A Pastoral Letter to White Americans

[Zaac]

The stories of young black men being killed by white police are sparking a national conversation. However, public responses to these painful stories reveal an alarming racial divide. From an unarmed teenager killed in Ferguson, Mo.; to a 12 year-old boy shot dead in Cleveland; to a white police officer on video choking a black man to death in New York City; and a startling series of similar stories from across the country and over many decades — our reactions show great differences in white and black perspectives.

Many white Americans tend to see this problem as unfortunate incidents based on individual circumstances. Black Americans see a system in which their black lives matter less than white lives. That is a fundamental difference of experience between white and black Americans, between black and white parents, even between white and black Christians. The question is: Are we white people are going to listen or not?

White Americans talk about how hard and dangerous police work is — that most cops are good and are to be trusted. Black Americans agree that police work is dangerously hard, but also have experienced systemic police abuse of their families. All black people, especially black men, have their own stories. Since there are so many stories, are these really just isolated incidents? We literally have two criminal justice systems in America — one for whites and one for blacks.

Are there police uses of force that are understandable and justifiable? Of course there are. If our society wasn’t steeped in a gun culture, many of these shootings could be avoided. But has excessive, unnecessary, lethal force been used over and over again, all across the country, with white police killing unarmed black civilians? Yes it has, and the evidence is overwhelming. But will we white people listen to it?

Will white parents try to imagine how it would feel to have “the talk,” to tell their own children that they shouldn’t trust those who are supposed to serve and protect them? That’s hard to listen to, hard to hear, hard to recognize the legitimacy of other parents’ experiences when they are so different from your own.

It’s time to listen — for us white Americans to listen to black Americans; for white parents to listen to black parents; for white Christians to listen to black Christians. This may be the most important thing we have ever had to do: to listen, really listen.

Do we believe what we say about the unity of “the body of Christ” or not? In the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 12 speaks of one body with many members.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ…. For the body does not consist of one member but of many… As it is, there are many parts, yet one body… that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (RSV)”

Another version of 1 Corinthians 12:26 translates,

“If one part suffers every part shares its suffering.”

What would it mean to share in the suffering of our brothers and sisters of color who suffer from a racialized criminal justice system?

Racial reconciliation is a commitment at the heart of the gospel. If we say we belong to Christ, that mission of reconciliation is ours too. What does racial reconciliation mean now in the face of America’s racial divide over policing and the criminal justice system?

Let’s get practical. If you have African Americans at your workplace or at your church, ask them to please talk to you about this, to tell you their stories — then listen. If you don’t have any black or other members of color in your church, it’s time to ask why. Reach out — and ask your pastor to reach out — to black and Hispanic churches in your community or city. We must find safe and authentic ways to hear each others’ stories, across the racial boundaries of our churches.

Reach out sensitively to black parents at your children’s schools. Ask to hear their stories. Talk to the black parents of your children’s classmates and teammates. Or maybe it’s time to realize not having children of color at your children’s school or on their teams is a big part of the problem. Parents talking to parents and hearing each others’ stories may be the most important key to moving forward in the church and in the nation.

White people need to stop talking so much, stop defending the systems that protect and serve them, and stop saying “I’m not a racist.” If white people turn a blind eye to systems that are racially biased, we can’t be absolved from the sin of racism. Listen to the people the criminal justice system fails to serve and protect; try to see the world as they do. Loving our neighbors means identifying with their suffering, meeting them in it, and working together to change it. And, for those of us who are parents, loving our neighbors means loving other people’s kids as much as we love our own.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/a-pastoral-letter-to-whit_b_6315396.html

Long but a good read.

 

[righteousdude2]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/a-pastoral-letter-to-whit_b_6315396.html

Long but a good read.

Seriously ..... how many black men are killed each year by cops?

How many black men have gunds or knifes when killed by cops?

How many black men do not have any kind of weapon .... and are killed by another black man?

Give me some numbers to referrence Zaac, and then we'll see if this is as out of control as those protesting want us to believe.

 

[Zaac]

Seriously ..... how many black men are killed each year by cops?

Seriously, if you want to know, look it up.

How many black men have gunds or knifes when killed by cops?

How many don't?

How many black men do not have any kind of weapon .... and are killed by another black man?

How many white men do not have any kind of weapon and are killed by another white man?

White people kill white people. Black people kill black people. Chinese people kill Chinese people. Hispanics kill Hispanics.

Point being, the red herring has nothing to do with cops killing unarmed black men.

Give me some numbers to reference Zaac, and then we'll see if this is as out of control as those protesting want us to believe.

This is perhaps part of the problem that so many in the black community have with white folks and their prejudices that they refuse to see. If it was to denigrate them and complain about them being so much more violent or so many more times likely to be murderers, some of yall could quickly find "statistics" that you think supports your point of view.

But part of the white privilege narrative that we refuse to accept is that some of us really don't care. For if you did, you'd look up the statistics yourself because that's what we do when something matters to us.

So pull yourself out of the fake concern mode and look it up if it means a hill of beans to ya.

Like the guy said. Stop talking so much and listen for a change.

The right never listens to anything that the black community says and they know this. They know that the response is always going to be the GOP narrative of if they would just behave, or if they would just respect the cops, or if they cared more for their communities, or if there were fathers raising their kids, or if they took responsibility and stopped blaming everybody else.

They've heard it all before and are aware that it means just what they believe: the right isn't listening and doesn't really care because white privilege has blinded them . If Blacks are experiencing this everyday and you go into white neighborhoods and the same sort of treatment isn't taking place, then Houston, we have a problem.

And now the world knows it. And that's why you've got black, white, yellow, and every other color skin around the globe protesting.

