Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.
My soul is tired. The events of this year have exposed a reality that we African-Americans have long known and lived, but their ‘revelation’ in the mainstream of American media and life has both exposed ugly realities in and to our society as a whole (and especially to its white members) and traumatized us yet again: it’s one thing to live in a racist society, but quite another to live in it and be reminded of just how racist it is damn near every day….
And it’s not just us Black folks: yesterday, I got a plaintive message from a white friend of progressive bent (who also happens to be Jewish) and his laments struck a chord. Simply put, he is overwrought by the evidence of evil in our society so broadly and, now, boldly displayed and worries that his individual contributions simply aren’t enough to help turn the tide.
I thanked him for his positive example and encouraged him to keep leading in his local community … and then I advised him to “kiss it up to God” and let it go. His worrying himself into a (depressed) tizzy isn’t going to help him or anyone else, as understandable a response as it may be to our current travails.
You know it’s bad when the white folks are suffering, too….
Yet, despite this increasing sense of individual and collective enervation, I can’t relent in my personal commitment to the cause of equity and full inclusion in our polity. I’m reminded of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s reference to the “ungrammatical profundity” of Mother Pollard, whose response to his inquiry about her welfare during the waning days of the ultimately triumphant Montgomery Bus Boycott was “My feets is tired but my soul is rested.” As much as I really, really, want to at times of late, I really, really just cannot let my feets be rested ’cause my soul is tired….
And, yet, what to do?
The education is the preparatory hard part: we must engage fully in our world and embrace its realities, soul-wrenching as so many of them may be. There simply is no other way: as James Baldwin reminded us, not everything that is faced can be changed, but everything that is changed must be faced.
Among other things, we must peer into the realities of how we’ve structured our society and who wins and loses because of this (followed, of course, by our acting on this expanded knowledge by taking action in advocacy). There is most assuredly some ugly stuff: for example, just thinking about getting a clearer understanding of what drives so many to hate is already depressing me, but if we’re going to address the virulent racism that has always raged beneath the surface of our society – and that has erupted lately because of the immoral and repeated sanction of our political leaders – we’re going to have to get to its root causes, the factors that continue to lead to the embrace of White Supremacy.
Followed closely thereon, of course, by the examination of the root causes of all the other -isms that continue to plague our society (i.e., sexism, heterosexism, religiocentrism, xenophobia, classism etc.). In a word, this is going to suck, but it’s both necessary and required if we’re going to craft effective and sustainable solutions to problems that have both dogged and malevolently influenced our history. We can’t fix what we don’t know, so it’s incumbent upon us to learn all that we can, as painful as this may be.
In this regard, I think it bears noting that we should also fortify ourselves by exploring the good that so many do in our world, not just to heal our souls and steel our sense of commitment, but to identify models for practical change in societal evolution. In fact, I suspect that the only way that we can get through the challenging educational mission before us is to ensure that we balance it appropriately with the knowledge of positive realities that elevate and inspire. Let us champion the good as diligently and resolutely we seek to remediate the bad.
This must be followed, of course, my thoughtful, sustained and courageous advocacy, which is the active hard part of this mission. Simply put, if the world is going to change for the better, as Gandhi reminded us, we’re going to have to be that change. And even the briefest surveys of our broken world tells us that this is going to be one long and costly fight … but fight we must.
Strategically, our goal must be to seek a more equitable and inclusive society and world. Among the many things that this will inevitably entail is addressing yawning and ever widening economic inequality and a myriad of other self-imposed afflictions that bedevil the full flourishing of too many of our fellow citizens and human beings.
Tactically, in America at this moment, it means to continue our protests and especially to have them registered profoundly on November 3rd. Simply put, all of the courageous marching in the street will come to naught if we don’t march on the polls as powerfully. As is abundantly clear, the very future of our democracy is at stake and the trend toward the dissolution of our society must absolutely be arrested, for, if we think it looks bleak at times now.…
I really don’t feel the need to dwell on the many solutions that we need to implement – from fairer tax policies and wiser government spending to repairing and reestablishing the protection of our right to vote to strengthening our educational system to addressing economic inequality and the fast-approaching retirement crisis to reducing our militarism, etc. – largely because they’re self-evident: it’s not that we don’t know what to do, but that we haven’t summoned the will to do it … and, this, too, is an issue that we must trace to its core and address. In sum, we need to engage in what the Rev. Dr. King described as a “radical revolution in values” that would lead to the establishment of a “Beloved Community.”
And we need to celebrate, a seemingly decidedly happy endeavor in contrast to the previous two … and yet it’s the necessary destination and state of grace that we must attain. By celebration I mean the full acceptance and embrace of our humanity, idiosyncratically expressed in each of us, that, in turn, should be recognized, appreciated and exalted by us all. In truth, this’ll necessitate a major paradigm shift from seeing Difference as something that separates and often repels us to viewing it as an invitation to exploration and mutual benefit and growth. Simply put, when we realize that our differences can provide opportunities for us to grow closer to each other while expanding our appreciation of our world and the beauty of its creation, we’ll truly begin to live into our humanity fully.
I could expand on what the celebration means at greater length – like, say, by relating it to Bishop John Shelby Spong’s encouragement for us to live fully, love wastefully and be all that we can be – but I trust that this, too, is self-evident: it’s not that we don’t know how to live peaceably with and love one another but that we just haven’t summoned the courage and commitment to do it. I genuinely believe that, if we do the admittedly hard work of educating ourselves fully and advocating forcefully, then this step of celebration will flow naturally and abundantly from such an effort.
Yet, truth be told, at this very moment my mind and soul are tired, so I’m going to rest them. And when I arise, I’ll keep going – educating, advocating and celebrating – because, then, my feet may be tired, but my soul will indeed be rested.…
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
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