Unlocking Dr. King's Secrets: The Power of Authenticity ( NAACP Vallejo 2023 MLK Day)

Amen. I told you the wrong one. Amen. Listen, it's an honor to be here with all of you this afternoon and to engage in King. To those of you in person, those of you online, it's an honor to be together with you. My name is Justin. I'm privileged to serve here at Friendship Baptist Church, to President Akeem and to the entire board and to all of you here at the chapter, those of you online as well, I'm grateful and thank you for this space, to even introduce myself to Vallejo. Grateful for this opportunity and to Talk, talk about Dr. King this year. I always get troubled and I get a little weird when it comes to Dr. King's birthday. Nothing bad about it. I recently finished reading a book called the Good Ancestor. And what the Good Ancestor talked about was how it's this notion called futures theory where we must see ourselves as the ancestors. That as much as we honor the ancestors in our black and brown communities, how important it is for us to see ourselves as the becoming ancestors, the legacies that we're leaving. And so, with that being said, you heard my degrees and my background. King went to Morehouse, and I'm privileged that one of the schools that he got his doctorate from, I got my doctorate from, too, which was Boston University. And the reason that people went to Boston University School of Theology was because it was the school that Dr. King went to, to tell you the truth. You walk on BU's campus and I'll have a picture that comes up on the screen in a second. You walk on BU's campus and there's this massive statue, and you'll see how strong, tall it is in a second. There's this massive statue of Dr. King. So I'm six five. That tells you how big this flame is. In the middle of this really, really, really, really white Boston and downtown, the middle of really extremely white Boston, racist Boston, is about a 10, 15 foot statue of Dr. King, a flame that lasts forever in the center of its community. Right when you. Thank you. Right when you pull up to BU, it's this massive statue of Dr. King in remembrance of Dr. King. And so it was super cool to go there to see all the work. There's scholarships, there's buildings, there's streets named after Dr. King. And so we went into the library to learn more and to do some things for our dissertation. As you walk in the library, there's a massive bust, a statue, another statue of Dr. King himself. And you see this statue, and in front of the statue, in front of the bus Sorry. Is a copy of, of Dr. King's dissertation. And I remember going in there, we saw this and how amazing it was. Like we are literally seeing history. We're on the same space. We're walking the halls. The chapel where he spoke at with Howard Thurman and Benjamin Mays was here. It was so awesome to be in the annals of those hallways. So then we go sit down with the librarian and librarian began to talk to us about our dissertations. And they began to talk about structuring your time. Well and one thing they got to was do not plagiarize in your dissertation. They were telling us you're going to be on EBSCOhost, you're going to be online, your stuff is going to be sent out to all these people. People can reference your work after you finish your dissertation. So the one thing we don't want you to do is cheat. Don't plagiarize, don't copy somebody else's work on your dissertation. And then they begin to list off the different alumni who did plagiarize in the dissertation. And one of the most surprising names that came up and they showed us and there's actually an addendum on the front of his dissertation and is that Dr. King took about 60 some odd of his dissertation from another student he was teaching three years earlier. And I'm sitting here getting thrown back like hold on, Dr. King of all the people in the world, don't tell me that our Jesus in the black communities had a moment to sit there and cheat. And 60 some percent of his dissertation wasn't his. Then I come to find out that I have a dream speech. That big part of I have a dream. He copied the sermon of Prathia hall that it wasn't even his own speech. It was the sermon of a woman who was preaching in 1962 at a convention. And he copied her sermon. Then I come to learn more about. A lot of the letters and the things that King did were not King's own. He copied from somebody else. And my mind was warped because I'm sitting here like this man we venerated. There's. There's scholarships, there's streets, there's days, there's weeks, there's months, there's moments, there's schools, there's people who are naming their children after this person who plagiarized, who copied other people who committed adultery over and over and over. And I don't mean to take anything away. I think in order to honor someone, grief and life tosses Us look at the full picture of those who we honor. And I'm sitting here like, we have really built this man up and he plagiarized. I've learned there's three reasons we plagiarize. First of all, you plagiarize because you're lazy. You know it's true. I'm a black preacher. I don't know why y' all ain't talking back to me. I said we plagiarize because we're lazy. I don't want to do the work, so because I'm lazy, I'm gonna copy somebody else's work. We plagiarize. Number two, because I see something more in somebody else than