They are our brothers and the ground is crying out with their blood
From D.W.: One of my goals for this site is to make it feel as relevant as possible to our current times, using Rachel's writing from the past. Sometimes that's easy to do (we still have a lot of school shootings...). Other times it's more difficult. I've wanted to post about the ongoing takeover by our white supremacist fascist government for a while now. I've wanted to let Rachel yell about it because we all know she'd be yelling until she was hoarse. It felt like finding exactly the right piece for exactly this moment was important. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find that perfect gem.
But it hits me now that maybe I don't need it. There are parallels. Other events in our recent past and, in fact, throughout our history that carry the same weight and speak to the same demons. She wrote troves about the BLM movement and the racially motivated killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Alton Sterling, Philando Castille, and far too many others.
Those events weren't exactly like this, but cause was similar. They're all rooted in a supremacist belief that this world belongs to some and not to all, and that the only way to create that world is through violence.
Here's a few things she had to say about it:
Facebook. April 20th. 2021
Know Justice, Know Peace.
No Justice, No Peace.
Jesus, have mercy. Hold us in your love. Give us grace. Save us from our worst selves and keep us from arrogance and hate. Fill us with your presence and courage. Kindle the flames that need to burn and loose the waters that need to quench. Immolate us with your Holy Spirit, that we may burn and not be consumed, to bear witness to the transformative power of love to defeat the love of power. And may the soul of our brother George rest in your presence and Peace.
Amen.
Facebook. April 20th. 2021
Not
One
Step
Back.
Stay in the fight. Invest your whole and precious heart. Onward, for love and for our beloved brothers and sisters. We are not done, not by a damn sight.
Not
One
Step
Back.
Facebook. May 28th. 2020
This is a problem in far too many law enforcement entities. Racist cops need to go. White folk, we need to get loud, we need to get honest, and we need to end this.
The only reason this is allowed to continue is because we are cowards and ashamed. Too many of us are too polite to the racists in our own families, in our offices, in our book clubs, on our greeting card lists. Stop it. We are playing nice with racists who might tell us not to show up for Christmas while our black friends are trying to have unthinkable conversations with their children about the dangers of being black or burying them. We make excuses for their behavior and try to explain why they think the way they do and make it not so awful. There is no excuse for being a racist. Stop it. There is no excuse for not calling out racism every single time you see it. Do it.
We should be stopping those racist conversations and challenging those racist posts and being fine with being uncomfortable about it. Because your or my not wanting to get cross with dear old racist Uncle Sam or having a fight with a parent when they say or do racist garbage—no matter how micro or macro the aggression—is not a good enough reason for black people to be lynched in the streets by people who claim to serve and protect. Do you have any idea how uncomfortable it is to be non-white all the time? I hear we make that really hard. Maybe we should stop being such buttholes. I bet we could if we tried real hard. But we’re going to have to do it every day and we will have to be very uncomfortable around some people we love a lot. Or we can do nothing and black people will just keep being murdered in the streets.
I’m not willing to do nothing. I’m ok with being very uncomfortable. I’m also ok with racists not liking me.
Every time I temper my speech or don’t share a post publicly or denounce racism in my midst with a full-throated roar, I am complicit in these murders. I refuse to do that for a single minute. I’d rather lose everything than be complicit in the murder of my black brothers and sisters. The ground cries out with their blood.
The arresting officer should never have been back on his job after the first murder he committed. Those four men who killed George Floyd in the middle of the street while he begged for his mother and his breath should be in jail for murder. All of them. George Floyd should be alive today.
Facebook. May 7th. 2020
Justice is what love looks like in public. —Cornel West
explitives have not been redacted. act decent in the comments.
We have a long way to go to seek justice for Ahmaud Arbery and far too many innocent black men. He was jogging. Jogging is not a capital crime. But if you are a black person in America, you can be killed just for being black. You can he killed sitting in your own home. Or your own car. Or at Bible study. Or just in your own precious skin—because of your precious skin and nothing else. And sometimes the person who kills you is a cop or wants to be one or thought of as one or adjacent to one. They def think they have authority over the lives and bodies of black people and that is not ok. And I am sick to my heart that in 2020 this is the kind of absolutely inexcusable bullshit that happens every damn day.
Ya’ll. Ahmaud died in FEBRUARY. And only until the last few days have any of us even heard about this. And shamed a law enforcement entity to do the right thing. Can you imagine how many families of murdered black men never even have an arrest in their cases? One is too damn many. Black men matter. Their lives matter. They deserve to be here. They are our brothers and the ground is crying out with their blood.
I started paying attention to the problem of police brutality toward black men when I was 12 and watched footage of four white police officers brutalize Rodney King. I was mortified that those things still happened. I lived in some kind of bubble land where police stopped beating people and who’re people stopped killing or beating or cheating or cussing or generally being hateful to black people sometime after my parents finished high school and when I was born in 1978.
The older I’ve gotten, the more I have learned what a sinful and unholy lie that was. Far too many people accept and market and believe the lie that no one just kills someone for being black. But that happens every. damn. day and I am sick of it. It is one of the prime indicators of our levels of cruelty and racism and denial and it grows every day.
White friends—If you aren’t actively speaking out about this, checking in with your friends of color—if you aren’t actively weeping over these deaths and trying to dismantle or share or offer up your privilege, you are actively agreeing that these killings are ok. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.
He should be turning 26. He should be getting his mom flowers and some perfume for Mother’s’ Day. But he’s not. He’s dead in the ground because three guys in two pickup trucks decided a black man had no business running in that neighborhood—no business living. They murdered him in the street and filmed it. And those white men all slept in their beds that night. May they never sleep another decent night in their lives. It is unlikely that Ahmaud’s mother or family or friends will—not for a long time.
I’m praying for Jesus to meet the family of Ahmaud Arbery and speak to their hearts in this midst of this unimaginable and tragic moment. And I’m praying to forgive all my white friends who are being far too silent about this. Your time is up.
