Dear Union Community,
Illustrations by Shirien Creates
If you have been able to read or watch the news over these last few weeks, but particularly this week, your newsfeed has been filled with horrific events including the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, as well as the racist event in Central Park with Amy Cooper calling the police on Christian Cooper following his request to have her put her dog on leash in a bird sanctuary and area of the park where this is law. My heart is burdened as these events have unfolded, as once again the structures of our country are laid bare to reveal the racial underpinnings that disadvantage, and kill, our Black brothers and sisters.
At the end of this letter, there will be a number of ways that you can respond, which I believe are very important. Our actions as a community that loves Christ, demand us to respond. But before we jump to action, I believe there is also a need to stop and take time to reflect deeply about our role as citizens in this country. For my white brothers and sisters, we have work to do.
Reverend Lina Thompson, Head Pastor of Lake Burien Presbyterian Church, wrote a letter to her congregation and emphasized the importance of white people (in her congregation and beyond) "to begin the journey of 'interrogating whiteness' (how it influences power, privilege and access)." She goes on to say that "I'm convinced this is part of the discipleship process and God redeeming his image in all of us and freeing all of us into the fullness of life." We (white people) must begin to reflect deeply on what we have learned about race, how we benefit from the same system that kills Black men and women, and to begin to see what our role is in maintaining this system and in dismantling it. "In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist. We must be anti-racist." Angela Davis
Each of our histories will be different in how we were raised to acknowledge race. Some may say that you were taught to "not see color" or to be "color-blind." Perhaps my upbringing was a direct result of those same ideas, because as I have reflected over the last week about my relationship to race, I realize that in my family, we did not talk about it. I grew up feeling like we were in a post-racial era, that my opportunities were everyone's opportunities, and I was free to have friends of any skin color. This rosy picture of life was confirmed by the history books that I read and was mirrored in the media I consumed, and allowed me to navigate primary school, college, work, and purchasing a home in this bubble of whiteness that led me to believe that my opportunities were deserved, earned and accessible to those who deserve them as well. I was not given the tools to see deeper than skin deep, and to understand the racial underpinnings that impact education, economics, social placement in neighborhoods, health outcomes, policing policies, and wealth disparities.
We each have to start somewhere on this journey towards Anti-Racism. And for white people, we have the important work of understanding how, in each and every situation and interaction, our skin being white provides us power and privilege, opportunity and safety. We cannot work to undo this system that devalues, shames, excludes, marginalizes, injures and kills people of color, until we can see it. Develop the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the heart to acknowledge this reality so that we can participate in dismantling racism. Our brothers' and sisters' lives literally depend on it.
Below are ideas of how to begin interrogating whiteness, and how to join the conversation that is happening at Union. There are podcasts, books, movies, forums for discussion, and as always, members in the Union community committed to dialoguing about race and justice. Find a way to start this work and let's be accountable to each other and to the larger community.
With peace,
Nichelle Keatley, Elder of Union Church