I went on my first "mission trip" during spring break of my freshman year of college. We spent the week in Washington, DC volunteering in various locations around the city to serve those in need. It was the first time I saw poverty up close and I was heartbroken. We spent time every night talking about what we had done and seen and learned that day, and at the end of the week I remember another person in the group (a senior who seemed infinitely wiser than me) commenting at how much empathy she had seen in me during that week as my eyes had been opened. She even gave me a Dietrich Bonhoeffer book to help me continue to learn and reflect theologically on what I had learned. I had never thought of myself in that way but it's a characterization that has stuck with me.
I share all of that to say that sometimes I feel other people's pain deeply and lately the thing that I have been feeling most deeply and that I feel I can no longer be silent about is race relations in our country. If you want to roll your eyes and/or stop reading right here, I understand. I don't want to preach at anyone and not everyone wants to engage in this discussion. But I can't stay silent anymore, so if you are interested in this issue, stay with me.
A couple years after that mission trip, Hubby T and I took several African-American history classes. They were taught by the best professor either of us ever had and gave us a broader understanding of what has happened to African-Americans in our country, things that were barely, if ever, discussed in our k-12 history classes. Although that education is now ten years old, it has framed our understanding of the new civil rights movement that has been emerging in the past couple years. It has informed our awareness that the grievances being raised by the Black Lives Matter movement are justified and it is long past time for them to be addressed by our country.
I do not want to tell anyone what they should think, but I do think that we all have a responsibility to educate ourselves because this is a democracy, this is God's Kingdom - we are all in this together. So if you are interested in engaging in this issue, here are a couple things I have found thought provoking.
1. This article draws a parallel between a Biblical story and the ideas of white privilege and white blindness. If you don't care about the Bible part, skip to the second half of the article. The point is that those most of us who are white have no understanding of what it means to experience life as a black person. And I think this understanding is really important, which leads me to my second point.
2. Hubby T and I also read the book mentioned in this article, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, this summer and I found it agonizing (remember my aforementioned empathy). The pain and injustice he has experienced in his life is horrifying to me. No one should have to live that way. And yet so many do.
3. This is the most important thing I have read. This is what I did not have the wisdom or courage to write myself. But I stand with the author in confessing my sin, that I am a racist, and in hoping that, with God's help, this is something we can change about ourselves and our society.
If you have made it this far into this post, thank you for being willing to sit with me in this uncomfortable issue, even if just for a moment. If you want to sit with me longer, I would welcome conversation with you. Because I don't know what else to do. I don't live in a diverse community, I don't worship in a diverse community, and the places close to me that are diverse I am scared to go to. I am praying for a way forward. So for now I offer this, just words, to testify that I see that there are problems and I am part of the problem and I want to see change.
