The Botham Jean Incident and the Legacy of “Black Forgiveness”.

(ThyBlackMan.com) If black life in America is not always on “trial”, it is certainly given to the most intensifying scruples of any other ethnic group on these shores. Case in point: the Botham Jean murder trial in Dallas, Texas of a few weeks ago.

As you recall, Amber Guyger was found guilty of murdering brother Botham and was sentenced to ten years (a sentence which was immediately vilified as too soft). During the sentencing phase, Brandt Jean, Botham’s younger brother, asked permission of the court to hug the defendant, Amber Guyger, as a show of “forgiveness”, intoning the act as something “Botham would have wanted.”

Social media erupted in chaos! Christians railed against Christians; non-Christians spoke out against Christians and even “so-called” Christians took a few shots against “so-called” Christians.

There are two equations which came out of the Botham Jean tragedy and the events that took place during sentencing that day:

1. Whether we should forgive as Christians the egregious and dastard acts of others
2. Whether granting such forgiveness absolves the object of our forgiveness (or the wider self i.e.criminal justice system) of the demand for peace, justice and equity

All of this points to one historically-based fact: black folk have been a forgiving people since our time on these shores.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.

It really goes beyond forgiving to our duty as a people to understand the nature of the offenses that have been perpetrated against us as a people – and whether we are willing and aiding abettors to that tragic history when we seek to remedy our consciences of any abiding effects of those said actions.

Many people were undisguised in their searing animus for Brandt Jean.

Contextually, though, it’s a bit of a misnomer to hold Brandt Jean up as a model for Christian forgiveness. Brandt Jean is a citizen of St. Lucia, a mostly Catholic island nation. Brandt Jean did not grow up in nor is he privy to the vestiges of the peculiar black experience in America. It is relatively easy to make Brandt Jean a hero for forgiveness, if the aim is to water down the oppressive history which surrounds such need to forgive.

Unfortunately, Botham Jean’s life and tragic ending to his life took backseat to the actions of his brother, Brandt, who, in his attempt to inaugurate his own understanding the of events which led to his brother’s departure, absolved his whole family of the need to remain suspicious of the actions of Amber Guyger in particular and the criminal justice system in general.

In doing so, Brandt Jean inadvertently shattered the spotlight on police culture. Unwittingly, he gave approval to the powers that be to “move on” from this tragic episode. And so, should we all not “move on”?

This tragedy took place within a historical context of black “agitators” and “conciliators” embedded within our sojourn of the American experience.

Here’s the key: It is no more “unChristian” to demand peace and justice than it is “Christian” to forgive and forget. In fact, the former could be wise and the latter foolish or vice versa yet remain a Christian prerogative, nonetheless.

The bottom line is while it is virtuous to forgive, it is perhaps foolish to “forget” from whence we have come, least we go back.

Staff Writer; W. Eric Croomes

This talented brother is a holistic lifestyle exercise expert and founder and executive coach of Infinite Strategies LLC, a multi-level coaching firm that develops and executes strategies for fitness training, youth achievement and lifestyle management. Eric is an author, fitness professional, holistic life coach and motivational speaker.

In October 2015, Eric released Life’s A Gym: Seven Fitness Principles to Get the Best of Both, which shows readers how to use exercise to attract a feeling of wellness, success and freedom (Infinite Strategies Coaching LLC, 2015) – http://www.infinitestrategiescoaching.com.

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