KTF Weekly Newsletter: When white People Think You’re One of Them, Melting a Monument, The Dangerous Dorothy Day
Hi everybody,
Jonathan and Sy recorded the Christmas bonus episode of Shake the Dust on Monday, which subscribers will have access to next week. It will be all about the revolutionary act of the incarnation. And Jonathan does another poem, which is incredible as always! But let’s get to this week’s highlights to help us leave colonized faith for the Kingdom of God.
Jonathan’s recommendations:
Miriam Zinter is a Black woman who passes as white, so many white people speak to her as if she is one of them. But the freedom with which they say racist things around her offers her unusual access and opportunities for advocacy against the casual white supremacy that operates around us in the intimacies of everyday life. This essay she recently published opens with a daunting encounter with her neighbor who said, “Why do you have a ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign on your front lawn when all those people do is kill each other?” What happens next is a masterclass in self-control, self-awareness, discipline, and an assuredness to which every person should aspire.
Last week, an episode of Vox’s daily podcast, Today Explained, asks a searing question that highlights tension I have felt for a while now: what do we do with all of the stolen artifacts that sit in the world’s most prestigious museums far, far away from the people and places that produced them? Apparently returning them isn’t the favorite option of those who stole them; but it is certainly the increasing desire of those longing to be reconnected to their history and heritage. Host Sean Rameswaram discusses the Benin Bronzes, which sit in the British Museum after they were violently looted from their original homes in Nigeria. As followers of Jesus who value repentance and reconciliation, this is a very practical opportunity to see those values lived out.
The Black Wall Street Times reported that the infamous Robert E. Lee statue that once stood in downtown Charlottesville will be melted down to create art that is redemptive and aspirational. The new piece will be titled “Swords Into Ploughshares,” and the community will have input on its design. Charlottesville is where the 2017 Unite the Right rally left one woman dead, scores injured, and a community in tatters. It is now taking steps to engage with its history and cast a different vision for the future. Jesus followers should look to engage in prayerful resistance over the long term to remove symbols of hatred and racism. And we can find inspiration in these leaders to persevere even in the face of entrenched, institutional racism.
Sy’s recommendations:
The comfort in which the richest people in the world live has always necessitated the exploitation of others. In a recent article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, a quote from an attorney representing farm workers reminds us that the affordable prices of food we see in our local grocery stores often reflects agricultural companies lowering their costs via labor trafficking. A federal indictment recently accused 24 people in Georgia of perpetrating a human trafficking ring by exploiting certain immigration laws, and the attorney says those 24 are the tip of the iceberg. Fortunately, the current administration is shifting its immigration enforcement priorities toward fighting the labor exploitation of immigrants, and away from mass deportations of undocumented workers. But as the article points out, that shift is only as certain as the whims of those in power. This is one of the many reasons why the Church needs to continue to stand up for the rights and dignity of the immigrants in our midst, and denounce the politics of fear that currently has so many congregations in its grasp.
In January 2020, Los Angelas County prosecutors received a bizarre and alarming referral from the Torrance, CA police department. The allegation was that two police officers had seized a car as evidence on a case, and then spray painted a swastika on the back seat before having the car impounded. The prosecutors had the presence of mind to think that such behavior doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and started looking into the officers’ text messages. As a direct result of that choice, the prosecutors have dropped 85 active cases and are reviewing dozens more for possible dismissal. What did they find in the texts? Years of absolutely vile messages between at least 18 officers containing racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, and possibly admissions to unjustified uses of force and lying under oath. Four of those officers are now defendants in their own criminal cases, and investigations into the others are pending. A content warning on this LA Times article on the whole story: some of the text messages are quoted right at the top of the article. They are more jarring than you might expect. Of particular note to me was the article’s statement that an unknown number of additional officers received many of these text messages, but did not respond and are therefore not under investigation. In a department of 227 officers, the way these individuals spoke was known to many, yet nothing was done. This is one of the reasons the “bad apples” narrative about police does not hold up under scrutiny. Sin doesn’t go away when it is known and left to its own devices. Quite the opposite.
The Catholic Worker movement is a network of organizations across North America, Europe, and Oceania dedicated to hospitality toward the marginalized, non-violence, and economic equality. One of its founders, Dorothy Day, is officially under consideration for sainthood by the Vatican as of this month. This fact is somewhat ironic. As this opinion piece from the National Catholic Reporter points out, Day was well aware of the dangers of being an exemplar of the faith. "If you're a saint, then you must be impractical and utopian, and nobody has to pay any attention to you,” she says in the article’s opening lines. Moreover, Brian Terrell, the author and a Catholic Worker himself, argues that the process of her canonization has run parallel to a process of officials within the Church diluting her radical dedication to the poor through spreading misinformation and half truths. The greed and power of many institutions justify themselves in subtle ways, and Terrell is right to be on the lookout for a stark contrast between the words and actions of a hero on the one hand, and a gilded public persona on the other. The latter will challenge very few people in power to change the status quo in any meaningful way.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next week!
The KTF team