“In God We Trust”—But Only If You're White: The Lie of Christian America

America, whose motto is “In God We Trust,” is the so-called land of the free, the land of opportunity where they say dreams are made, but for some, it is the American Nightmare. A land of slavery, apartheid, genocide, and of injustice and inequality, where opportunity, and sometimes even the value of life, is determined by the color of your skin.

In 2020, we saw the mass mobilization of American citizens protesting, yet again, against the murder of another African American at the hands of the police. After images of George Floyd’s life being taken went viral, national outrage and frustration poured onto the streets. It  brought renewed attention to America’s long history of police brutality, showing that racial killings are not just isolated cases-in fact, for many, being Black in America is still a death sentence.

Why are the lives of America’s minorities still being taken with impunity, for no other reason than systemic racism? This is one of the most important issues that defines the United States today. 

To understand the future, sometimes we have to learn from the past. Throughout history, nowhere is the gap between professed Christianity, the spirit of discernment and actual actions more apparent than in America’s long and bloody history of racism. It is a nation whose very foundations and economy were built upon the ideology of white supremacy, through the exploitation of who were-and still are-considered America’s inferior races.

Christians often state that the spirit of discernment allows them to distinguish between good and evil, truth and falsehood, and to make wise, spiritually sound decisions. However, at the same time, history shows immense suffering and injustice caused by those who profess Christian beliefs, questioning the presence of this spirit of discernment in society. Nowhere is this more evident than in the history of Christian America, where the very nation that proclaimed itself under God and founded on Christian ideals became the site of some of the greatest violations of human dignity and equality.

Racial Slavery 

Colonial Americas original sin was the Atlantic slave trade, a country built on the merciless oppression of Africans from the 15th to the 19th century. History estimates that between 10 and 12 million shackled African men, women, and children were stolen from their motherland, taken to America, and subjected to generations of dehumanization, subjugated for 400 years in the most inhumane ways, the African man was stripped of his heritage, and his children became the property of the Anglo-American. They were enslaved, whipped, tortured, raped, and forced into obedience, to facilitate the building of the American empire - the so-called American dream - that would become the capitalist ideology of the New World.

But with the advent of the Constitution, America proclaimed itself the land of the free. One of America’s founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, who served as America's third president from 1801 to 1809, wrote the famous statement, “All men are created equal,” yet he enslaved more than six hundred people over the course of his life, directly profiting from the oppressive institution.

Scientific Racism  

The American imperialists faced a problem: How could they justify the enslavement of Africans while at the same time proclaiming that everyone was equal in the eyes of God? They addressed this by claiming that empirical evidence existed to support their racist views. They wrote books and conducted ludicrous studies and experiments just to prove that the black race was racially inferior and deserved to be subjugated.

Thomas Jefferson's himself described black people as follows:

“The blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.” (Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson)

This legacy of racism stands as a historical tragedy, a contradiction of Christian values and a clear absence of any discernment, that led a Christian nation to become a land of nightmares for its minorities.

Human Zoos 

Until as late as the early 20th century, Africans were treated like animals and displayed in human zoos. Ota Benga, described as “an exotic species,” was brought to America by Dr. Samuel Phillips to be exhibited in the gorilla enclosure at New York’s Bronx Zoo, the largest zoo in America. Five hundred New Yorkers at a time would gather to stare and laugh at Benga. When his so-called ‘exhibit’ opened in September 1906, a quarter of a million morbid spectators visited the zoo-double the normal attendance. The Bronx Zoo at the time was directed by Dr. William T. Hornday, one of the most respected zoologists of the day, who said:

“When the history of the zoological park is written, this incident will form its most amusing passage.” 

These historical factors combined to dehumanize the African American, embedding deep roots of systemic racism into the psyche of American white supremacists. Ignorance and fear of African Americans continued to be influenced by media propaganda - images and advertisements, intentionally  depicting African Americans as savages, threats to society and Anglo values. They were portrayed as being menacing predators of white women, with hidden agendas of rising up and taking over.

A new milestone was reached after the Civil War, which brought about the abolishment of slavery on December 18, 1865. However, there was a loophole  stating that everyone was free except convicts. This was exploited by those in power who needed slave labour. Africans were re-enslaved for petty crimes and transported to the South to rebuild the economy destroyed by the Civil War.  

