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Black lives matter. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery deserve justice. I am convinced anti-Black racism is an active force in this country. If you blame this conclusion on the “liberal media,” you don’t know the first thing about my convictions.
I’m deeply grateful for the movement for Black lives. I’m trying to listen and learn from people like @JemarTisby, @BerniceKing, @MalcolmBFoley, @DrAnitaPhillips, and @esaumccaulley
Still, the movement is huge and diverse. Given that, sometimes I encounter a statement or a policy proposal that I just don’t support. And while I know I need to make every effort to listen humbly and seek out my own blind spots, I think this is ultimately fine.
But I’m convinced that when I encounter someone expressing their grief, anger, and desire for justice that they do not need me to hop into their comments and offer an emotionally detached “different perspective.”
They unreservedly don’t need me to demand that they condemn riots before they are allowed to speak out against injustice. These responses are misguided when made honestly: too often, they are cynically and maliciously deployed in order to dismiss anti-racist voices.
Instead, I believe what’s needed is support in the shared cause of opposing anti-Black racism in America. So these days, I’m asking myself the following:
If I disagree with (literal) police abolition, how will I act to make policing in America more just?
If I’m hesitant to protest during the pandemic, have I made my voice heard by writing my representatives and elected officials?
If I’m uncomfortable with a certain activist’s rhetoric, have I tried to earnestly understand what is behind that activist’s speech from a posture of humility? Have I tried to advocate boldly for Black safety and dignity?
If I’m uncomfortable donating to a given fund, where will I give my money and my time to oppose anti-Black racism?
If I believe—as I do—that America is a nation founded on more than just oppression and more than just White Supremacy, what will I do to confront and oppose the cancer of anti-Black racism which has been present from its inception, and which continues to threaten it?
Hear me: I don’t want reduce anti-racism to a bland and inoffensive sentiment, but to stop allowing disagreements with some segments of a diverse and decentralized movement distract me from the vital work of opposing anti-Black racism.
As an Anglican Christian, I am commanded by the law of my tradition, the Book of Common Prayer, to “contend fearlessly against evil, and to make no peace with oppression.” I pray that God will have the grace to make me, not only a hearer, but a doer of this law.
