With Love

"...the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice"
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from his Letter from the Birmingham Jail

These words from 1963 bring fresh perspective to our current times.  The broadscale white culture appears to have a commitment and dispositon towards this negative type of peace. Maintaining a negative peace comes through the consistent practice of conflict avoidance. Tension cannot exist as long as conflict is avoided. The absence of tension demonstrates a rejection of truth. Communities which avoid conflict refuse truth due to the polarizing nature of truth. Truth is either accepted or rejected and leaves each individual a choice. I think at the core of humanity we are all averse to conflict. However, within black society, saturated by conflict, both historically and currently, it is ludicrous to expect a conflict free existence. For many African-Americans, there is a choice to surrender to the pressures of being black in this country, or actively combat the tension, which comes with our existence in a nation made by us but not for us. 

I do not believe oreder and justice are mutually exclusive. In this current established order there is neither order nor justice. Where is the order in ghettos? Where is the justice when families are ripped a apart due to the xenophobia of neighbors and our elected officials? Order and justice are illusions, believed only by the wealthy. Ask the poor, suffering, and discarded their perspective on order and justice. They know better than most the soul of America.

I believe and pray that white America will become more concerned with justice than order or loyalty. From the first African forced upon a transatlantic vessel until the 1970s, white people, first white colonists and later white americans, performed, legalized, and justified some of the most heinous crimes against my ancestors. The mixed blood in my veins is the evidence of just one such atrocity. There are grandfathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and parents who have been a part of lynch mobs, covered up assassinations, and acquited murderers in the court of law. Rather than openly condemn their families for their actions, they make excuses, or worse keep it a family secret. For all of the backlash black Americans receive for our non-cooperation with the law, white Americans have done it for longer and more effectively. 

For the white American Christian I am especially grieved. We share a Savior and Redeemer but you will not share in my suffering. Our brotherhood and familial ties will reach an apex as you choose your comfort instead of working towards my liberation. 

I have spoken to numerous white friends and shared the burden I carry in my black skin. I explained the emotional scars etched in my conscious for being born a few shades to dark in the wrong country. They hear my stories and are moved to explore the issue more or broaden their perspective. What I yearn for is the day my white brothers and sisters drop to their knees in prayer and allow our Counselor to guide them into proper recourse. As I have fought through tears to believe I am made in the image of God, I wait in deep expectation for the Holy Spirit to shape away the superiority and apathy that remains in the hearts of my brothers and sisters. 

Unfortunately, far too often my white friends sink into self-pity, guilt, and paralysis. They experience sorrow and respond as if they are the source of their salvation. They aim all of their pain and guilt onto themselves. Rather than continue to wound themselves with personal and ancestral guilt, the cause of justice become an intellecutal pursuit instead of a God-given conviction. So many of my friends explore the topic of racial reconciliation instead of living to bring about racial justice. For true reconciliation to occur, justice must accompany it. The presence of justice to those held in bondage is a form of love sorely absent in this country. 

Friends, the guilt you feel from your inaction, apathy, and participation in racism is what God desires from you. Christ died so we can have relationship with God the Father. Let us not waste that gift in an effort to preserve the facade of order, justice, and personal goodness. Until this happens we will never have the relationship God intended for us to have, which is a great loss for us all.