Comments on: The Experiences of Black Mormons: a gap in Mormon letters?

By: Th.

Th. — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:48:32 +0000

. Manaen left a comment here. Follow the YouTube link he left and watch the Related Videos. Nice looks at the Church in places like Watts and Harlem, etc.

By: Marcia Ambler

Marcia Ambler — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:07:50 +0000

I read A Soul So Rebellious and Weep Not For Me both by Mary Sturlaugson Eyer. She attempts to convey her view of “the black Mormon experience.” I found her books to have a slight “unreal” feeling in them, and later saw a comment by someone named Sarah (her friend from her first book)in a book review, saying Mary told lies in her book) which supports my “unreal” feeling.
I have known wonderful black LDS people. Two were from Ghana, Africa. One raised all her children in the church. Her husband died. Her boys went on missions and her children went to BYU Hawaii. She married a non-LDS man, and sort of disappeared from my life one day, moved, left no address.
The other was new convert, single, M.A. degree from a U.S. college, formerly in a polygamous marriage in Ghana, with a teen daughter who had been kidnapped in the Ghana war and lost for a year. Then in the U.S. the girl bore a baby out of wedlock and got into a drug ring with the baby’s father who had many women coming in and out of his home.
Both these women were having extremely difficult lives, but not because they were LDS. The church was always trying to help our black sisters who were having trouble, babysitting, providing food, rent money, and friendship.
It was the non-LDS men in their lives that made the trouble for them. How many authors (and people) are really willing to tell the truth, especially about themselves, rather than catering to the desire to put themselves in a victimized role?
How much of the trouble in the lives of black women (or any women) can be found in their own choices of men they befriend, even when they are familiar with the danger they could be facing, like a moth drawn to the deadly light?
I hope to find a book that will more accurately portray a black woman who realizes the wrongs she has done to herself, is now doing to herself, and how she grapples with those in the context of her LDS culture, and above all does not sell out the truth in her desire to make a dramatic story.
There is an old saying, “In order to have a friend, we must be one,” and this, more than anything, will serve the cause of integration during a time when more open-minded whites than ever are seeking out friends of other races.

By: Mahonri Stewart

Mahonri Stewart — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:15:32 +0000

Also check out Mormon Artist Magazine’s interview with Gray and Young here: http://mormonartist.net/issue-1/margaret-young-darius-gray/

By: Mahonri Stewart

Mahonri Stewart — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:05:00 +0000

I was going to suggest a lot of works, but most of them have already been mentioned. A few more historical works that address the issue in context with other aspects of history and the gospel are “David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism,” by Gregory Prince; “Adventures of a Church Historian” by Leonard Arrington (where he quotes President McKay calling the priesthood ban a “policy, not a doctrine”); and “Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball” by Edward Kimball. Another excellent book is “All Are Alike Unto God,” which is a collection of conversion stories from the Saints in Africa, most of them pre-and-slightly-post-1978 revelation… fascinating and spiritual. That book is out of print, so it’s harder to find (I know the Provo library has a copy, and I found my personal copy serredipitously at Deseret Industries). As has been mentioned, Darius Gray and Margaret Blair Young have done a great amount of work bringing this subject to light with “Standing Upon The Promises,” “I Am Jane,” and “Nobody Knows.” They’re really the ones to start off, and they put out a quality, soul searching product every time. I also have plans to write a play about the Saints in Africa and the pentecostal experiences they had before and around the time of the revelation. That won’t probably be for a a year or so, though, after I finish the projects I’m currently engaged in.

By: Laura Craner

Laura Craner — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 05:19:32 +0000

Chris–
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the encouragement and recommendations. I hope you’ll stop by again and tell us more!

By: Chris Kite

Chris Kite — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 14:31:52 +0000

Please read the Standing on the Promises books and see the DVDs for Untold Story of Black Mormons and Pioneers in Africa (by BYU).

