Get Like You

Need affirmations when the world is trying to finesse you out of everything you have and are? Just a reminder that we're just trying to get like you:

The days you feel more Chrysler 300 than Dodge Charger, someone is watching.

Look in the mirror and remember I'm tryna get like you 

You're a valuable member of the team - we got skin in your Ws

Shout out to the white allies who've stayed down like four flat tires

If I had your hand, I'd cut mine off

Last but not least, we put respect on our names. Birdman said he wasn't gonna say in no mo', but the affirmations (and early trap rappers like Jeezy and Gucci) will have you committed to greatness. 

We're tryna get like you, pleighboi.

It's Not Always Kevin: Karen Does It, Too

When it comes to the war against white supremacy, Kevin alone is not always the problem despite us being more conditioned to his blatant racism. The more insidious one is Karen.

This escalated quickly

Who is this perpetually dissatisfied broad?

Karen is usually a divorced white woman with kids, an SUV that Kevin is paying for, and typically works in human resources or some capacity that pays a decent salary and provides a proximity to upper management. Sometimes she can be identified by her ""Salt Life" stickers on that same SUV along with a stick figure family; more often than not, she's the blonde in blocky designer sunglasses she received as a gift some beach vacation ago who demands the world stop on its axis for her.

These females are going to get someone killed

How do I know? Being a Black man in America, I've had to understand whiteness as a constraint sometimes better than my own very real Blackness; therefore, the default position for much of my adult life is to disarm any premonition of fear she may have implicitly thought of yours truly - and she hasn't met my family yet. 

Karen's worst nightmare:  a happy Black family in her 'space' living, loving, and enjoying each other publicly minding their own Black-ass business 

When slightly inconvenienced, she demands to speak to the manager to get her way not limited to a discounted cup of PSL at Starbucks or the termination of an employee; her dastardly actions have ended careers and lives - see Bill Cosby and Emmett Till if you disagree. The prime benefactor of the Me Too movement floats from one happy hour at Applebees to the next one full of margaritas and midpriced wine as her medically-addled children, exhausted from being overscheduled and otherwise ignored pick up on her covert disregard of "the poors" who exhibit a level of disrespect toward adults rivaling anything coming from the past political season.

That finger, cell phone, and condescending tone have started unnecessary conflicts

There is a history to this ish:  Dont think just because Tyrone gave Karen the D that she's down for the cause. The damsel in distress ultimately will choose the one who keeps her most comfortable and adjacent to the power - Kevin.

I like living. 

I'm sure my wife doesn't want to plan my funeral anytime soon. So, Karen...stop making mountains out of molehills. Conflicts can be resolved without getting the law involved or an angry beau who has only heard one side of the story, and we know Kevin is packing with his Blue Lives Matter supporting, Call of Duty playing, 45 worshipping self, and he isn't looking for the facts.

PSA:  Black women named Karen (see my mama) will put a foot off in that ass. Don't test their gangstas.

Benefit vs. Doubt

This should be a relatively short post as I am trying to remember everything I said in an earlier thread this summer. Let's see if my memory serves me well:

Some of us have had the benefit of the doubt, and others have had to prove we are worthy of the same opportunities. 

For example, Black men have been harassed, denigrated, and even killed for the most mundane of things that white people claimed offense toward their so-called hierarchy of supremacy. Emmett Till was killed outside Money, MS for whistling at a white woman, and more recently, Ahmaud Arbery was murdered for jogging in a white neighborhood and stopping to look at new construction. 

Pick the good guy - it wasn't the guy who shot up the movie theater only to escape his punishment by alleging mental illness. Even first responders have a hand in systemic racism - it's not just the police, judges, prosecuting attorneys, and handpicked juries who can be swayed to a certain verdict of guilt or innocence. For crimes like these, America seems to put up a $6M price for snuffing out the wrong ones in exchange for 1)silence and 2)the chance to do it again as taxpayers ultimately foot the bill. 

