When Michael hung his brother JJ’s Black Jesus portrait in Evan’s home, their mother Florida was livid — until the household experienced a run of good luck. Of course, that was a sitcom, but the picture has real-life implications.
Artist Ernie Barnes created the artwork of Black Jesus that appeared in the show’s second episode, and it sparked a controversial discussion. Today, Black Jesus still invites discussion, but unlike Black Jesus’ debut on “Good Times,” it doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not Jesus was Black.
Black Jesus is about superstition and Black citizenship’s ties to it. Superstitions, old wives' tales, and other belief systems exist in all cultures, but during Reconstruction, the beliefs of Black people were made into a racial trait. This racialized view was used to deny Black people full citizenship.
Our belief in luck was distorted to paint us as illiterate, unintelligent, and childlike, even though those perceived traits were no problem when it came to exploiting our labor, stealing our artifacts, terrorizing us, or whitewashing our history.
Mainstream sentiment about our worthiness for the freedoms and responsibilities of citizenship still existed in the 1970s and continues today. Even if we all had our own portraits of Black Jesus, one fact still remains—no amount of luck will win our liberation. We must fight for it.