The books are a great combination of story telling and history (good footnotes to sources). A play “I am Jane” was inspired by these books. I have also used them in community presentations about pioneers.

The DVDs are powerful. Untold Story is a perfect and timely response to the call for candor on race issues from Eric Holder of the Obama administration. Without even getting the DVD, you can see great clips at http://www.untoldstoryofblackmormons.com/
See Rev Chip Murray’s account of President Hinckley’s apology for Mormon involvement in racism.

I also recommend “All Abraham’s Children” by Armand Mauss as a scholarly work on many ethnic issues involving Mormons. He has a related article at http://www.blacklds.org. He cites research that shows Mormon attitudes on race have improved substantially since 1978 and prior to 1978 those attitudes were about on par with the rest of America.

Our art and dialogue should not wallow in the guilt of the past. We are all different shades of brown and the challenges of being a Mormon today have more to do with our personal and community challenges than our correcting of doctrine.

Although the roles are limited, God’s Army has effective portrayals of Blacks as missionaries, investigators, members of other faiths, and a gang member convert struggling with the addiction of violence.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:32:00 +0000

I’ll bet that they know much more than us white AMVers.

I bet you’re right, Th. (though, really, what’s new?).

And Laura: I’m glad you posted this. You bring up some very interesting and relevant issues relating to race and the kingdom of God and race in the kingdom of God.

By: Laura Craner

Laura Craner — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:18:12 +0000

I was worried when I first posted this that it would be offensive to some people, but then last night I was watching the McLaughlin Group(don’t you just love the way he says, “Bye Bye!”) and they talked about new attorney general’s comment that we are a nation of cowards when it comes to racial discourse. The Group decided that it was hard because so many of us are willing to talk within our own “tribes” (their word) but “inter-tribal” discussion seldom occurs. I’m glad Theric took the time to go to the Genesis Group and that Tyler and William have such insightful comments. The arts strike me as a good place to start our “inter-tribal” discussions.

By: Th.

Th. — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:34:39 +0000

I was at the Genesis Group last night in hopes they would have some sort of reading list, but I couldn’t find one. But I’ll bet that they know much more than us white AMVers.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:22:29 +0000

I suspect the lack you're pointing to, Laura, could be read as a magnification of the general state of American letters in which women and racial and ethnic groups beyond the white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant male have had to fight to be included in the "canon." Yet, while the multicultural presence in American lit is growing, we, as Mormons, still seem to be clinging to a bunch of dead white guys, most of whom have roots in the intermountain West. I'm convinced this has something to do, among other things, with the power and authority structures of the Church and with the latent racism that we find in the scriptures and in our recent past (and our present), especially in the Book of Mormon, which is, ironically, one of the major things that sets us apart from the rest of Christianity, that makes us different, makes us Other. Interesting that a culture whose history is full of persecution and injustice and whose driving theological message claims that everyone on Earth has the potential to become as God is can, to a degree, still be convinced (even unconsciously) that one's righteousness is a function of the color of their skin or of their biological sex. Eileen Kump takes up this conflict between self and other in "The Willows," the story Wm. posted yesterday. Amy really only views McGary as "evil" because she's been conditioned by her community to see him that way. Yet, when she meets the warden face-to-face; when she hears her father call him "Brother McGary," her notion of otherness is shattered because she sees him as "kind," as a human being; she then struggles to deal with the ambiguity, to adapt to life after her rebirth into this new, utterly foreign worldview. And that's where Klump leaves the issue, in her readers' hands. We've go to take up the baton somehow, and perhaps forums like this are a good starting point, a good place to front the biting realities we face as a culture. But is that where we need to leave it? I don't believe so. But I also believe it takes time for a culture's wounds to heal, especially when that culture doesn't know it's been wounded (by racism, sexism, etc.). Sure, blacks have been able to hold the priesthood since 1978; but that doesn't necessarily mean Mormon culture has fully accepted them into the fold (as evidenced in Th.'s link to The Genesis Group). We still have a ways to go before we reach Zion.