In the tales of Uncle Remus is the story of Br’er Rabbit and his enemy Br’er Fox. Fox pondered what he would do to Rabbit once caught. Rabbit pleaded for Fox not to throw him in the briar patch. Fox, delighted that Rabbit gave him a devious idea, threw him into the dreaded patch. But Fox’s delight soon turned to dismay as he watched Rabbit negotiate the thistles and thorns of the briar patch until he was safe and free on the other side. Rabbit, who is now free, shouts to the startled Fox, “Bawn en bred in the briar patch, Br’er Fox. I was bawn and bred in the briar patch.”
The journey of African Americans in what poet Maya Angelou refers to as “these yet to be United States” is one where we have been “bawn en bred in the briar patch” of slavery, Jim Crow apartheid and the ongoing fight against institutional racism. To be who we are is to be in a continuous state of crisis.
We are all too familiar with the statistics reflecting that the reality. Author Michael Eric Dyson says black children are born with the playing field tilted to their disadvantage. Black children live in poverty at rates far exceeding their white counterparts. The disparate funding of public schools exacerbates the briar patch of an uneven field and sets the stage for low-ceiling dreams and dead-end dates with the criminal justice system. Black men are warehoused in our nation’s jails, there are wide economic disparities and failing schools that leave our children behind forming a briar patch nightmare for African Americans pursuing the American Dream.
The prophetic witness of the black church is a response to this nation’s briar patch, where slavery remains our unconfessed sin and race is our unresolved issue. The prophetic witness of the black church has been brilliantly and bravely exhibited in the message and ministries of those who believe their vertical connection with God gives one power to confront and conquer the horizontal hell of this nation’s briar patches. Prophetic witness does not begin with the text and title of a Sunday sermon but when the minister moves the community to respond to critical social issues. The sermon, then, is no echo in a valley, but a message relating to the collective experiences of suffering people and reveals God’s love in the midst.
Fox’s freedom comes from his ability to negotiate what was intended to destroy him. And Rabbit is victorious by transforming evil into good. The prophetic witness of the black church has energized people to be victorious in their ongoing fight to be free.
This witness has also energized a faith community in the “briar patch” of crises to take what was meant for evil and transform it into good.
The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. has been lynched daily in a media that has taken his texts out of context to “Willie Hortonize” him. But what was meant for evil has been transformed to good and has energized a community to stand against injustice in all its forms. This media crucifixion has provided a resurrection platform for his phenomenal prophetic witness to awaken this nation to the plight of those who are still tragically caught in the “briar patch.” The black church will emerge stronger and our prophetic witness will be even greater because we were “bawn en bred in the briar patch.”
Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III is pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas.
