THE DEVIL’S PIE: A TRIBUTE TO D’ANGELO

Fuck the slice we want the pie
Why ask why till we fry
Watch us all stand in line
For a slice of the devil's pie

This was an unplanned post today. But I felt compelled to write and share these thoughts today in honor of the life and music of D’Angelo. It is not accident to me that on the day he died, it also came out that a group of Young Republicans made it clear that they hate Black people and want to reinstitute American Slavery (among other atrocities). I am hoping that we are finally ready as a nation to be honest that at least half of America feels this way. But I digress.

Like many African Americans, I loved D’Angelo the MOMENT I heard “Brown Sugar.” For my generation, that kind of song expresses the beauty of the Black body, Black sexuality and how we love only comes along a few times a generation. Songs like “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye. D’Angelo was ascending that lyrical stratosphere. But it goes even deeper for me. Many people don’t know these things about me. But my entire educational journey from grade school to high school, college, seminary, and my doctoral program was deeply marked by white racism. In seminary I endured being asked in front of my peers if English was my first language in my preaching class. When I confronted her about the racism behind her words, she hid behind her experience working in indigenous communities of color giving her authority to ask such questions. I had an Old Testament professor who repeatedly failed my biblical analysis papers, did not meet with me to discuss what she felt I was doing wrong, and ultimately caused me to lose my scholarship. Both professors were white women and were eventually given permanent, distinguished positions at that school. Black seminary students also discovered that the dormitory rooms they were assigned were the slave quarters Southern white seminarians dragged their slaves into, to serve their seminarian owners as they did the Lord’s Work. The racism, past and present, was crushing.

Enter D’Angelo! I took this class on the Book of Revelation taught by one of the seminary’s few African American bible scholars. The way he taught the class was that Revelation should be seen as a work of art meant to inspire Christians to hold fast to their faith and resist the temptations of empire—the very thing Jesus himself did. That to take up the Cross and bear witness to faith in Christ will inevitably put you at odds with any government or empire that claims to be the ultimate authority of life and death. Revelation makes it clear that those are the providences of God alone and that God is in control, not the government. It sounds Evangelical, but it is not. Most American Evangelicals align themselves uncritically with the government and lose their prophetic voice. My professor made it clear that witness and resistance is the CORE of Christian faith.

Part of his emphasis on the class was encouraging us to make use of multimedia and social media tools for our papers and projects. I took to this with gusto! I quickly discovered media and social media as a tool and, frankly, a weapon to combat oppression. I learned how to use movie-making software and made a short film analyzing D’Angelo’s song “Devil’s Pie” alongside the Book of Revelation. This project lit a fire inside my bones, and it gave a means of expression and unveiling of the oppression Black students in particular faced.

What followed that class was a year-long documentary project with a dear white friend and colleague. We interviewed such theological heavyweights as James Cone, Mark Lewis Taylor, and Peter Paris. We researched at the local historical society to unveil statistics of slave-property brought to the area. We interviewed historic African American churches in the vicinity of the seminary that had an alternative memory and recollection of those times and how they ministered to the enslaved. We surveyed the seminary lunchroom and the chasm of perspective between white and of-color students regarding who sat with whom and why. We also centered the voices of Black Women students. Our goal was to show the institution that not having Womanist theologians in residence, who at the time were the most innovative thinkers across academia, was a perpetuation of the systemic racism deep in the soil of the “most southern seminary of the North.” We even got the then-president of the seminary in the documentary! That interview was very telling of many things that I was shocked he said on video. When we finished, we invited the entire community to come out for a screening of the project. When it finished, you could hear a pin drop. We had captured the depth of the systemic racism that religious institution perpetuated. All because of a song by D’Angelo.

As I noted at the beginning of this post, my battles in academia were far from over. But back then, I learned how to transmute systems and energies of oppression and use their own tools against them to reveal them and raise consciousness. That’s what a song like “Devil’s Pie” is about. To make us aware of the ridiculousness of the slice of pie we are constantly asked, manipulated, or otherwise forced to be okay with. I have had more than a few well-meaning but racist white individuals say to my face that the only way to move forward in this country from our race problem is to stop talking about it. At least they are finally admitting there IS a race problem! Those who believe this do not understand the depth of their white privilege thinking that it is a realistic option for any person of color. The other problem for me is that I have a long memory and don’t forget anything.

I can’t.

I can’t forget the death by a thousand cuts I have felt over the years from systemic racism.

I can’t forget the ongoing, daily reminders that I am Black and less-than in the eyes of half my own country.

Forgetting is death for me.

I believe in these out-of-joint times that the arts will be our salvation. It will be our way back. Why do you think the first thing the current federal administration did was take over all modes of artistic expression that is funded by our government? They know how threatening and usurptive artistic expression and creativity are. It is music like Devil’s Pie that keeps me going. That reminds me I’m not crazy. That brings me to say: fuck the slice.

I hope you throw out the slice too.