During the Reconstruction Era, the 14th and 15th Amendments were passed to grant African Americans citizenship and equal civil rights. However, at the same time, local laws contradicting these rights were enacted. Beginning around 1877 in the South, these laws became known as the Jim Crow laws, named after a minstrel show character created by a white man who made a career out of maliciously creating a character of a black man, to amuse a white audience. Jim Crow thus became symbolic of a period deeply rooted in broken promises and contradictions. Jim Crow thus became symbolic of a period deeply rooted in broken promises and contradictions. 

Although African Americans had legal rights, a system of apartheid marginalized them, strictly segregating them within their own communities and preventing them from freely exercising their civil rights. African Americans were permanently relegated to second-class citizens, barred from using the same public facilities as “Whites,” such as waiting rooms, restaurants, and hospitals. They were not permitted to live in many of the same towns or attend the same schools or churches, ironically, even Christian congregations. Interracial marriage was illegal, and most couldn’t vote because they could not pass literacy tests. 

White Supremacy and Lynchings

In the same year slavery was abolished, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was born in Tennessee. It grew into a white supremacist secret society opposing the new rights of African Americans, with members at the highest levels of government calling for the purification of America’s communities and terrorizing African Americans and sympathizers by torching homes in horrific underground campaigns mostly carried out at night. Despite the nation’s Christian identity and ideals, the spirit of discernment, meant to distinguish good from evil, failed to prevent these acts of terror.

Due to a lack of centralized organization and internal weaknesses, the movement died down until 1915, when the movie “Birth of a Nation” was released. This three-hour cinematic blockbuster, called “the most controversial movie ever made in the United States,” served to glamorize the KKK to a multitude of Anglo viewers while at the same time demonizing African Americans. The film’s racist message resonated deeply with society, and the collective “spirit of discernment” failed to recognise the evil in such bigotry and violence. The “clansmen” were portrayed as national heroes, defenders, and protectors of the Anglo-American way of life. 

The movie proved to be a major influence in America's racial divide. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson held screenings of the film at the White House for his cabinet and the Supreme Court. This action bolstered support for the KKK and their criminal activities, increasing a sense of Anglo national and racist pride

Generations of racial conditioning meant there was this inherent prejudice in the imaginations of the white man towards the African Americans. They were often unjustly accused of crimes, and subject to mob brutality.  During the reconstruction era after the civil war, men, women and children were brutally hanged or lynched in horrific public spectacles,  even on the courthouse lawn, just because they had been born black. The Equal Justice Initiative estimated that approximately 4,000 men, women, and children of African heritage were terror-lynched in bloodthirsty parades.

Picture the scene…middle-class Anglo-Americans who considered themselves respectable Christians: teachers, doctors, lawyers, and store owners, would put on their Sunday best and come out in crowds of up to 15,000 to watch these lynchings. There was a carnival atmosphere, with food vendors and souvenir stands. Terror lynching events would even be advertised on posters and in local newspapers. Incidents became so normalized that postcards of lynchings were popular souvenirs.

Among the lynched was Mary Turner, a 21-year-old mother of two from Georgia. She was eight months pregnant. On May 19, 1918, she was captured by a savage mob, which was made up of hundreds of Anglo-Americans, and they took her to a riverbank in Brooks County.

What happened next is inconceivable and beyond the capabilities of anyone who considers themselves a human being. The NAACP investigator Walter F. White recounts:

“Mary Turner was tied and hung upside down by the ankles, her clothes soaked with gasoline, and burned from her body. Her belly was slit open with a knife like those used 'in splitting hogs.' Her 'unborn babe' fell to the ground and gave 'two feeble cries.' Its head was crushed by a member of the mob with his heel to hide any evidence of what had happened, the crowd then shot hundreds of bullets into Turner's body.”

1919 was another ominous year in America's history of racism. At least 25 major white terrorist attacks took place across several months in the United States during a period known as the “Red Summer.”

