Are Black People Capable of Turning The Other Cheek Anymore?
Racial idolatry is going to keep a lot of people out of heaven.
It keeps people from staying obedient to Christ, making His word malleable to the whims of modern culture. The Bible, then, becomes a book of suggestions, and church services become something akin to TED Talks. If someone didn’t like a sermon preached by a white pastor, they search for a black pastor who tickles their ear and affirms their beliefs. When following Scripture becomes optional instead of mandatory, the result is a society full of bruised faces.
Case in point. The Root, a racially charged online magazine, published an article by Phenix Halley titled, “Why Black Folks Are Always Expected to Extend Grace When No One Else Will.” She argues that black people are always expected to forgive their enemies, even in the face of racism.
Halley sets up the piece by introducing the incident at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards. A white man with Tourette’s Syndrome yelled the “Nigger” when actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage.
Delroy Lindo says him and Michael B. Jordan did “what we had to do” to continue presenting at the BAFTAs after John Davidson shouted the N-word in an involuntary tic.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) February 23, 2026
He said he wishes “someone from BAFTA spoke to us afterwards.”
(Source: https://t.co/CetXlW2PDv) pic.twitter.com/QM425fPt2M
“It’s just the latest example of Black folks being expected to forgive in the face of racism,” writes Halley.
“Black folks having to extend grace or what’s been known as ‘turning the other cheek’ dates all the way back to — surprise, surprise — chattel slavery. But the exact phrase gets its origins from the Christian Bible.”
Surprise, surprise. Another black person who thinks history began with American chattel slavery.
Halley continues: “’Matthew 5:39’ is repeatedly referenced throughout history, but it’s often misunderstood as a passive submission. In truth, offering the other cheek was giving the aggressor another chance to treat the other as an equal, not to take the disrespect sitting down.”
“But during American slavery, the phrase — like several other excerpts from the Bible — were perverted in order to defend violence against enslaved Africans.”
Okay, so let’s separate fact from fiction.
She talks of grace like it’s a burden. Extending grace is not a burden black people or any person of any color carry. Grace is a command from our Commander. We all fall short of His glory, yet he continues to extend His grace to us. Extending grace is the least we can do to honor Christ, who died on the cross because of our sinful ways.
Grace is not a black thing or a white thing. It’s a Christian thing.
It’s telling that Phenix herself does not offer any grace for a man with an obvious neurological disorder. Tourette’s syndrome can cause repetitive, involuntary movements and sudden outbursts of words or sounds, including offensive language. The man was clearly not in full control of his faculties. Yet when racial animus clouds moral judgment, extending grace to someone of a different skin color can seem harder than mastering quantum physics. I have a hunch that if the races were reversed—if a black man with Tourette’s yelled “Cracker” at a couple of white guys, or “Kike” to a couple of Jews—the premise of her article would have been entirely different.
Halley suggests that Matthew 5:39 is often misunderstood: “But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. (NKJV)” She is correct that Scripture can be twisted, manipulated, or misunderstood. People have distorted the Bible to justify everything from unlawful immigration to slaveholding.
Also, she is not entirely wrong in saying that offering the other cheek gave aggressors another opportunity to act accordingly.
Jesus was not a passive man. So he wouldn’t instruct His followers to passivity, either. Matthew 5:39 is a lesson in what we might call civil disobedience.
The principle of “eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” lex talionis, was not applied in a blunt, literal manner in Jesus’ day. Gouging someone’s eye out or chopping off their hand could possibly kill them. The only rule to be taken literally was life for life. If someone committed murder (remember, murder starts in the heart; it’s always premeditated), their life was to be taken. “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed” (Genesis 9:6). Lex talionis, the law of equal retaliation, is the ultimate statement of human equality.
A slap on the right cheek did not call for physical retaliation. Sounds crazy, right? In a predominantly right-handed society, a man slapping another on the right cheek likely meant it was a backhanded slap, which was considered a humiliating insult rather than a physical attack. In layman’s terms, a backhanded slap to the face is equivalent to a “Yo Mama” joke today.
Think about how often Jesus was insulted. He was called a glutton, a madman, a blasphemer, an illegitimate child, and so on. Had Christ been throwing hands every time he was insulted, he would have been in more fights than Floyd Mayweather. Instead, Jesus flipped tables, cracked whips, and spoke blistering sermons to the religious elite. He never violently attacked his adversaries.
The Root article features a TikTok video of Malcolm X. It’s a clip from a 1963 interview with journalist Louis Lomax. This is pre-Mecca Malcolm X, of course. Liberal race idolaters want to ignore the Malcolm X who discovered that people of all colors can live in harmony.
X says in the clip, “That Christianity has given Negroes in this country, that makes us almost incapable of solving our own problems. The black man in this country has a different religious concept when he’s a Christian than the white man has. If you notice, the black man is the only one who will turn the other cheek to his enemy. Or who will love his enemy. Or will pray for those who spitefully use him just because he thinks that’s what Jesus wants him to do. Now, the white man preaches the same thing, but he doesn’t practice it.”
Malcolm X was not a Christian, but that is exactly what the Christian message is: pray for our enemies and let God handle the rest.
Halley finishes the piece by highlighting Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement. She says the “nonviolence is the answer” method worked in the 1950s and 60s, but it is ineffective for the current moment. Turn the other cheek is an unfair expectation for blacks today.
So leaning into God was good enough in the ‘50s, but not in 2026?
She hit the nail on the head, but not in the way she intended. The racially charged pride she is exhibiting is the very reason so many American blacks appear to be spinning their wheels in 2026. She, and many others like her, have convinced themselves that we have somehow moved beyond the authority of Scripture.
God’s commands do not progress with the times, nor retreat because others have failed to uphold them. When we claim to have outgrown biblical truth, we are elevating ourselves above it. And no tribe, no culture, no ethnicity has been granted that authority.
That command does not bend to melanin or majority. If white Christians have failed to practice what they preach, that is sin. If black Christians refuse obedience because others disobeyed first, that too is sin. Too many black people follow white people instead of following Jesus. Christ is not asking us to mirror the world, but to mirror the Kingdom.
I’ve read through a few of Phenix Halley’s articles. She is passionate, though deeply mistaken in many of her conclusions. Imagine if that passion were directed toward Christ instead of race and identity politics. Right now, she feels as if the world will heal only when all white people have been slapped across the face.
Hopefully, one day, black people en masse realize that the Kingdom of God is available to them.
Written by Vincent Williams
He is a former Music Director at Windy City Underground radio, on-air talent at Logik Radio, as well as board operator, sound engineer and videographer. Writing has always been an integral part of Vincent's life. He is a life-long Chicagoland resident, a pro wrestling fan, a zodiac Cancer and lover of anything mint flavored.
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