We all know about the injustices in the American legal system by two words:  JUST US. In all honesty, what is wrong with following the Constitution and the Bill of Rights ensuring that all men are created equal?

When you can invoke all sorts of privilege to get out of the pokey including a relationship with the President of the United States solely because of the color of a rich man's skin and the dollars thrown in the way of freedom, one walks while the other is tortured nightly abuse to the point he kills himself. At 16, Kalief Browder should have been given a diversion course if not had the trumped up charges against him dropped.

White privilege doesn't exist? I beg to disagree about the two women who tried to better their children's futures.

Every time Black people rise up, the police and politicians throw everything but the kitchen sink to suppress Black suffering yet show remarkable restraint toward Kevin or Karen throwing a hissy fit. See the Saltine Siege from January 6 as evidence of the free pass. 

White terrorists gets Burger King.

Black men who are too drunk to go home get executed at Wendy's instead of a ride home.

Again, Kevin flips out over having to wear a mask while George Floyd's last 8:46 were spent gasping for air and calling for his late mother as the cop kneeling on his neck grins about it.

Last but not least, the fella who raises a mirror to America loses his job yet the actual danger whines about not having an unsweetened iced tea or a haircut with little to no regard for following the law or respecting his fellow man...but I bet he calls himself a Christian. 

Brother James Baldwin said it best. To further study and understand in small part - overcoming systemic discrimination does not happen with the snap of a finger nor as my conservative friends sometimes think that everything is better due to one small advancement or two, read the following texts:  

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s A Letter From Birmingham Jail

W.E.B. Dubois' Souls of Black Folk

Isabel Wilkinson's Caste and The Warmth of Other Suns

Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow

Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility 

Nikhole Hannah-Jones' The 1619 Project 

Angela Davis' Policing the Black Man

Khalil Gibran Muhammad's The Condemnation of Blackness

Charles Blow's The Devil You Know:  A Black Power Manifesto 

...and so many more tomes.

No lies detected #JacobBlake pic.twitter.com/brNeJCytUz

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) August 29, 2020

I'm a (Turkey) Breast Man

2020 has been a wickedly strange year for all of us. One day after all of this is over, we should be able to regale the babies and grandchildren of the times we wore cotton, N95, or mesh masks and practiced social distancing everywhere, and did Zoom calls for Thanksgiving, memorial services, birthday parties, school, livestream worship services most Sunday mornings, touchless grocery shopping, and an infinite number of events we normally would have been able to attend in-person for the protection of one another. 

But seriously, we're here for the smoked bone-in turkey breasts:  Let's do it to it.

INGREDIENTS 

Turkey breast (obviously; anywhere from 6-8 lbs is ideal)

Salt 

Black pepper

Garlic powder

Poultry seasoning of your choice (normally, I'm a Tony Chacere Cajun guy - try my Cuban sandwiches one day)*

One stick of butter, frozen

PREGAME.  To maximize the tenderness of the turkey, I chose to brine it. No one I know likes dry turkey, and you can get the prepackaged ones from IHOP with a sliver of gravy if you disagree. What's a brine?, one may ask. It's a way of adding flavor to meat that may otherwise run the risk of drying out. In mine, I've used boiling water, kosher salt, and white sugar in a large enough stockpot that can hold the bird safely over the period of time needed typically 8-24 hours depending on the size. A longer brine period makes for a more tender bird, but if time is against you, a dry brine [the aforementioned mix sans water] can work: I've done it both ways. After that pot boils consistently (approximately twenty minutes, but results vary), take it off the oven, add your turkey and enough ice to cover the top. What you're doing now is shocking the bird - now is not the time to get to cooking. Stick the pot in the refrigerator or a reliably cold area such as a cooler in a ziploc bag and check on it, adding more ice as needed.

Ice bath

STEP ONE. Sometimes barbecue requires a man to bring a shovel to swat a fly, and sometimes the fly swatter alone is enough. Whatever vessel you smoke a turkey breast with, make sure you get it to 300 degrees before introducing it to a smoke nap. In this cook, I'll use a mix of pecan, hickory, and apple woods to get it tasting and looking just right. 

