What would the 4th of July be without fireworks? It seems every time the bloody and hypocritical history of the United States of America, especially from a black Christian artist, people lose their minds. Monday Lecrae tweeted a picture of a black family in the fields picking cotton with the caption “my family on July 4th 1776.” The comments that burst forth range from grateful to confused to disgust. One person said he was done supporting Lecrae because he keeps turning everything into a race issue. Crae’s tweet received so much attention it caught Shaun King’s eye. Shaun King is one of the main people involved in the Black Lives Matter movement and he shared Lecrae’s tweet adding “look at the comments, Lecrae’s fans want so bad for him to be Christian and not black.”
I need my white brothers and sisters to get out of their feelings and stop trying to sweep issues under the rug everytime a Believer mentions race, especially when it’s all facts and not opinion. Black people weren’t even considered people during those tea but rather 3/5 a person. Independence was celebrated in 1776 but black folks weren’t “free” until 1865. Segregation wasn’t outlawed until July 2nd 1964 (some would consider this our true Independence Day). The right to vote was gained the following year in 1965. This is all historical fact, and maybe that bothers people and it should. It bothers me that people either didn’t know these things or forgot about them. Germany has a national day in January where they reflect on the Holocaust, this is to remember and serve as a warning to future generations, so nothing like this ever happens again in their country. Maybe the USA should follow suit but then there would be so many days we would lose count ( Trail of Tears, government experiments on black men, Japanese detention camps, and etc.)
I salute Lecrae because I believe a few years ago he would have deleted this tweet shortly after sending it out. He probably lost some fans but he stood strong pointing out the systemic racism and hypocrisy. Many other Christian artists have been speaking on it (just peruse Propaganda’s catalog) and will continue to do so. Dear fans, you can’t expect black Christian artists to only speak about the Christian side of things in times like these. Especially when technically they were black before they became Christian. If you have any issues with Lecrae’s tweet you are part of the problem and part of the reason why black people are leaving and critical of our faith. The Bible says to “mourn with those who mourn” and your inability to do that speaks more on your heart than on the the one who pointed out the problem.
