More on “Black Jesus”, and the power and problem of change.org

A regular weekly addition to my inbox is a change.org email tailored to my interests:  sign someone’s petition against someone else’s outrageous behavior.

Change.org, along with other groups that use email and social media to gain signatures, have an instant way to gather like-minded individuals, and with a quick few clicks, can collect and distribute signatures in a way that was not possible before.  I’ve signed plenty of change.org petitions, along with others as well.  I can say, without a doubt, that some of these petitions have had positive results in righting wrongs.

The potential problem with such emails is that they are always framed as clear.  

Petition emails are almost never presented as open for dialogue or conversation.  Instead, it it “here are the facts*, here is what those people have done or said**, here’s the place for you to be against them.”  *(may not actually be "facts")  **(may be taken out of context)

Consider the “Black Jesus” boycott from my last post, and presently found on change.org.  Imagine if you don’t know anything about the show, and haven’t watched the trailer, and you suddenly receive this email:

Cancel “Black Jesus” TV Show

This is blasphemy and an insult to all believers of Jesus Christ. This TV show has twisted the words of our Lord to make a mockery of him and simply can't be tolerated. This show is also racist and degrading to the black community. 

If you believe in the power of God, Please take 2 minutes to sign this petition and remove this blasphemy off our tv shows.

or perhaps…

REMOVE television show "Black Jesus" from the Airwaves

Cartoon Network and Adult Swim have opted to desecrate and openly MOCK Jesus Christ with their upcoming television show, Black Jesus. It is a complete disrespect to the name, character, and faith in Jesus Christ. It should NEVER make the airwaves and our petition is to have Cartoon Network remove this show from the airwaves. 

Each of these emails provide the trailer of the show for you to watch.

If you don’t accept these descriptions at face value, you might choose to watch the trailer. The problem is, the context for watching the trailer is “twisted the words of our Lord to make a mockery of him”, and “racist and degrading to the black community”.  Those are tough charges for a 2 to 3 minute video to overcome.  And if you don’t know that the creator of the show is Aaron McGruder, the African American satirist and The Boondocks creator, one might assume that, at best, this show is solely an attempt for cheap laughs built on racial and religious stereotypes.  

It might actually indeed be that:  I can’t tell just from a trailer that pulls scenes out of context to provide interest in the show. 

Consider what McGruder wrote a few months ago, as he stepped away from The Boondocks television show:

What has never been lost on me is the enormous responsibility that came with The Boondocks – particularly the television show and it’s relatively young audience. It was important to offend, but equally important to offend for the right reasons. For three seasons I personally navigated this show through the minefields of controversy. It was not perfect. And it definitely was not quick. But it was always done with a keen sense of duty, history, culture, and love. Anything less would have been simply unacceptable.

That’s his well articulated quest as an artist.  Guess what he said next:

As for me, I’m finally putting a life of controversy and troublemaking behind me with my upcoming Adult Swim show, BLACK JESUS.

Heh:  right…there’s the satirist.

Aziza Jackson writes on the culture behind why “You can’t talk about Jesus unless it’s in a love song, or as Christians call it, gospel music. His name is to be exalted and revered. Anything else is blasphemy.”:

All of this makes it easy to see that, although “Black Jesus” is a satirical television show and not a documentary on the life and works of Jesus Christ, this makes no difference to many conservative black Christians who find even the concept behind it to be fundamentally offensive. The reason this implacable point of view is embedded in complex layers upon layers of black history, culture, identity, and spirituality that this article has not even begun to scratch the surface of. 

McGruder knows this, and is using every one of these complex layers as material for the show, turning it into both a mirror on the culture and a reflective tool in order for society to see its true self, just like he did with “The Boondocks.” Only this time, it’s black Christians’ turn to see themselves reflected in it.

Now that I’ve read what I’ve read, I would be surprised if “Black Jesus” is primarily about laughs (no matter what the trailer excerpts).  The show may ultimately disappoint (and almost certainly will offend many).  There’s only one way to find out…

BTW:  Marcus Halley, in response to those who read his comment on the UBE website, has now written a blog post on the subject.  It is really well done!

“Black Jesus”: On calls to boycott movies or TV programs

The call to boycott “Black Jesus”, an upcoming TV series on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, has me pondering…

In general, I’m extremely reluctant to embrace any call to boycott a movie or TV series without first watching the film or series.   I’ve had that policy in general, even if I’m pretty sure that I will be on the side of those boycotting.  I forced myself to go see Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ in part because so many people had condemned movies like The Last Temptation of Christ, Dogma, (or even Harry Potter) without ever seeing for themselves.   If I’m going to condemn a movie or TV show, I feel obligated to do so from first hand experience.  And even then, I usually prefer active conversation about the movie or series, rather than an outright boycott.

There are some exceptions.  Reality TV show controversies often occur because of what the participants say in real life (consider Duck Dynasty):  I don’t have to see the show in that case to react to the actors words or actions.  I totally respect Doon MacKichan’s call to boycott shows that have “…storylines that use violence against women as entertainment.”  And I actively asked on my blog if I had to go see God's Not Dead in order to be critical of it (I chose not to see it).

“Black Jesus” is a real quandary.  I just heard of the show, thanks to a Huffington Post article covered by Episcopal Cafe.  While I expected right wing groups to voice vocal dissent (just as they did with the SNL sketch DJesus Uncrossed), I was surprised to see this statement from The Union of Black Episcopalians:

CALL TO ACTION: Cancel "Black Jesus" - "Black Jesus," is a comedy show slated to premiere, on August 7, on the Cartoon Network during its child-unfriendly late-night spot, which they call Adult Swim. (Cartoon Network is owned by Turner Broadcasting, which owns CNN.) 