I see in myself. So I see that you're great. Like, you don't copy or cheat on a math test with somebody who's flunking the class, right? I mean, like, you don't cheat off somebody. I know none of y' all ever cheated. But for people like me who barely made it through, you didn't cheat off the dumb kids. You cheated off the smart kids, right? Because I see they're great. I see what they're doing. I see their A students. I cheated off of somebody because they're. I see greater in them than I see in myself. I cheat off somebody because I'm not confident in who I am. That what I have to offer, I don't think is enough. So I have to embellish. I have to add more to it. I have to plagiarize. And it began to make me see that this man we honor had a foundation of plagiarism. These speeches and these papers. And if this man who was plagiarizing and cheated with somebody who has a streets named after him, who has statues, known that the very school where it's the 15 foot statue in his honor has an addendum on his dissertation because he still did great work. What does that say about you? I know you're not perfect. Neither am I. I know we don't have everything together. Neither do I know everything is not perfect in my life. And neither is. It is for you. But makes me wonder if King was this great with that in his back, with that in his past. What does it say about you when we look at the offenses you have on your record? What does that say about you when you look at the status of your relationships? That great things still come from places that some could consider dysfunctional. And let me also think and consider, what if King was authentic? Like, we see how great he was? And how eventually his authenticity against the Vietnam War in 67 and 68 is the very thing that got him killed. What if, if King fully lived into himself the entirety of his life? What if King leaned into himself when he was 15 years old, going into Morehouse, didn't feel the need to copy off anybody else. What if King. What would we have really gotten from King if he leaned into himself? What dream did we not really understand with clarity because he was plagiarizing? What would happen if you were authentic? What would happen if you showed up in the rooms? What would happen if you showed up not trying to compete against what your mom said you couldn't do? What would happen if you showed up to city council meetings not because you want to tear down somebody, but because you see the best in Vallejo? What would happen if you showed up? What would happen? What streets would be named after you? What statues would be built in your honor? What legacy would you leave if you showed up as yourself? I think we live in a world. Nothing scares a world full of inauthenticity than people who are authentic. Nothing scares a world of people who are scared to be themselves, than people who are unafraid to be themselves. Nothing makes people who are insecure more insecure than those who are secure in themselves. I'm so secure in me that if you can't stand it, I love me so much that you can't make me hate me. You better get my number now. Because I know me so well that I know that if I ever were to lean into into myself I am the fulfillment of God's imagination. I am the embodiment of God's creativity. God literally broke the mold when he made me. I've got something special about me. I'm so secure in who I am that if you can't stand it, I refuse to dumb down myself to competition when I know God has called us to collaborate. I wonder what our community would look like if authentic black folks stood up and were themselves. You know why the Underground Railroad was so powerful? It's because black folk had technology white folk couldn't understand. That's why they couldn't understand why in the world we said before, I'll be a slave. I'll be buried in my grave. You know why? Because we had graves that we knew were not going to be on this side of the world, but on the other side of the world. We've always been the bright, authentic people. And what would happen if Vallejo's black community said, I am unafraid to Be black and proud. I'm unafraid to be strong. My hips are curvy because I'm powerful in my blackness. My hair is long and black because I'm happy with my blackness. I wonder who King could have been if he was authentic to himself. I wonder what Vallejo's youth will be if we weren't copying other dances we saw on TikTok. But you were. You were living at the beat of your own drum. What would our communities look like if teachers were not so trapped, so consumed with finding something negative with our young people, but we were pulling out authenticity and dreams and goals and businesses? What would happen if we didn't wait for city council meetings to complain about what they're not doing and engage with the work on a daily. I ain't scared of none of y'. All. Engage with the work on a daily basis. What would happen if you showed up? What would your home look like if you showed up? What books would come out of you if you showed up? What businesses would come out of you if you showed up? What buildings would be renovated if Valeo showed up to herself? King copied off a student he met three years earlier to write a dissertation. It makes me wonder what would happen if we stop copying culture, if we stop copying for money, if we collaborated to do the work that