Hope Rings, So Defiant (and Climbs a Flagpole)

Sometimes, indeed, a picture tells a thousand words. Or, in this case, several pictures – which add up, in my book, to sweet holy defiance in defense of human dignity. What Bree Newsome did earlier this week sprang from her formation in the biblical tradition of prophecy, God’s truth speaking defiantly to power, not only in words but in bodily actions. One news outlet describes the event this way:

Bree Newsome was tired of watching the Confederate battle flag fly on the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse. So on Saturday morning, the 30-year-old African American activist and singer-songwriter from North Carolina put on a harness, climbed 30 feet, and took down the flag herself. She was arrested and charged with defacing a state monument, while the flag was promptly returned to its place atop the pole. But at the end of a week in which the Confederate flag was removed for good from the Alabama statehouse, banned by many retailers, and condemned by politicians in Mississippi and South Carolina, the symbolism of Newsome’s ascent was hard to miss.

In her own words, from atop the flagpole: “You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today!”

Of her decision, and the prophetic streams of hopefulness behind those defiant words:

In one of those nights where I was pondering, “Have I completely lost my mind in doing this?” I read the story of David and Goliath, and David says to Goliath, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, and I come against you in the name of the Lord,” and that, for me as a black woman in America, that’s what that moment felt like, because I come from a historically completely disempowered place. And so I think that’s why it was so powerful to a lot of people, especially to black women, to see me up there holding that flag in that way.

Her action, of course, came 10 days after Dylann Roof massacred nine African-American churchgoers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina — Roof who clothed his racism in the Confederate flag.

How quick we are to label and dismiss and lock away the prophets in our midst. Erika Totten, a young leader in the Black Lives Matter movement in Washington, DC, puts it this way: “People forget that Jesus flipped over tables. They don’t want to talk about that part. As Christians we need to think, ‘Where would Jesus be?’” Her answer: “He would be with the people.”

At risk of rhetorical excess, can I just say – and why not, on this eve of Independence Day in our country – “Bree Newsome for President.” Vice President? Secretary of Homeland Security?

Even better, may the people and jurists of South Carolina keep her out of jail, and may she continue in her artistic-prophetic vocation to inspire in us the same.

6 Responses to "Hope Rings, So Defiant (and Climbs a Flagpole)"

paul pynkoski says:

July 3, 2015 at 8:38 pm

I read your post only moments after reading an article about Bree Newsome in Sojourners. I was also able to read her statement. But reading is one thing. Seeing the video footage of her climb and hearing her cry out the words of Psalm 27 brought me to tears. It made me read the psalm in its entirety- there are echoes of confidence in God, almost defiance towards enemies, and a sense that the longing for the divine shapes our vision. Her reciting of Psalm 23 as she was led away reminded me of Merton’s prayer, rooted in that psalm, “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going…” We need more prophets and poets!

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Charles Martel says:

July 5, 2015 at 3:02 pm

This woman you lionize is neither an artist nor a prophet. Good grief. Could you please tone down the Biblical rhetoric? What she did is merely take down a piece of cloth that can’t actually hurt anybody. Her symbolic act will not change her life or the lives of other African Americans.

Speaking of the 4th of July, did you happen to read about the 7 people murdered and 38 shot in Chicago over the weekend? Probably not since the media doesn’t give a crap about the epidemic of black-on-black crime. Black lives matter only when they are killed by cops or deranged racists, which happens relatively infrequently. When they kill each other it’s simply par for the course.

But, by all means, enjoy the PC, kneejerk reaction to the Confederate flag if it makes you feel better. Realize something, however. Neither Bree Newsome’s grandiose words nor your effusive praise of her will make a damn bit of difference for real people.

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1. Christopher Pramuk says:
  
  July 5, 2015 at 4:44 pm
  
  Good grief, Charles, so sorry to offend. It’s not political correctness I’m interested in, but the courageous mobilization of faith in defense of the most vulnerable in society. Abraham Heschel described the prophets as the “most maladjusted people in society.” I’d like to say I have half of Bree’s courage. In any case, her actions and words have already made a difference for real people, though not, I expect, people whose perspective or actual lived experience you’d be inclined to take seriously. Another perspective in my hometown paper this morning, if you care to consider it, on this “piece of cloth that can’t actually hurt anybody.”
  
  http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/06/30/boone-co-grad-rebel-pride-hard-take/29510661/
  
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Charles Martel says:

July 6, 2015 at 3:00 am

Interesting article you posted. It was also interesting how many people who attended the very same school posted comments refuting the notion of a toxic, racist environment. Some even said she got some of her basic facts wrong. But perhaps these are “people whose perspective or actual lived experience you’d be inclined not to take seriously.”

