Exorcising Racial Demons: Part II (by Melvin Bray)
So what do we do, my friends, in the face of our undeniably incongruent histories—which give us reason to forever suspect one another, a reason dramatically subverted by the call to embrace one another in the way of Jesus?
I believe Diana Butler Bass, again, shows us a way forward. She made the following comment while participating in a panel discussion at the last American Academy of Religion conference. The original context of her thought was the pursuit of friendship (referred to as "convergence") between post-mainline and post-evangelical Christians, yet it struck me as pertinent to this discussion:
"When I'm in rooms of clergy and theologians ... and we start talking about post-conservatism and post-liberalism ... I always remind them that those 'posts-' come out of a very distinctive historical experience. And those historical experiences are always going to remain part of our identity. They don't just go away because … [we] say we want to be friends. We're going to be standing in our conversations having coffee[, and] I've got Schleiermacher standing with me all the time, not John Stott. If we think about that conversation happening not just here and now but in that larger communion of saints … we are opening up conversational space for people who once killed each other. That is very gentle [work], and you can't just say, 'That never happened!' We're going to be doing this convergence work, but holding onto the things that we love and the things that make us who we are. ... It is a potential, terrible misstep for people who have been schooled in liberal Protestantism to let go of their identity for the sake of one happy, big family. ... We need to be who we really are ... but it doesn't mean we can't form something new together."
Change the context by switching the protestant ideological references to racial and socio-cultural ones and the gist of her argument remains credible. While you may stand with George Washington as the great hero of the American Revolution, I stand with Crispus Attucks. While you may have reconciled with John Brown, Emerson, and William Lloyd Garrison - of whom I am ever appreciative - I also stand just as proudly with Nat Turner, Geronimo, and Harriet Tubman. I stand with Sojourner Truth, while you may celebrate Robert E. Lee. To any conversation, in addition to the aforementioned, I also bring Olaudah Equiano, Marcus Garvey, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Zora Neal Hurston, Vernon Johns, Richard Wright, Stokely Carmichael, Sonya Sanchez, Wallace D. Mohammad, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin , James Baldwin, and many others of varying ideological stripe - and in welcoming me, you welcome them as well.
As a person of color in America, I have been constantly asked to honor, even celebrate, white men and women of historical and contemporary note, over and apart from less-than-honorable, glaring, even odious aspects of their public lives. Isn't it time all saw fit to afford one another the same grace, instead of holding one another completely hostage to our shortcomings? In post-racial hope, can we be that vulnerable with one another?
Even if you totally disagree, please don't make the ridiculous accusation that I am professing bigotry in any form or am aligning my-postmodern/postcolonial/postracial-self with Wright's thoroughly modern (and thus justifiable in that context) theology or politics. However, I must be able to own that I am inextricably bound to him in a common history of what it means to be black in America and that be okay. Perhaps we would not say we are completely ready for such a conversation, but it appears to be the one God is sending us.
Growing up, my Uncle Ralph taught me that you can't expect the unconverted heart to act converted. So I understand when some in the media don't handle this business of differing experiences well: they lack the resources. But we familiar with the way of Jesus can set an example worth emulating. In a brave new wiki-world, the privileged must stop making the ahistorical demand that the under-privileged take a moderate, conciliatory, even deferential posture to all past, present and future acts of disrespect, hostility or excess (and vice versa)—if we are to create something more beautiful, conversant with one another. This is, perhaps, the only way we can move forward together without our demons getting the best of us.
(For a practical example of this, learn the story of Robi Damelin and Ali Abu Awwad, Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers.)
Melvin Bray is a devoted husband, committed father, learner, teacher, writer, storyteller, lover of people, connoisseur of creativity, seeker of justice, and believer in possibilities. As founder of Kid Cultivators, he lives, loves, and dreams with friends in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Comments
Great job Melvin and I agree completely. There is a great mini series on HBO about John Adams. He was a friend to our ancestors and yet his and other voices did not carry the day. I have to admit it's really hard to watch and feel for the colonialists. While they fought for their freedom they were creating laws to enslave ours. That's one wound that doesn't seem to heal too easily. I don't think it should.
It made me think of Crispus and that beautiful black man fighting for a country that saw him as 3/5'ths of a person. I can't understand that level of love for something designed to kill. I just don't understand it. To me he is true American hero greater than even George Washington. The founding of this country was both terrible and great and we as people of color will have to reconcile that if we have any hope of seeing our own wounds healed.
