I just finished reading a classic. I believe that "Satisfied with Nothin'" is one of the greatest works I've read dealing with the struggles of racism in our country and growing up in the south during the integration period. Ernest does a tremendous job of awakening our spirits anew to the racism that so pervaded our culture just a few short years back. However, for once I've heard the voice loud and clear that Racism should not hold anyone back from putting forth their best effort, growing in knowledge and taking responsibility and being accountable for their own actions.
Jamie Ray Griffin is a young man that struggles with wanting more out of life, while facing oppression from the demons around him. He finds a release in sports and becomes a bit of a local celebrity. He holds college offers in his hands with money flying freely, and struggles to make the correct decison. Witnessing the death of a cousin at the hands of white men bent on racial hate, he has the choice of speaking out and risking everything he has worked so hard for, or continuing to play for the highschool coach that was a participant in the murder.
The conversational style Ernest uses draws you into the culture and brought back memories for me growing up in rural Kentucky surrounded by friends and neighbors blacks and whites alike. I've worked in the inner city doing ministry in and among the poor and downcast and I've seen the faces of dejection and talked to those with lack of hope. Beyond anything else in the book I applaud Ernest for taking a stand that Racism can only be overcome by hard work, and a personal accountability to yourself and your culture...white or black. We wear our scars, but we cannot use those scars to impact the lives we lead, or the choices we make in relation to others.
From a religious perspective I appreciate the mixing of what religion truly is versus the paradigm we have created it to be in today's culture. In the culture of the book, we learn to accept what God has blessed us with, be content, and take care of ourselves. To understand that this world is not our home. In the culture of society we have used religion as a crutch to demand that God, that society owes us something. Thank God for this stirring portrayal that we live as Christians for more than temporal pleasures, but to be vessels of God's Grace and Mercy. Racism is in effect persecution, and as Christians we all face persecution, but we do not bend, we do not break we simply carry on knowing the One who IS, and IS to come!
Preston
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