Adam “AD” Thomason is the author of Permission to Be Black: My Journey with Jay-Z and Jesus and the founder of I Am Red Rev and Red Rev Media. You know I love talking about Jay-Z and Jesus. We also talk about everything from blackness to healing past trauma to debunking unhealthy narratives from evangelical culture.

 

“I am writing this book to redefine Blackness and establish a new ‘Black Card,’ so to speak. Carriers of this car will no longer be ashamed of admitting that past traumas have hurt them….Trauma isn’t just war flashbacks. It’s having to raise your siblings because you were fatherless. It’s have to raise yourself because your mother was dealing with her own crises. It’s having a father who left you and your siblings at home while he roamed the streets looking for a fix. It’s being neglected because you were raised by a single parent who dealt with their trauma in silence.” -AD Thomason, Permission to Be Black

 

Permission to Be Black

• AD reflects on how as a Black man, he felt he didn’t have the permission to heal from his past and process his humanity.
• AD opens up about how the Black experience is intertwined with the idea of endurance and surviving. Has a survivor mentality kept you from experiencing abundance?

 

Living a Life of Endurance

 

• “Marriage was the only thing that grounded me to say, ‘Adam, you can’t endure this thing. Either this thing is going to be about an imperfect joy you should have or this mentality of endurance is gonna crush you.’” -AD

 

The Problem with Avoidance

 

• “Until we’re internally motivated, then we’re not going to be free from our addictions or the shoulds and the shouldn’ts.” -Kat

 

 

Confessions of an Ex-Evangelical:

• AD’s last book was about leaving the Evangelical Church in order to find Jesus.
• AD reflects on the trauma of having to shrink himself in every way in the church.

 

• “In the end, they miss out on expanding their congregation’s mind to see the expression of God.” -AD

• “I believe Blackness is an expression of God; it’s an expression of humanity… To shun it is to shun God.” -AD

 

 

Resources

• Keep up with AD’s work at I Am Red Rev and Red Rev Media.
• Follow AD on Instagram at @redrev.
• Buy AD’s book, Permission to Be Black: My Journey with Jay-Z and Jesus.
• Check out AD’s book Confessions of an Ex-Evangelical: Why I left Christianity and started practicing Jesus.
• Check out Dawntoya Thomason’s podcast, Something to Offer.
• Research Jalen Rose and Grant Hill and see how Blackness was defined for these two men.

 

To honor Black History Month, I am spending time this month talking about companies and organizations that I love that are run and founded by Black men and women. This week, I want to share about Elevate NY, a non-profit with a mission to build long-term life-changing relationships with the youth in the South Bronx, the most underserved congressional district in the nation. Go to ElevateNewYork.org to find out how you can get involved.

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