Jehovah's Witnesses and Race/Culture

by kneehighmiah 26 Replies latest jw friends

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  kneehighmiah

  I grew up in an all black congregation, but attended an all white school. I have also attended Spanish congregations. This has helped me to understand and respect totally different perspectives and narratives on race. Please be respectful during this discussion. No labeling please!

  One poster yesterday talked about how the Watchtower attempts to whitewash or force everyone to conform to white western cultural norms. I would agree with this sentiment. Especially in the United States. Speaking from a black persons perspective, many converts who used to attend church were not used to the lack of emotion showed at JW meetings. Black churches often have choirs and bands. My non JW relatives participate in such activities. But at the KH such things are not allowed. Most kingdom songs lack emotion and are drab. In contrast black gospel music is very soulful. The watchtower used to imply that only classical music was acceptable to Jehovah in worship. It took forever for them to even record melodies with a beat! Why can't god be praised with other forms of music, even country or Latin? Also many blacks are used to bombastic entertaining preachers who work up a sweat on the stage. Instead watchtower outlines are very drab. So black JWs were forced to deny part of their cultural heritage to be acceptable.

  Also Jehovah hates people who are late. But if you were to take a psychology course, you will find a not all cultures view timeliness as important. blacks and Hispanics don't seem to be as rigid about timeliness.

  Blacks and Hispanics cultures love to dance. However, most watchtowers condemn or discourage loud music and dancing as if it were evil. One article says that spiritual fellowship and association should be the highlight. Sorry, but nobody wants to go to a party that's not gonna have good music and dancing. Of course there's no need to be obnoxiously loud, but trying to force blacks and Hispanics to party the same way certain white bethelites do is silly.

  We were also taught that certain handshakes were imitating the world. JWs taught from the platform that wearing your hat backwards or sideways was worldly and bad. Even if the lyrics were clean, rap music was frowned upon. Non vulgar black slang was frowned upon as worldly. Until too many people complained, shaving your head was worldly. You were accused of trying to imitate and idolize Jordan.

  Now if you grew up in an all white congregation, you likely had a different experience. This doesn't make you racist. We all have different perspectives based on our upbringings.
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  minimus

  I was raised in the city. Our KH was in a very diverse area. Half were black and the other white plus there was a Spanish congregation too.

  I agree that the religion is dominated by uptight white folks. Quite frankly, you can't do anything "normal" without being called "worldly".
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  Quendi

  My own background features travels to other countries, exposure to different languages and cultures and teaching people of different beliefs. The WTS has long sought to homogenize its followers so that wherever a person lived, the format for worship would always be the same. It was one of the ways the Society maintained control worldwide and it has been quite effective. That doesn't mean it is good, but that it is effective. It is not only in matters relating to worship that rigid standards are imposed as we all know. Dress, groomimg, entertainment and even the most intimate aspects of life fell under its purview as well. So I am not surprised that kneehighmiah is unhappy with the cultural norms among Jehovah's Witnesses.

  The history of the organization is a checkered one when it comes to race relations. Both Charles Russell and Joseph Rutherford subscribed to the racist thinking of their times. Both believed that people of color were inherently inferior to whites and their writings were steeped in the thinking that was Calvinist in origin. Russell at least believed in allowing individual congregations a great deal of autonomy. Rutherford ended that and coerced these congregations into an aggregate that left little room for individual expression or initiative. The publications always featured people of European extraction with few references or allusions to other people and cultures. But with the start of the civil rights struggle in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, the WTS was forced to acknowledge the injustices many suffered and to begin commenting on it.

  Its approach was to stifle and discourage any participation, however passive, in the movement in the United states. People in other lands who were restive also were counseled to "wait on Jehovah" for justice and to more or less suffer in silence. The WTS went along with the hateful Jim Crow segregation in the American South by setting up separate congregations and circuits for black and white Witnesses as well as sending traveling overseers to those circuits and congregations that were of the appropriate ethnicity. The only integrated meetings were at district and international assemblies. In those years, the WTS never preached racist ideology, but it silently condoned it. Men of color were not brought into the Governing Body when it was established in 1971, and non-white Witnesses who served at Bethel were frequently assigned the less desirable and menial jobs. Few were given positions in the Writing, Service and Legal departments at headquarters.

  The result is a leadership who is willfully and deliberately ignorant of the culture, heritage and history of people of color who make up a very large segment if not majority of Witnesses on the planet today. Small wonder that the worship at kingdom halls around the world is "whitewashed" because that reflects the view of a Governing Body which itself rests on a foundation of racism. So there is no reason to believe that this will ever change unless and until the composition of the Governing Body becomes more inclusive and cosmopolitan. But don't expect that to happen anytime soon. Only
  "company men" can ever expect to gain access to that sanctum, men who are carefully screened and trained to keep the status quo. What else should we expect from a cult whose roots sprang from racist thinking in the first place?

  Quendi
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  DNCall

  Minimus: They even demonize the word "normal."

  Kneehigh: As you indicate, the diversity of personal experience certainly enables a broader view of everything, including race. GB 2.0 is more diverse background-wise than any previous version. I believe this can be seen in its allowance of the entertainment presented to the international delegates to the RCs this summer. Several videos have been posted here and elsewhere demonstrating this.

