A Strategy for Reform

I have been thinking a lot about where we are in the world around racial justice and a white supremacy culture that has blatantly said to America that black life is expendable and not deserving of equal opportunity, value, or freedoms. George Floyd’s cry – “I can’t breathe” — was a historical cry of black people in this country that has gone unheard since its foundation. We are now at a pivotal moment to hear that cry and to act on it together against the evil and disease of racism that has invaded our systemic and institutional life together! So, where do we start?

We start by calling on each individual to realize that they have been poisoned by the history and experiences of racism and that the toxins that have been released must be excavated. Once the toxicity of racism has been excavated, a journey of healing and restitution can begin to address the damage it has done historically, and the legacy it has burdened all of humanity with. Whether its impact or effects are unintentional or intentional in its causations, we can do something about it!  People who have either benefited from or been impacted by racism, must partner to dismantle its lethal effects and eradicate its legacy that continues to target the entire human race. 

The truth is that we have been mis-shaped by racism from our original call to be human partners and helpers in our world to each other. The best state of the human race is when it has fully integrated its creative and enhanced abilities found in its diversity of all persons. We were never designed to ravish each other through oppression or ideals of supremacy and yet, here we are — historical/contemporary participants in the oldest and most detrimental experience unleashed within the human race.

Friends, we cannot fall away from ridding ourselves of racism or delay the urgency of its dismantling. It is only in facing it head on that we will have success. Look at it, listen to the stories around you, feel its impact, and then act with urgency, with extreme justice,  to bring wholeness, restoration, and rebuilding of our humanity. Let’s be generous with the justice we have to give. 

Shame, blame, and guilt are not part of the work, so if that comes up for you, (and it most certainly will), work in partnership with others to put that aside and step over it. Do not allow it or white fragility to get in the way of your journey to liberation and recovery. 

This work is about personal and collective responsibility as a human family to care for one another and our institutions infected with racism. The stories and sharing we will tell each other and hear along the journey will be full of pain, anger, sadness, resilience, and triumph. Prepare your hearts to hold these stories in a sacred space, as if each story were your own. Our job is the hold these experiences as an act of solidarity in preparation for the work of justice that is to follow. Spiritus Christi has been such a trendsetter in other areas of equality and liberation work, such as women’s equality, marriage equality, LGBTQ equality, and farmworker equality etc. Now it is our time to lead on racial equality. 

Historically, we have made significant changes as a human race when we have worked together. This is no different. We have changed the culture of acceptance of things such as cigarette smoking, drunk driving, alcoholism, sexism etc. Racial Justice work calls all people to join in from the four corners of the earth. In this moment, we are being called from the North, South, East, and West, realizing that racism has touched us everywhere. Therefore, in every place, we must remove it! 

After we have done our individual work, we must work collectively. We must form partnerships of support with groups and organizations that will commit to doing the work of ending racism. Groups such as SPARC, The Black Agenda Group, SURJ, FIRE, Black Lives Matter, The First Community Interfaith Institute, NCBI Rochester Inc, Baden Street Settlement House and others in our community. 

Our systems and institutions have especially been affected by racism. Individual changes without systemic change is useless and incomplete, allowing for re-entrenchment. We cannot blow this moment we are in! Just about every system in the U.S. has learned how to integrate the use of power to maintain racism and a white supremacy culture, keeping it in place despite individual progress. It is our duty and responsibility to call on our systems to change their power dynamics and begin representing our core beliefs of inclusion and equality. As we have pledged our commitment in beginning this work at Spiritus, we must complete it! To do so, I will need your partnership. 

Each of us is being called to accept responsibility for the damage this use of power has caused in furthering historical and present-day inequities. Racial Justice work demands a level playing field for all, while acknowledging the unearned privileges and advantages created for dominant racial groups. We have made increments of progress, but we have not completed the work of full racial justice! Conventional wisdom says, 

♦ A first step is to create a new organizational vision/mission of racial justice and equity, from which to work. This we did at Spiritus Christi Church in 2006, when we declared ourselves an anti-racist parish.

♦ Next we must design new organizational mechanisms to ensure new awareness, equity, authenticity, and equal voice as we launch our new work. These new mechanisms such as our racial justice team, caucusing, integrated racial analysis of our processes, interactions, and structures to name a few are essential. They will flow from our new vision of racial justice and equity. 

Just as we learned racism, be it at our parent’s knee, or cultural socialization, it must be un-learned through intentional training, deprogramming, intentional analysis work, study, and action. Racial justice training is a critical first step which needs to be parish-wide. It makes the invisible visible, while bringing clarity to blurred understandings, and creating room for hard conversations that open opportunities for transformational changes which will serve us all. 

This work will help us to know ourselves more deeply and will assist us in designing a plan of action for where we want to go, and how we plan to get there together. Now that’s an exciting journey to envision!