There is an irony in all of this talk of freedom because in many ways the slavery continued and in fact maybe it slowly enslaved a whole lot of white folks instead. There is a long road ahead of us. I found this talk by Tim Keller called Racism and Corporate Evil: A White Guy’s Perspective a very helpful take on what it means to be a people who live in community. We like to disassociate from the evils of the past or the evils south of the border but there are more complex ways of understanding this, as Keller explains.
On June 19, 1865 the Emancipation Proclamation was announced in Texas that all slaves were now free. Freedom Day, as it is also called, is a holiday that has seen a revival in the last number of years and this weekend could see some of its biggest celebrations, given the current mood in the country. It wasn’t until the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in the US constitution that slavery was officially over.
There is an irony in all of this talk of freedom because in many ways the slavery continued and in fact maybe it slowly enslaved a whole lot of white folks instead. There is a long road ahead of us. I found this talk by Tim Keller called Racism and Corporate Evil: A White Guy’s Perspective a very helpful take on what it means to be a people who live in community. We like to disassociate from the evils of the past or the evils south of the border but there are more complex ways of understanding this, as Keller explains.
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The Medicine by Dee Wilson was written for worship at Good Shepherd NYC in response to a more deadly virus that we white folks have been suffering from for some 400 hundred years, a virus whose only vaccination is love, grace, forgiveness and the very hard work of reconciliation. We are so far from crowd immunity. The only way to get that is to stay engaged at this time, to bring about structural and heart change. To humble ourselves. Let’s learn to sing this song. There’s a sickness here that threatens to divide us We’re all afraid to say its name out loud But Lord I know that you can heal us of the virus So we need You, we need You right now There’s a darkness here that’s dangerous and aggressive Getting harder everyday to shake it’s pow’r But Lord I know that you can heal us from oppression Lord we need You, we need You right now What does it mean to have compassion for another How can I claim to love a God that I can’t see If I can find the will to harm and kill my brother Cuz he neglected to look like me I can speak the words of men and songs of angels I can give all my possessions to the poor But if Your love can’t move the mountain of my hatred Somehow I missed You and I need you so much more Cuz I/we don’t know what to do So I turn my eyes to you I’ve/we’ve run out of words to say But if you come and have your way You can save me/us from myself/ourselves Before our wounds, wound someone else We need you now I know that the sheer volume of reading that is coming at all of us can be somewhat overwhelming, but my 21 Day pledge is helping me to meet a commitment to understand more deeply my own racism, the racism of our country and neighbors and to do what I can to be an agent of change. J. posted this piece by Gary Younge called Black Lives Matter & The Question of Violence . Younge is a British journalist and editor-at-large for the Guardian newspaper and author of Another Day in the Death of America, published in 2016. I found this helpful in giving a more complex and nuanced understanding of how we use the word violence and what it means in the context of the recent protests. Listen to this Good News from Professor Emeritus in Philosophy at Harvard’s Divinity School Cornel West in a conversation with Anderson Cooper on CNN’s 360. Listen, watch and weep in hope that a new day is coming. “In today’s funeral for George Floyd there was not one reference to hatred or revenge. It was all about justice.” We are on the critical knife edge of a moment in our history. Let us pay attention to the prophets like Cornel West. https://www.facebook.com/AC360/videos/568813360498745 I’ve wondered what some of the lasting impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic might be and how we would talk about it years from now, but far more important than this pandemic is the pandemic of racism. How will we talk about that years from now? What will I have done in the meantime to bring about change? What will I have done to make the world a better place for my grandchildren so that their views of race are part of a global wellness that we have so far not experienced, especially if you are a person of color? Comedian D.L. Hughley said “Obama is what we would like to be. Donald Trump is what we are.” That can and must change. Jenny and I have talked about what we can do in light of the events of the last few weeks and decided that one thing we can do now is undertake the 21- Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge . It’s not unlike signing up for an online course and committing ourselves to seeing it through. It comes with a handy chart that you can check off the various parts of the course that you have completed. We