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>> 159 5 The Bible Is Full of Prophecies Black Evangelical Musicians and Black Politics I have up to this point examined how the routine practices of different styles of black gospel music shape practitioners’ ideas about blackness. In so doing, I have limited myself to ideas about identity, history, and theology , steering clear, for the time being, of how such ideas translate into plans for the public sphere. The time has come to consider such plans, what one might call politics. What political views are embedded in the musical styles I have examined? To what extent and in what ways do these styles foment ideas for public action about black rights, grievances, needs, and justice? To address these questions, I asked my informants to comment on whether they believed they as Christians or their churches had any responsibility to address matters of concern to black people, and if so, what might such responsibilities entail? While I followed whatever path my informants opened in response to these questions, I frequently primed the 160 > 161 What, then, are some practical implications of this consciousness? Certainly it has led some gospel rappers to become involved in secular projects of nongovernmental organizations, intended to help the youth of the periphery avoid gangs, gain marketable skills, and develop self-esteem. As Derek Pardue found in his studies of secular rappers in São Paulo (2004a, 2004b, 2005, 2008), gospel rappers see their mission as including what they call the “fifth element” of hip hop: o social (the social). I discovered that numerous gospel rappers were involved in popular educational programs supported by the municipal government. What is notable in this action is its dedication to poor youth, of all colors, in a place—the periphery —inhabited by people of all colors. The projects included little explicitly black-oriented collective action. Gospel rappers’ motives for getting involved were nicely summarized by Elizeu, lead MC for the gospel rap group Profetas do Apocalipse: We who take this step, who can write and be the voice for others, we who read a bit more and study, we have a responsibility. A responsibility: we need to help show our brothers and sisters in the periferia that there are many ways out of this hell. Of course, the most important one is Christ. But not everyone is converted, and even the brother in Christ needs opportunities! So that is why Profetas do Apocalipse participates in these programs. When the city comes here and says they need volunteers, we volunteer! We sometimes get paid, too. But when it came to bringing collective black projects into church, gospel rappers were more circumspect. Consider the idea of a black church. On the positive side, several gospel rappers said they sympathized with such a project’s ability to help an oppressed minority develop self-esteem in a racist society. I heard this view, for example, from Lito Atalaia, a gospel rapper who belonged to the Mintre church. “You know,” he said, “I am sympathetic. I am. I am a hip hopper, and hip hop is all about standing up against injustice, right? I think that if we formed a black church, this is a kind of self-defense. . . . Whites don’t need this kind of defense; blacks do.” Yet in the end, he could not quite swallow the idea, out of concern that such a church could slip into racial exclusivity. Listen to Lito’s subsequent reflection: “Well, I’m not so sure how I feel about this, as I think about it. Because you know, if the church gets together just for the color thing, then 162 > 163 place that needs to take this up, to be responsible to society. So I think that the church would be a good place to sponsor debates about racism, what is happening like that. But we shouldn’t limit these discussions. We can’t just talk about racism—we need to get the church to deal with all the challenges that we face in the periphery.” Gospel rappers were even more ambivalent about the search for blacks in the Bible. Such a project struck some of them as potentially worthwhile: after all, the goal of achieving more learning resonated with their ethos of “study,” and the idea of discovering blacks in the Bible resonated with their desire to help nurture young people’s self-esteem. Yet they could not see themselves taking a leadership role in any such project. “I guess that I just don’t...

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