Living in coronavirusworld 221: Incident, reflections on racism

 

12/2

on the street

Incident

Leaving Morningside Park, I hear shouts through a bull horn. I want to  know what’s going on. I see a crowd walking up Manhattan Avenue. Go across to see. My glasses steam up as I walk so I take off my mask. The crowd is now in front of Mamie’s Spoonbread restaurant. The theme is “Support Black business everyday, not just Black Friday.” The owner is coming out to a round of applause. I want to take a picture but two young white women on bikes have cut in front of me, blocking me off. “We’d really like you to put a mask on,” they say. I apologize and pull up my mask. Just then a young athletic looking Black man pulls up on a bike right in front of me. “What’s your problem?” he says. “What?” I say. “What’s your  problem with what’s going on here? Don’t you support what’s going on here?” “Jesus Christ,” I say, “of course I do. I live here. This is my neighborhood.” He looks me over again. “Well, okay then. ...When you show up somewhere, introduce your self, ask some questions, you know?” As he bikes off, I hear one of the women say into her cell phone, “False alarm…” ???!!!! The crowd begins to move down the street.  I see a whole posse of motorcycle police circling the intersection, waiting, The crowd is in the street, “whose streets? Our streets…” One of the bike women comes over to me, “Look, I’m sorry. You had a look on your face like you didn’t like what we were doing. You can’t be too sure..” I say, “I was just trying to figure out what’s going on. I live here. This is my home..” ‘Well, anyways, sorry…” and she bikes off. 

I remember seeing the man passing out campaign literature during the election wearing his "Unfuck the world" sweatshirt. We so need to do that...

I continue up Fredrick Douglass with such a mix of emotions. Upset that I lost my cool, wishing I could have been total zen about the whole thing. Had a deeper, more meaningful conversation. Upset that two young white women thought I was a racist and the man assumed I was before I said a word. That I actually felt something like fear for a moment. Something I have never felt in living in Harlem. Keeps running through my head. I think about posting about it. Like an open letter saying, “Look I get it, but what if I was just some ordinary person? What would I think or feel? Is that what you want?” But I decide that would be uncool and play into the reactionary critique of the movement. I still want to say to those young women, “I was arrested for protest before you were born…” It’s hard to let go of it.

I bring it up at our weekly family ZOOM. “Ah, you were profiled!”says my oldest. ‘Think about it,” he says, “old white man, no mask, mustache and goatee, only thing missing is a MAGA hat.” My younger son talks about the kind of harassment Black Lives Matter marchers have experienced. And at times they are violent, "Assumptions?” they say, “Black people put up with that every day of their lives.” Which of course I know. Regarding the police, all agree that after taking the summer off as a kind of “Work stoppage/job action” protest against the mayor,  the police are back with a vengeance. There were almost as many cops on bikes as marchers.

I also bring the conversation to my Underground group. After agreeing that sometimes when intently trying ti figure something out, my face takes in a certain gorgoyle-like aspect, the conversation turns serious. They recalled Jesus’ two parallel and contradictory quotes, Matt. 12:30 “Who is not for me is against me” and Luke 9:50 “Who is not against you is for you..”  And all the way back to Moses and the “uncertified”prophets, Numbers 11:29 “ Would that all God’s people were prophets.”   We are so clearly not one people. Not even with the faith community. 

Russ recalls not understanding the difference between a Bishop in a Black denomination and those in white hierarchical denominations with Episcopal governance. And getting called out on it.

Steve P quotes Ibrahim X. Kendy as saying “People aren’t racists, action and policies are.” This leads to a conversation about racism.  I had grown to accept a difference between  prejudice and racism with racism being prejudice plus power, with power being definitive. Therefore,  Black people due to lack of power, could not be racist by definition. And an expression like “reverse racism” would be a non-sequitur. Steve P says Kendy would disagree with that. And that racism and prejudice are inseparable. (But indistinguishable?)

