We have such misguided ideas about what unity is, what it looks like, how it works. Unity comes from the idea of a unit, and units have many moving parts—not the exact same parts, but many different equally important parts that allow a thing to work effectively. A successful civilization works because there are many members who make up the body (I Corinthians 12).

Black people are NOT a monolith, but we CAN be a successful collective. First, we must honor the differences among us of experience, upbringing, gifts, talents, and perspectives. We must be willing to bear each other’s infirmities—not just the visible ones like poverty and perceived social inadequacies like stripping and drug dealing, but also greed, fear based living, insecurities as it relates to being black, jealousy/envy, and this idea that we are better than others because we’ve arrived at what someone else has said to be respectable. Understand that we all have faults, we all have need of a loving Savior and a guiding Holy Spirit and a good Heavenly Father no matter how wealthy or well educated we might be.

When we value the person who needs assistance as much as we value the person who needs none? When most of us understand and appreciate who we are and how we fit into and benefit the community? Then we will achieve unity. As Jesus prayed in John 17: I pray that we all be one-unified, as Jesus is in the Father and the Father in Jesus.