Embracing Kingdom Culture: Moving Beyond Ethnicity Debates to Foster Unity and Understanding

Aaron Thomas confronts racial misconceptions and emphasizes the importance of self-acceptance and unity. He advocates for open dialogue about identity and encourages listeners to embrace their authentic selves while challenging societal stereotypes. 
• Misconceptions about Black identity and humanity 
• Personal struggles with proving worth in a racially charged society 
• The need for deeper conversations around race and humanity 
• Critical insights on DEI and systemic barriers faced by marginalized communities 
• Encouragement to live authentically and embrace one’s identity 
• The role of confrontation in fostering understanding and growth 
• A message of hope, resilience, and love for oneself and others

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You're listening to Excellence Above Talent, a podcast where we have the hard conversations about the lives of men and what leads us to achieve greatness and suffer defeat. Hear from other men's journeys as well, as we all learn and grow together to become inspirations to ourselves and those around us. And now your host, Aaron Thomas.

Speaker 2: 0:33

What's up, my beautiful people? Aaron Thomas, with excellence above talent, shout out to my big sister, erica, for allowing God to use her and posting something on Facebook that resonated with me and she posted verbatim unpopular opinion. Stop writing dissertations and long rambling posts trying to get people to see your point of view, particularly as it relates to ethnicity. All of us are God's creation, but not all of us are God's children. Some of these folks you're arguing with are destined for hell. Save your breath. This isn't a color issue. It's a sin issue, a heart issue. You cannot litigate sin. Furthermore, screw culture. The only culture those of us who belong to Christ should be repping is kingdom culture. Lastly, what does the book say? The good book, genesis 2 and 7. The Lord, god, formed the human from the topil of the fertile land and blew life breath into his nostrils. The human became, the human came to life. What color is topsoil? What color is dust? Stop arguing with folks who don't even read the Bible. If they did, they would know the truth. Jesus said in John 8, 32, in John 8, 32, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Be free.

Speaker 2: 2:08

So the last couple of months I have been struggling with trying to prove to people that black people aren't as bad as they make them out to be. We are not savages, we are not monkeys or gorillas, we are not people who are less than. I've really been having a hard time struggling with people and their thought process and their way of thinking and I thought it was my job to try to show others so that the next generation my nieces, my nephew they don't struggle as hard as I did. When it comes to race and we talk about it and people don't like to talk about it, but it's something that some struggle and others don't struggle with it and it's, I guess, frustration, because no one challenges what's real and what's not real. No one have conversations with cultures or race or try to find understanding as to why they feel or why they do the things that they do. It's just a lot easier to have one person of a different culture or race piss you off and then you make the assumption that that's who all those people are.

Speaker 2: 3:37

So there's just been this battle of trying to prove to people that we are kind, we are loving, we are just. We want the same for our family that anyone would want for their family. We want to be the best that we can be. We strive to be the best that we can be. We're motivated, we're intentional, we try to be open and allow other cultures and other people to experience the culture of what Black America is.

Speaker 2: 4:12

And people do love the culture of Black America, but they don't particularly like the people. They're so far gone in their stereotypes of black people that they can't see beyond chicken finger licking, chicken watermelon, black love in their heart that fights, that will fight and die for their family, that loves America, that doesn't want to create problems or issues but just want to be included, not looked down upon, not questioned as to if this person is qualified. So I've had issues and they're draining because people won't see you unless they want to see you. You can be kind, you can be nice, you can give the shirt off your back to someone and they still will call you names. They still will believe in their stereotypes. They still will look down upon you because of a different culture or different race or different status in society. And I love the fact that God didn't make us white, black, like brown, yellow, green. He didn't make us so that we could hate each other because of how we look. He made us because we can motivate and inspire each other to be better human beings. Top soil dust that is the creation of us human, and we have turned color and status into something that is inferior or superior, versus just loving and helping and being kind.

Speaker 2: 6:16

I am a very confrontational guy. I don't run from conflict because I know conflict is needed in order to be better as a person, or conflict is needed in order to help teach someone. This isn't how you're going to speak to me, but in this process of confrontation with me, I wanted to take a step back and try to show not be confrontational, but to show people that black people aren't as bad as they think they are. But in this process of trying to prove or show or defend myself, I have made myself a weaker vessel or a weaker man in the process, because there is a quote by Lisa Nichols that is one of my favorite quotes and she says do not hide, protect, defend or prove who you are to anyone. Just show up and if they can't accept you, like you or love you for who you are, it has nothing to do with you. And I sometimes get so wrapped up in these conversations that I know, aren't? They're backhanded conversations, they're talking about something, but they're using words to cover up what it is that they're really talking about.

