Instagram Posts from the Week of Nov. 17, 2019

Headlines and History - Nov. 17, 2019

In an ABC News report from October 14, 2019 by The Associated Press titled “Ole Miss Honors Student Wears Blackface, Prompts Warning,” you can read about an unnamed student who “reported himself to the college for posting a photo in which he is wearing blackface.” The article details information about an email the university sent that explained that the student is working on a "Restorative Justice Plan" and provided “tips on how to choose costumes.” The piece concludes by listing various politicians who had photographs released of them wearing blackface.

Alexis Clark wrote the article “How the History of Blackface Is Rooted in Racism,” which was published February 15, 2019 for History.com. She explicated the inception of blackface and minstrel shows, mentioned the geographical scope of the shows that were not relegated to solely one area of the United States, traced the rise in popularity of the shows, described the decrease in the use of blackface, and referenced more recent examples of people wearing blackface.

Kat Blaque also published a video titled “What Is: Blackface” on Sept. 29, 2014. Kat Blaque provides “a very brief overview of what blackface is and how it’s impacted black people, specifically in America.” Kat Blaque states, “Blackface, demonstrably, has been used to dehumanize black people and has subsequently led to the perpetuation of institutionalized racism.”

In conclusion, don’t do blackface. Challenge and broaden the narrative that centers the comfort of white people over the dignity of black people. Our present is intertwined with and informed by our past. We must face the past so we can heal the future.

*Edited to add: On June 17, 2020, I came across The Redemption Project with Van Jones for CNN. I read the words, “Face the past. Heal the future.” I will no longer use this phrase for my Headlines and History posts beginning in June 2020.

#blackfaceisrootedinracism #dontdoblackface #justdont #katblaque #endracism #endwhitesupremacy #dismantlewhitesupremacy #antiracist #antiracism #socialjustice #loveyourneighbor #seekjustice #lovemercy #walkhumbly #lament #repent #repair #facethepast #healthefuture #headlines #history #headlinesandhistory #historyandheadlines #challengethenarrative #broadeningthenarrative



Podcast Rec. - Nov. 19, 2019

Current Listen - Rumors of Grace with Bob Hutchins: Episode 30 - Rahim Buford "Decarceration and Transformative Justice" (Released Oct. 7, 2019)

“I eventually would be shipped to Turney Center Industrial Prison and Farm, which we called Turney Center and Vietnam, and this was a crazy place because it was like a plantation. You had a metal plant, a wood plant, a sign plant. They had a farm. It was a lot of land, and it was surrounded by the Duck River, and I distinctly remember they had a picture of Nathan Bedford Forrest and General Lee on the wall as you go into the visiting gallery, and 99% of the officers were Caucasian.” - Rahim Buford

“Out of that experience, the academic experience, I forged my community, and much of that community I still have today. That’s something that is absolutely necessary, I think, for most people who go to prison. Once you die a social death, and you become what they say ‘infamous,’ and you’re no longer legally a person, that’s a fact, you’re no longer legally a person once you go to prison, even though you maintain a few constitutional rights. As an infamous person, people can lie on you and you can’t challenge it in court because the courts say you have no character. But to be in the academic environment I didn't feel any of that, of what the courts and the stigma of what society puts on a person: ‘inmate,’ ‘convict,’ ‘felon.’” - Rahim Buford

“Because I want to put my face on something to say that if I can change and do some things that are positive, there are many, many others like me. And when I think about how I got out of prison, it was a community effort. It was people showing up. There were probably 40 people at every hearing that I had.” - Rahim Buford

“One of the things I think I came to realize was to know what freedom is not. And that’s what the total encagement, being in prison, you know what freedom is not. It doesn’t mean you know what it is, but you know what it’s not.” - Rahim Buford

“Decarceration is what my life is dedicated to because I believe that in Tennessee we’re better than what we are…we don’t have to lock our way, we can’t lock our way up, out of a problem...We can do it differently. There are alternatives. But it takes a community...It can even begin with you need to know your neighbor...You don’t even know your neighbor, you don’t even know your neighbor’s name, literally. And so if we’re living in a world where separate, where being separate is the way, then love can’t exist there. It cannot exist there...There are two energies that we primarily operate in: it’s either love or fear. Fear is what separates you. The thing you fear you want to kill, you want to remove it, you want to get rid of it, you don’t want to see it, you try to hide it. But the thing you love you want it next to you, you want to take care of it, you want to protect it, you want it to thrive and live on. We don’t have that yet for one another like we should. We have it for our families, but there’s a larger family.” - Rahim Buford

