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June 6 - June 23, 2020
So the Black community wasn’t simply fighting against the ideology of white supremacy; it was fighting against itself.
Garvey condemned those who promoted and benefited from this inequitable system, including W. E. B. Du Bois and those who worked with Du Bois at the NAACP. Believing that the system fed into white-supremacist ideals, Garvey viewed the lighter-skinned Blacks with disdain, a fact that wasn’t lost on Du Bois. In fact, Du Bois criticized Garvey, calling him “a little, fat black man; ugly, but with intelligent eyes and a big head.” Garvey shot back, calling Du Bois “a little Dutch, a little French, a little Negro…a mulatto…a monstrosity.”
Garvey’s own colorism, his disdain for the lighter-skinned African Americans, led him down an ugly path.
Because he couldn’t confess the truth of his sin, because he couldn’t move into reconciliation with God and his fellow man, Garvey became what he disliked in others: someone who used skin color as a measure of worth.
The answer to white supremacy isn’t black supremacy.
Among the most difficult aspects of bridge building is practicing confession.
She hadn’t realized just how she’d been wired to believe that the success of African Americans took something away from her or had somehow come at her expense.
As hard as it was, she came clean and in doing so found the freedom to move into real racial reconciliation and restoration.
If confession isn’t optional in our faith, why has the church found it difficult to confess its racist past in many cases? How could the church lead the culture and set the example in what confession as a step toward reconciliation can look like?
They reminded me of the Psalms, reminded me it was okay to be angry and upset with those who’d harmed me and to cry out in anguish to God even before I moved into forgiveness. They affirmed my anger, my bitterness, and as they did, I felt seen, heard, and known. I couldn’t stay in the anger, though. I knew that much.
I wanted nothing more than to release all of it, and I knew that the only way to do it was to extend forgiveness, just as Christ had forgiven me. I had to forgive those who’d hurt me, even though they’d never asked for it.
That’s how I came to understand the surprising truth: forgiveness wasn’t a gift to those who’d hurt me; it was a gift to myself.
How can you get rid of rage until you’ve taken the time to feel it? How can you get rid of anger unless you’ve made space to recognize it? How can you forgive without first understanding the wrong and hurtful actions you’re releasing the perpetrator from?
Only when we’ve made space for our emotions, when we’ve honestly evaluated them, can we move into true Christlike forgiveness.
the oldest Black church in the American South—we
Throughout so much of our history, the Black church was the only place we could express the fullness of our humanity.
Now our safe haven had been turned into a slaughterhouse.
did he know of the significance of the church?
It felt like one more example of how majority culture calls for forgiveness in the midst of Black pain.
So, for example, if you are White, consider talking first to other White people who will not gloss over your confession but will truly help you process your sin. When it’s time to seek forgiveness from those you’ve harmed, give them time and space. Remember, forgiveness doesn’t happen on your timeline.
The monuments there speak a kind of false history, justifying the Civil War and continuing to inflict pain on generations of African Americans, including me.
written by eight White pastors.
Of the demonstrators and their actions, the eight clergymen wrote, “We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely.”
Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
But confession alone isn’t enough. True reconciliation requires that we change our behavior, that we set a new trajectory. This change of trajectory, this about-face, is what we call repentance.
But we tend to have blind spots about the sin of racism in our own lives.
He could have indicated that we need only to confess sin. He didn’t. Instead, he indicated that we should take action, that we should turn away from our sins (repent) and turn toward God.
a willingness to correct our course.
repentance isn’t hollow words and empty phrases. It’s not just confession to relieve our sense of guilt. Godly sorrow produces a change of heart, a readiness to move forward in making justice.
What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding,
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Douglass knew that if those who claimed to be Christians finally saw God for who he was, if White people changed course and viewed African Americans as image bearers of the Almighty, God could wash away the sin of the country.
Is it too late to recognize and turn from years of systemic oppression?
the Government of Canada now recognizes that it was wrong to forcibly remove children from their homes and we apologize for having done this….
(Repentance always leads to action, as we’ll see in chapter 8.)
Canada established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which traveled from city to city to hear testimony and document historical records of the impacts of these schools. In addition to all this, a new system, involving reparations and repentance, was set up to begin to rectify the wrongs and abuses that took place under the old system.
This is what repentance looks like: changing course and committing to walking in a new direction.
Instead, the United States has tried to erase and change history and minimize the horrific atrocities against slaves, Native Americans, and other people of color. In other words, the United States government has never formally admitted its sins and changed directions. It has never repented.
Confession is important, but true repentance must couple words with action.
true reconciliation moves from repentance to righting the wrong.
Then he started receiving hate-filled messages on social media, via email, and by voice mail. He was harassed.
How could a prayer of repentance provoke such visceral hatred and disgust, with many of those messaging him claiming to be Christians?
Such repentance shows us that we’re heard, that we’re seen, that our pain and suffering have not been ignored.
The founding fathers weren’t saying that all God’s children were created equal; they were saying that some—landowning men of European descent—were created more equal than others.
remembering how our founding fathers criticized the ongoing oppression and stigmatization they endured from the British after the Revolutionary War, all while oppressing, stigmatizing, and even exterminating the indigenous population.
White men created a new American history, complete with literature and art and film, that portrayed Native Americans as savages.
Because they weren’t seen as fully human.
Why are most people so resistant to naming the truth?
Reconciliation requires truth telling and empathy and tears. It requires changed perspectives and changing directions (also known as repentance). But ultimately, that change of direction requires righting the wrongs perpetrated.
But the next step might just be the most difficult.
conversations about reconciliation stall when the topic of righting the wrongs comes up.
