A joke about building a mosque in Lofton County, VA can get you in trouble.
Thomas Stepforth and his elder brother Amir Kofi X had been walking through Big Loft,VA, the county seat, and discussing all that Black people, delayed 10 years into civil rights in the county, were doing and building. Amir was a Black Muslim, and had kidded his brother that he had seen everything but a mosque – would the investment consortium Thomas was in be willing to spot the Black Muslim community a zero-interest loan to build a mosque?
Now what did he say that for? A white man near his age nearly had a stroke, already eavesdropping suspiciously on these two well-dressed Black men who were taking up too much of the sidewalk. Eh instantly recalled the days when Black men had to step off into the street when White men were coming, and the failure to do so was punishable by death.
“We never shoulda let you n*****rs get loose from us – now you want to practice your devil terror religion down here? We shoulda killed you all 'fore we ever let you loose!”
He said much more than that, and a little crowd built … but it so happened in Big Loft that the city's population was just about evenly split, and Black men and even some of the women stayed ready … Amir himself was armed, as was his brother, as were most of the Black people who calmly, confidently came to the scene.
Amir and Thomas stood straight and tall under the blast, and then Amir stepped in front of his baby brother.
“You've got more to lose,” he said. “I'm 78. Let me address this, since I made the comment – hey, y'all, I was making a joke to my brother, not suggesting the actual building of a mosque.”
That settled things down, and then Amir dropped the mike.
“The way you good white Christians burned down the Gilligan House and three of this city's richest neighborhoods last year, I'd say you don't need another devil terror religion down here.”
By this time, Thomas had gotten his car started, into which Amir stepped; they drove right out of the scene and the crowd dispersed.
Amir was quiet for a long time.
“I never thought I'd see Black people show up ready to back each other up like that, either,” he said.
“That's your Christian nephew, Major Thomas Stepforth Jr., at work, organizing his fellow military men and women to give training to everybody in the community, in addition to starting the Deacons of Defense 2.0.”
Amir thought about it, and then sighed.
“Dad never would argue with me about white devils; he always said about it, 'Devil is what devil does,' and we had honest conversations about the racism here. But he also said that someday I would see that Christ was not weak, and neither were those Black people who followed Him.”
Amir paused.
“I've seen it, today, Thomas, on a level that I needed to experience it.”
Thomas was careful not to say anything, remembering something his father had said: “Stop talkin' where your words cain't do nothin' no way. Ev'ry man got to reckon with God – Who He be, What He want, how He say it got to be done – for himself. You see God and man reckonin'? Act like you got dis here home trainin', and don't interrupt.”
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