As Christians and Americans of African descent, the Union of Black Episcopalians, finds the trailer for this show to be very offensive, religiously and racially denigrating; and regardless of the audience to which it may be intended we do not see ANY redeeming or affirming qualities. 

It denigrates Jesus, the faith AND our race and we take responsibility for our own request that this show be cancelled and not aired on the Cartoon Network or other outlets. We ask our members and supporters to join with us in making their voices heard through signing on to the petition at: http://chn.ge/1o8Hkvg or taking other direct action.

I have complete respect and admiration for this group, so I take their claim seriously.  One Facebook reply from Marcus Halley (an Episcopal priest), however, is very sound:

I will say this, as a person familiar with Aaron McGruder's work. He's a satirist, one who uses humor to raise some problematic or troubling paradigms to the forefront. The Black Community needs to engage very seriously our understanding of Jesus because there are some truly toxic theologies out there that are not liberating and salvific in the least - theologies that only reify slavocracy and disempowerment instead of reinterpreting the liberation theology proffered by Absalom Jones, Jarena Lee, Alexander Crummell, James Cone, Jacqueline Grant, and more. Satire may not be the tool the church wants, but it's a tool the church can use to start the conversation. Black Jesus is not a problem to be stopped, but an opportunity to be engaged. 

Instead of the Church advocating censorship (which violates Amendment 1 of the U.S. constitution as this does not present a "clear and present danger" to anything except our ostensible hegemony on Christological God-talk), what if we engaged the conversations that will be raised by "Black Jesus"? What if we allowed our own interpretations of Jesus to be challenged and thereby create opportunities for growth? What if we created spaces for the world to dialogue about the situations raised by Black Jesus instead of ending the conversation before it even begins? 

The Church cannot be threatened by this type of public discourse? It's happening out in our communities and if we want to reach this generation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, perhaps our call is to enter the conversation, to find new and innovative ways of getting our message heard as broadly as "Black Jesus," and to be the truly welcome, open, and affirming Church that we are. 

If we're going to protest anything, let's protest the movies that come out of Hollywood or the miniseries that come on the "History" channel that write Black people out of a history we know we are in. Let's do that instead of being threatened by he work of a satirist whose very work is meant to challenge and offend, but in the end raise interesting points of engagement.

McGruder has been controversial on numerous occasions both for what happens in his comic strip/TV show The Boondocks, and for public statements he has made (see his Wikipedia page, to start).  But I can also say personally that The Boondocks’ comic strip has had profound moments of insight into American culture, and has raised or commented on important contemporary issues.

Watching the trailer (the sole evidence for boycotting the show), it’s hard for me to see clearly what the overarching message of the show will be:  especially with McGruder's satirical history.  While I’m not anxiously awaiting it’s premier, I’m more inclined to side with Halley’s point:  the Church might be better entering the conversation, rather than boycotting it.

UPDATE:  I wrote more the next day about this as well.

Changing culture away from misogyny

Two recent videos with product ties challenge culture norms:

Lauren Greenfield directed a short video commissioned by Always. "Like a Girl" was seen as a social experiment: and Greenfield wrote about it in The Telegraph:

When we asked more than 250 people what it meant to do things “like a girl”, the results were surprisingly consistent. Women, men and boys were quite happy to lark about – running or fighting “like a girl”, in a silly or deprecating way, as my elder son had. It wasn’t until I asked them, still on camera, if their impression was insulting in any way, that the penny dropped. Some got emotional, and expressed disappointment and regret over their interpretation. Some said it applied to most girls, but not to them (or their sister). Some knew better. One older woman, who did an exaggerated impression that made girls look ridiculous, subsequently revealed that her daughter was a college baseball player on an otherwise all-boys team. 

Although women reportedly apologise more frequently than men, scientists attribute this tendency to the fact that men have a higher threshold for what they deem offensive behaviour.Why? The explanation for this seems relatively simple: we live in a society which conditions women to be kinder, quieter and more polite, fuelling this apology culture when we don’t fit nicely into these categories. Pantene highlights this with painful accuracy: women apologise more often simply because we’re taught to apologise for entering situations in the same manner as men: with confidence and assertiveness. As Meghan Murphy describes, “We smile when we’re harassed on the street or hit on by jerks. We laugh at sexist jokes. We learn that when we have strong opinions, we’ll be called bitches and that if we get angry, we’ll be called hysterical. When we say what we want, we’re called pushy or aggressive.” So we learn to apologise for normal emotional reactions, before stating our opinions – and even after things that weren’t our fault. 

That moment of realisation – when the women and men in our film suddenly understood that they had been sucked into this cultural cliché – is magical to witness, because the viewer also gets to experience it at the same time. It is not judgmental, but collegiate – a moment we share that is simple and yet instantly empowering and illuminating. When these moments of realisation occurred in real time, we knew something profound was happening in front of the cameras. Both I and some of the women on set were moved to tears.

Laura Maw wrote "Addressing Apology Culture" in The Style Con after seeing Pantene's new "Not sorry" spot:

I can’t begin to count the number of times I say sorry on a regular basis – and whether or not this is a product of my instinctively polite nature or that I feel compelled to apologise, I shall never know. And yes, Pantene’s argument isn’t exactly a new one, but it is relevant. It’s no surprise that women are taught to apologise more frequently than men: apology culture fuels male entitlement. If we feel compelled to say sorry for being assertive, this allows more space for male assertiveness. If we’re sorry for taking up space in conversation by stating our opinions, this conveniently allows more space for male opinion. How many times have you heard the words ‘sorry for the rant’ or ‘rant over’ after a female friend has been speaking about something important to her?

(a version of this appeared in The Episcopal Cafe)