Tag: justice

Dear Susan, (10-28-16) race relations continued…

Dear Susan,

How can I hope to bridge the gap and promote meaningful conversation in regard to race?

How can I make my white brothers understand what a black mother fears these days?

I fully agree “All Lives Matter,” yet it is the blood of black people staining the streets.

I know you may be tired of hearing it.

Trust me, blacks are even more tired of living it.

My husband and two sons mean the world to me.

I pray they stay safe and unharmed every day.

Every day, the kind of day where your car breaking down leaves you slain in the street.

Hands up, but dead anyway.

Every day, the kind of day when a kid walking home wearing a hoodie dies because a madman thought he “looked” suspicious.

His killer walks free while yet another mother becomes imprisoned by grief.

 

dear-susan-10-28-16-b-is-for-blessed-devotional-2-letters-on-race When a man chooses to take a stand, or in this case, a knee, why is he ridiculed, threatened and viewed with disdain.

He is a brave voice for those long silenced, aware it may cost him everything with very little to gain.

Why can’t people see there is a difference between an “idol” and respect.

The God I serve commands we love one another, not reverence a song.

And of that song we sing, “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

If only everyone was allowed to walk free, pursue happiness and live as God created them to be.

The rockets’ red glare?

The bombs bursting in air?

Black veterans fought and still fight for those freedoms of which you sing.

I understand if you think it’s not “your problem.”

But the problem arises when you don’t object; you permit injustice to continue and entrench itself even further.

Hate is often disguised as patriotism.

It worked for Hitler.

Is that what America has become?

I know there are no easy answers.

It is not as simple as black or white.

 

I know this topic makes people nervous.

Defensive.

You don’t have to be.

I don’t blame you personally for the sins of our nation.

My prayer is that blacks and whites will do better.

Try harder.

And eventually become one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28 NKJV

 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Mathew 22:37-39 NKJV

***Our journey continues. Join us as we discuss race relations. You can find our first conversation here. Comments Welcome!

…and Justice for All

When you see me, who do you see? A Black face?

Someone who evokes rage or fright,

Undeserving mercy, grace?

 

When you see me, who do you see? Blind and white

and deaf; loath to step into shoes

of your pain, color, grief or plight?

 

When you see me, when will you see that I am

a child of God blessed by the Lamb?

ruby_bridges_w_marshals

I have been rocked back and forth this year by the violence in our country over race relations and a serious lack of understanding, grace and communication between us all. To be frank, it reminds me of another decade.

In the 1960s we faced a country horribly divided by racial tension. We watched in revulsion scenes on our televisions of federal marshals escorting young, black children into white schools for the first time while being spat upon by angry white housewives.

We saw Black folks being attacked by dogs and fire houses, arrested for sitting at a lunch counter, and heard about the murders of three young civil rights workers. And at the end of 1964, the first Civil Rights Acts passed, which outlawed discrimination in voting and segregation in schools, at work and in places that served the public.

In 1968 we watched the Freedom March – a five-day walk from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama where thousands of non-violent demonstrators of all races faiths walked to the steps of the capitol building. State troopers attacked the unarmed marchers with tear gas and billy clubs. We mourned the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and two months later of Bobby Kennedy. The second Civil Rights Act was passed which outlawed discrimination in housing.

I cannot, even now, get those images out of my mind when I see Black men shot down by police or when I view disturbing videos of police officers clearly out of control. And I don’t understand if just and righteous police officers can wound and capture a terrorist in New Jersey, why it’s not possible, with 3-5 officers present, arrest a man of color without a fatality – particularly those who are unarmed, who have their hands in the air or who are already on the ground.

We need the courage to have public discussions because this is not about one man or woman – a possible offender or a survivor of racism or a police officer. It is about our justice system which does not apply the same justice toward all.

I reached out to my friend Lilka Raphael, a sister in Christ, to ask if she would engage in this discussion with me. Because while I can sympathize and step into her pain and frustration for moments in time, she lives it every day. Because Lilka is a Black woman with a Black husband and two sons for whom she worries each time they walk out the door. And she said, “Yes.”

So beginning next Friday, Lilka and I will begin to write letters to each other, begin to ask and answer questions, begin to talk openly about our own perspectives, our responses, and our hope. Because we each derive hope through Christ, and we each see all our brothers and sisters as clay molded in love by our gracious Creator.

We pray you will look forward to our letters, read them, and engage with us in conversation to create healing and reconciliation in this online community and in your own communities.

In love and prayer,

Susan Irene Fox and Lilka Raphael