Sacred Conversation about Race—part 2

It’s so hard to get perspective on anything when the noisemakers crowd out the voices of the truth tellers.  My perspective on the media has changed how I take in information. During the 2008 election I made an intentional effort to read, watch and listen to different news sources, not the ones that shared my particular views on a given matter.  It was enlightening, and disappointing, to learn that a single sound bite that is factually in error could make its way across the media universe and be touted, verbatim, as fact. I was amazed that what I thought was basic journalism – fact checking – was virtually ignored. I was shocked that opinions of the noisemakers then became the facts. No fact checking. No resource citations. Just simple opinion becomes facts. At one point I was so frustrated by the noisemakers that I posted on a blog that I followed what I now refer to as Sacred Conversation Part 1 (below).  I felt a little better getting that out of my system and shortly after I took a media fast— no TV news, no talk radio, stopped reading beyond the headlines of the newspaper.  I realized that it was making me sick—soul sick.  I share it now because not a lot has changed since 2008.  The precipitating incident is new, well sort of new. . But we, humanity, is still stuck in this place where healing does not seem possible.  The “fixer” in me wants to believe that maybe if we could stop talking at each other with our respective armor up, rather than to each other with our hearts open, then maybe there is hope for us, hope for humanity.  It’s hard to find the hope in the midst of the noise.  Sometimes we have to absent ourselves from the noise.  I guess maybe that’s what Jesus did when he left the crowds that followed him to find a quiet place to commune with his Father.  Finding the quiet place to commune.  Oh yeah, that’s what this blog is all about ………….

Soul sick….Spirit sick …. If my spirit is sick, then you God, the spirit that lives in me, You, you are sick, grieved is probably the right word. You are grieved to see your children, the ones that make up the world, that you so loved, wounding each other out of our own woundedness.  ‘Cause that’s where it comes from, right?  We hurt inside, so we project that hurt outside.  We are broken inside, so we use our words, our hands, our created instruments as weapons of warfare.  It’s easier to lash out then to rise above.  It’s hard for us God, to rise above.  But your Word says that all things are possible, and that we can do all things, when we look to you, when we depend on you as the source of our strength, when we look to you as the source for our very breath.  We, your children, need your help to rise above.  We need your help to deal with each other with armor down, and hearts open.  Help us, help me, to rise above.  Thank you God for helping us.  Thank you God for your Holy Breath.  Thank you Jesus for showing the way.  Amen.  Amen.

Sacred Conversation about Race, part 1 (originally posted in the God’s Politics yahoo group)

May 2008

“Because I've been deep into my textbooks I have not been following the dialogue on this group very closely. While perusing the topics, I noted the conversation about Rev. Wright and all the supposed
controversy surrounding his remarks.  A question that still seemed to be lingering was where or when Rev. Wright accused the US. Government of injecting African Americans with the virus that causes
AIDS.  I would be surprised if anyone could ever find such a definitive statement by Rev. Wright or anyone else.  What you might find is plenty of speculation among African Americans on why this
could be possible.  Rev. Wright would have been accurately reporting, this speculation. I too, can attest to the speculation that exists.  It was an extremely frustrating thing to deal with in the decade that
I worked in the HIV prevention field.  After HIV Prevention, I shifted into the minority health field. It was then that my real education began and how I have come to understand, not agree, but understand why some African Americans believe it could be possible. During the intensity of the Rev. Wright media storm, frustration and anger motivated me to post the following at a God's Politics blog. I apologize for its length, but I believe it may answer the question.......
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As a 50 yr old, middle class, professional, African American woman in the US, I struggle with the uneducated comments made here in this and other forums about how much has changed in the last 40 years, and how African Americans just simply "need to get over it" and the supposed "racism" of Rev. Dr. Wright and how he and others are just out of touch and factually wrong.  My generation is perhaps the first to experience the "fruit" of desegregation.  I remember my mother's stories of separate entrances, sitting on the back of the buses etc. But I now have my own stories about being denied housing and how that although I now live, work, play and worship in an integrated environment there are frequent small and large reminders that I am still not always welcome or safe everywhere I go.  I am still somewhat amused by the reactions I get upon meeting whites face to face when they have only spoken with me previously by phone.  My point here is that, yes, there have been a lot of changes, but there is still a lot of unacknowledged pain and injustice that is just under the surface of race relations in this country. The only outlet for some of this has historically been the African American church. This was the only place where it was "safe" to talk about this.  For those of you who do not know how dangerous it was, then I invite you to visit the website "Without Sanctuary" to learn why "hanging nooses" could be considered American terrorism by many African Americans.  For those of you who do not understand why African Americans may believe that AIDS was "manufactured" then I invite you to read the book "Medical Apartheid, The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present" published in 2006.  Read this if you have the stomach for it.  I would invite you to read about
the government sponsored "Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment" which lasted from 1932 - 1972.  In terms of how far we have come, I would invite you to read "Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic
Disparities in Health Care" which is an Institute of Medicine study released in 2002. "We" haven't come as far as we would like to think. That said, to really examine how far we have come then you must at
least know where we started.  "Before the Mayflower, A History of Black America, by Lerone Bennett Jr, is a must read if anyone really wants to "seek first to understand".  Finally, I'm not convinced that African Americans want an apology.  Speaking for myself at least, NO, that is not what I want.  What I would like to see in my lifetime is an acknowledgement that these things happened, and because of this history a continuing culture and system of privilege exists for Whites today.  This systematic injustice has and continues to result in disadvantage for African Americans and other minorities. What do we do about it? We make the effort to talk about it, even when, especially when, it's painful and makes our stomachs tight (like mine is right now). We stay in the conversation. There is a saying in the recovery movement -- "you can't heal what you don't feel." We (African Americans) need to talk about the pain of our history and everyday experiences without having to worry about offending Whites. Not talking about it leads to festering wounds that never heal. Whites should work at educating themselves about the history that wasn't taught in their schools, and listening without becoming defensive. All of us need to learn how to talk and listen without attacking, belittling or shutting the other down. I would like to feel a sense of hope that it is possible for the collective "WE" to go on a journey of discovery of that which unites rather than divides. I am saddened that this does not seem possible in my lifetime. **********************************************

I'm more encouraged now then I was a couple of months ago when I posted this. If you made it all the way to here, thanks for reading. It is because of you that I am encouraged.

Shalom”

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Fast forward to March 2012—it’s not the Rev. Wright controversy this year.  Rev. Wright’s public reputation was destroyed in 2008.  This year it’s Trayvon Martin, who was profiled, judged guilty, and who lost his life.  And the noisemakers have geared up.  Armor is up.  Hearts are closed.  Let us all try to find a quiet place.