Speaker 2: 7:37

There was this issue with DEI, or affirmative action, and instead of just saying I don't think black people are smart enough to be pilots, or I don't think they're smart enough to be lawyers or doctors, or they just kind of use the the word DEI and are they qualified, when, as a black person, you have to work twice as hard in order to show others that you are qualified? So when we come into the room, we've already thought of 50 different scenarios, because we know we have to be on our A-game 24-7. We don't get to mess up, we don't get to have bad days, we have to show up and we have to be on, because there's this mentality of you got here because you didn't deserve it, but they're just giving you things, and there's not a whole lot of things that people are giving black people. Let's just freaking. Be honest. We're not giving anything. We have to work our butts off for everything.

Speaker 2: 8:38

So there was this frustration or anger, and instead of being who God called me to be a black man in America and loving every bit of it and walking away from people who can only see color, can only make jokes, can only look down and try to make themselves feel good by trying to destroy someone's culture. Instead of walking away and being confrontational in that way, I tried to just accept and love and tried to show them that that's not who we are as people. It made me weak as a man. When I say confrontation, I'm not saying I'm trying to fight people. I'm not saying I'm trying to fight people.

Speaker 2: 9:27

Confrontation means having conversations and not allowing people to talk down or discourage you. Confrontation is walking away when you're trying to have conversations with those people and they have no intentions of listening to what you have to say. You don't have to force and you can't force people to see you all of you, the good, the bad, the color, the gender, all of you. And if you have to try to make people see who you are, those aren't the people that you need in your life. So you walk away.

Speaker 2: 9:58

You don't have to put yourself in situations where you're thinking, thinking damn, this is all this person thinks of me. There is no deep conversations, it's all jokes. It's all jokes about my color and instead of trying to make people see that being black is beautiful, just like being brown, hispanic, mexican, being white it's beautiful. We get to wake up every day and make choices and decisions that determine the way our life is going to be. We live in the greatest, if not one of the greatest countries in the world, regardless of who you think is president and who's running the country, I don't care who the president is still live in one of the greatest country in the world, countries in the world, and what I should be teaching my nephews and the young men that are in my life that are black is to embrace who you are, not to prove, defend or protect the person that God made you out to be.

Speaker 2: 11:04

There's a saying that my mom always said when I was young that I didn't get until I was older of you have to play the part when you get into the room that you have to, and what I got from it was that you sometimes have to diminish your blackness when you get into a room just so that you won't scare people. But I'm starting to realize or I have realized that minimizing or diminishing what you had no control over is a slap in the face to God, because he knew who he was making and what he was making when he made you. He knew you was going to have brown skin, big old nose, full lips, and he molded you and made you with pride, joy on his face when he saw you. I don't want to be a person, a man or a black man in this society that's afraid to live their truth. That's afraid to live their truth, regardless of how contentious, how evil or disrespectful people can be because they assume they have power. I will still show up in the room and I will not hide, protect, defend or prove myself to anyone because I know and God knows and the people around you that see you knows who you are and you can't get caught up in what the world is saying. Right or wrong, good or bad, black or white, red or blue. You can't get caught up in what the world is saying because I went to a church here in Odessa pretty big church church and the pastor got in the pulpit and said if you vote one way, you're going to hell and if you vote another way, you got a good chance of going to heaven. And it blew my mind that we are in this place where picking and choosing who you vote for can send you to heaven or hell. Picking and choosing how you treat people in their minds will send you to heaven or hell.

Speaker 2: 13:07

And you have to remember people knew slavery was bad. They knew it was bad. That's why they took things out of the Bible and tried to diminish it. That's why they went to war over it, because it was never about slavery. It was never about trying to hold black people down. It was if they go away, how will I get money?

Speaker 2: 13:31

And when it's all said and done and when you boil it down to what's really going on and why things are the way they are, it's how much money can I put in my pocket? How much money can I take from other people and put in my pocket? How can I cause chaos, destruction? How can I pit races against races, gender against genders? How can I pit these? How can I pit them all together, keep them so blind that they don't care about what's right or wrong. They care about their side. They care about proving to people why they are the greatest or the best.

Speaker 2: 14:08

And I was in that. I was in that rat race For a little bit, but I think I'm bowing out and I'm just going back to. I'm bowing out and I'm just going back to AA Ron Triple T train track, thomas, if you know, you know, oh God, I done some dumb stuff back in my day. Just going back to the basics, who? I am not being afraid, not running from me, being a black man living in America, trying to inspire and motivate and create change for myself and for this next generation of young boys and men and not just black young boys and men, all men, because we all need help in expressing feelings and emotions. It's healthy, something that needs to be done with no fear of being called names and being looked down upon, because, at the end of the day, we need each other, because no one can do it alone, no one can do it by themselves. So if anyone hasn't told you today that they love you, let me be the first to say I love you. You're awesome.

Speaker 1: 15:14

You're amazing you deserve the best that this world has to offer.

Speaker 2: 15:18

Do not give up, do not quit. The world does not get easier, but you will get stronger. Y'all have a blessed day and a great weekend. Bye-bye.

Speaker 1: 15:27

Thank you for listening. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode and for daily motivational and up-to-date content. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Excellence Above Talent. And remember keep moving forward, never give up and you are never alone in this battle. We'll see you next time, thank you.