I brought a shovel to swat a fly - my big boy smoker 

STEP TWO. If you haven't already done so, season your turkeys with the style you like best; most years, I'll only use a Cajun dry rub in the spice cabinet but this time I will tone down the heat a bit and using salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and a generic poultry seasoning.  Let them spend time with getting to know each other on the turkey before bringing it to the smoker. 

Let's stay together like Al Green wants us to 

STEP THREE. The bird is entering its serious phase with the seasonings, and as soon as the smoker comes up to temperature (minimum 275 degrees), bring it to the smoker for its tanning session. Unlike most people, this is the time I add that frozen stick of unsalted butter to the cavity because I don't have to worry about basting every 45 minutes instead just sitting back and enjoying Al Green crooning Love and Happiness🎙.

I'm not doing a 1:1 ratio of one hour to one beer but it's a nice metric

STEP FOUR. Once the bird gets to the desired color, then feel free to wrap it in aluminum foil. Of course, if you're lucky enough to have butcher paper in spades, then use it instead. At the first hour, check your progress with a Thermapen or handheld digital thermometer. Turkeys are done at 165 degrees, so just hang back and parlay. I haven't awakened the neighbors with LTD or the Gap Band in a while, and this isn't the morning to try it.

Looking good, looking good 

STEP FIVE. Keep jamming - the best barbecue is happy barbecue. I'm glad I own coveralls even if this isn't the original purpose of the ones I get annually. Remember, turkey breast is done once it reaches 165 degrees so don't get too complacent out there.

.

STEP SIX. In the miracle of time, this cook is finished. I've brought it in and gotten a few nibbles, but I've got to show you what it looks like. 

Trust me when I say it tastes better than it looks

Smoking turkeys - which I've done each Thanksgiving since 2015 - is the thing that gives my wife extra space to cook the sides and gives me a reason to contribute to the meal more than just being the deacon who prays over the chow in the kitchen. (If you're in Saline County, save me a plate - hope you've got cake LOL). While 2020 has given me every reason to go nontraditional and do a fish fry instead, family is what ultimately matters and makes up the memories:  Unlike some people I know, you simply cannot buy moments to fit your ideas of a perfect group. Family is not defined as much as the people we are born with in comparison to those who truly matter regardless if those people are neighbors, close friends, coworkers who are grinding it out in a hospital, police department, nursing home, or any 24/7 facility.

Happy Holidays and thank you for allowing your friendly pitmaster at Dub Shack BBQ where every day is a GREAT day for barbecue to share some time with you!

God bless, I'm out. 

The Disneyfication of White American Christianity

Hate to break it to you, but you have not always been the heroes your elders created to uphold a false image. Keep reading to find out why.

Some of you do not know who you really are in this spiritual war. You claim to be all innocent and docile but at the first chance, you’re clamoring to run over nonviolent protestors exercising their First Amendment rights, butthurt when the dots are connected (see former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant when local journalists traced his family’s history and material successes since his uncle and two others murdered Emmet Till and the media’s suppression of said findings), or simply do not care as the Christian version of NIMBYism manifests itself.

Where do we find these folks? In most churches each Sunday mornings at 11 am, and easily identified by red caps, $50,000 pickup trucks, and SUVs with MAGA banners and bumper stickers, and assorted versions of the American flags the other 167 hours of the week. They are the same people whose patriotism borders on idolatry and hide behind fake names on social media spreading uneducated statements already disproven – they say a lie when repeated enough becomes truth, but in reality it is still a lie that when the fact reveals itself, they are so comfortable living that falsehood that a sliver of honesty shakes them to their very core. They traffic in conspiracy theories and establish alternative universes to isolate themselves from the truth. They are taught to vote based on that one single issue that is not discussed anywhere in the Bible and simultaneously gloss over the hard work of following Jesus Christ’s commandments citing their reasons as He’s coming back for a church without a spot nor a wrinkle versus working on the very real earthly problems (greed, hunger, avarice, racism, covetousness, etc.) that tend to separate people on a daily basis. In other words, John 15:12 explicitly tells us what to do and how to do it – this is one of my favorite Bible verses and the one I consistently use in most outreach and missionary ministries within our services.