During this period, African Americans had built thriving communities, but being self-reliant posed a threat to the stability of white supremacists. As a result, many black-owned businesses and properties were  destroyed, including the successful greenwood district in Tulsa, Oklahoma, known as the “Black Wall Street.” In 1921, the district of Greenwood was burned to the ground and turned into a bloodbath. The massacre was called the single worst incident of racial violence in American history. 

Race hate crimes like these took place across America without impunity to remind African Americans of their place in society, despite having civil rights granted by the Constitution. In one case as recently as 1955, a young boy named Emmett Till, was brutally murdered  in the most cruel way imaginable. He was just 14 years old. His crime: he allegedly whistled at a white lady named Carolyn Bryant, who was behind the counter at her family grocery store. A few days later, Roy Bryant, the ex-army husband of Carolyn, and his accomplices took the boy at gunpoint in the dead of night and horrifically tortured him to death. The body of Emmett Till was so mutilated it sent shockwaves through America. But again, there was no conviction - it took an all-white jury only one hour to deliver a not guilty verdict in favour of the Bryants.

Instead of using their faith to challenge injustice and call for the equal humanity of all people, many Christians justified the violence or remained silent in the face of evil. Church leaders, rather than showing justice and compassion, often reflected and encouraged the racial prejudices of society.

Hispanic Racism and Lynchings 

American racism wasn’t limited to African Americans. Lynchings, forced sterilization, and mass deportations of Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens are just some of the injustices Hispanics have also faced in the land of the so-called land of the free. The story of Latino American racism, in some ways, echoes that of African Americans, beginning around 1848 after the U.S.-Mexican war, which gave 55% of Mexican territory to the United States. The Mexican language and even the skin colour was used as reasons for Anglo mob violence against them. By the late 19th century, it’s estimated some 600 Mexicans were lynched for reasons such as speaking their own language, Spanish, or celebrating Mexican holidays. 

The fate of Africans and Mexicans in the U.S. was intertwined; both groups suffered lynchings by Anglos for reasons such as “acting uppity,” “taking jobs away from whites,” “making advances toward white women,” “practicing witchcraft,” and refusing to leave land that whites coveted. Anti-Mexican sentiment peaked in the late 1920s as the Great Depression began and the stock market declined,  unemployment grew, Anglo-Americans after exploiting the Mexicans and their resources, began accusing them of stealing American jobs. 

As job insecurity fears spread, the United States government forcibly removed around two million people of Mexican descent from the country—up to 60 percent of them were actually American citizens. Forced across the border, they had to rebuild their lives in a country they no longer recognised. The Christian ideal of welcoming the stranger and loving one’s neighbor was again overshadowed by racial prejudice and economic self-interest. To this day, one hundred years on,  we see history repeating itself, and the same rhetoric against migrants accused of taking the white man's job in  America. 

Japanese Concentration Camps

As with most economic crises, after the Great Depression came World War II.  Another ethnic group living in the United States would come under the scrutiny of Anglo-American racial supremacy. In 1942, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the then President Franklin D. Roosevelt, through his Executive Order 9066, sanctioned the forced removal of Japanese immigrants, including American citizens of Japanese ancestry, from their homes to be imprisoned in internment camps throughout the country. The relocation of around 120,000 people living around the Pacific coastline meant they were ripped away from their homes and livelihoods, rounded up, and transported hundreds of miles away into concentration camps, without having committed any crime or being charged with any offense.

The internal incarceration was based on racial profiling of Japanese Americans, not because they posed any risks. Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, who administered the internment program, repeatedly told newspapers that “A Jap's a Jap,” and shared his racist sentiments with Congress. He stated, 

“It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen, he is still a Japanese. American. Citizenship does not necessarily determine loyalty... But we must worry about the Japanese all the time until he is wiped off the map.” (Statement to a subcommittee of the United States Congress in 1943)

Around 30,000 of the 120,000 Japanese  incarcerated were young children of school age. They were segregated from society and forced to live in confinement, surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards, no longer free to enjoy their childhood or play outside. Conditions were said to be primitive, substandard and cramped. Many were reported to have suffered psychological trauma, especially the children. The extreme climates of the remote incarceration sites were hard on the elderly and infant inmates. Many died in the camps due to inadequate medical care and emotional stresses they had endured. Several were killed by military guards for allegedly resisting orders. The camps were finally closed in 1946, and today, decades later, the legacy of Executive Order 9066 still echoes this shameful period of American history and is still used as a blueprint for further racist policies targeting other immigrants and American citizens. 

