Video: Bring Back Our Girls

by UrbanFaith.com | May 1, 2014 | Feature, Headline News | 3 comments

It is two weeks going on three that over 200 girls were kidnapped from their school in the Nigerian village of Chibok. They were taken by Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram, and their whereabouts are unknown but there is strong suspicion that some or all of them were sold into marriage/sex slavery to Boko Haram militants. Coverage of this situation is increasing among mainstream media outlets but it is smaller media outlets, independent organizations, and people who have really stepped up to increase awareness starting campaigns such as the #bringbackourgirls movement that is taking place on Twitter and trending on Facebook. There is currently a Bring Back Our Girls group on Facebook which is gaining traction and is a source for updates as well as for information on upcoming marches–one scheduled for New York tomorrow–conference calls, petitions, and prayer calls. Recently Bring Back Our Girls posted a video that features pictures of some of the schoolgirls–it is unknown whether they are the ones who were kidnapped–and the voice of the father of one of the kidnapped girls. It is certainly heart wrenching but hopefully it will also help more people to mobilize around this situation. Please watch, pray and spread the word.

Tim Wise Preaching the Anti-Affirmative Action Ban Gospel

by UrbanFaith.com | Apr 30, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |

In 2007, approximately one year after after Michigan voters passed a referendum to amend the state Constitution and ban affirmative action in higher education, Tim Wise appeared at a debate speaking against the motion. Wise presented an argument against the affirmative action ban that not only shows how it affects minority candidates but how it would “further cement the systemic advantages for whites that have been in place for years.” His rhetorical style in debate is reminiscent of the homiletic style of some black preachers which seems to make his argument all the more compelling. But we will let you be the judge of how persuasive his argument is. Watch below:

Black Teens Are Ivy League Bound

by UrbanFaith.com | Apr 1, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |

Avery Coffey

It is only Tuesday but good news abounds. Within the last two days news broke of two black teenage boys who were accepted to multiple Ivy League schools. The first is Avery Coffey, a senior at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, DC. Coffey was accepted at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania. Four of the schools have extended generous financial aid packages according to Fox News—Harvard is still working on it. Coffey was raised in a single-parent household in DC’s Ward 8, one of the poorest areas in the city, and has a 4.3 grade-point average and plans to pursue a career in finance.

Kwasi Enin

The second Ivy League-bound teen is first-generation American Kwasi Enin who applied to all eight Ivies and was accepted to them all. It is rare for a student to apply to all eight Ivies and even rarer to get accepted to all eight, but it should come as no surprise for the New York-based William Floyd High senior who is in the top 2% of his class, has an SAT score of 2250 out of 2400 points and will have taken 11 Advanced Placement course by the time he graduates in the spring. Enin plans to study medicine just as his parents who emigrated from New York to Ghana in the 80s did. Enin also applied to three schools within the State University of New York system and Duke and was accepted to all of the schools. In a phone interview with USA Today Enin stated that Princeton has offered the most generous financial package and he is awaiting offers from the other institutions. There’s no word on which school he is leaning toward.

Chad Thomas

And lest we be remiss, or seem like we are privileging the Ivy League bound, congratulations are in order for Chad Thomas, a senior at Booker T. Washington in Miami who was offered 150 scholarships. Thomas, who plays high school football and plays nine instruments, has chosen to attend the University of Miami where he will play football and work on his music.

We hope that this is just the beginning of the good news regarding young black men being accepted not just to Ivy League institutions but to institutes of higher learning in general. But we also hope that as mainstream media covers these stories, they won’t be highlighted as exceptions because of the racial or socioeconomic backgrounds of these young men but as just another application of the rule of US citizens accessing the so-called “American dream.”

Ray Jasper on Prison Sentences as Slavery and Religion & the Death Penalty

by UrbanFaith.com | Mar 7, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |

On March 19^th Ray Jasper will be put to death. Jasper was sentenced to death after being convicted of participating in the robbery and murder of David Alejandro, a recording studio owner. Jasper walked into the prison system when he was 19 and has 13 years of experience in that system of which he speaks about in his latest and last correspondence with Gawker.com. His letter is a part of a larger project at Gawker called “Letters from Death Row,” in which they have written letters to prisoners who are scheduled for execution. Though Jasper splits hairs in his letter on the facts of his case—claiming he didn’t murder Alejandro although he did slit his throat with the possible intent to murder—he articulates the real problems of the prison system, race and education, and the contradictory nature of religion that supports the death penalty. Below is an excerpt of some of his thoughts on those issues:

On Prison Sentences as Slavery

Under the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution all prisoners in America are considered slaves. We look at slavery like its a thing of the past, but you can go to any penitentiary in this nation and you will see slavery. That was the reason for the protests by prisoners in Georgia in 2010. They said they were tired of being treated like slaves. People need to know that when they sit on trial juries and sentence people to prison time that they are sentencing them to slavery.

If a prisoner refuses to work and be a slave, they will do their time in isolation as a punishment. You have thousands of people with a lot of prison time that have no choice but to make money for the government or live in isolation. The affects of prison isolation literally drive people crazy. Who can be isolated from human contact and not lose their mind? That was the reason California had an uproar last year behind Pelican Bay. 33,000 inmates across California protested refusing to work or refusing to eat on hunger-strikes because of those being tortured in isolation in Pelican Bay.

On Religion & the Death Penalty 

The last thing on my heart is about religion and the death penalty. There are several well-known preachers in Texas and across the South that teach their congregations that the death penalty is right by God and backed by the Bible. The death penalty is a governmental issue not a spiritual issue. Southern preachers who advocate the death penalty are condoning evil. They need to learn the legalities of capital punishment. The State may have the power to put people to death, but don’t preach to the public that it’s God’s will. It’s the State’s will.

If God wanted me to die for anything, I would be dead already. I talk to God everyday. He’s not telling me I’m some kind of menace that He can’t wait to see executed. God is blessing me daily. God is showing me His favor & grace on my life. Like Paul said, I was the chief of sinners, but God had mercy on me because He knew I was ignorant. The blood of Abel cryed vengeance, the blood of Jesus cryed mercy.

To read the rest of Ray Jasper’s letter visit Gawker.com