The 60-Second Sabbath

On Becoming an Anti-Racist: Part Twenty

Empathize.

This is the message
    in Moe Gram's mural
at Denver's Black Love Mural Project.

Empathize with you and them.

To feel empathy
    is to feel with another,
to understand their experience fully enough
    to "feel along."

It's a basic--and critical--human skill,
    without which we are doomed
to prejudice, hatred, conflict.

Note that Gram doesn't just say,
    "Empathize with them";
he says,
    "Empathize with you and them."

Empathy for ourselves
    is as important as empathy for others.
Know thyself;
    come to grips with your own fears, your own hopes.
Without thoughtful, compassionate self-examination,
    we can't know what it is
that blocks our empathy for others.
    We're too occupied preserving our ego
rather than gently acknowledging it
    and choosing to set it aside.

Set it aside to listen.
    Set it aside to understand.
Set it aside to be more completely human.
    Set it aside to empathize.

Empathize with you and them.

Thank you, Moe.    

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On Becoming an Anti-Racist: Part Nineteen

Bishop Rob Wright,
    of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta
(in an address last week
    to the Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado),
spoke of hope.

I need hope.

When watching what is happening in and to our country
    when learning what has been true of our country
I easily slip into despair.

Bishop Wright shook me out of that:

God is here
    despite our fear and anxiety.
Whatever is happening,
    God is greater.

God has a plan,
    and God's plans are always rooted
in who God is (love and compassion)
    and what God has done (deliverance and justice).

This is God,
    and therefore this is what is real:

        Emancipation.        Mercy.

            Redemption.            Transformation.

        Garbage turns to Gold.                    

            The lynching tree becomes the tree of life.

Yes, God is bigger than loss, fear, sickness.

Depression and discouragement
    are natural responses to what is happening,
but not despair.
    Despair is the absence of hope;
as long as we have hope,
    there is no room for despair.

So, I have hope because...
    God.

God transforms,
    brings rebirth and life,
heals.

I may need to borrow some hope from you--
    and perhaps you from me.

God is alive and active.
God is alive and active.
God is alive and active.

Text and image © 2020 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
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On Becoming an Anti-Racist: Part Eighteen

All my life
    I've been judging people,
concluding things about individuals--
    and groups--
and, in the process,
    dismissing them as "less than":

        Those people are lazy.
        She shouldn't eat that doughnut.
        They're white trash.
        He's a redneck.
        Druggie.
        Idiot.

Why have I done this to people?

Easy answer:
    It's how I learned to deal with
my own insecurity--
    tear someone else down
to lift myself up;
    I can feel better about me
if I know others are less competent, less moral, 
    less compassionate, less motivated, blah, blah, blah...

Think of the hundreds of tweets from the president--
    belittling, insulting, name-calling, dismissing--
and imagine the mountain of insecurity and self-doubt
    these tweets are attempting to overcome.

It must be hell.

Don't we all do this?
    Or is it only Dirk and Donald?

Stop judging.

Prejudice thrives on our judgment;
    racism feeds on our judgment.

I am, these days, intentionally interrupting judgments
    as I feel them intruding:
when driving, walking, watching the news,
    I tell myself, "Stop," and then pray something like this:

        "Help me give up this damaging behavior,
            and bless the one I was about to dismiss."

My value comes from the simple fact
    that I exist:
God created me
   and loves me.
God created
    and loves the one
I was about to judge.

This is enough.

Text and image © 2020 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
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On Becoming an Anti-Racist: Part Seventeen

Racial inequality
    benefits whites
at the expense of
    people of of color.

Isn't that great?

    We don't have to worry
        that our race will be held against us.

    We can move about freely
        in those spaces considered "normal" or "neutral."

    Our race is held up as "the norm."

    We can trust the police
        will assume the best about us
    in encounters we may have with them.

    When surrounded by other whites
        (in safe, insulated spaces),
    we can pretend "the race problem"
        is "their problem,"
    and therefore not own the responsibility
        to change it.

Isn't that great?
    Many whites think it is.
People of faith know it's not.

Racial inequality
    benefits whites
at the expense of
    people of of color.

Text and image © 2020 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
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On Becoming an Anti-Racist: Part Sixteen

 

CAWS

I propose we create a new organization:

    Christians against White Supremacy

or CAWS for short.

Our logo/mascot
    will be the common crow,
who, as you know,
    caws.

As Christians,
    we share this common CAWS.

Every time you hear a crow caw
    you will know it is speaking out against
white supremacy.

    Caw, caw!
        I condemn white supremacy!

For, as Christians,
    we are indeed called to condemn
all systems and movements
    that exist to suppress, oppress
any identified group,
    any system that seeks
to maintain control over others
    for their own benefit.

I hope that all Christians
    can immediately and wholeheartedly say:

    I condemn white supremacy.

In fact, I'm wondering
    if that could be a helpful way
to identify fellow believers:
    Can you say, with me,

    I condemn white supremacy.

Will you say it with me now, aloud:

    I condemn white supremacy.

And then, say it aloud some time today
    with your family,
with a friend,
    when you gather with other believers:

    I condemn white supremacy.

Why is it
    that so many who claim the title Christian
are not preaching, teaching, shouting this?

I wonder...

    Caw! Caw!

 

 

Text and image © 2020 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
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On Becoming an Anti-Racist: Part Fifteen

I have nothing more eloquent to say
    than this:

"We have to figure out
    how we're going to make things right
for all the people of this country.

"We all here on borrowed land."

Text and image © 2020 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
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