The Dodo Bird: A Black Male Leader

MISSING: Black Male Leader

When a Black man becomes a leader...all Hell breaks loose. I'm pretty sure no one knows what to do about it. Quite honestly, I think people are so used to the ABSENCE of the Black male leader, that a new one is not welcomed with, "Welcome, we are glad you are here, but faces statements like, "where have you been?" "Where's the rest of you?" "Why do you come not fully prepared?" It's as if people look at the Black male leader with horror and shock? How did you come about? What's the deal with you?

When a Black man becomes a leader...he is guilty until proven innocent. He is the inheritor of all abusive, undervaluing, misogynistic, self-focused leadership that has come before him. A NEW Black male leader is also the uncle that abused you, the pastor that robbed you, the father that ignored you, the hustler on the corner, the man who rejected you romantically. He's the reason the Black family is broken, the incarerated one who sold drugs. The Black male leader is the beggar on the corner drinking a bottle of alcohol telling about what he could've done back in his day. You've already heard his dreams, and have found them wanting. You've heard his schemes, and all you can see is trouble. You've believed in him once already, and that's a shame-on-me (the Black male leader), to do it again is a "shame-on-you." You will not be duped again.

When a Black male becomes a leader...he is never innocent. He sold out to become a leader. He left someone behind, sold out in some way. In fact, when a Black male becomes a leader he is usually accompanied by a white female. This is what we think right? There's no way that a Black man by himself could break out of the drowning enslavement of a lowered identity. He is not an owner of his culture (his fault), and leader is his community (his fault too). He doesn't believe in himself (he's weak), and he can't handle critique from his Black female counterpart (more weakness). So he grabs the hand of a white female savior who won't challenge him (the worst weakness) and abandons the very people who would love him. He's a betrayer of the highest regard.

What happens when the dodo bird, thought to be extinct...what happens when "by happenstance" found one? It's both facinating and scary at the same time right? "It's a miracle!?! Praise God! Or maybe Dawinism? We probably darwinsitic about the discovery of a Black male leader than we do well religious (I'm just saying).

The whole ecosystem has adjusted to work without him present, and everybody has moved on, only to talk about him in printed books, mistake him for a toucan on cereals, and has been found mainly to be mythological and a caricature? "What do we do with him?" "Is he aggressive?" "Does he bite?" "You know, maybe we should put him in a cage in a zoo, because he's endangered, and might die off again..."

Well, the dodo bird has been found to not be extinct...and yes it has had to survive insurmountable odds, and it continues to do so to this very day! Of course, there are more predators that it can count that wants him to go back into extinction, even the very ecosystem that it thrived in at one time, because of how it has evolved, looks at the bird strangely. IT WANTS to bring it back in, but it would mean that the ecosystem has to dramatically change for it to make space for it, and in some ways, it likes the ecosystem it has now. So it aggresses him, even if it doesn't want to, but out of an instinct to survive, it rejects the dodo bird, and that very bird feels at a loss as well. No system seems to fit him, and every ecosystem has aggressive survival instincts and is not really willing to adjust the habitat to let them in.

But the dodo bird wants to thrive and survive as well. The dodo bird wants to share its story of survival as well. It has a story to share. Unconventionally, it has learned to feed itself, fly, and it has become strong. The means of which this bird has developed don't fit your understanding of development because it belongs to a different system. Of course it doesn't speak like you, but BELEIVE ME, IT'S A DODO BIRD. It has the same predators, the same needs for survival, for community, for comfort, for care, and IT CAN LEAD!

So like the dodo bird, how do we invite and welcome the Black male leader to lead again in the ecosystem of this world, of this country, of the church, of the family, of the Black community? I want to know, because I'm here, white wife and all, and I'm not going anywhere.

Would Jesus Say COWABUNGA?

How does one pursue peace together? I'm thinking about that a lot today. I'm searching for peace and the peace of God to emannate my very body, my family life, my personal health, but it just sometimes seems so elusive, and I wonder why.

Recently, I started a bible study called Harambee. The term itself is found on the Kenyan flag and it means, "all pull together." I like the idea of it, but I know and realize that if I attempting to lead and guide a community group that pulls together in the same direction, for the same purposes, given that we are coming from different backgrounds, its not going to be easy. This group is an intentionally multi-ethnic, multi-cultural experience, which means I am inviting into my home debate, pain, hurt, argument, confusion, sadness. You name it, its coming there.

But I can't lie to you, I'm excited..nervous, but excited. See, I'm a little crazy. I'm too vision-centered for my own good. I ACTUALLY believe that this will not only work, but that this group is going to do great things. Really GREAT things. If we as Harambee can become that kind of multi-ethnic, multi-cultural community that pulls not against each other, but for God and for each other, I think we will witness a part of the kingdom of God that we rarely get to see. I'm so drawn by the unknown, the thing that needs so much of our faith to produce, that only faith can make it happen. I've always been like this, since I was a kid, since I came to Iowa City and found myself as a Black man floating in the midst of a world that didn't seem to accomodate my cultural values well.

So we studied Ephesians 2 last night, and I have to admit, it took a lot to get to this study. The active LACK of peace my family has gone through this whole week, while finding myself hours before the study at a courthouse with my wife getting a restraining order for a unruly person, the life around me has been nothing close to peace. But recently, the Lord spoke something really close to my heart, he said, "YOU ARE NOT IN CHAOS, YOU ARE IN CHRIST." It resonated ith me because what I feel is like Peter in the boat and Jesus asking me to come out onto the waves to be with him. I take my step out, but then in order for me to not get caught up in the movement of the water in the ocean, or the wind that's currently blow and could topside any boat, I have to focus on Jesus.

I always wondered, "What would have happened if Peter didn't get afraid of the circumstances aroun him and got to Jesus on top of the water? What if he didn't lose faith and doubt God, but continued to keep his eye focused on the Lord?" I laugh to myself and think about Jesus striking a surfing pose and shouting out "COWABUGA!" Then they would both ride the wave together, the currents and winds creating a unique experience that could be experience if Peter would just have to faith to overcome the windy circumstances and the reality shifting experience of being called out to walk on the water. If only Peter wouldn't have doubted, he would get to shout COWABUNGA with the Lord as well.

I want to shout COWABUNGA with Jesus. Harambee is a faith step to walk out on water and ignore the winds, ACKNOWLEDGE THEM, but not get distracted by it, but to keep such a sharp focus on Jesus, that eventually we won't be just trying to survive the walk, but we would ride the waves with him.

Ephesians 2 says that God has destroyed the dividing walls of hostility and created a new humanity. What if we attempted to live as new humans and pulled together for the kingdom of God? Well, like I said, I'm a vision-centered dreamer, and I'm too hard-headed to not try to see this through.