In any event, thank goodness The Dukes of Hazzard and all other Confederate symbols have been memory holed out of existence. That will surely curb all the violence, murders, drugs, gangs, out of wedlock births, abortions, etc. that are currently destroying black society. Oh wait. It won’t. That’s ok. You are tickled pink about Prophetess Bree Newsome and that’s all that matters.

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Christopher Pramuk says:

July 7, 2015 at 4:07 pm

Charles,

To my mind – and far from perfect or complete understanding, I readily grant – this story is not (only) about the Prophetess Bree Newsome but the prophetic black church in which she was formed, which (yes) I find most inspiring. I have found it inspiring for the better part of my adult life as a Catholic. In our times it is easy to be cynical, ironically detached, sarcastically dismissive, especially from the cool distance of privilege. (I apply the word and the temptation to myself, not to you.) It is much harder, and therefore more necessary, I believe, from a Christian view, to listen as much as possible “from the inside” of the reality or community in question.

For a long time I have listened and prayed with black Christians and Catholics and learned much from their pastors and intellectuals who struggle, I assure you, with the crisis of “black on black violence” in our cities – not least in my own deeply segregated city of Cincinnati – the breakdown of the nuclear family, etc, etc. Clearly none of these realities can be ignored, but neither can they be divorced from the larger systemic realities and concrete obstacles (in housing, education, health care, policing, criminal justice system) facing peoples of color reaching back for generations. It’s tempting to cite some sources, here, but I wouldn’t know where to begin. (If you’re interested I invite you to read my book and follow the footnotes.)

Of course there is no single monolithic “black community” or “black church” experience in America, as there might have been fifty years ago. (See Eugene Robinson’s excellent book of a few years ago, “Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America.”) Still the prophetic sensibility and hopefulness of the black church, from slavery, and yes, to the present day, seems to my eyes and heart a legacy of fidelity to the gospel and the biblical prophetic tradition from which we could all learn something. EJ Dionne’s recent piece in Commonweal gets at this, in compact form, just about as well as anybody (link below). I wish you well, sincerely, and invite your response, but will end my own contributions to this thread here.

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/liberated-grace

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Charles Martel says:

July 8, 2015 at 12:27 pm

You say it is necessary to listen “from the inside” of the black community. What if the community in question will not or cannot acknowledge the true source of their problems? Bree Newsome removing a flag, a relic of a long dead Confederacy, is all sound and fury, signifying nothing. The flag is not the reason now 10 black people have been murdered in Chicago over the 4th of July. That is more people than Dylann Roof murdered. And guess what? It will continue. It will continue in places like Chicago, Detroit, etc.

You spoke of systemic realities. Allow me to comment on a few. First, education. Education, as you know, is dominated at all levels by progressives such as yourself. It has been getting worse and worse all the time. Teachers more often serve their unions more than their students. Also, liberals despise vouchers and charter schools which are often the only way for minority children to get a good education. That’s on you and your ilk.

Second, policing and prisons. It is a fact that blacks commit a disproportionate number of crimes relative to their numbers. Why? Contrary to what Bree Newsome recently tweeted, it has nothing to do with the “New Jim Crow.” That is simply an excuse to absolve people of personal responsibility. The (white) devil didn’t make them do it. The real answer is primarily the destruction of the black family, which somehow survived slavery and real Jim Crow only to be undone by liberal policies and the welfare state. You gave me a book recommendation. Here’s one for you by Jason Riley. “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder For Blacks To Suceed.”

You and I very much disagree as to what extent white privilege or white supremacy still plays a role in this country. Whatever its toxic power, it pales in comparison to the damage blacks do to themselves. You and Bree Newsome can blame these self inflicted wounds on other factors if you want, but no progress will ever be made. Blacks will continue to writhe in perpetual victimhood, and white liberals will continue to enable it.

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