We talk about guilt vs, responsibility, In Jewish- Christian dialogue, when we studied the Christian roots of anti-semitism, defensive Christians  would always respond, “Well, the people who did that weren’t real Christians.”  Sorry, Once we’re under the tent with the same banner, we are not guilty, but we are responsible.  Likewise, even though we personally did not own slaves, we bear responsibility for our community and its life. To live in a community by definition requires us to be responsible for correcting the past. As Rick Ufford- Chase says, there is no legitimate Church mission without serious attention to repararations. 

Dre is fascinated by the way  white people talk about racism. He doesn't think about it, he experiences it. And encourages us to think about actions more than thoughts. How love pushes us beyond right and wrong. 

The book Caste by Isabel Wilkerson comes  up again, with the idea that caste is the bone and racism the muscle.

Steve H says it’s like a house with a hole in the roof. Doesn’t matter whose fault the hole is, we’ve got to stop arguing and fix it. And our collective house has a gaping hole in its roof. 

In that direction, Steve P talks about the work of Don Shriver, the 13th President of Union Theological Seminary recently celebrated in a new book, Christian Ethics in Conversation. (https://wipfandstock.com/christian-ethics-in-conversation.html) A Southerner, Shriver brought an unshakeable commitment to the work of reparation to all that he did, especially in bringing scholars like James Cone and Cornell West to Union. 

That’s a long journey from my street corner incident. But a good one.

                                                                                                        ****

Israeli knockoff

Today I wore my same Steeler hat because the game originally scheduled for Thursday night got changed to Sunday to Monday night then Tuesday night then Wednesday afternoon as Covid positives rose in Baltimore. Reaching 20 players…including the quarterback. The Broncos had all 4 quarterbacks out and had to start a rookie wide receiver who hadn’t played quarterback since freshman year of college. And Santa Clara has told the 49ers they cannot play or practice there forcing them to move their operations to Phoenix. Such is big time sports in coronavirusworld. 

My t-shirt is one of my favorites. My son brought it from Israel. I love the missing “H” in ‘pittsburg,” the Hebrew letters, the misunderstood color scheme of logo and graphics. Quirky. And beautiful. The game finally was played.

Labor Day Sunday: Partiality and Prejudice, did Jesus have to learn?

9/6/15

SO…it’s Labor Day weekend. I’m remembering the many times West-Park celebrated Labor to the  pulpit Sunday with special union guests sharing in service leadership. The time our unique music director Bill Schimmel brought in long time union musician and organizer Paul Stein to share old songs with us.  And most recently, our friends from National Movement Against Sweatshops.

What I’m interested in this week is prejudice and partiality. And I start with James, talking about experiences that seem to come directly from his church experience. His critique of favoritism coming from a long tradition within Judaism.

He’s talking about what happens on any given Sunday when you have two visitors, one rich and well-dressed, the other poor.

²For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, ³and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet," ⁴have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 

I love James, the brother of Jesus, because he is so direct.

Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? ⁶But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? ⁷Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

He’s saying that since we have been baptized in the name of Jesus, if we mistreat the poor we’re giving Jesus a bad name, in essence we’re cursing him. We who bear his name become responsible for what is done in that name.

His court reference means something to me too, remembering going with different members of this congregation to housing court, seeing wealthy landlord after wealthy landlord putting people out from their houses, on sometimes flimsy grounds, sometimes just because they couldn’t afford an attorney. I cases where they’d actually paid the rent. Just so the new empty apartment could flip from stabilized or controlled to market rate. And out own experiences in court with all the pressure from judges to settle paying large sums of money we didn't have  just to make it go away.

I think about conversations about should anyone be able to sit in the sanctuary? Or  will their presence make others uncomfortable.? Worry about cleanliness? (Remember: We had over 100 occupiers here for weeks and  never a bed bug….good luck or maybe more….maybe God watches out..)