Birth of the Civil Rights Movements

During World War II, from 1939 to 1945, many African Americans enlisted for duty to escape the economic  depression and the conditions of tenant farming, but they continued to suffer segregation and prejudice. During their deployment, they were treated with contempt and their service went unrecognised. When they returned home, they found a country that still did not grant them full rights and continued to persecute them, even though they had risked their lives for the country and their fellow Americans. This, along with the murder of Emmett Till in 1955, reached a tipping point.

And so began the revolt, the Civil Rights Movement was born. The movement aimed at the empowerment of African Americans and other minority groups, demanding change and the expansion of equal rights. 

In 1955, a 42-year-old woman from Alabama would set the wheels for change in motion. She found a seat in the back of a bus, in a segregated area designated for African Americans only. When a white man boarded the bus but couldn’t find a seat, the bus driver demanded that Rosa Parks give up her seat for him. Standing her ground, she refused and was consequently arrested. This sparked outrage and ignited community leaders to form the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which was headed by the baptist minister Martin Luther King, placing him at the forefront  of a long and dedicated fight for civil rights. In 1963, he took part in the biggest march ever seen in the civil rights movement. People travelled on trains and buses from all over different states to join together and participate in the peaceful protest against racism in America, marching united through the streets, singing songs of freedom, Bibles in hand, through the capital of washington D.C., until they reached the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to witness Martin Luther King deliver his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech.

His words lifted the hearts of Americans and struck a heavy blow against racism, offering hope for freedom and a better tomorrow. 

Yet, King and other leaders faced significant opposition from within Christian society itself. Many white Christians in the segregated South, and across the nation, used Christian doctrine to justify racial segregation and inequality. Churches, were often divided along racial lines, and some white congregations actively resisted integration. King’s calls for justice and brotherhood were frequently met with hostility, not just from authorities but from Christians.

King was assassinated in 1968. Knowing he would not live to see his 40th birthday, he delivered his last speech before being shot in the neck by a sniper the next day on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

And still, African Americans await the promised land Martin Luther King had dreamed of. 

Martin Luther King was not the only one to empower African Americans in the civil rights movement; the Black Panthers and many notable, powerful speakers and leaders paved the way for change, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Harry and Harriette Moore, to name just a few. One by one, they met the same fate, silenced while fighting for equality and sacrificing their lives for the sake of the freedoms and rights of the people. Yet their legacy lives on in the hearts and minds of the people as inspirational freedom fighters and heroes.

America's Racial Wars for Profit

The year following the death of Martin Luther King, in 1969, Nixon became president, and with this, a new war was waged against African Americans, this time using “Law and Order” as the justification to combat the civil rights movements, blaming crime and corruption on what he termed “evils in our cities,” thereby keeping the white supremacist agenda at play. This was emphasised by Nixon's advisor, John Ehlichman, who openly admitted that this tactic was used to throw “black males” in jail. 

And just like today, the American people were led to believe that these types of injustice toward ethnic minorities in the name of “Law and Order” were in their best interest, for the protection of the American people -  in the name of the American people. Using this tactic,  law enforcers could target not just civil rights movement groups, but also other minority groups, including advocates for racial harmony and peace, such as “The Hippies.” 

In the 1970s, the war on drugs was waged, a tactic that continued well into the 1980s and beyond president Reagan's administration. The rise of drug culture at that time was used to justify “mass incarceration,” disproportionately targeting minority groups. The numbers of incarcerated people increased dramatically, by about 700 % since 1970 - feeding the multi-million dollar corporation known as the Prison Industrial Complex, or privatization of prisons. Reportedly, these companies that run prisons for profit rake in around $7 billion per year, enriching corporate elites. 

Not surprisingly, the United States, the same country that professes freedom, just so happens to have the largest prison system per capita in the world, housing one out of every four of the entire world's prison population. This population is overwhelmingly made up of America's racial minorities, especially the poor. In fact, shocking  statistics show that one in three African Americans can expect to go to prison in their lifetime in the United States. 