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. - John 15:12

Over the summer, I read a lot of interesting posts regarding allyship with the Black Lives Matter movement:  There was one that stood out in particular. I do not know who originally shared it to Facebook, but it was so emblematic of 2020 that I have to share it below:

How can you proclaim to love Jesus when…you call me the N-word (or thug – I have heard both) when my back is turned – or in some cases, only an earshot away? You cannot. Nor would you be a viable representative of the faith castigating our Hispanic brothers and sisters as illegals as they follow a similar path toward that shining beacon on the hill your conservative grandpa Ronald Reagan spoke of back in the 1980s.

Already. pic.twitter.com/3Y3jFcQVPz

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) November 4, 2020

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? - 1 John 4:20

How can I reconcile forgiving those who wrong me when you’re showing up with Tiki torches and flaming crosses, burning down our houses of worship, offended when we petition to change Dixie Street to another street name that honors a fallen brother in the community as if you do not understand why we are affronted by the very idea, and so forth? Some of their grandparents are the same folks who would organize, participate, or at the very least, attend a hanging in the public square on Saturday nights – and in some quarters, Sunday afternoon following that same 11 am service hence the word picnic (Study the etymology on your own time to gain a comprehension of the context I speak of) as it pertains to Black American history. Brothers Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey were not given a second chance; their martyrdom catalyzed marked changes in the struggle further cementing their places in the canon alongside Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, Emmet Till, and numerous others.

Just a messenger 

I call it the Disneyfication of Christianity as so many people white and black alike subscribe to only what they hear for that one hour Sunday after Sunday without any idea of why, and the lack of study clearly reflects in how your lives are lived. From my 41 years as a Black man on this rock, the default to whiteness is most prevalent in the houses of worship and in the insatiable quest for power at all costs to create a sort of theocracy not unlike the Middle Eastern ones suppressing differing beliefs and lifestyles. The only reason why the Religious Right got so involved in Republican Party politics – beyond the greed for power part, of course – was initially to codify racism as academies popped up throughout the South during the late 1960s to block school integration. Notice the founding dates of these segregation academies and their mascots. Once the Supreme Court consistently laid the smackdown on their naked hatred of Black people and the antiwar student supporters, that group of church folks switched gears to the issue of abortion.

The 62% of Arkansans who chose Trump and the 66% who picked Cotton need to feel this

Throughout the Bible, examples of a Disney princess theology are spread about to make your brand of Christianity palatable. As you read Scripture, you find yourselves in the position of the damsel in distress not the evil stepsister. You envision yourselves as Esther, not Xerxes or Haman trying to annihilate the Jews; Peter, the ride or die until it was actually time to ride or die, instead of Judas, who betrayed Jesus; the woman anointing Jesus with the last of her perfume, conversely the Pharisees who always had something to say. You think you are the Jews escaping Egypt, but you are the Pharaoh-led Egyptians enslaving other human beings for your own comfort and convenience denying and delaying freedom. To align yourselves with Israel when the United States of America, the most powerful nation in the world, has enslaved Black people, slaughtered Natives as their homelands were taken from underneath them, forced to walk hundreds of miles to Oklahoma and points west in the Trail of Tears and in exchange were given alcohol and casinos smacks of hypocrisy – and for some of the ‘Stand With Israel’ signs I have seen in town also wave Trump, the Confederate, and Gadsden flags in the same yard, it repeatedly proves that you and I do not worship the same God – yours is white supremacy, and I have proven who my Father is in words and actions over the past thirty years. With the series of comparisons, many of these so-called leaders risk guiding their flocks not from a just God rather to one who makes them feel like a week’s vacation around Mickey and Minnie Mouse; Donald and Daisy Duck; Snow White; Cinderella; Anna and Elsa; and so forth. Is the happy ending worth it?

