Does Jehovah Still Call Black People the "No-No" Word?

by arko_n9ne 28 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  arko_n9ne

  I feel the title is an attention-grabber, but in no means am I looking to start racial tension on JWN.

  I know in the past, at least to the 50's from what I've read, the Watchtower Society has been very demeaning toward people of a less alabaster pigment. In one instance saying white people were superior and God blessed them that way for good reason.

  However, I have not been able to find an official statement from them in any of their printed works that either clears up or apologizes and further corrects that bold standing.

  So, to those much wiser than me, is there an official statement from the Watchtower identifying people of different race as equal? And if not, to the ex/current brothers and sisters who are of an "ethnic" background, what are your feelings on the Society's derrogatory statements being left unchanged 60-100 years later?

  I am, as the Nation of Islam puts it, one of those "alabaster skinned, sharped tongued devils," and I am married to a Mexican woman who is from a family of Witnesses. We have a child together and I am still shocked that the WTS has so many of her latin family when they have expressed harsh feelings about them. Her grandmother has been a life-long Witness and is almost 90 years old. So she read this statement and stuck with them.

  I don't know why...

  Can anyone enlighten me about this touchy subject?
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  moshe

  I had a black sister tear into me for admitting that I didn't have any "sexual" urges to be with a black sister-

  She never offered to re-educate me, either. I told her to find an article in the WT to help me develop some lust, instead of friendship- that made her day.
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  arko_n9ne

  @moshe
  Some people go into a candy store and get chocolate. Some get caramels. Some get Skittles. It's crazy you say you have no sexual urge to be with a black sister and she gets pissed. What about all the people who may have wanted to sleep with her that she turned down for one reason or another?

  Semantics. Lol.
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  james_woods

  My old lady is Asian. No - not JW, very well educated and proudly Bhuddist.

  The JWs are outwardly "open to all races" but they are still segregated.

  For example, they have still insisted upon "hispanic", "vietnamese", "other ethnic" congregations - rather than integrating them all into just simple big equalized JW kingdom halls.

  The language issue would have been better helped (in this country) by classes to help them all speak English - rather than the segregation.
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  Band on the Run

  During the 1950s and I assume earlier, the KHs in the South were segregated. I never travelled South so I only knew integrated KHs. I thought that was almost unique to the Witnesses back then, integrated KHs and calling each other brother and sister. We attend a predominantly black KH. If a brother or sister stopped by our house, the whole neighborhood was in an uproar. No one assumed we were friends. They feared we were selling our house...

  I happened to hear about the segregation through a casual remark by my parents when a co visited. I was so young and yet I challenged him. It seemed totally unChristian. HIs reply to the 14 year old girl was that it was out of respect to Southern whites. Perhaps de jure (legally required) segregation existed. It was hardly heroism.

  I grew up in an ethnic Catholic neighborhood. My parents were hardly bigotted at all compared to the others. We had no choice of where to attend KH. I felt the strain of being a very small minority. I could live but I was never comfortable. Maybe it was good for me to experience that feeling to see what minorities feel.

  If you have to die before taking a blood transfusion, Christian brotherhood and commands to love one another required more action that not wanting to stumble the KKK.
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  Phizzy

  I have a distant JW relative who comes from a black family, it was she who drew my attention some years ago to the fact that the GB were (then) all white, and in our JW District, all the speakers on the DC programme were white, despite the fact that our district was made up of mainly black African and West Indies bros and sisters ,and other ethnic groups.

  I had not registered this overt racism before, and it upset me, I was brought up believing that the whole world were one big family, ethnicity was not important, we were all fellow humans.

  The policy gradually changed, and eventually a good number of the capable bros. from non-white backgrounds were used, but even this seemed to be in a grudging way, first of all you only got a black guy doing the "Experiences" bit, or the day's Text, the big boys talks were still for whiteys.

  It was when I came on here that I discovered about all the racism of the past, and the disgusting comments in the WT publications, like the one that black people would turn white eventually in the New System.

  What a misnomer New System is, hardly new, we have had bigoted fascist racist arseholes in the old system for too long, the WT wanted their paradise to be like that, sick.
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  Band on the Run

  So true. In my KH, the four white bros. had the top spots. I don't recall a single black speaker at a convention or assembly. It strikes me that my exposure was to a religion of black women ordered by white men. I never saw the draw. Perhaps my view is skewed, though.
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  botchtowersociety

  For example, they have still insisted upon "hispanic", "vietnamese", "other ethnic" congregations - rather than integrating them all into just simple big equalized JW kingdom halls.

  I disagree. All the congregations I ever went to were based on geographic location. Since people tend to self-segregate into ethnic neighborhoods to a large degree, this affects congregation make-up as well. In addition, congos are segregated based on language. Spanish language congos are--you guessed it--mostly hispanic. Around here the French language ones are overwhelmingly Haitian, with a small dash of white Quebecois thrown in. It is geographic and language segregation that makes the congos appear racially segregated. I've been to English language congos, however, that were probably 25% black, 25% hispanic, 50% white.
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  notjustyet

  Here is a link to JWFACTS.com and there is some old references to people with darker skin.

  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/quotes/black-skin.php

  Hope this helps,....
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  arko_n9ne

  jwfacts is actually where i picked up those tidbits that inspired the topic. but i cant find them pulling a public explanation like they did every time their prophecies failed. they didnt throw anyone under the bus with the race issue.

  if i had the choice i would rather hear a good reason why my religious leaders are telling their follwers they should aspire to be blessed with aryan traits in the new life. screw 1914s mathematicians. i want to hear why ray charles couldnt play at the assemblies in georgia.