You may be having a difficult time understanding the reaction of many people of color (and white allies) to the news of recent Ferguson outcomes. Maybe you are even a little bit frustrated with the emotional response and the cries of injustice against the system. Or perhaps, you’re on the other side of this thing. You are angry, heart-broken, and hopeless because you can’t help but see injustice in this all-too-familiar scenario. Either way, if you identify as a Christian, you must begin to think about how to move forward in your own life and community. But here’s the deal: passivity has never been a viable Christian response to anything- you know this. You are probably also aware that venting your anger on representatives of the other side, as good as it may feel in the short-term, does nothing to move us closer to positive solutions.
With these things in mind, I would like to share some important ideas that may help you to process these events. I would then like to propose a theme that can help us to move forward. That theme is this:
Both sides are living under their own separate stories but the way forward requires us to live into the same story.
I’m intentionally not giving a “to-do” list. Rather, I’m proposing what I think will be a fruitful trajectory of thought as we try to move forward. It will take mental energy and prayer to think through what this might look like in your local community. But let me start with some important ideas…
– Ferguson is bigger than Ferguson. If this does not register for you, then the effect of all your preaching, Scripture quoting, and #praying tweets will be muted. You need to understand that Ferguson, and events like it, nearly always take on a symbolic status that brings to mind an entire network of real historic injustices, sufferings and dehumanizations of African-Americans. In the minds of many black people, Ferguson is a legitimate cypher for chattel slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, and many other wounds received by myself and my living family members of former generations. Ferguson reads like America’s commentary on my blackness- my worth, my status, my place in society…and it’s not a hopeful picture.
- For the black achiever, Ferguson says that no matter how many letters I have behind my name (PhD, MDiv, J.D.), no matter how much money I have in the bank, no matter what gifts, talents, or job titles I may hold, I will forever and always be expendable. The dark clouds of stereotype, racialization, and essentialism will never lift. I will never be able to walk through the world with the freedom and security of my white counter-parts. Ferguson shouts that we will be on the social treadmill indefinitely: The reality of motion with the illusion of progress.
- For the black non-achiever, Ferguson says that if you ever entertained even the smallest notion of rising from your current situation, you best forget about it. It’s not worth the effort. You are stuck. Stay put- because if you don’t, we have the power to put you back in your place. Ferguson sounds like a ringing confirmation of the nihilistic voices that continually play in the ears of those who are struggling to make it. Sadly, many succumb to this bleak outlook.
- If at this point you want to say, “Well just follow the law and you don’t have to worry about these things happening. You can take responsibility for your actions- look at Barack Obama!” I understand how this makes sense to you, but try to consider the countless Emmet Tills of America. For every Barack Obama, there have been thousands of Emmet Tills in American history.
- In addition, each incident is reminder of the flood of personal experiences of racism and Injustice that the particular individual has endured. Like that time when I was called a “nigger,” and that time when people expressed shock at my ability to speak the king’s English. Add in that day when my college friends suggested that I was granted acceptance because of “affirmative action” rather than personal merit (because I could not possibly have earned it…being black and all). We could easily produce dozens of these microaggressions that have rubbed our souls raw through repetition over time.
Important: None of these Ferguson-type incidents is ever experienced in an emotional or historical vacuum. Rather, they are akin to the pain that one experiences upon viewing a mangled car on the roadside after having lost a dear loved one in an auto accident. Viewing that singular image on the side of the road instantly creates a tidal wave of emotions. Then, after this wave hits you, the rip tide of grief carries you out into the sea of anguish. You remember first hearing the news of the loss. You remember watching your surrounding loved ones burst into tears. You remember the black suits and dresses at the wake. You remember the roses being thrown on the coffin as the undertaker prepared to lower your loved one 6ft. into the ground. In a similar way, African-Americans are reintroduced to a grief, pain, and sense of loss every time one of these tragedies occurs- and in as much as you refuse to acknowledge this and empathize, you exacerbate the pain and alienation, forestalling healing.
– The optics of these events matter. Regardless of the particulars, the overriding truth, the loudest voice heard by African-Americans, is that another black boy’s life has been extinguished. If you are always down in the weeds arguing “the facts,” you will likely be harsh and insensitive. The worst part about this is that you may be “right” but you will not be “RIGHT.” It would also be good to consider holding your tongue in certain moments. Many of the things we think in our minds are not beneficial for public consumption (Beware your FB & Twitter rants!).
