Image Credit: Jessica Koscielniak
Maybe your congregation mentioned Ferguson Missouri in worship on Sunday, maybe it didn’t. But here is why you need to be talking about it. Michael Brown’s death is not an isolated incident. In 2012, more than 300 black people were executed by police, security guards, or vigilantes. At the root, the protests aren’t about the death of an African-American young adult, though that is more than enough reason to protest. The protests are about a town where over 65% of the residents are black, and yet the police force of 53 officers includes only 3 black men. As Janee Woods lifts up on her blog, “[The protests are] the direct product of deadly tensions born from decades of housing discrimination, white flight, intergenerational poverty and racial profiling. The militarized police response to peaceful assembly by the people mirrors what happened in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement.” Let’s also make sure we are clear that these are not “riots”. People rising up in anger, frustration, and rage in the face of systemic oppression is not a “riot”. It is an uprising, a rebellion even, but it is not a riot. Don’t allow yourself, or those around you, to undermine the conversation with words like “riot”. Don’t rely on mainstream-media for your information and education on the events taking place in Ferguson. I keep my Twitter account just for times like this. For the past week my Twitter feed as been alive with live updates from people in the heart of protests and I trust their collective reporting more than anything I see on television. Blogger Rachel Held Evans has a good list of folks you should be following. Next, read these articles. They aren’t by any means exhaustive, but it is a good start.
Do Black Lives Matter In Our Community? by Nekima Levy-Pounds
Things To Stop Being Distracted By When A Black Person Gets Murdered By Police by Mia McKenzie
Becoming a White Ally to Black People in the Aftermath of the Michael Brown Murder By Janee Woods
Get the Military off The Main Street By Elizabeth R. Beavers and Michael Shank
The Things White People Can Do About Ferguson Besides Tweet by Kate Harding
Up to Our Necks by Rev. Meg Riley
This is also a good list of articles to read that has been updated regularly.
You have to talk about it because every black life matters. We, in all our privilege and power, have to voice that every life matters. It may seem trite or silly, why should we say it, why do we need to remind our friends, families, and those sitting next to us in the pew that our African-American brothers and sisters are important and their lives and life experiences matter? We have to say it because it is our silence that has lulled us into thinking that “something like this can’t happen in America”. It is happening, and it happens every 28 hours. Share the articles on Facebook or in your church newsletter, start a conversation over a cup of coffee or around your dinner table, don’t allow cultural stereotypes to narrate the experiences of young black men and women in this county. Listen to their experiences, listen to their own narrative. Then, say a prayer, because as a nation and a society we have a long way to go.
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