There Is Hope for Blacks & Whites By: Rev. Douglas Ahamefula After the killing of a black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer, author Rev. Douglas Ahamefula was spurred to write There Is Hope for Blacks & Whites. Many people across the world believed his killing was racially motivated. People watched the video, saw how the police officer had his knees on the neck of the black man who was screaming and saying “I cannot breathe” till he died. This event led to numerous protests and demonstrations all over the world. In many cities where the protests and demonstrations were held, the number of the white people who were protesting outnumbered the black protesters. The new generation of white youth came out in record number to protest. This is a turning point in the history. With this turn of events, Ahamefula can now visualize a future society where discrimination and social injustice would become a thing of the past. Now that the blacks and whites have agreed on the same issue and are asking for social justice for all, irrespective of the color of your skin, then There is Hope for Blacks and Whites.

The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality. In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

How is it that in America the image of Jesus Christ has been used both to justify the atrocities of white supremacy and to inspire the righteousness of civil rights crusades? In The Color of Christ, Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey weave a tapestry of American dreams and visions--from witch hunts to web pages, Harlem to Hollywood, slave cabins to South Park, Mormon revelations to Indian reservations--to show how Americans remade the Son of God visually time and again into a sacred symbol of their greatest aspirations, deepest terrors, and mightiest strivings for racial power and justice. The Color of Christ uncovers how, in a country founded by Puritans who destroyed depictions of Jesus, Americans came to believe in the whiteness of Christ. Some envisioned a white Christ who would sanctify the exploitation of Native Americans and African Americans and bless imperial expansion. Many others gazed at a messiah, not necessarily white, who was willing and able to confront white supremacy. The color of Christ still symbolizes America's most combustible divisions, revealing the power and malleability of race and religion from colonial times to the presidency of Barack Obama.

2012 Winner of the C. Calvin Smith Award presented by the Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc. 2014 Honorable Mention for the Distinguished Book Award presented by the American Sociological Association's Sociology of Religion Section Conventional wisdom holds that Christians, as members of a “universal” religion, all believe more or less the same things when it comes to their faith. Yet black and white Christians differ in significant ways, from their frequency of praying or attending services to whether they regularly read the Bible or believe in Heaven or Hell. In this engaging and accessible sociological study of white and black Christian beliefs, Jason E. Shelton and Michael O. Emerson push beyond establishing that there are racial differences in belief and practice among members of American Protestantism to explore why those differences exist. Drawing on the most comprehensive and systematic empirical analysis of African American religious actions and beliefs to date, they delineate five building blocks of black Protestant faith which have emerged from the particular dynamics of American race relations. Shelton and Emerson find that America’s history of racial oppression has had a deep and fundamental effect on the religious beliefs and practices of blacks and whites across America.

Prince Hall, a black veteran of the American Revolution, was insulted and disappointed but probably not surprised when white officials refused his offer of help. He had volunteered a troop of 700 Boston area blacks to help quell a rebellion of western Massachusetts farmers led by Daniel Shays during the economic turmoil in the uncertain period following independence. Many African Americans had fought for America's liberty and their own in the Revolution, but their place in the new nation was unresolved. As slavery was abolished in the North, free blacks gained greater opportunities, but still faced a long struggle against limits to their freedom, against discrimination, and against southern slavery. The lives of these men and women are vividly described in In Hope of Liberty, spanning the 200 years and eight generations from the colonial slave trade to the Civil War. In this marvelously peopled history, James and Lois Horton introduce us to a rich cast of characters. There are familiar historical figures such as Crispus Attucks, a leader of the Boston Massacre and one of the first casualties of the American Revolution; Sojourner Truth, former slave and eloquent antislavery and women's rights activist whose own family had been broken by slavery when her son became a wedding present for her owner's daughter; and Prince Whipple, George Washington's aide, easily recognizable in the portrait of Washington crossing the Delaware River. And there are the countless men and women who struggled to lead their daily lives with courage and dignity: Zilpha Elaw, a visionary revivalist who preached before crowds of thousands; David James Peck, the first black to graduate from an American medical school in 1848; Paul Cuffe, a successful seafaring merchant who became an ardent supporter of the black African colonization movement; and Nancy Prince, at eighteen the effective head of a scattered household of four siblings, each boarded in different homes, who at twenty-five was formally presented to the Russian court. In a seamless narrative weaving together all these stories and more, the Hortons describe the complex networks, both formal and informal, that made up free black society, from the black churches, which provided a sense of community and served as a training ground for black leaders and political action, to the countless newspapers which spoke eloquently of their aspirations for blacks and played an active role in the antislavery movement, to the informal networks which allowed far-flung families to maintain contact, and which provided support and aid to needy members of the free black community and to fugitives from the South. Finally, they describe the vital role of the black family, the cornerstone of this variegated and tightly knit community In Hope of Liberty brilliantly illuminates the free black communities of the antebellum North as they struggled to reconcile conflicting cultural identities and to work for social change in an atmosphere of racial injustice. As the black community today still struggles with many of the same problems, this insightful history reminds us how far we have come, and how far we have yet to go.

Growing up in the sixties was bad enough, but to grow up in the sixties as an inter-racial kid was really bad. Th e blacks, who were already being openly hated for being black, didnt accept me because I was half white and the whites didnt accept me because I was black. No one seemed to accept me except a few from either side; and this was inside my own family. I didnt meet my mothers father until I was fourteen. I was being prepared for the real world that was all too ready to jump right in line and pick up where my family left off or may have missed a lesson or two. Why did these and more, much more happen to me? Because if youre going through hell right now or been through it; been abused; thinking of hurting yourself or someone else; thinking of suicide; thinking no one loves you or ever could; thinking no one cares; this is why I went through what you have to read in this book to believe. It was for you. Blessed be GOD, even the Father of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, the Father of mercies, and the GOD of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of GOD. For as the suff erings of CHRIST abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by CHRIST. And whether we be affl icted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is eff ectual in the enduring of the same suff erings which we also suff er: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. 2 Corinthians 1:3-6 KJV. Th erefore being justifi ed by faith, we have peace with GOD through our Lord JESUS CHRIST: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of GOD. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience: And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of GOD is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time CHRIST died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But GOD commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, CHRIST died for us. Romans 5: 1-8 KJV. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in CHRIST JESUS. Th is is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that CHRIST JESUS came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me fi rst JESUS CHRIST might show forth all longsuff ering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Timothy 1: 14-17 KJV. Can We Help Us? T I M O T H Y S H E P H A R D