And once again the royal law, royal because it is the law on which Jesus’ reign is based…"You shall love your neighbor as yourself…and if you don’t do this, you are indeed a transgressor, that this is as important as adultery. Wish we could get that idea across…

SO here it is again The bottom line….¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

(Lutherans vs catholics)

So sandwiched between two feeding stories (of the 5000, of the 4000) we find a story about different bread. Or at least crumbs. Keep an eye on Jesus here. They’re up  northwest of Galilee. A place despised by good Jews. A woman who Is most definitely not a Jew asks Jesus for help. And he responds with the language of prejudice. Of racial epithet.And she calls him on it. Was this compassion fatigue on his part? ( In at least 2 other places where a worn out Jesus is pressed to respond, as in Jairus daughter, Luke 8: 40-56, his response is  different. But those cases were about Jews ) What’s going on here? Did Jesus have to grow? To change? People are very troubled by this  possibility…

Brian Blount, President of Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia…has written a long essay arguing that for Jesus, this is just an elaborate teaching scheme…Well, I just don’t think so…I believe that if indeed as we profess to believe that Jesus was  fully human, then his wisdom and understanding and clarity and judgment just may not be full formed from the first. He needs to experience this,

The empire says us/not us. Not the Jesus’ community where we’re all us.(But how many of  us are ready to go  go beyond Christian inclusivity, IE, Christian/not Christian….

Before we end, I’ve been thinking about the difference between prejudice and Prejudice is all the ways we speak of and refer to those who are not us. Prejudice takes those feelings and has the  power to impose them through policy and institutions.

This year is the 150^th anniversary of the end of civil war…there’s a new examination going on of reconstruction and what it meant. At the very least, we know that it’s not enough to blame it on the south and their race related laws. None of that could have happened unless there was support buy the north. It’s now clear that thee was increasing  anxiety that newly free slaves and lower working class whites would join together in a unified poor workingman’s movement. It had already begun.  Thus Jim Crow laws took on the purpose of separating potential white and black allies.

And even then black elite like Booker T. Washington defined  the problem as one of “race relations” vs reconstruction, justice.  The same issues are with us today, little changed.

Has anyone ever heard of the Labor Temple? In the lost pages of Presbyterian history lies the story of the Labor Temple. …Around the same as this church was coming together in 1910, the Presbytery of New York City responded  to requests of  a number of  committed former mission personnel. Their Labor Temple ran until 1957 long after other similar institutions had ceased to exist.

Charlie Steize, founder, wanted an extension of the church that would  provide hospitality, spiritual guidance and education. He also believed that as minister, it was essential that he and his family live in the temple. ,One of his more popular lecturers there was Will Durant.  His lectures at the Temple would one day become the acclaimed History of Civilization.

A later pastor ,Rev. Dr. Edmund Chafee, founded the Ministers Union of America (AFL/CIO) local 1. Where are they now that I need them? The MUA’s officers included clergy from two other long time activist congregations, Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn and ST. Jame s Harlem. And in line with the Temple’s sense of mission and core values, a number of the city’ rabbis drawn  the desire for a collective expression of fighting for a better world. More just. More humane.  I would like to have known these guys.

I’m proud that there was a Presbyterian Church once did this.

And I’m on the lookout for those who are burning to have a conversation on these and other classic texts.

Let us enjoy the rest of this weekend off.

SECOND READING JAMES 2:1-10 (11-13) 14-17

¹My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?²For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, ³and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet," ⁴have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? ⁶But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? ⁷Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

⁸You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." ⁹But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. ¹¹For the one who said, 'You shall not commit adultery," also said, "You shall not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹²So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? ¹⁵If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, ¹⁶and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

GOSPEL MARK 7:24-37

²⁴From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, ²⁵but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. ²⁶Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." ²⁸But she answered him, "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." ²⁹Then he said to her, "For saying that, you may go — the demon has left your daughter." ³⁰So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

³¹Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. ³²They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. ³⁴Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." ³⁵And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."