Why Jesus was black

My father was racist. In his mind, it was God’s will that white people rule the world. God created everything, but white people made the world in which all of humanity lived. White people made all things necessary for civilization -- mechanics, engineering, the alphabet, the printing press, steam engines, airplanes, internal combustion engines, the ability to bring oil from the ground and refine the sludge into every necessity of the modern world.

My father believed God placed the races of man in separate places in the word for specific reasons. In those regions, races developed means of survival and some even for the betterment of mankind. He did not believe in the elimination of races not white, but he was certain that the world would be a better place if races remained or were sent back to their original homes. Except white Americans. We should remain where we were, because God intended we be here.

We will get to the “Jesus was black” part, but we first need to take a short detour.

My father believed mixing white and black produced certain characteristics. Of a light toned black woman or man he would say, “She (or he) has a lot of human blood.” A light-toned Negro who excelled in white endeavors was successful because of the amount of “human blood” she or he carried. No dark toned Negro produced anything of sufficiency, except for cotton, touchdowns or tackles in football, home runs in baseball.

My father did recognize talent, but that recognition was tainted by his racism.

From 1967-1965, the detective show Mannix ran on CBS. Mannix was a private detective. His secretary was Peggy Fair, played by Gail Fisher. Ms. Fisher was black. My father was an avid fan of the show.

One night in the early 1970s as my father and I watched Mannix, following a scene with Fisher, my father commented, “She probably doesn’t even know she’s a n*****.” I thought that one of the most ludicrous statements I had ever heard, not to mention racist. I said, “Oh, I imagine she has been made aware of that now and then.” My father made no reply.

Sometime in the early 1960s my father and I watched television news. Stories of civil rights marches were on almost every night. That night, one of the stories was headlined: “What makes a person a Negro?” My father had an immediate answer: “If somebody has one drop of n***** blood, he’s a n*****.” I said, “Why don’t they take it out?” My father said, “What?” I said, “If they can identify that one drop of blood, why not take it out?” My father replied, somewhat angrily, “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard!”

One drop. That’s all it takes. And that drop is not diluted by history.

In order to be Messiah, Jesus had to descend from David. According to New Testament genealogy, that descendancy occurred through Solomon. Solomon’s mother was Bathsheba. Bathsheba means “daughter of Sheba.” Sheba was considered to be Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a black country.

Ergo …