Amazon Review: The Color of Compromise

Censored by Jemar Tisby

In July 2020, I got an email from Amazon warning about a post of mine. The email did not give any details, just that I violated their community guidelines. At first, I was like, "what the heck...I don't even post stuff on Amazon." I think I may have written two reviews on their site over the years. Then it hit me, "I bet they removed my review of Jemar Tisby's book." So I looked...

Gone.

That review had been up for a year and a half. Not only that, but it was also the top review of the book. Readers can click a "helpful" button and Amazon rates reviews by how many people click that button. And because it was the top review, it was the first review people saw. I have had quite a few people reach out to me thanking me for that review, mainly because I said what many are thinking but don't say out of fear of being called a 'racist.'

Now? Not only is it gone, but the second top-rated review stands in its place and of course, it's a five-star review.

Just more evidence that many of these race hustlers don't want a conversation. They don't want feedback.

I thought I'd archive the review here.

This book is prophetic. Lecrae's opening words in the Foreword and Jemar's first chapter warn you how awful this book gets.

It's fitting that it starts off with Lecrae telling the story of a meme he posted one 4th of July. Because that's all this book is; it's all of the usual memes you have seen on social media by race hustlers, compiled together to provide a very brief 'history' of racism in America and the church's complicity. You know the ones I'm talking about...Jonathan Edwards owned slaves...Whitefield owned slaves...people who don't want to see confederate monuments torn down are racists...people who supported Trump are racists...on and on it goes. If you've been connected to the twitter and/or facebook accounts of Lecrae, Tisby, Ameen Hudson, TGC, Chandler and the like for the past two years, you already know the content of this book.

One reviewer, Samuel Sey, praises Jemar for the "masterful" job he does in the first six chapters regarding early U.S. history, but then criticizes Jemar's handling of modern times. I totally disagree. There's nothing "masterful" about picking out a handful of historical events, simply noting that they happened, providing a quote or two from secondary sources, and then quickly moving on to the next event; all in the effort to overgeneralize about the U.S. and the church. There are obviously cases he brings up in which real racism and injustice occurred. But it's nothing we don't already know. Heck, the stuff has been thrown in our faces over and over again. Did we really need yet another book to remind us? Again, you are not going to see anything that either isn't painfully obvious or you haven't already seen in poorly done memes from the past two years.

To his credit though, Jemar warned in the first chapter that in trying to provide a fast-paced history of the U.S. and racism, he had to be highly selective and brief. Granted, any historian has to be selective. No history is comprehensive. But you can't be brief and extremely selective, not only in what you highlight, but in how you do so, virtually ignoring any and all challenges to your interpretation of events sourced from secondary works, and expect any serious student to just run with what you claim. You can't be extremely brief and generic in trying to explain, for example, the 'Civil War' and all of the factors that led to it in the previous decades. You just can't. Sorry. But Jemar not only thinks he pulled that off, he assures us in the opening chapter that there is simply no other way to understand any of these events/actions than the way he has spun them.

I didn't vote for Trump (2016), in the primary or general. And I'm still not a huge fan. Some things I like. Some things I don't. But does Jemar seriously expect me to just sit here and blindly accept his generalization about all those who did vote for him; that they are all complicit in propagating racism? Give me a break.
The book then ends with a call to action to combat racism. Here, I find the book hysterical and disturbing.

Some of the hysterical parts are like those where he recommends that we white people befriend more people of color. Yes, of course...because all people of color think alike and they all think completely the opposite of what non-POC think. haha. I have many friends 'of color' who hate these progressive, revisionist theories just as much as I do. I have 'black' friends who hate Lincoln and support Confederate monuments! Imagine that. What's wrong with these 'Uncle Toms,' am i right? What is some generic invitation to befriend more 'blacks' going to accomplish? Depending on who it is, it may actually work against Jemar. How many 'blacks' agree with his assessment? I don't know. But neither does he. Yet, he generalizes the 'races' all throughout this book.

Oh, this one was hysterical too...we need to pour more money into government education. Yes, let's continue funding the evangelistic arm of the anti-Christ. That will be a huge help to our children. Actually, that's both hysterical and disturbing.

One of the more disturbing parts of the book was the call for his freedom fighters to boycott conferences if all of the speakers are white, and to even show up at the administrative offices of seminaries and do sit-ins and the like. I'm sure that's going to go over real well. Yes...let's have a crowd of ignoramuses show up at churches and seminaries to pick fights with people they perceive to be 'racists' because Jemar told them they were racists. Let's encourage our youth to go LOOKING for racism and fights.

And yes, that is what this is. Jemar, unknowingly, acknowledges it himself. There is one particular line he says multiple times in the book..."racism does not end, it adapts." At one point toward the end of the book, he says this again while explaining that there is no "smoking gun - explicit evidence that connects the American church with overt complicity in racism" today. Hmmm...in other words, if we can't find racism, we'll create it. And then we'll gather and shout and accuse and fight.

With just a few minor changes, this book could have easily been written by any BLM activist unbeliever. There was no call to discipleship with sound, systematic doctrine. Just the opposite, with praises of James Cone and those who founded the BLM and MeToo movements. Nevermind the fact that BLM's official website EXPLICITLY REJECTS God's social order as expressed in Holy Writ. I don't think i'm overreacting by stating that none of this seems to matter to Jemar. In another place, he said it himself..."the only wrong action, is inaction."
Ummm...no. Sorry Mr. Tisby. There's this thing we call the Law of God. There are a ton of wrong actions one could take, some of which you recommend in your book. And for that, and the shoddy 'historical' analysis from secondary sources, i can't recommend this book.

But let me guess. This makes me a racist, right?