we're called to do, if we stop competing with one another and built what we're called to build. Years ago, I remember I was. I was serving at a church as an intern in Nashville. I'm almost finished. I'm serving as a church as an intern in Nashville. And I went to someone. I went to this church. I preached at this church. And when I finished, this woman at the church, this black sister came up to me. She said, justin, that was cute. That was nice. But you know, Eric, you ain't really got a voice for black folk like you. Talk too proper like you ain't. You know, black folk don't want to listen to you. She's like, we got this whole story, like, we don't really want to listen to you. Why don't you go to one of these white churches? And as these little white churches, you can go get your skinny jeans on and sing your CCM and you can do whatever you want because black folk ain't gonna listen to you. And I'm sitting here like, I just took out a whole bunch of student loans to study black church studies at Vanderbilt, and you come tell me that black folk don't want to listen to me. So that made me Feel terrible. Terrible. I'm sitting here like I done moved away from Milwaukee. I'm living in Nashville, and I'm not good enough for black people. Well, dang. So I go to my church. I went to my church, my pastor, my pastor. I get sat there, sat in the front pew. Pastor came time for altar call. Pastor. Pastor said, Pastor McCann and said, Justin, home preach. I pray. Altar call. And y', all, I got up there and I pray, and I said, if you ain't gonna like this little black proper voice, I' ma pray to these black folk. Like my little black proper voice. Whatever you want to call me, I'm a pray because I'm called the black. I ain't calling no white folks. I'm calling black folks. I get behind this pulpit and I pray. Oh, yeah, I pray. I prayed to my granddaddy, said, stop praying. I prayed till Jesus came down and said, but, Negro, shut up. I prayed and I finished praying. I got back in the pews, and my pastor said, justin, we gotta do a pastoral care call on Thursday. Went out to the hospital to visit a man who had gotten sick on Tuesday. He was at worship on Sunday, got sick, death, sickly, and he ended up passing away a week and a half later. He went to visit him on Thursday. And we. We went in that room, and I was feeling horrible because I was talking to Doc about man, my voice. And I'm struggling with this. I see how God is allowing me to interpret Scripture. And I felt real insecure about who I am. And I get to this hospital room, and this man who was in the hospital, he said, young man, we get there, and he's like, young man, you prayed on Sunday. I said, that's facts. Like, facts. Like, I get it. Yeah, I did pray on Sunday. No, Cap. And he was like, no, no, no, no, son. You prayed on Sunday. He said, some preachers, they just look like preachers. Some preachers, they show up and they be saying stuff, but, you know, they didn't have time with God. He said, but, young man, you have a voice. And don't you ever let somebody tell you you don't have a voice. And that man woke something up inside of me. Said, if you don't like my voice, I'm going to use this voice, because this is all God gave me. And I'm never going to be ashamed of to use a little old voice. I have. I came to encourage somebody. Don't you ever sit down on what God put inside of you. Don't you feel the need to copy somebody Else because you're insecure in your voice, I want you, Vallejo, to use your voice. Use your voice and ensure that the city manager hears you. Use your voice until the city attorney hears you. Use your voice and so city council's annoyed with you. Use your voice, your voice until pastors have to start talking to you. Use your voice until somebody tries to put you down. And when they put you down, tweet with your voice, dance with your voice, laugh with your voice because your voice is going to change because your voice is so necessary. Time out for copying and it's time in to be you. Years ago my wife asked me, she said, what do you. What's the one big goal you have? And I told her, I remember when I went to BU and I saw that massive statue. I said, my alma mater will build a statue just like this in front of a school of theology. I have a long ways to go, but I want to be a good ancestor, that people I'll never meet will be encouraged because of my authenticity. That's not just me, but that's you. What street in Vallejo is going to be renamed after you? Like what are you going to do in Vallejo? Not because so and so didn't do it, but because you can't go to bed without making sure that it's done. What sin in Vallejo is going to be eradicated because of your hands? What opportunity is going to be changed because of your presence? What relationship status, what social ill is going to be eradicated? Not because you waiting for a bill to put pass, but because you know you are so gifted to make it happen? Is someone going to look at your dissertation and say they copied somebody else? Or someone's going to look at your life dissertation and say nobody else could have done it like you. May a statue be built in your honor that somebody like me leans on because there's something powerful you left. Legacy is not what you do when you die. I legacy is what you live while you're living, what you leave while you're living. God bless and keep you.