Close Black-Ass Church Houses
Welcome to the 68th installment of This Black-Ass Life! Orange Foolius called for states to allow churches to reopen and, like with the consequences of most of his decisions, Black people will disproportionately suffer in specific and horrible ways. In more positive news, Beenie Man and Bounty Killer DELIVERED, a 9-year-old finally checked Big Crayon and Quavo graduated high school!
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l. The Facts
To date, 33 Black bishops, reverends and pastors around the country have died from COVID-19.
The disease is tearing through Black and Brown churches:
Within a week of celebrating their Reverend’s anniversary at a West Virginia church, one person was dead and ten more had the disease.
13 members of one Bronx congregation have died within the last month; one Catholic parish, also in the Bronx, saw 44 deaths from COVID-19.
11 parishioners from Harlem’s Mount Neboh Baptist Church have lost their lives to COVID.
In Arkansas, 35 out of 92 people who came into contact with one asymptomatic person at a church event got sick. 7 had to be hospitalized and 3 died.
Faced with a callous and ineffective government, some Black pastors are recognizing that protecting their flock by keeping church buildings closed is one of the holiest things they can do.
Why does it matter?
The majority of Black people in the U.S. (8-in-10) identify as Christian with even Black millennials reporting as more religious than their counterparts.
The Black church in America has been a place for political revolution, philanthropy and validation. The institution has been core to Black communities since slavery.
Black people are dying as a result of their churches choosing to stay open despite public health warnings. It’s particularly painful that these institutions that are supposed to be places of refuge are now sources of potentially fatal danger for our communities.
We do not need the added risk of in-person church services. Black people represent 13% of the U.S. population yet account for 27% of confirmed COVID-10 cases and over 20% of deaths.
Black people are dying from COVID-19 at 2.4x the rate for white people and 2.2x the rate for Asian and Latinx people.
If Black, Latinx and Asian people died at the same rate as white people, about 12,000 Black people, 1,300 Latinx people and 300 Asian people would still be alive.
What can my Black-Ass do?
If you’re a person of faith, choose Zoom/prayer line church/Facebook LIVEs over in-person service. I (Jumoke) have been to a few Zoom services and I *really* like praising God in my bed while drinking a mimosa.
If you’re a clergy member, please read this from Pastor Jerome Washington of Vernon Baptist Church: “In our tradition, worship first begins in the heart. Historically in the African American tradition, we worshipped when there was no building … Our worship is not confined to a building. As a matter of fact, we did not need the governor to tell us to close our churches. Our love for our people told us to close our churches.”
ll. Other Things
Thank you, Beenie Man and Bounty Killer.
This battle. THIS BATTLE! A celebration of dancehall. Here’s the link in case you missed it.
Babyface also walked us through the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack and my goodness. Someone mercifully captured it and put it on YouTube: part 1 and part 2.
In the year TWENTY TWENTY, a 9-year-old launched the “More Than Peach” project to finally put an end to peach being used as the flesh tone crayon.
Congratulations Quavo on graduating high school!
Shout out to this mother and daughter who earned MDs in the same year and residencies at the same hospital.
Here’s Panama Jackson’s 10 Blackest Shoes.
Oprah’s cabbage is out of control.
Our Black-Ass song(s) of the week (Jumoke):
In celebration of Rihanna’s 15 years in music, I present Work. Also, Mitu and I had to have a 5-minute conversation on which of her many hits to choose from.
Things we are looking forward to / things we are not looking forward to:
I (Jumoke) look forward to another week of challenging my culinary abilities. I incorporated cabbage (and gas) into almost every meal last week, the week before was bok choy and next week is full fat yogurt.
I (Mitu) look forward to watching LoveBirds again, a perfect silly Netflix movie. Issa DID that.
lll. Text from a Black-Ass Mama
My (Mitu’s) mom sent me a grainy image with no context, 5-minutes later I caved and asked for any information at all and now here we are. What are y’all circulating on WhatsApp?
Stay Black, thrive and find the camel! We’ll hit your inbox next on June 8.