started yesterday and realize that we may need to give ourselves more than 21 Days. Might be a senior thing. Please join us and maybe at the end we can engage in some kind of discussion as to how our thinking has changed, what we have learned and what we hope to do going forward from there. Remember Robin DiAngelo’s warning that this is a work for the rest of our lives. This is painful and humbling work for most of us white folk but nevertheless important, to read this CNN interview with Robin DiAngelo On White Fragility and then to begin the hard work that she suggests is important and will likely take us the rest of our lives to do. "So many white people are asking right now is what can I do? And so I'm going to give you five tasks. The first one is to remove this claim from your vocabulary: "I'm not racist." If you are wondering why on earth, I would ask you to remove that claim then you have some education to do. The second thing is work on answering this question: What does it mean to be white? Describe how your race shaped every aspect of your life from the moment that you took your first breath. Ask yourself how being white shaped how you see yourself as unique or special or different. The third is take out a piece of paper and start to make a list in answer to this question: How have I managed to be a full functioning professional adult and not know what to do about racism? Your list might look something like this: I wasn't educated on racism. I don't talk about racism with the people in my life. I don't talk about racism with people of color. I don't really know any people of color. I haven't really cared to find out. I don't want to feel guilty. Whatever is on that list is your map and everything on that list can be addressed, not quickly, not easily, but all of it can be addressed. Next, take Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr.'s "21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge." It is active and participatory, and it will set you up on an active path that you can continue for the rest of your life. And number five, you can never understand what you need to understand about racism if you only listen to white people. Read everything you can by people of color, listen to people of color, watch their videos, get Layla Saad's "Me and White Supremacy" workbook and do the work. Turn your attention to hearing what people of color and black people have been telling us for centuries. It's liberating to start from the premise that there's no way you could have avoided internalizing a racist worldview. It's liberating to understand why you need to stop saying that you're not racist. It opens up everything on this journey. You will stop defending, deflecting, denying and putting your head in the sand. Yes, it is painful at times, but there's nothing more growth enhancing and challenging on every possible level than this journey. You will have relationships you never had before and you will be able to align what you profess you believe with the actual practice of your life." This Covid moment in our lives has created some interesting opportunities for communicating in ways that we might not have otherwise. Over the course of the last few weeks as we have celebrated a few deGroot Spring Birthdays, we have been getting together across three time zones on Zoom. The “Birthday Parties” have taken on a pattern suggested by my oldest brother of recalling memories of the sibling whose birthday is being celebrated which in turn leads to other memories as one story spins off the other. This has turned out to be really wonderful and there are many moments of shared recollection, laughter and delight. Christine Arony-Sine in her book The Gift of Wonder writes the following about memories and nostalgia. “In Brain Rules for Aging Well, molecular biologist John Medina documents the surprising research that shows how important reminiscing and nostalgia are for our bodies. “Nostalgia promotes something called self-continuity, linking who we are in the past with who we are now.” It increases our social connectedness and sense of fulfillment in our accomplishments as positive memories rise to the surface. When we immerse ourselves in memories of our younger selves, we become healthy, our aches and pains are reduced, our weight and posture improve, our dexterity increases. Even our eyesight improves. According to the researchers, “The key turns out to be multi-sensory immersion.” It makes me wonder what it does for our spiritual health too.” I was wondering why I was feeling so great these past couple of months. No more aches and pains, I no longer need my reading glasses and though I haven’t been on a scale I must have lost some weight. We were not thinking of the relative benefits of these get togethers when we started this, but each time has been a gift. This song from 1968 by Gordon Lightfoot came to mind this morning after reading the overnight news. O God, raise up the leaders. Black day in July Motor city madness has touched the countryside And through the smoke and cinders You can hear it far and wide The doors are quickly bolted And the children locked inside Black day in July And the soul of Motor City