It takes self-control to resist the temptation of ego politics and dependence on humanity. But it’s worth it

Character. I’ve been thinking about that word lately, especially since Monday is the day we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. It was also the day of the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Not a day goes by when someone does not quote the words of the Lord, perhaps the most famous, not to judge a person by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. However, do we really get used to seeing the character these days?

I say practice because it is a skill. It takes no skill to claim ownership of immutable symbols. All one has to do is enter into the politics of that personality and talk about pre-approved speeches. It also doesn’t require the ability to make snap judgments based on someone’s fixed characteristics. This requires nothing less than ignoring the personality of the person in front of you and sticking to them with all the stereotypes that come with that particular personality.

Too often we see this type of behavior in the cesspool of social media and our so-called thought leaders sitting behind the podcast microphone stirring up outrage to line their pockets with click-bait money. The strange thing is that many of them tell us to see morality but they do the opposite.

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Seeing a person’s character does not make money.

Even I have been asked by others to see the color first. While I was on the roof fundraising for my community center, we heard how a white neighborhood in North Chicago had to hire security guards after the George Floyd protests because the violence continued.

As we were getting ready to film that story on Fox, several people came up to me and insisted that we should talk about white people finally hearing the violence that plagued our neighborhood. I resisted completely. This was not racial to me. This was about the declining standard of living in our city. I left the race out of it and produced what I believed to be the best and most insightful story.

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It takes self-restraint to resist the temptation of ego politics and to dig deep into one’s character or the character of a society at a particular time. When one does so, one often arrives at a deeper and deeper explanation that is closer to the truth. This should not be surprising because after all, morality is a human reality.

We live in the United States of America and that should mean something. If I learned anything from Silo and his long struggle for human rights, it was a lesson in fighting to be a man, an individual. Those of his soldiers used to carry signs that said, “I am human.” That is the essence of our struggle and what has been denied under centuries of brutal oppression.

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So why would I betray the Lord for the quick gratification of the low level of playing identity politics? I have disciplined myself to walk the path of morality and that choice has brought me many fruits.

Today I am in the middle of building a $45 million community center where our focus and the foundation of everything we do will be ethics. My neighborhood may be predominantly Black but we are raising men and women of character and I hope they will be successful enough that their names will mean something to you one day.

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