While you may stand with George Washington as the great hero of the American Revolution, I stand with Crispus Attucks. While you may have reconciled with John Brown, Emerson, and William Lloyd Garrison - of whom I am ever appreciative - I also stand just as proudly with Nat Turner, Geronimo, and Harriet Tubman. I stand with Sojourner Truth, while you may celebrate Robert E. Lee. To any conversation, in addition to the aforementioned, I also bring Olaudah Equiano, Marcus Garvey, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Zora Neal Hurston, Vernon Johns, Richard Wright, Stokely Carmichael, Sonya Sanchez, Wallace D. Mohammad, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin , James Baldwin, and many others of varying ideological stripe - and in welcoming me, you welcome them as well.
I loved that paragraph because that is exactly how I feel. I am one with all the people you mentioned and I have to say I am one with the Grimke Sisters and Bayard Rustin. They fought for all of us and not the some.
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Posted by: Payshun | March 20, 2008 2:18 PM
Thank you Melvin
I heard William Ford III give an excellent message a couple weeks ago, "I Remember."
He had a 250 yr old kettle on the stage that had been passed down from his slave ancestors with stories of how the kettle was used to secretly pray under/into during the night for the generation who would one day be free.
He gave an excellent message on our prayers as dwelling before the throne of God and how the prayers of one generation get added onto those of another. How the lives of the great cloud of witnesses are only made complete when all have been added.
This is an eternal reality we live in. It is a movie not just a snapshot.
And it is not just the persons who seemed to tower over others in this life that are part of our eternal heritage.
Melvin--greatly appreciate your posts.
Posted by: letjusticerolldown | March 20, 2008 3:21 PM
Payshun wrote:
While you may stand with George Washington as the great hero of the American Revolution, I stand with Crispus Attucks. While you may have reconciled with John Brown, Emerson, and William Lloyd Garrison - of whom I am ever appreciative - I also stand just as proudly with Nat Turner, Geronimo, and Harriet Tubman. I stand with Sojourner Truth, while you may celebrate Robert E. Lee. To any conversation, in addition to the aforementioned, I also bring Olaudah Equiano, Marcus Garvey, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Zora Neal Hurston, Vernon Johns, Richard Wright, Stokely Carmichael, Sonya Sanchez, Wallace D. Mohammad, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin , James Baldwin, and many others of varying ideological stripe - and in welcoming me, you welcome them as well.
As I've grown over the years, one of the things that I've learned is that even the greatest historical figures had their flaws, just like the rest of us. We are all, after all, human. Some of the flaws can be viewed in light of the surrounding context (After all, George Washington lived in an era where slavery was commonplace, and he did free his own in his will). But no one is perfect, and therefore, unlike the movies, there is never a 100% "good guy." All the more reason to seek God's forgiveness.
Posted by: Ngchen | March 20, 2008 4:31 PM
Melvin,
BRAVO!! Excellent in all facets. Bebe Moore Campbell once wrote: "...your blues ain't like mine." Implicit in that statement is the fact that we all get "the blues," but that (explicitly) our blues stem from specific experiences of which we - of African descent and American captivity - share and continue to process.
I am hopeful, even confident, that as we approach the great celebration of true Liberation - the Resurrection - we will feel the fresh, sweet wind of God cleansing and re-membering people of faith in America and making us boldly proclaim the "new thing" of which Isaiah speaks.
Thanks for pointing to the contemporary example of what you are speaking - should help folks put "flesh on the bones."
Posted by: Lawrence | March 20, 2008 5:39 PM
Please, please, please know that I offer this as a message of hope and not one of condemnation. As someone who had to forgive an oppressive father who beat the crap out of his kids -- and a mother who justified it for years after my father and I reconciled --
My parents and I do not pretend the past never happened -- but due to doing all the hard work that forgiveness and restoration involves -- we can live very free of it. I don't dread my visits with them. We don't really need to talk about it any more. I'm not haunted with the memories, and I don't fear that I will be violent with children.
We really can get past all of this. For some of you, it will probably get uglier before it gets better. I do think we can celebrate each other's heroes -- but we may or may not all agree on who a hero is -- and that's fine too to some degree.
Many of my siblings have not done this work -- and they probably won't ever get to enjoy my parents before they die. Their talk doesn't change my opinion of my parents, but it does remind me of why forgiveness is worth it.
Posted by: frankie | March 21, 2008 4:17 PM
We really can get past all of this. For some of you, it will probably get uglier before it gets better. I do think we can celebrate each other's heroes -- but we may or may not all agree on who a hero is -- and that's fine too to some degree.
