It resists the imposition of values that do not reflect constructive truth for black people. This fact is important in relation to our earlier conversation about ethics and aesthetics. In order to live in a society where individual identity is affirmed and the demands for a “more spiritual world” are realized, individuals must be able to live by what they value and according to how they define themselves. Rage loves too hard to let go of those cultural elements it identifies are valuable.
Additionally, rage recognizes that progress is not about recycling old methods for tackling new problems. Rather, it seizes the limitless power we as individuals possess to move in things we know make a difference, while waiting on and working with God to develop new vision to fill new needs. Christ works in solidarity with those who advocate the cause of the oppressed. In that He is a risen Lord, a mighty God and a present help, we can expect to see His power when our works are motivated by creative love. This is what black rage is about. It is not only about maintaining one’s value set under pressure, but also about taking the initiative to change the world through loving aggressively. If there is any significance that we should take from the legacy of King, Malcolm, Jo Ann
Robinson, Hamer and others, it should be to emulate how they responded to a hostile cultural climate for blacks with aggressive, creative love. It was love for the humanity of black people and oppressed people throughout the world that drove these people to transform the way we view our lives together. They recognized at their times that in order to have success, you need to empower young leaders in order to maintain a plan of action that remains fresh, relevant and tangible for the masses of black people.
which lack hope, love and meaning in life.
In this way, America has black people bound in a net of ideas that were originally created to limit their potential for success at its foundation.
It refers to the statement about and demands that he be treated as
17 Race Matters by Cornell West. Vintage. New York. 1994. Page 4.