Sinners

People from the continent of Africa who have been forced to live under oppression and the colonization of empires from Europe expressed themselves musically through what is called “the blues note.” It is also referred to as the “minor key” or the “blues key.” It is not necessarily sad, sorrowful, and somber music, but it is a form of resistance.

Resistance against the forces of empires that sought to co-opt, capitulate, and accommodate the oppressed by breaking their spirit until they accepted their oppression, while the empire usurped and appropriated aspects of their culture. We see this expression of the blues note in the Psalms of the Bible, which are the hymnbook of Israel. Psalm means song. The psalms, which were created by African Jews on the continent of north east Africa (there was and is no such thing as the Middle East), contain a variety of themes, and the blues note is just one of them. Psalms like 137 “by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept…”

Psalm 42 says, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, O God…” Psalm 22, which Jesus quoted from the cross of Calvary, cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” These blues psalms/songs of the bible express a longing for a change, for deliverance and for vengeance against an oppressor. They appeal to God and complain to God from the very depths of distress, pain and hurt.

Ryan Coogler in his film “Sinners,” taps into the power of the blues note of African descended people under oppression of the white nationalistic hate in this nation when he sets his movie in the Mississippi delta region and in particular Clarksdale, MS, which has been called the home of the blues.

There is a scene where the character Sammie Moore, played by Miles Caton, plays and sings a blues song, and the very sound of his voice conjures the impact and influence of the Blues on every genre of music in the United States of America, both past and present. The scene recalls the presence of the ancestors as referenced in the biblical book of Hebrews, which calls them “a Great Cloud of Witnesses.” It is the vampires in the movie that represents white supremacy in this nation and whose desire it is to be welcomed into the Black community in order to co-opt the voice, music and power of the African spirit so that they can then use it to further their down nefarious and negating intentions of domination of other people. 

Recently, at the American Music Awards, the Black country artist Shaboozey gave a noticeable side eye to co-presenter Megan Moroney, who read from the teleprompter that the white Carter family invented country music. It was clear that Shaboozey and any student of music knows that, as Delroy Lindo’s character Delta Slim said to Sammie in Sinners, “we brought this with us from home.” And it is the blues note that Africans brought with them to these shores that birthed country music first through Black musicians, who were then copied by white musicians. 

The movie Sinners has revived the history of music, in particular the Blues, and how it impacted and birthed so many other genres on these shores. By the way, there is no original music created on these shores by Europeans. 

Yet what is often overlooked because of a Eurocentric interpretation of the bible and the religion of Jesus is that there is a direct connection between the blues note found in the Psalms of the bible and the Blues music that Black people created here in America. It was the Eurocentric puritanical need for dominance that demonized the blues, and now that same negative narrative runs through the present-day white evangelical and white nationalistic so-called Christian believers. Regrettably, far too many Black believers in Christ have been brainwashed by bad theology that demonizes Black. 

See the movie for yourself without the blinders of Eurocentric, skewed interpretations of spirituality and find strength in the ways that African musical creativity was able to resist succumbing to the will of oppressors, release the mental burden of living under threat, and reclaim the power of identity. Happy Black Music Month.

Be well, Be Authentic and Stay Woke. Uhuru Sassa!!! 

Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.” Contact the church by email at [email protected] or by phone at 219-944-0500.