KTF Weekly Newsletter: Slavery in the 60’s, Redwoods Reparations, Crenshaw and Cone
Hi everybody,
We want to start by acknowledging the pain and fear a lot of our Asian American siblings are feeling, particularly our sisters, following the tragic murder of Christina Yuna Lee. We are praying and listening as people mourn. We are not going to come up with more concise or humane words than Kathy Khang did, so we will leave you hers. For those of you who want to learn more and engage around anti-Asian racism, Jonathan has previously pointed readers to Stop AAPI Hate, and we do so again.
And now, here are this week’s highlights.
Sy’s recommendations:
Roy Mong has written a two-part essay for the Front Porch (here’s part one, and here’s two) on his journey through processing the particular harm and attendant grief experienced by so many Asian Americans in white Christian organizations. He reflects poignantly on the pressure he and his parents felt to assimilate, coming to terms with the ways that that pressure is destructive. He also outlines how he is now thinking of reshaping his identity and theology to better reflect the lived reality of Asian Americans, as well as his own dignity and place in God’s creation. And the essay is packed full of links to other books and articles if you are interested in reading more.
Some of you may have recently seen the trailer for the movie Alice, which comes out in March. In it, Keke Palmer plays a slave on a nineteenth century plantation who escapes to discover that it’s 1973. So I thought I would bring up this 2018 article that highlights some of the true stories on which the script writers based the movie’s premise. Just as the transatlantic slave trade to America did not end in 1808 when it was outlawed, and we still have the Jim Crow policy of felon disenfranchisement to this day, antebellum slavery persisted in some remote corners of the South into the 1960’s. Just like the rise of segregation, this happened due to America’s persistent refusal to thoroughly repent and root out evil.
Jonathan’s recommendations:
Award-winning recording artist India Arie appeared on the Daily Show this week. After the fascinating 36-minute interview, the show’s writers decided to throw out that day’s plans and let the conversation take up the entire episode. Here are the video and the podcast versions! With artists like Neil Young pulling their music from Spotify because of COVID misinformation on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Arie took aim at the platform for different reasons – Rogan’s racism and Spotify’s compensation of artists. Her viral compilation of instances where Rogen used the n-word and racist epithets with no hesitation turned the heat up on the debate concerning his problematic content. She also shed light on the reality that some artists make as little as $0.003 per play while Rogen received a $100 million contract for his show. Followers of Jesus must be willing to take the time to slow down and consider someone’s intentions, arguments, and impact in thoughtful conversation. Arie does that here in a beautiful, costly, and engaging way.
Rarely are ancestral lands returned to those who inhabited them in the first place, but that’s exactly what happened to 523 acres in Mendocino County, California reports Isabella Grullón Paz for the New York Times. The Save the Redwoods League bought the tract of land using large corporate donations in 2020 after spending a long time cultivating relationships with the logging family who owned it. The league then transferred ownership to the Intertribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council in January 2022. So many of us need a more robust imagination for reconciliation that includes returning what was taken. Pray for more examples like this of justice and shalom being restored through reparations.
Suzie’s recommendations:
For those seeking an understanding of critical race theory (CRT) that extends beyond partisan culture wars, this episode of Kimberlé Crenshaw’s podcast, Intersectionality Matters!, features a panel discussion that brings together some of the seminal scholars behind CRT. The discussion illuminates not only what CRT is and how it is applied, but also why it is such a powerful tool in the pursuit of justice. Even more strikingly, each of the panelists share how their personal and professional journeys led them to examine the intersection of race and law. The conversation includes stories like Anthony Cook getting harassed by police on the way home from a gospel choir performance, Robert A. Williams asking why he was one of the first indigenous students at Harvard Law, and young Crenshaw noting that Black women are consistently the most disenfranchised by our legal system. All of these accounts put flesh on intellectual debates that have become increasingly weaponized in the political arena.
There are some books that belong in every decolonized library. James Cone’s classic work, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, is one of them. For those residing in the United States, it is a painfully prophetic and chilling exposé of our nation’s history of white supremacy and racial violence, viewed through the symbolic lens of the sufferings of Christ. For those outside of America, it is a stunning work of contextual theology that challenges any faith that is merely cerebral without being alive and active — without being attuned to the struggles of the marginalized, the persecuted, and the downtrodden. Cone provides his readers with a robust theological account that embraces suffering and doubt without being consumed or subsumed by either. It is a rich book in both the literary and spiritual sense. It will cause you to wrestle and to weep.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
The KTF team