How some people see Christianity #Disneyfication pic.twitter.com/v7M0juumoB

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) November 2, 2020

My question is this – and it comes from Mark 8:36 below:

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? - Mark 8:36

Seriously, I need to know. Are the bag and the clout enough to kiss off eternal life? You sure act like it is.

Some of you are going to be really upset when you discover that the life you have been living has been exposed as a complete fraud pic.twitter.com/TSndzgp72K

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) November 4, 2020

We get it:  the work is too hard for you, and the laborers have always been someone else. At least keep it real among yourselves. As people in power, it is beyond reprehensible for you to inappropriately locate yourselves in Scripture or the context of 2020 society; as a result, you are simply ill-equipped and willfully blind to engage the people where we are as we contextualize our battles of injustice as a “sin problem” that was justified as a “skin problem” for most of this nation’s existence in its laws and ordinances which you cloak yourselves in the convenience of maintaining superiority.

As Americans, we are so used to finding a “happily ever after” ending that when our problems do not fit a neat solution, the tendency to slink away from a complex discussion and ghosting friendships becomes the inevitable reality. Same in Christianity:  Esther and Mordecai posted up on the low block and waited for God to do His work behind the scenes before Xerxes was exposed and killed.

Peter reminds me of the guy who wants to be Black until it is time be Black:  Despite his moments of proclaiming to be a ride-or-die for Jesus, he did deny the Savior three times as the cock crowed.

Moses worked the system from within (remember, he was raised in relative affluence) and once he found his jelly to stand up to Pharaoh, Let My People Go became something that was mocked like the Black Lives Matter movement is in some quarters today. Consider all of the plagues that Egypt was ravaged with before he and the Jews escaped slavery by crossing the Red Sea, and it still was not enough for Pharaoh and his army to soften their hearts to do the right thing.

Does it mean they were any less valuable due to their complicated legacies? I am only making a parallel to what we want to remember of some people versus what we may or may not necessarily know – and the knowledge that may color our perceptions for the worse. What should happen is we must acknowledge that despite the Gospel being taught in two diametrically opposed manners as referenced in the video I shared a few weeks ago, we must be able to confront some of the miseducation within our own congregations even if it hurts.

.

 

The Blessing and the Curse of Being a Former Gifted Child

Ain't it mayne:  I was supposed to be a dentist, systems analyst, technical writer, Walmart manager, master teacher, and a bunch of other things. Instead, I've burned out not once but TWICE. 

Trick or treat. Give me all of your candy and money.

How Mum Bett Won Her Freedom

Elizabeth Freeman, nicknamed "Mum Bett," was born into slavery in 1742, and was given to the Ashley family of Sheffield, Massachusetts, in her early teens. While enslaved, she married and eventually had a daughter named Betsy.

One day in 1780, Mrs. Ashley accused Betsy of being a thief and chased her with a hot shovel. Freeman jumped in between the two just as Ashley was swinging and blocked the shovel with her arm. Freeman received a deep wound on her arm and displayed the scar her entire life as proof of her poor treatment.

After the Revolutionary War, Freeman was walking through town and heard the Massachusetts State Constitution being read aloud. After hearing "all men are born free and equal," she thought about the legal and spiritual meaning of these words. She met with Theodore Sedgwick, an attorney and abolitionist she knew and asked to sue for her freedom.

He took her case, but because women at the time had very few legal rights, Sedgwick added a male slave known simply as "Brom" to the lawsuit and sued Col. John Ashley.

In the case Brom and Bett v. Ashley, Sedgwick argued that based on the Constitution, she and Brom shouldn't be considered property and therefore should be free. The jury in the Court of Common Pleas decided in their favor.

Col. Ashley appealed to the Supreme Court but later dropped the appeal, making Mum Bett the first female slave to sue and win her freedom.