“When you take and put people in these cages, they are being treated less than human, they are at a greater risk of being harmed even more from just the fact that yeah, they did wrong,  yeah, if you want to say they deserve to be punished, what does it look like? Because the people determining who gets punished, they don’t look like me. They don’t live in my community...The people who are predominantly in these cages are African American and the poor. But the people making these statements and opinions about how they should be treated, they’re not. And if we look at it historically, here’s the thing I think a lot of Americans don’t get...the black man and woman in America who have ancestry rooted in chattel slavery have yet to receive justice themselves.” - Rahim Buford

“We still have slave language in our Constitution, that slavery is prohibited except if you’ve been duly convicted of a crime...We haven’t even gotten rid of the language...I think if you take somebody’s body into captivity, you have a responsibility to make sure that person doesn’t come out the same way that he or she went in. So if you’re going to put me in exile, help me to become a better person.” - Rahim Buford

“When we talk about judging and retributive justice, we need to start with the country first. And you know, some white people would say, ‘Ok, well that was what my ancestors did’...That’s true, you did not do that, no you did not, but guess what? You benefited from it. You still benefit from it. Because just being white can be the difference from getting a loan and not getting a loan, from getting a job and not getting a job, from being shot by the police and not being shot by the police. Being white in America affords you certain privileges that being black does not. And when you’re black in America and you’re formerly incarcerated, you double the whammy on the person. So it’s even extra. So we deal with not just racism, we’re dealing with felonism.” - Rahim Buford

“We could have the Lord’s Prayer for real. 'Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.' We could have that in America. But you have certain people that don’t want us to have that, and my question is, ‘Why? Why wouldn’t you want to be a part of building the best possible America that we can be?’” - Rahim Buford

In this episode of Rumors of Grace, Bob Hutchins spoke with Rahim Buford about his incarceration, decarceration, and transformative justice. Grace, wisdom, and love flowed from Rahim Buford. Please take the time to listen to this episode.

#bobhutchins #rahimbuford #rumorsofgrace #podcast #podcastrecommendation #podcastrec #freedom #community #incarceration #decarceration #transformativejustice #unheardvoicesoutreach #nashvillecommunitybailfund #nashville #grace #mercy #empathy #equality #listening #learning #justice #socialjustice #restorativejustice #love #loveyourneighbor #challengethenarrative #broadeningthenarrative


Account to Follow - Nov. 20, 2019

As you can see in Lisa Sharon Harper’s IG profile, Lisa Sharon Harper is the Founder and President of Freedom Road (@freedomroad.us). She hosts the Freedom Road podcast and is the author of several books, including The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right and Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith with Mae Ellis Cannon, Troy Jackson, and Soong-Chan Rah.

If you visit the website for Freedom Road, you can read about the mission of Freedom Road: “We consult, coach, train and design experiences that help groups in multiple sectors do justice in just ways.” Lisa Sharon Harper “founded Freedom Road in 2017 and set out to assemble an equally prolific and diverse team of leading experts, advocates and trainers dedicated to shrinking The Narrative Gap, as coined by Lisa Sharon Harper, in our nation.” I first heard Lisa Sharon Harper on an episode of the Truth’s Table podcast titled “#SilenceIsNotSpiritual” as she spoke in light of #metoo and #churchtoo. Lisa Sharon Harper is a prophetic witness and a gift to the Body of Christ.

Follow @lisasharper if you aren’t already, and support Lisa Sharon Harper and Freedom Road.

#lisasharonharper #accounttofollow #supportblackwomen #freedomroad #shrinkthenarrativegap #faith #race #gender #economicdevelopment #environmentaljustice #intersectionality #empathy #equality #reflection #action #loveyourneighbor #checkbiases #checkassumptions #dismantlesystemsofoppression #humanity #learning #socialjustice #seekjustice #restorativejustice #lovemercy #walkhumbly #repent #repair #challengethenarrative #broadeningthenarrative 



Additional Rec. - Nov. 21, 2019

Additional Rec. - “Penny in the Air: My Story of Becoming Affirming” by Sarah Bessey

I will let Sarah Bessey speak for herself.

“In the years afterwards, this woman and I struck up a friendship of sorts, emailing occasionally to check on each other, praying for one another, becoming friends on social media, that sort of thing. My instincts about her were right on: she was an incredible woman of God and a good human being. Eventually I learned that in addition to being a powerful and mighty woman of God, in addition to being an anointed pastor, in addition to being a devoted follower of Jesus, in addition to being kind and bold, faithful and content, funny and compassionate and godly, she was also a lesbian. And just like that, the penny dropped. All the study, all the footnotes, all the scholars, went from being a jumble of intellectual opinions to a lived experience in one encounter with the Holy Spirit alongside a beloved sister in Christ. I was transformed. All of a sudden my arguments and thesis and references – while helpful to get me to that place of openness – became secondary to the obvious truth staring me right in the face and praying. My own encounter there reminds me of something in Acts 10, an angel surprised an Italian centurion named Cornelius. Cornelius was a good man, a prayerful and compassionate and well-respected good man. The angel showed up in his home and told him that his goodness and faithfulness had caught the eye of God and so he had a message for him: find Peter and invite him to come over.”