That's the goal, and I agree it will take hard work. Trouble is that too many people have no intention of joining the conversation. Ten years ago Bass wrote an op-ed published in my newspaper that mentioned that some whites didn't want a school in their area named after Martin Luther King Jr. because (and I'm paraphrasing here) he wasn't "anyone famous." And in the theological circles in which I sometimes run, the words of the likes of Jeremiah Wright -- no matter who would deliver them and in what context -- would be ignored as "theologically incorrect."
These are some of the people I personally had to walk away from, basically so committed to their ideology they don't see that God is calling them into something more. There will always be those who would rather be right than reconciled and focus on squelching the views of others; they have to be exposed and pushed aside because they're in God's way.
Posted by: Rick Nowlin | March 21, 2008 4:56 PM
I do believe it's best to walk away from some folks -- harsh as it sounds. Besides getting in God's way -- they do a lot of damage.
Posted by: frankie | March 21, 2008 5:44 PM
frankie, my previous thank you, in the comment section of part 1, includes you.
happy RESURRECTION weekend to all!
Posted by: melvin bray | March 21, 2008 6:49 PM
'The privileged must stop making the ahistorical demand that the under-privileged take a moderate, conciliatory, even deferential posture to all past, present and future acts of disrespect, hostility or excess (and vice versa)—if we are to create something more beautiful, conversant with one another.'
Amen, Brother
An Old White Guy
Posted by: Ted Voth Jr | March 21, 2008 8:42 PM
Hi all,
Rick Nowlin, Melvin Bray,
I am miles away, and wish to add that Nelson Mandela is also part of the narrative, haha.
But,
I am so glad that someone saw 'fit' to attempt to discredit Obama by way of the You-Tube videos of Rev Jeremiah Wright at this particular time - because of this dialogue that is definitely now going on.
It is about time.
Oh, I have just been listening to Martin Luther King Jr's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'. I do believe all good American Christians who feel so offended by Wright should read that letter. It might just give them a little added/needed perspective, if they are open enough, empty enough to receive it.
God bless you!
- Alu
Dar es Salaam
Posted by: Robert Alu | March 22, 2008 3:39 AM
Following is a copy of an article from another group I belong to. The article was written by Barbara Eirenreich who wrote the book Nickel and Dimed. Some of you may have read it - if you have not, the author takes time out of her life to live the life of an unskilled worker looking for a job and having no money for the job search. It is a really good read and tells how awful it really is out there in companies like Wal-Mart and other companies that discourage unions and have miserable conditions for their employees. This article was posted in the Care2 Website under the title Hillary's Conservative Cult if anyone wants further information www/care2.com - obama2008care2.com
There's a reason Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama.
You can find all about it in a widely under-read article in the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones, in which Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet reported that "through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as "The "Fellowship," also known as The Family. But it won't be a secret much longer. Jeff Sharlet's shocking exposé The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power will be published in May.
Sean Hannity has called Obama's church a "cult," but that term applies far more aptly to Clinton's "Family," which is organized into "cells"--their term--and operates sex-segregated group homes for young people in northern Virginia. In 2002, Sharlet joined The Family's home for young men, forswearing sex, drugs and alcohol, and participating in endless discussions of Jesus and power. He wasn't undercover; he used his own name and admitted to being a writer. But he wasn't completely out of danger either. When he went outdoors one night to make a cell phone call, he was followed. He still gets calls from Family associates asking him to meet them in diners--alone.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080331/ehrenreich
Posted by: Charlotte Bloebaum | March 22, 2008 12:19 PM
Charlotte--are you serious?
Is your idea that a group home for troubled young men would best be one that put men and women together having sex, using drugs, drinking alcohol, made sure Jesus was not discussed, and allowed persons to come and go as they pleased?
What do you believe a group home is for?
A non-partisan Bible Study operates 'out-of-sight' the same reason we allow Mr. and Mrs. Bush to have dinner with their family in private quarters. It is a private matter.
This is an important election about important matters. Please don't focus on silliness.
Posted by: letjusticerolldown | March 23, 2008 12:30 AM
Melvin, I do appreciate your thoughts and comments. However, in the spirit of Proverbs 15:1 (A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare), I think what has been lost in all of this is the following:
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." ~Galatians 3:28
And according to the Rev. Wright, if white people are truly the enemy (as in his comments regarding black-on-black violence), then the Reverend should remember:
"You have heard the law that says, 'Love your neighbor' and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that." ~Matthew 5:43-47
In closing,
Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. ~Ephesians 4:31
"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." ~John 13:35
Posted by: Armed2Win(Eph 6:10-18) | March 25, 2008 10:30 AM
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