The so-called War on Drugs also served as the catalyst that allowed Reagan to militarize the police with military equipment. This created a police state, enabling law enforcement officers to terrorize and lock up African American and Hispanic minorities for profit in America's prisons, as well as providing justification for U.S. military intervention and control in the Third World. In the same way, the next war  - the so-called War on Terror - allowed the government and its law enforcement to discriminate against the Arabs and Muslims. Once again, many Christian leaders and congregations failed to discern the moral crisis at hand, and did not challenge policies that allowed for racial injustice and mass incarceration.

Arab - Muslim Racism “ War on Terror” 

With the new millennium was born a new racial enemy and another money-making war, only this time, it would feed the industrial military complex and target Muslim minorities. It would become America's longest-standing war, dubbed a crusade by the then President George Bush Junior, who led the invasion of Iraq based on false allegations that Iraq posed a threat to America by manufacturing WMDs following the Twin Towers attack. However, many American citizens still maintain that 9/11 was an inside job that killed hundreds of thousands of people,  a false flag event that paved the way for the 2003 Iraq invasion and occupation, which would destabilize the Middle East and establish  American military bases in the country. This war was simply another power play by America to break up the region in order to  establish itself in the Middle East. For most, America's system of hypocrisy and deception was clear, especially given that the United States is one of the greatest aggressors or war mongers in the world, itself possessing an estimated 6,185 nuclear weapons in 2019.

Their so-called War on Terror, just like the so-called War on Drugs, opened the door for all kinds of racism and prejudice against the Arabs and Muslims living in America -  from arrest and torture to spying and racial profiling. Muslim Americans faced daily discrimination and Islamophobic attacks as a direct result of  American propaganda and negative media campaigns that spanned the 20-year so-called “War on Terror.” 

Years later, the  tyrant president of the United States, Donald Trump, kept this racist attitude alive with his ban on Muslim immigration and racial profiling policies, and did not hide his dislike for Muslims in his ridiculously ignorant tweets.

Police Brutality & Black Lives Matter Movement

Racial profiling has been a tactic employed by America's law enforcement officers for several decades since 9/11, targeting not just Muslims, but also victimizing and criminalizing citizens from all ethnic minorities. In particular, African Americans have been affected, as evidenced by several high-profile cases of needless police brutality that have come to light in recent years. 

An official investigation of the Ferguson Police Department reports that “African Americans are more than twice as likely as white drivers to be searched during vehicle stops.” Experience shows that such racial profiling often ends in violence.

Incidents captured on cameras and smartphones and  then shared on the global net, like the brutal beating of Rodney King by a group of police officers who hit him with batons up to sixty times on March 3, 1991, or the  horrific footage of police taking the lives of Micheal Brown, Eric Gardiner and Philando Castile - to name a few, caught public attention. Their lives were cut short all because the police officer imagined that, since the suspect was Black, they must be dangerous and guilty. But these were human beings, someone's father, brother, son. 

The ongoing unrest in the streets of America during protests against police brutality reflects the injustice and years of oppression endured by America's ethnic minorities. Today's police brutality against protesters echoes the earlier civil rights movements. 

How can the Declaration of Independence state “all men are equal,”  and yet - to this day - that statement has never been realised in America's long history? This officer can be heard clearly saying, “We only kill black people.”

A total of 1,098 police killings occurred in 2019 alone, with 24% of those being African Americans, despite them making up only 13% of the population. Shockingly, 99% of the killings committed by police  from 2013 to 2019 were not prosecuted, nor were the officers charged with any crime, instead they operated with full impunity. So what disincentive is there for an officer to draw his gun or take a human life if he has no fear of losing his job or going to jail, especially if he is protected by a racist system?

On May 25th, 2020, George Floyd, an African American, was murdered by law enforcement officers in cold blood, in broad daylight, while handcuffed and NOT resisting arrest. As seen here, the police officer suffocates him for nine minutes with his knee while Mr. Floyd pleads for his life with those infamous words, “I can’t breathe.” The officer casually  has his hands in his pockets, showing no signs of humanity as he presses Mr. Floyd’s neck to the ground with his knee. This tragic scene took place in front of other police officers and bystanders alike and sparked global uproar. But how is it surprising when the command to be aggressive to so-called “thugs” during an arrest comes from the top of the chain?

