Juneteenth

An excerpt from Color of Compromise (author Jemar Tisby)

"The demise of what many have called America's 'original sin' would seem to be a likely candidate for frequent, even annual, commemoration nationwide.  The moment when millions of black people finally gained the liberation they had been fighting for since at least 1619 deserves space in the calendar to help people remember who America truly is and how much effort it takes to overcome the racism that often characterizes life in this nation.  At present, the most logical occasion to mark the abolition of slavery, Juneteenth, is marked at the state but not at the national level.  

Juneteenth, a mash-up of the words June and nineteenth, remembers the day in 1865 when slaves in Texas finally learned about their emancipation.  It is the oldest-known celebration of black freedom from slavery.  While over forty states currently recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday or observance, it should become a national one. "

If you want to experience a little of Waterloo, Iowa's Juneteenth celebration, you can go to "NAACP of Black Hawk County" on Facebook.   

color of compromise

The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church's Complicity in Racism  written by Jemar Tisby is a book I read last year in a book group, and it is now a book being recommended to our congregation at Orchard Hill Church.  

"This book is about revealing racism.  It pulls back the curtain on the ways American Christians have collaborated with racism for centuries.  By seeing the roots of racism in this country, may the church be moved to immediate and resolute antiracist action."  p. 15, 16  

"Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured."  Martin Luther King, Jr.  

To go forward, we must go backward and choose to see what we have either not seen or pretended not to see.  If you are a white Christian, I encourage you to read this book with an open heart and mind.  And I would welcome your thoughts, comments, or a chance to have conversation with you as you process through it.  

the matrix

Have you ever seen the movie "The Matrix"?  I think of this movie often when I think about becoming aware of the reality of structural racism. 

In the movie, the main character, Neo, is actually living oppressed inside a software program, an operating system, but he doesn't know it.  He does, however, begin to recognize that something was just not settled in him, and he began to question if there wasn't something unknown to him outside of his daily vision and experience.  In the 2 minute clip below, Morpheus, another character who was aware of the Matrix, offers Neo a red pill or a blue pill.  If Neo chose the blue pill, he could go on living in the false state of being, and if he took the red pill, he would be made aware of truths of what was controlling him and realities that he had previously not seen or known. 

For white people who wish to become more aware of truths of our operating system and realities regarding race and racism, "taking the red pill" means educating ourselves with historical perspectives that we were not taught, and listening and learning to women and men of color who are very aware of "the Matrix of oppression" and can share their strength, wisdom, and experience as guides toward human freedom and justice. 

Also, I recommend the movie if you haven't seen it.  :)

The Matrix clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE7PKRjrid4

What do you like about being......?

When I took the Undoing Racism workshop back in 2011, one of the exercises was to get in race-based groups and answer the question, "What do you like about being your race?" 

So, before you read further, answer the question,  "What do you like about being your race?"


It was so stunning when answers were shared in the large group.  Minority cultures expressed their love for various foods, music, dances, traditions, language, spirituality, strength as survivors and overcomers, physical characteristics.  These lists were very soulful, relational, and communal. 

White groups had a starkly different list including liking being part of the majority, access to opportunities, blending in without being noticed, having advantages and privileges due to race, a sense of security and ease.

As the large group discussed these lists, it was acknowledged that those in white culture had not focused on their ethnic heritage.  Many immigrants (Irish, German, Polish, etc.), in fact, came to America and began to hide their heritage, culture, and language to assimilate and gain white status and privilege.  Much of their rich culture and heritage did not get passed down from generation to generation in white dominate culture. 

The group also discussed that when asked, the white group said that it would be difficult to give up anything on their list....which hits at the very center of the construct of race and racism: power and privilege afforded to one race at the expense of other races. 

What is your ethnic heritage?  How much do you know about your ancestor's culture?  Do you think that some of your heritage and culture may have been traded and lost in order to gain white status and privilege?  

why colorblindness is not helpful

With a good heart and noble intentions, I've heard people say, "I don't see color when I look at someone." Or they might say, "We are all the same."  I believe these statements really are genuinely meant to convey our shared humanity as fellow human beings, and to communicate that the speaker recognizes that we all bleed the same, we all have dreams, emotions, we all experience joy and pain and loss in life. The speaker, I believe, is wanting to say that he/she doesn't see a social hierarchy, but rather our commonalities as fellow human beings.  

