Is George Floyd As Black Jesus an Abomination?

Very often, there are issues we are forced to confront that we did not know were controversial, solutions searching for a problem. One of these is the recent removal of a painting of Black Jesus—with a twist.

The painting in question is Kelly Latimore’s “Mama,” a 2020 work displayed at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. The artists decided to portray Jesus and his mother Mary as Black people with golden halos. And Jesus bears a striking resemblance to George Floyd, the Black man who was choked to death by a police officer in Minneapolis in 2020. That Black man’s death precipitated a worldwide outrage over police violence and systemic racism, with millions upon millions of people participating in protests from Minneapolis to Atlanta, from Paris to London, and from Tokyo to Tel Aviv.

Because the lynching of a Black man at the hands of an oppressive state–in broad daylight with everyone there witnessing it– has a way of changing the world, you know?

Two prints of “Mama” were stolen from Catholic University, and a petition circulated by White Christian nationalist conservative students demanded the removal of the artistic work on the grounds it is “disrespectful” and “sacrilegious.” The petition also stated is is “extremely grave” that the university “would cast another in the image of our Lord in this way, particularly for political purposes.” One student even referred to the artwork as “just another symptom of the liberalization and secularization of our campus.”

According to a resolution which passed in the student government senate, “The purpose of sacred art is not to make a political statement but to promote worship, adoration, and faith ‘in the transcendent mystery of God’.” The resolution continued, “There are other paintings and icons that do a much better job at making a genuine, good faith effort to reflect the universality of the Catholic Church that also do not divide and confuse the university and larger Catholic community.”

An icon evoking George Floyd was installed in February at the Catholic University of America, which is run by the bishops and barred Blacks during Jim Crow. Last week, the image was stolen—as details of its installation vanished from the school website (Black Catholic Messenger, December 1, 2021).

Those who would consider the depiction of George Floyd as the son of God as blasphemous must ask themselves whether George Floyd as Jesus is more offensive to them than any brother as Jesus. It probably does not matter. What is blasphemous is that the White church set the stage for the colonization, enslavement and genocide of indigenous Black and Brown people in Africa, Asia and the Americas. What is blasphemous is that institutions such as the Catholic University of America once excluded Black students, and that Georgetown University once owned slaves and operated Jesuit slave plantations to make money for the school.

Ultimately, the Catholic University incident is not merely about whether Jesus was Black, because he was, but rather about whether White Christians worship whiteness or Jesus. Outraged White students who catch the vapors over Black Jesus are telling on themselves.