- The question is not so simple as to ask, “Do the details of this particular case harmonize with the American justice system.” The bigger question is, “Does the American justice system harmonize with true justice in this particular situation.” To conflate the American Justice system with true justice is naive and misguided. We have to acknowledge that the American justice system is failing both people of color and law enforcement officers at any point where the American justice system departs from the principles of eternal justice. For this reason, the story of Michael Brown and Darren Wilson was not the first, nor will it be the last. I’m not suggesting that we could or should pursue a theocracy in America. But what I am suggesting is that there must be an acknowledgment of the fallibility of our system and, at the very least, a fight to rid the American justice system of its glaring inadequacies.
But it is also important for us to remember the following…
- There is a beautiful history of white people entering into solidarity and seeking justice for all. They have used their social, educational and financial privileges to work for justice. Let’s encourage them and receive them as family and allies in this worthy struggle.
- There are many genuine, kind-hearted, white people who are doing their best to make sense of things. They do not see any injustice or why Ferguson would warrant such reaction. They are honestly just trying to work through it all. Let grace and the golden rule be your guide in your dialogue. Try to give the same space and grace that you would need to see things from their angle, given their life experiences. If they ask you questions to which the answer seems painfully obvious to you, don’t assume or project malicious intent, lest you be guilty of the same kind of thinking that contributed to these tragedies in the first place.
- There will always be people who see emotional responses of pain and frustration in such situations as “race-baiting,” “excuses,” or “playing the race card.” There will be trolls on the comment sections of digital news papers and blogs that spew unspeakably awful, hateful things. I would simply encourage you to spend your emotional energies on your local context with real people, building real relationships of trust and honesty. Staying at the national level to the neglect of the local level will likely tend toward hopelessness and despair. Conversely, the small victories that happen around the kitchen table, born of prayer, love, and perseverance, will bless you more than you know and they will bear fruit.
The Theme: Shared Narrative
This is the truth: We need each other if we are going to break out of the dehumanizing narratives under which we each live.
- If there is any truth to the notion that we are deeply effected by the narratives under which we live, then what does such a narrative of untimely death, violence, criminalization, racialization, and the like do to a people group? When this historical narrative of sub-humanity and expendability seems to be confirmed time and again, what happens to its beleaguered characters?
- It has been said before that racism and the racialization of American culture is bad, not just for people of color, but for white people as well. It is not true nor healthy for black people to live under the narrative of inferiority and dehumanization. In the same way, it is not true nor healthy for white people to live under the narrative of superiority and suprahumanization. You are at a severe loss when your ethnicity, biology, and over-all way of life is canonized and made to be anthropological holy writ.
- No one ethnicity should be so cast down below the rest and no one ethnicity should be so exalted above the rest- neither way is a healthy way to be human.
However, there is a way in which all people can simultaneously acknowledge their lowliness, fallibility, and the vulnerability of their situation- but also the beauty, glory and hope for their situation. This is the story of the gospel.
Every human being was designed for glory in connection with God. Every. Last. One. Every human being surrendered their glory through walking away from God. Every. Last. One. But the hope that God gives is that his story is all about affirming these twin truths: You and I are simultaneously justified and yet sinners- by grace alone through faith alone. Ruined but rescued, awful but adopted, devious but delivered.
Brokenness is not the sole proprietorship of one ethnic group, and by God’s grace, glory is not the sole inheritance of one ethnic group.
This story alone sets the stage for fruitful, healthy, restorative dialogue and true progress. This story tells me that my identity rests, not on being right, but being loved. I am free to be wrong, to learn, and to change as I live in community with the other. I am free to acknowledge that my mind needs to be renewed and that this renewal is possible. If what the Bible says about me is anywhere near the truth, then humility, teachability, and grace must govern the way that I move forward. Don’t politicize this issue, gospelize it. This is the only story big enough to swallow up the grief of a ruined humanity and introduce the glory of a renewed humanity. Build this into your local church through every means available- pulpit, programming, community groups, neighborhood gatherings. If you bury your head in the sand on important issues like this, you are missing out on one of the most meaningful issues in your neighborhood.
You have an opportunity to speak dignity over the disenfranchised- did not Christ do this for you? You have an opportunity to proclaim the words that invite humility and acceptance- did not Christ proclaim this word over you? You have an opportunity to participate in the formation of a cross-cultural community- is this not the community that God is building?
Tell his story! Enter Into His story! Invite the other into this story. This is our hopeful way forward.
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