It’s time for the final FMF link-up of October! Boy do these months fly by, don’t they?!
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This week’s FMF writing prompt is: WHILE
Well, we’ve made it to the last Friday of October and Day 28 of the series, 31 Books by Authors of Color.
My sister actually bought this book for my husband, who is a Black South African.
After my husband read it, he said to me, “You should really read this book.” Of course our teenage daughter overheard him and piped up, “Why? She’s not Black! Why would she read a book called Reading While Black if she’s not even Black?” We both just smiled and carried on . . . 😉
Now that I’ve read the book myself (I actually listened to the audio version read by the author), I can say that it is a worthwhile read whether you’re Black or not. 🙂 Of all the books I’ve shared in this series, this was on the more academic side, but no less worthy of a recommendation. In it, the author gives a thorough, systematic defense of reading the Bible through the lens of a Black individual as an exercise in hope.
Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope by Esau McCauley covers a wide range of important and timely topics with careful consideration, including Black ecclesial interpretation, policing, justice, identity, anger, and slavery.
In his conclusion, author Esau McCaulley writes, “The point is that the very process of engaging these Scriptures and expecting an answer is an exercise in hope. It is an act of faith that has carried Black people through unimaginable despair toward a brighter future.”
For more posts in the series, 31 Books by Authors of Color, follow @katemotaung on Instagram.
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Join the link-up below with your own five-minute freewrite on the prompt, WHILE, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment:
I really cannot Read While Black
(‘cept aided, maybe, by a pshrink),
but that, perhaps, is not a lack,
for I read just like a Chink
(or you can call me zipperhead,
or a slope, if you prefer),
but know what I’ve been told or read
comes from people who infer
that slanty eyes tend to be weak,
and that I cannot be athletic,
that I am a computer geek,
and that my meals are quite pathetic
mixtures of bland rice and fish
when pizza is my go-to dish.