“Why does our church have a Racial Justice Ministry Team?”
“The Why” is an awakening! The USA is at a crossroads once again when it comes to overt and systemic racism. But why once again people may ask?
Because most recently in our history, in August 2016, Colin Kaepernick, then San Francisco 49ers quarterback, displayed action that explicitly focused on the crossroads. But that crossroads seemed to remain invisible to the necessary decision makers. Even after the two (2) killings and one serious injury in July 2016 by police to Black men, which many people believe were avoidable acts. And to further add fuel to the fire, all the charges against the six officers considered to be involved in the death of Baltimore resident, Freddie Gray, were dropped on July 27, 2016. So, Kaepernick started to kneel in August.
And later, Kaepernick, answering a post-game question when asked about his actions, stated that he was “not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” In that same interview, he related a series of previous deaths of Black people brought on by law enforcement. These deaths helped initiate the “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) movement which actually began three years before, on July 13, 2013, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. (As an aside, BLM advocates for non-violent civil disobedience against police brutality and killing of black people and people of color.)
But back to Kaepernick, what he did was to silently kneel during the playing of the US national anthem prior to the beginning of his team’s football games for the entire 2016 season. And, his silent and peaceful protesting motivated other NFL players and professional athletes in different sports to peacefully protest during the playing of the national anthem in a variety of ways. To this end we ask, how should overt and systemic racism, and police brutality be addressed? If not through protests, then in what manner? What choices should be made as our nation moves forward? Unfortunately, due to yet another death, but fortunately, if our nation can see that the crossroads are fully visible now, and must be given attention because of the white policeman’s unnecessary killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25th of this year. Then commitment to change can happen.
And, with Floyd’s killing the protests began again, and became even more noticeable, by gaining national and international headlines and publicity that continues even today. Other killings by white police of unarmed Black people continue- including the spotlighted shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 23, which paralyzed him from the waist down. These demand our attention. Remarkably, five days later on Friday, August 28, the re-enactment of the March on Washington occurred, fifty-seven years from the day when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I have a dream” speech. Understandably CNN’s writer, Ray Sanchez, on August 30, wrote of Blake’s shooting: “How the nation’s racial reckoning swelled.”
Compare what was needed for our racial reckoning, according to Abolitionist Frederick Douglass in his speech delivered on July 5, 1852, and is appropriate today; “We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled.”
With this awakening, and the nation’s reckoning swelled, Holy Trinity’s racial justice ministry team has begun work to keep us embraced, and engaged, and invites us to participate in the particulars noted above through a seven (7) course offering. Such is the work of faith. Hope! Empowerment! Liberation! God is Good! – Carl Peterson
