“Silence in the face of evil is evil itself.” This quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer is embossed on one of many memes circulating on social media platforms in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd and the rioting that has followed.
On Sunday our pastor called upon the congregation, still “meeting” for services via the church’s YouTube channel, to assess their own culpability as it relates to racial tension and injustice in this county. Given that admonition, I have spent much time in thought since Sunday morning.
I have chosen to remain silent on the topic on social media platforms for the reason that I have been engaging in thought, but for the primary reason that I find the social media pool, much like the pool of actual news media for the past several years, to be very wide but nearly equally as shallow. Several of my Facebook friends have chosen to post, and I certainly support your right to express your thoughts, feelings, and position in that way.
Personally though, I wondered what I could add to the influx of memes, the paragraphs filled with varied emotion, and the shares of protestors and police officers who were trying to make things better rather than worse. And I continued to wonder what exactly I should do as I pondered again the pastor’s admonition. He presented the idea that many people don’t seek to interact with or know people who aren’t like them.
Should I post about the many interactions I have had, and enjoyed immensely, with people who weren’t “like me”? That seems like hollow virtue signaling – because it is.
Should I post that I’ve been treated like family by both my friends and friends of my husband who are African American. That seems disrespectful because, without the opportunity to tell the stories, it diminishes those relationships to mere marketing material.
Should I go to Detroit and march with protestors? I happen to like Detroit a great deal. When we were teenagers and moved to the Wayne County area for my dad’s job, we used to visit Detroit on a somewhat regular basis. I had the pleasure of watching the Tigers play “at the corner” in old Tiger Stadium. We rode the People Mover at its inception just to try it. We sat on the sidewalk on Jefferson Avenue for hours on the night of the Freedom Festival Fireworks, camped next to a family with a radio playing the Tigers game taking place just a few miles away. I don’t want to participate in any way in the destruction of Detroit.
How does one actually go about moving from being “quietly non-racist” to actually being “vocally anti-racist” without adding to the noise, without aggrandizing one’s self?
Words, so many words uttered that just evaporate – where is their value? Yet if remaining silent is evil, and I need to put it into words then I will do so.
In my mind it goes without saying that a person should be evaluated based on the content of his or her character rather than on any other factor. I find it completely ignorant that people are, or have ever been, willing to judge a person based on skin color – something that is written into each of our genetic codes. It makes no more sense than judging a person based on her eye color.
Though the statements that I made here are firm beliefs in my life, still they are words on a page. So again, I wonder, how does being “vocally anti-racist” accomplish anything of value? Have we not been taught from a fairly young age that actions speak louder than words?
So while I might not, so don’t look for one, update my profile picture with a frame on the subject of equality, I will, and have, in private moments discuss with a person why his assessment of a professional was based first on the fact that his skin was brown and his accent heavy rather than on his qualifications to do the procedure that needed doing.
I would also admonish a person that a joke, not an observation of the differences that make diversity interesting and enriching but a disparaging joke, is boorish and unwelcome. But I personally do not know people who behave like that. That’s not my family or friend group.
While I will not attend a protest at this point and contribute to the destruction of a city that was making its way back, I would certainly be willing to walk side by side with people in a peaceful show of solidary because I do believe that all of us were created equally and were endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The initial tragedy was that George Floyd did not deserve the death sentence that was passed on him by a police officer in Minnesota. The subsequent tragedy is that years, if not decades, of damage have been done to cities like Detroit that once were, and could be and should be so much more.
While I may discover other ways in which I could actually do something that matters, the final thing I know I will do is cherish the relationships that I have had and still have, and will encourage you to do the same.
In the late summer of 2016, my husband was invited to a birthday party for a life-long friend from his youth. My husband grew up in Benton Harbor, and though he attended a private school, he still says that his friends were the Benton Harbor High School guys because he felt like he had more in common with those guys.
We made the trip to western Michigan, though not the entire way to Benton Harbor, to the home of the sister of the member of my husband’s friend group who was celebrating his birthday.
That was not the first time I had met this particular friend group, and I was glad to have the opportunity to interact with them again. They are, in many ways in our opinion, more nuanced than his friend group who lives closer to us and each other, and their sense of humor and the laughter they generate when they gather is contagious and endearing.
Still, attending an event in a stranger’s house always makes me a bit anxious, really, attending an event of more than another couple generally evokes a little anxiety in me even when I know everyone. It’s just me.
Though my husband knew more of the people in attendance than did I, having grown up with these men and their families, it was made clear to us that their home, yard, pool, and table – which was well-stocked with food and beverage – were ours for the evening as well. We had a wonderful time. I know it meant a great deal to my husband to see his friends again, and they talked about gathering one day soon, but distance separates them now as it does so many.
Relationships like that are like rare jewels. Time-tested and separated by distance as their relationship is, I expect that these kinds of incidents wouldn’t threaten the bond that they’ve had. It’s certainly not the first time they’ve seen racial tension escalate into violence and hostility. It happened in their own hometown as protestors took to the streets in the 60s, violence ensued, and the National Guard was called upon to establish a perimeter that, fortunately, was not challenged.
Still the power of what brought them together then, and what brought them together again as they gathered from homes across the country over 40 years later, is a testament to the fact that what can bring us together is so much stronger than that which threatens to tear us apart.
The Listener 