Where is the “spirit of discernment” in these tragic events that mirror America’s racial history? If discernment had truly existed, would these injustices and persistent inequalities ever have been allowed to occur?

Trump Pledge - Make America Great Again

But when was America ever great? History repeats itself - it influences the present and can shape the future. Donald Trump's racial propaganda gave white supremacists a stage to share their ideals, believing “Trump will take America back” and purify the land of racial minorities. Richard Spencer, a Trump supporter, participated in the 2017 white supremacist protests against the removal of Confederate hero statues in Charlottesville, Virginia, in looked like a scene from the past. The protest, organised by the United Right movement, a white nationalist coalition, unified white nationalist factions, who carried torches and Nazi flags. David Duke, a prominent KKK member, was seen taking part in the protest and voiced his support for the racist Trump, to “take our country back.” 

Trump's far-right views are no different from those of the Republican right-wing presidents who came before him, including his position on immigration. His “Build a Wall” campaign between America and Mexico, supposedly “to protect Anglo American jobs and keep immigrants out,” echoes sentiments from the past. Trump even went on international TV slandering Mexicans as rapists. Some believe his racist rhetoric even  led to the El Paso shootings in Texas, when a lone gunman killed 23 Latinos in 2019. And how about the immigration ban on 7 Middle Eastern and African Muslim countries? 

The fact that Trump is the President of the United States and claims to want to make America great again is suspicious, because looking back through its history, when was America ever great? So what could Trump really be referring to? Could it be the days of white supremacy and inequality, especially when he publicly tells his fellow politicians to “go back to where you came from,” sparking a barrage of similar hate speech from racist Trump supporters toward ethnic minorities in the country?

Segregation Today

As the story of America's racist history shows, not even 100 years have passed since America lived under racial apartheid, when a nonwhite American could not ride on the same bus, drink from the same water fountains, eat in the same restaurants, or attend the same schools or places of worship as whites. As we've seen, the remnants of racism are still very much alive and present in America's system today. 

This demonstrates how Christianity was and is used to enable exclusion and discrimination, allowing systemic racism to flourish in a society that claimed to follow Christ’s message. If those who claimed the Christian faith had truly possessed the spirit of discernment, the racial divides and inequalities that fill American history would never have taken place.

History teaches us that when we define ourselves as different, we become individualistic, opposing anything that threatens or undermines what we believe to be our own identity. But if we looked through the lens of unity we would see that there are actually no major differences between us, only representations of what we perceive to be good and evil, which cannot simply be defined by the colour of skin, as both exist in all. If mankind could look beyond these racial divides, they would understand exactly what Imam Ali meant when he said,

“A person is either your brother in faith, or your equal in humanity.” 

Conclusion 

Christian ideals and lived reality. Nowhere is this tragic contradiction more apparent than in the history of Christian America. The American system claims to be the greatest nation on earth, the leader of the world, but it is a country built upon hatred and oppression, tyranny and injustice. Built off the backs of stolen Africans and made prosperous by the contributions of immigrants.  America in reality is a country that believes in “Me First!” It devours all that stands in its way with endless wars. It is the belly of the beast, the Great Deceiver, or Anti-Christ, run by an Anglo-American capitalist system. Proudly celebrating its own system of deception and hypocrisy, it claims all men are equal and yet enslaves them. It claims to be the land of the free but incarcerates its citizens in prisons for profit. It claims to be the most civilised nation on earth and yet lacks basic humanity. It claims to be the most advanced nation in the world but holds fast to a primitive, racist ideology. 

Here is a nation that proclaims itself “under God,” that enshrines “In God We Trust” on its currency, founded on Christian principles. Yet, it became the stage for some of the worst violations of human dignity and equality in modern history. Slavery, segregation, and systemic racism flourished in a land that claimed to follow Christ’s teachings. Instead of guiding believers toward justice and compassion, collective discernment, rather than the spirit of discernment, enabled generations to justify oppression and suffering in the name of faith.

It’s time the American people stand united against the oppressive, criminal system that runs the government of the United states, and join the divine revolution that will finally  bring down the iron beast known as -  America.