  Your mention of "non vulgar black slang" reminds me of an incident I witnessed while I was at Patterson conducting the singers on the CD that was leaked (you know, the one the organization didn't sponsor). We were trying to get the vocalists to loosen up a little bit in their phrasing. One of the professionals there, who was well versed in said slang, let fly, "put some stank on it!" What I still laugh about to this day is how the white female Bethelite singers picked up on this expression and repeated it throughout the day. Diversity of experience is so key to this issue.
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  HeyThere

  I have only attended mostly black and hispanic congregations and I agree with what you have said. Also, there is the telling publication of old that not only said that black witnesses would turn white but that one brother did just that after praying to jehovah earnestly if that doesn't prove the sickness in their made up experiences, I don't know what will. Oh ya...my bad...that's "old light"
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  minimus

  I gave a public talk one time in an all black KH in Boston. I had more fun giving that talk! When I asked a rhetorical question, I'd get these sisters saying, "YES!" out loud. The men were nodding in agreement so I got a bit into it and thought I was a TV preacher for an hour. We got a number of invites to stayfor lunch but we made other arrangements. Brother Minimus was Brother Soul!
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  QuestioningEverything

  My family was the only white family in our congregation for many years. There was one mexican family and the rest of the hall was black and that congregation was my favorite ever. It was friendly, outgoing and just plain fun! When the territories were reconfigured, they sent us to a different congregation that was mostly white. I found it to be the complete opposite and hated it!

  I agree with your post 100%.
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  Quendi

  I have been a member of both black and white congregations and have noted the differences others have between their demeanors. Quite a few years ago I took a white friend of mine from Denver, Colorado down to Birmingham, Alabama to visit my family. We attended meetings at the Graymont Congregation which was the very first congregation ever established in Birmingham and was my home congregation when I lived there. Graymont was a black congregation and my Witness friend from Denver was blown away by the friendliness and hospitality he found. He attributed the difference to black southern culture, an observation I had to agree with. The Witnesses there took him in as one of their own, invited him to their homes, and entertained him like royalty. He talked about that visit for years afterwards, so great was the impression it made upon him.

  Quendi
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  Band on the Run

  I amm white but b/c of where we lived attended a KH deep in the ghetto. There were only about 5 white members. I don't recall any Latino families. My extended families attended suburban KHs. It was clear to me as a young child that the WT was for white leaders. Of course, it was WT specific and very different from white culture in general. One only had to visit Bethel to note that it almost completely white. There were cultural tensions. My parents worked hard. The KH crowd had no work ethic. They bragged about conning the government. For instance, for relatively young people, most were on disability. They could no work for health reasons yet could climb mountains in field service.

  I wanted not to go KH at all. The suburban KHs had Witnesses who could read properly. I distinctly recall bad stuff said about classical music. They were not Witnesses so their music was horrible. It was a white brother who never heard of Beethoven, Bach, or Mozart.

  I told off a circuit servant when I found out that Southern KHs were segregated. He justified it by stating that the white people would not want to attend a KH with blacks in it. I responded that God cared more about stigma blacks would feel. Jesus would never do segregation. Sadly, I am no longer certain of that statement.

  Racial differences existed. Most of my problems were class related. I hated being with low class people of any race. The Witnesses exposed me to poverty. I felt so bad for how they lived. It was problelmatic driving through the neighborhood. These were the years of major riots in Newark and my schools.I would have preferred some exposure to middle class Americans. If they ran literacy classes one night per week, a lot of the WT related problems would have stopped.

  It is funny. I can't ever be part of a truly black church yet they look so nice. The Episcopal Church adopted a hymnal of spirituals to supplements its WASPy music. It is so funny to hear a suburban or upscale city church sing the spirituals. They try so hard but it is so bland. I feel that the WT never addressed racial tensions in the Witnesses. Look at the GB. They still are not acknowledging the problem. Oh, the top three brothers were always white.
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  Mum

  Yes, the WT has lily white cultural leanings. I am white, from E. Tennesse/SE Kentucky. Hillbillies were never criticized for their strange-sounding dialect and speech patterns. One ignorant hillbilly "brother" told me he was complimented by the circuit overseer's wife on a talk he gave. I knew this guy pretty well, and his speech was full of errors, as he probably had not even graduated from 8th grade.

  My first congregation was upscale because it was the congregation of my dad's boss. Nevertheless, even though this was the least déclassé congregation I ever attended, there was still plenty of ignorance and bigotry.

  When I got married, I moved to a congregation in the South that was in the process of desegragation. The white "brothers and sisters" always referred to tha African Americans as "the colored brothers and sisters." The CO's wife, a pioneer, criticized one of the black "brothers," saying he was for "black power." Actually, he was from Detroit,and was much better educated than the Southerners in the congregation. One "brother," a native Southerner, told me he thought the black householders were "impressed" that white people would come to their door to offer whatever we were "offering." The racism was obvious to me, but I don't think anyone there saw himself/herself as racist.