All images depicting Jesus as a “white European” should be torn down because it represents a form of “white supremacy” says American writer and civil right activist Shaun King . His comments came in the backdrop of # BlackLivesMatter protests.
Yes, I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down.
They are a form of white supremacy.
Always have been.
In the Bible, when the family of Jesus wanted to hide, and blend in, guess where they went?
EGYPT!
Not Denmark.
Tear them down.
— Shaun King (@shaunking) June 22, 2020
Several violent protests have rocked the US in the wake of George Floyd’s death while in police custody late last month. King posted a series of Tweets as angry mobs continue to topple several monuments and statues of controversial historic personalities viewed as racists and colonisers.
“Yes I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down. They are a form of white supremacy. Always have been,” King tweeted. “In the Bible, when the family of Jesus wanted to hide, and blend in, guess where they went? EGYPT! Not Demark. Tear them down.”
King followed the post up with another, saying that “white Jesus is a lie” and a “tool of white supremacy” created to help white people use Christianity as a “tool of oppression. He added that white people would never have accepted a religion “from a Brown man.”
The image of a darker-skinned Jesus that appeared in a 2002 Popular Mechanics article, which scholars believe may be more accurate than those showing Jesus as a European was shared by him. He said that the image would have been intolerable for white Americans who participated in slavery.
Earliest images of Christ found in Israel shows him as a person with shorter, curly hair, a depiction that was common to the eastern region of the Byzantine empire―especially in Egypt and the Syria-Palestine region. However, it disappeared from later Byzantine art.