“I’m an imperfect ally but I’ve been learning and practicing, committed to this path for years now. It has cost me – it has recently cost me my church, it has cost me friendships, it has cost me professional opportunities – and I would pay every price over and over and over again to be in holy solidarity with LGBTQ+ believers (who suffer at the hands of our churches and our culture in a way that makes my paltry sacrifices look laughable) and to be alongside of each other as we all follow Jesus. So remember to sit down at the feet of those who have suffered, those for whom this isn’t theory or theology, those for whom this isn’t an exercise in thought or opinion but their real lived life, the ones who, as Broderick Greer says, ‘engage in theology as a matter of survival’ and I say, ‘I’m here to learn from you. Lead me. I will listen to you. I will respect your story. I will submit myself to the margins.’”

I think often of a conversation I had last summer with an older woman in the faith. She told me, "Nicki, we make things so complicated. But God is saying, 'Love. It's as simple as love.'" "Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love ​— ​but the greatest of these is love." -- 1 Corinthians 13:13 (CSB) May we be people who are characterized by the "greatest of these."

#additionalrecommendation #recommendation #pennyintheair #mystoryofbecomingaffirming #sarahbessey #empathy #equality #reflection #action #loveyourneighbor #love #endheterosexism #endhomophobia #enddiscrimination #checkbiases #checkassumptions #humanity #learning #socialjustice #seekjustice #restorativejustice #lovemercy #walkhumbly #lament #repent #repair #challengethenarrative #broadeningthenarrative



Book Rec. - Nov. 23, 2019

Past Read: The Myth of Equality: Uncovering the Roots of Injustice and Privilege by Ken Wytsma

"Richard Rohr, Franciscan friar and international speaker, wrote one of the best descriptions of white privilege: White privilege is largely hidden from our eyes if we are white. Why? Because it is structural instead of psychological, and we tend to interpret most things in personal, individual, and psychological ways. Since we do not consciously have racist attitudes or overt racist behavior, we kindly judge ourselves to be open minded, egalitarian, 'liberal,' and therefore surely not racist. Because we have never been on the other side, we largely do not recognize the structural access, the trust we think we deserve, the assumption that we always belong and do not have to earn our belonging, the 'we set the tone' mood that we white folks often live inside of - and take totally for granted and even naturally deserved. Only the outsider can spot all these attitudes in us. It is especially hidden in countries and all groupings were white people are the majority" (Wytsma, 2017, p.26).

"The dominant culture in America has rarely prioritized the pursuit of civil rights for minorities - it has often been a long, slow march. A thin personal gospel, along with an oversimplified understanding of deeply entrenched racial systems (what I've called 'the myth of equality' in the title of this book), has often allowed race to be made secondary to other foreign, domestic, and spiritual concerns" (Wystma, 2017, p.65).

"Somehow I'm aiming for and only think I'm going to be comfortable with privilege, which becomes problematic when I'm confronted with the reality that privilege and equality don't go together (Wystma, 2017, p.90).

"If the understanding of salvation we receive at the beginning is so truncated or disconnected from the whole story of Christ and the good news of restorative justice, it is no wonder that we have such a difficult time understanding how we bear any responsibility with regard to justice in society. Working for justice might seem like a good thing but not a necessary one… But truncated doctrines of salvation can explain a lot of radical ways in which Christians have compartmentalized faith throughout history to allow for such inconsistent thought and action as professing love of Jesus while committing gross injustice against our neighbor" (Wystma, 2017, p.123).

"Instead of putting energy into denying that we're racist, a more transparent and honest response might be to admit our desire to be free from racist thinking - and commit ourselves to searching for latent forms of bias within ourselves and trying to address them" (Wystma, 2017, p.150).

This book is one I highly recommend. Ken Wystma is thorough as he exposes the myth of equality and uncovers the roots of injustice and privilege. I also love that royalties from this book will help publish books by authors of color, as indicated on the back cover. Have you read this book? I would love to hear your thoughts.

#pastread #themythofequality #bookrecommendation #bookrec #kenwytsma #privilege #whiteprivilege #injustice #reading #learning #empathy #equality #reflection #action #seekjustice #socialjustice #racialjustice #restorativejustice #lovemercy #walkhumbly #lament #repent #repair #love #loveyourneighbor #challengethenarrative #broadeningthenarrative