KTF Weekly Newsletter: Affirmative Action for the Rich, Vaccine Apartheid, Breaking Wheelchairs
Hi everybody,
We’re getting right into it this week. Here are our highlights for helping us leave colonized faith for the Kingdom of God:
Jonathan’s recommendations:
“A White Woman Told Me She Doesn’t 'Think of’ Me as Black. Here’s How I Reacted” tells a deeply moving and personal story by Laura Cathcart Robbins. In this HuffPost personal essay, she describes the daily reality of navigating spaces where lines of race and class intersect; and how race affects your place in our society regardless of how much money you have. She writes, “Irrespective of the neighborhood in which I live, regardless of how articulate I might seem, all I am and all I ever will be to some people is Black.” This was prompted by the statement, “It’s funny, I don’t really ever think of you as Black. I’ve always just seen you as one of us.” And it is this tension that winds its way throughout the essay to an ugly truth. What must not be lost in conversations about systemic racism is its daily, personal impact. Therefore, essays like this one illuminate the reality that just as colonization and the race and class norms that come with it are unrelenting, so too must be our resolve to resist.
This recent Boston Globe article captures in great detail the move by Amherst President, Biddy Martin, to end the consideration of legacy during her school’s admissions process, as well as the movement to affect this change involving people like scholar Richard Kahlenberg who edited the book Affirmative Action for the Rich, and activists like Andy Nguyen from EdMobilizer. To do true justice work requires all of these forces working in tandem, not just to hold power to account, but cast vision and create concrete opportunities for a different future. Nguyen “hopes Amherst is the first in a long line of selective schools that stop legacy admissions.” I too hope many schools follow suit.
The notion of a “vaccine apartheid” has been raised on the floor of the United Nations and by the head of the World Health Organization. But that idea doesn’t refer to government policies. This is about one man and his foundation that have an outsized role in global health and the distribution of the COVID vaccine. In an interview, investigative reporter, Tim Schwab, asserts that The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation functions more like an investment firm than a non-profit and gives more money to Americans than those in Africa. For followers of Jesus, the poor are supposed to always be among us at His table where all people are included. With COVID and the global response, we see the entrenched opposite reality and there is much work to be done.
Sy’s recommendations:
Let’s talk about representation in representation. There have not been a whole lot of visibly or openly disabled senators or congresspeople throughout history. But when there are, there is a much higher chance of Congress spotlighting issues important to disabled people. Case in point: disabled Senator Tammy Duckworth just last week was in Business Insider talking about the persistent problem of airlines frequently breaking disabled passengers’ wheelchairs in transit (go back if you think you read that incorrectly), and she was on The Daily Show arguing against the exception to the minimum wage for disabled people (again, go back if you’re unsure). I urge taking the time with these links to learn a little from Senator Duckworth on these topics about which most people know very little, if anything at all.
This is the second time I’ve recommended a Michael Harriot article, and this one is exceptionally poignant and important, even by his standards. It’s also not one of his funnier pieces probably because it’s in The Guardian, but also because it’s on a more serious topic: the complex feelings of Black Americans toward the recently-deceased Colon Powell. Harriet writes, “That Powell is considered an honorable man worthy of respect in death while epitomizing the abhorrent actions of an abominable administration is not hard to understand. He is a war-mongering nationalist who is also a symbol of American valor. For Black people in America, the two seemingly contradictory characterizations are not mutually exclusive.” The article elaborates this point and argues it is why Black people often supported and identified with Powell, but never wanted to vote for him.
A couple recent articles from RNS shed some interesting light on the religious practices of Gen Z. Analyzing the results of a recent survey, two writers, including one of the researchers connected to the survey, argue that trust of religious institutions among young people is extremely low, even among those affiliated with organized religion. But trust of religious leaders with whom they have a personal relationship is extremely high. The authors advise ministers build relational authority instead of relying on institutional authority (a good practice in any case), and not chastising young people’s ever-increasing experimentation around spiritual and religious practice. For the second article, the researcher is joined by ministers and activists William Barber II and A. Kazimir Brown to discuss the survey’s findings about how Gen Z connects their increasing political and protest activity with their faith, even as they leave organized religion in droves. The authors’ suggestion to clergy? Meet Gen Z in the streets.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next week!
The KTF team