Affirmative Action, Sinking Ships, Revenge CPS Calls
KTF Weekly Newsletter
Hi everybody,
The newsletter’s going to be off the next two weeks for a mini summer break, but never fear! In lieu of the usual happy arrival in your inbox, We have some great writing and podcasts of us reading said writing coming your way! So stay tuned, and now, on to this week’s highlights!
Jonathan’s Recommendations:
The latest episode of The Run-Up podcast headed to Iowa, where presidential primary elections will kick off in January, to report on the most important constituency for the Republican Party: evangelical Christians. The host, journalist Astead Herndon, the son of a pastor, is keenly aware of the religious and political enmeshment of American evangelicals. His cultural fluency is on full display in this episode as he interviews evangelical leaders about their outsized political influence and their beliefs about the role of divine authority in determining who sits in the Oval Office. As I listened to the fervency with which the pastors and leaders spoke, I was reminded of how important it is to have diverse voices speaking into my walk with God. The temptation to sanctify our political preferences and power is too great. Certainty is too attractive. Christian Nationalism can feel good and holy to many people, but it is sin, plain and simple.
Speaking of which, late last year, Amanda Tyler, the lead organizer of the Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign, gave congressional testimony on the rise of Christian Nationalism in America. Here is the transcript and here is the video. If you’re white, I would suggest bookmarking this for anytime you need a reminder of how widespread the idolatry of nation is in the American church, or a reminder that there is a movement of people resisting that idol. And if you are a BIPOC who is discouraged by what you see all around you in the pews, this will serve as encouragement. Followers of Jesus leaving colonized faith must have an apologetic against Nationalism’s heresy and white supremacy, and this testimony is part of a good foundation.
As this opinion piece points out, two tragedies occurred at sea last week with very different responses. One garnered a massive international rescue mission, sparked discussion of legislative and corporate policy changes, and seized the collective attention of American media. All this because Five wealthy individuals were lost after they boarded a submersible to view the wreckage of the Titanic. The second tragedy occurred when possibly as many as 750 migrants fleeing poverty, war, and corruption packed a fishing boat bound for Europe, which sank in Greek waters. The disparities between the media coverage, rescue resource allocation, and communal outrage are maddening and almost unfathomable. There was even a Greek Coast Guard vessel monitoring the overcrowded boat, and survivors blame the sinking on its attempts to steady the boat. There are enough resources to care for the most vulnerable people in our world, but the sad reality is we have decided it’s not worth it. Another tattered ship of weary people will surely head to the coasts of Europe this week. My prayer and longing is that they will receive a different response than neglect and rejection.
Sy’s Recommendations:
When I was a public defender in family court, I learned that schools are the most frequent reporters of suspected child neglect. And their reports are by far the least likely to be accurate. In 2020 in New York City, just 24% of reports from school staff result in the child welfare agency finding evidence of neglect, which is an extremely low bar, and doesn’t even take into account cases the agency’s lawyers subsequently refuse to file (happens more than you might think) or cases dismissed by a judge. When the child has a known disability, that 24% drops to 16. And this recent article highlights the number of times that schools call child protective services as revenge, specifically on poor BIPOC families who try to hold the schools accountable for not properly accommodating their disabled children. I had a case just like this (cross-examining the principal and winning at trial was probably the high point of my brief public defender career), and I’m glad to see someone pointing out this phenomenon. The journalist who wrote the article says that she has gotten a ton of additional stories in her inbox since publishing.
Today, the Supreme Court made the consideration of race in college admissions unconstitutional. The Court’s conservatives declared colorblindness the mandate of the Equal Protection Clause, striking another in its long series of blows against attempted remedies for racial injustices. My recommendation here is pretty simple. Read the dissents. The opinion is here. In section I of Justice Sotomayor’s opinion, we get a great history lesson on the many indications that the Congress that passed the Fourteenth Amendment (which contains the Equal Protection Clause) clearly intended the government to consider race in fixing racial disparities. It was later Supreme Court cases that upheld the idea of colorblindness specifically for the purpose of maintaining the status quo: white supremacy. And then just read everything Justice Jackson wrote. It’s a necessary and hard look at the real world of race relations in America’s history and modern day. She argues that affirmative action is needed today specifically because the US for so very long “affirmatively operated—one could say, affirmatively acted—to dole out preferences to those who, if nothing else, were not Black.” Her main point is this: “deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.” I really do thank God that as the Court makes decisions like this, there are at least these brilliant women there to speak the truth. Hopefully, their opinions will find purchase with future courts.
Since I spent a lot of my day reading the affirmative action case and articles about it, my brain did something it does a lot when I spend a long time contemplating big, intractable social problems: it started singing. Today it was the hymn “God is Love.” Here’s Ginney Owens’ version, which I share because 1. It’s good, and 2. She’s blind, which makes me like her more. As civil rights attorney and activist Bryan Stevenson is fond of saying “injustice persists where hopelessness exists.” I think something subconscious in me has figured out that there is a real despair-defying hope in the fact that we commune with and serve a God who is, at his core foundation, a being of love. Let that keep you going today toward the kingdom and justice.
Thanks for reading! We’ll still see you next week, but you’ll get the next newsletter in three weeks. Talk to you all then!
Jonathan and Sy