So why isn't it helpful to say that we are colorblind and don't see color?  

Telling someone that you don't see color inadvertently communicates that you don't see all of that person nor have interest in this person's different culture, heritage, unique perspective, or racial experience.  And by saying that "we're all the same", we, as white people, can also be expecting the person of color to assimilate into white dominate culture, to value what we value when we say "we are all the same."  

We cannot move toward race conversations and dismantling racism if we pretend not to see color or believe that race does not matter or factor into almost everything in society.  

We can still communicate that we as humans share a lot in common AND at the same time see, acknowledge, respect, learn about, and affirm diversity through race, culture, and ethnicity.  

the need for action, but not without compassion

Sometimes I get moving too fast in my schedule, and I neglect or hurry past people I care about in my life.  My proclivity for action can so quickly chase compassion off my path and into the ditch.  This happened to me last week.

In the midst of a busy week of work with community and church and conversations about racism and justice,  I popped off a quick text to a group of neighbors who water and weed their flower corners all summer.

Each May, our neighborhood hosts a Saturday morning event called "Miracle of Marigolds".  Neighbors come together, and we plant several corners with marigolds.  Neighbors living close to a corner commit to caring for that particular corner, watering and weeding so that the flower corners might all grow and flourish around the Walnut Neighborhood. 

Last Wednesday, I shot off a quick reminder text to neighbors that basically said that due to very hot temperatures and no rain, the flowers might need some attention and water.

One neighbor replied with a text that basically said that due to a very hard and stressful week, some of our black neighbors might need some attention and checking on.

Full stop.

In the midst of action and busy, I neglected that which was the more important: compassion.  I had not checked in with some of my neighbors to see how they were doing.  I could have at least started my text with an acknowledgement of the heaviness and pain of the week.  But, I didn't.  And the flower text seemed insensitive and irrelevant for some to the weightier matters at hand. 

In the midst of cries for action and calls for swift reform and an urgent sense of movement to dismantle racism across our country, I am reminded that I cannot lose sight of real life on life compassion close to home.  Compassion literally means to suffer with....to enter into the pain...to get close to the pain, to tarry there.  Jesus was the master of compassion, entering into pain, being present, and suffering in solidarity alongside fellow humans.  This means moving toward brothers and sisters in pain and suffering, not only at a macro level, but at a micro, one on one level as well.    

Where is one place you're moving toward pain and suffering these days?  What has most grown your compassion quotient in your life? 

internalized racial oppression and inferiority

I want to stick with internalized racism for another day because our psyches and identities have been so deeply impacted by racism.  Internalized racism affects our thoughts and actions, so of course, we have to become aware of it as we search to live from our true identities and not our wounded, fearful egoic selves.  When we can begin to grow aware of how racism has affected our thinking, we can begin to heal and live more freely from our God center, our unconditionally loved BEING place, our "Christ in us the hope of glory" core.

I have not had the lived experience of battling racial inferiority.  My fight is against racial superiority and privilege (which is actually just insecurity and inferiority on steroids).  And since I am not going to ask any person of color to explain for us white readers what it's like to battle racial inferiority, what I will do, is to ask you to consider the following:

1)  Please look these charts and lists over: This is some good information on how racial oppression has internalized both in terms of superiority and inferiority.   These are uncomfortable characteristics to see and to acknowledge but necessary so that we can all grow more aware and move toward growth and healing.

3) Just use your imagination, my white friends.  If our racial classification of whiteness was deemed the low rung on the social ladder , and we were consistently treated and told that we had less value, less worth, less intelligence, less ability, less, less, less, less, ...what do you think would happen in you?  If a different dominant culture would continually work to lock you and your family out, would misunderstand you, exclude you, dismiss you, dehumanize you, can you even imagine how rejection like that might assault your mind, spirit, very being?

Here's all I've got to say:  It takes courage and resolve from everyone to confront racial oppression- superiority/ privilege and inferiority/oppression.   However, the human spirit, strength, perseverance,and the resilience of Black America to continually fight both internalized inferiority and injustice for over 400 years is nothing short of supernatural, indescribable, heroic.