is bared across the land As the book of law and order is taken in the hands Of the sons of the fathers who were carried to this land Black day in July In the streets of Motor City is a deadly silent sound And the body of a dead youth lies stretched upon the ground Upon the filthy pavement No reason can be found Black day in July Motor City madness has touched the countryside And the people rise in anger And the streets begin to fill And there's gunfire from the rooftops And the blood begins to spill Black day in July In the mansion of the governor There's nothing that is known for sure The telephone is ringing And the pendulum is swinging And they wonder how it happened And they really know the reason And it wasn't just the temperature And it wasn't just the season Black day in July Motor City's burning and the flames are running wild They reflect upon the waters of the river and the lake And everyone is listening And everyone's awake Black day in July The printing press is turning And the news is quickly flashed And you read your morning paper And you sip your cup of tea And you wonder just in passing Is it him or is it me Black day in July In the office of the President The deed is done the troops are sent There's really not much choice you see It looks to us like anarchy And then the tanks go rolling in To patch things up as best they can There is no time to hesitate The speech is made the dues can wait Black day in July The streets of Motor City now are quiet and serene But the shapes of gutted buildings Strike terror to the heart And you say how did it happen And you say how did it start Why can't we all be brothers Why can't we live in peace But the hands of the have-nots Keep falling out of reach Black day in July Motor city madness has touched the countryside And through the smoke and cinders You can hear it far and wide The doors are quickly bolted And the children locked inside https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPXL3iEVnCM It probably took me longer to read than it should have, but every other page of Just Mercy by Bryan Stevensen had me put down the book in disgust and rage at the extreme injustice faced daily by African Americans and particularly those millions who are incarcerated in the US. Stevensen’s book speaks of a career dedicated to justice and mercy for the men, women and children wrongly accused or wrongly or unjustly sentenced. The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers this week, stoked the fires burning this weekend. Tears will not be able to quench those fires and only when justice is called for from the highest offices in the land will healing be able to begin. So far only silence or more fuel.
I grew up with my own blinders to racism living in Southern Alberta and failing to see how First Nations sisters and brothers were being mistreated and abused after more than a century of injustice. I had Japanese Canadian friends in high school and was blind to the painful past that brought their families to the interior of the country into my neighborhood and high school. I confess my own ignorance and participation. The Covid 19 Pandemic is showing an ugly racism just under the surface, even in Canada. We are not immune. I can recall a slow awakening in college when some of my professors returned from an Apartheid South Africa having met Black Consciousness leader Steven Biko who was shortly thereafter murdered by his white jailers. The movie Cry Freedom tells part of his story. That awakening was part of our decision to teach in South Africa in 2002 and experience what it is to be a minority. Biko was once asked by a white judge in a political show trial, "Why do you people call yourselves black? You look more brown than black." He shot back, "Why do you call yourselves white? You look more pink than white." In truth, when you grow up pink, you don’t know what it like to experience life in North America as a person of color. I have grown up in white, male, middle class privilege and it grieves me. Sack cloth and ashes are called for. We all need to embrace this new daily prayer written by Good Shepherd NYC as a response to the murder of George Floyd. All are welcome at the table of God Every man, woman and child For Christ brings peace to all, Tearing down every hostile wall, So that the many may become one One heart One family One new humanity. For God who is love And Christ, who is all and in all, Show no partiality and make no distinction, So neither race nor class, Gender nor sexuality, Politics nor religion, Personality nor nationality count for us or against us. The light of Christ enlightens all. Christ the prisoner and the naked, Christ the hungry and the sick, Christ the thirsty and the stranger, Christ the other. May God’s spirit hover over our chaos, Our hatred and indifference, Descend in our hearts with love and pleasure, Blow us out into the world to listen and serve And set us ablaze to forgive and reconcile. For we are all welcome at the table of God Every man, woman and child. Amen Written by Good Shepherd NYC from the week of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis MN. May 2020 |
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