The genie is out of the bottle. ANd now the world knows it. Don't feign outrage about the senseless killing of the unborn and think it's gonna mean squat to anyone when they see just how little, if at all, the Rev Mitchells, and the carpros, and the righteousdudes, and the Oldregulars, and the church mouse guys, and the just want peaces of the evangelical political right cares about those outside the womb.

 

[Salty]

...Give me some numbers to referrence Zaac, and then we'll see if this is as out of control as those protesting want us to believe.

Sounds like a reasonable request.

Or is it the facts will get in the way of opinion.

BTW, I did post some actual facts previously -....

 

[Sapper Woody]

I'll be honest, I read right up to the two lines that said an unarmed teenager shot, and a man choked to death. The very wording was biased, and sensationalist. Was going to read the whole thing, but when I saw those words, I knew I didn't have to.

 

[Rolfe]

I'll be honest, I read right up to the two lines that said an unarmed teenager shot, and a man choked to death. The very wording was biased, and sensationalist. Was going to read the whole thing, but when I saw those words, I knew I didn't have to.

Yep. First paragraph is enough to understand the point.

 

[Rolfe]

Give me some numbers to referrence Zaac, and then we'll see if this is as out of control as those protesting want us to believe.

Sounds like a reasonable request.

Also interested.

 

[Revmitchell]

Guys Zaac has revealed himself as an extremist with some very troubling posts. You really need to leave him alone. I suspect he will not be around much longer should he persist.

 

[Zaac]

I'll be honest, I read right up to the two lines that said an unarmed teenager shot, and a man choked to death. The very wording was biased, and sensationalist. Was going to read the whole thing, but when I saw those words, I knew I didn't have to.

And thus the deterioration of race relations. Blacks attempt to tell you what their experience is, and we say "I don't want to hear it" or something else that amounts to I'm not going to listen to anything you have to say unless it's what I want to hear you say, or you're not due the respect of me really listening to you.

But then we wonder why a lot of Blacks insist that there is systemic racial prejudice. I think you just demonstrated perfectly why Blacks speak of white privilege and systemic racial prejudice and flat out racism.

If it's anything but the narrative that the majority wants to hear, it's discounted and pushed to the side as though their reality just doesn't matter or at least doesn't deserve the time of day.

 

[Zaac]

Sounds like a reasonable request.

Or is it the facts will get in the way of opinion.

BTW, I did post some actual facts previously -....

Pure foolishness and the mindset of folks who wouldn't think it was an epidemic unless their sons and daughters were the ones getting shot and killed.

So lets reverse the trend and 5, 50 or 500 unarmed white people start getting killed every year. Let's let the police start driving up in white suburbia and shooting kids with air soft guns cause there's certainly a lot of them.

It's not a reasonable request. It's a reasonable, white privileged excuse to say again "Oh we political conservatives value the life of the unborn, but you can kill 4 or 500 black people, and we simply don't think that's out of control".

But now it's on display for the whole world to see.

 

[Rolfe]

Zaac- Why not simply cite some statistics? You do not help your case by dancing around it.

 

[Bro. Curtis]

This is the worst piece of crap I've had the displeasure of reading.

This is as bad as the time you added to Christ's words on the cross.

To my permanent killfile with you.

 

[Zaac]

Zaac- Why not simply cite some statistics? You do not help your case by dancing around it.

Rolf, I'm not trying to make a case for the statistics. I'm pointing to the fact that a lot of white people tend to not listen to what black people are saying when it comes to race.

What statistics are gonna mean anything if people aren't even willing to admit the reality of what Blacks feel they are experiencing?

If I said 1000 a year, some would claim that to hardly be out of control.
If I said more blacks have been killed by police than all of the Jim Crow lynchings, excuses would be made.

No amount of statistics is going to mean anything to a lot of white people because it's not their sons and husbands being shot and left to lie in the street like a dog.

Remember how quickly white America responded when the knockout game was targeting Whites? That's kinda how Blacks feel about the police.

No matter what the reality of Blacks is, there are those who are gonna contend that it's all on them and that systemic racial prejudices and racism has nothing to do with it.

So statistics are futile. This is about people not listening. I read an essay the other day and it really explained the dynamic well.

To white America, in the main, police are the folks who help get our cats out of the tree, or who take us on ride-arounds to show us how gosh-darned exciting it is to be a cop. We experience police most often as helpful, as protectors of our lives and property. But that is not the black experience by and large; and black people know this, however much we don’t.

The history of law enforcement in America, with regard to black folks, has been one of unremitting oppression. That is neither hyperbole nor opinion, but incontrovertible fact. From slave patrols to overseers to the Black Codes to lynching, it is a fact. From dozens of white-on-black riots that marked the first half of the 20th century (in which cops participated actively) to Watts to Rodney King to Abner Louima to Amadou Diallo to the railroading of the Central Park 5, it is a fact. From the New Orleans Police Department’s killings of Adolph Archie to Henry Glover to the Danziger Bridge shootings there in the wake of Katrina to stop-and-frisk in places like New York, it’s a fact.

And the fact that white people don’t know this history, have never been required to learn it, and can be considered even remotely informed citizens without knowing it, explains a lot about what’s wrong with America. Black people have to learn everything about white people just to stay alive.

They especially and quite obviously have to know what scares us, what triggers the reptilian part of our brains and convinces us that they intend to do us harm. Meanwhile, we need know nothing whatsoever about them. We don’t have to know their history, their experiences, their hopes and dreams, or their fears. And we can go right on being oblivious to all that without consequence. It won’t be on the test, so to speak.

 

[Zaac]

This is the worst piece of crap I've had the displeasure of reading.

This is as bad as the time you added to Christ's words on the cross.

To my permanent killfile with you.

Hallelujah. I don't have to see any more of your comments. Yippeee!!!:wavey:

 

[Bro. Curtis]

Zaac- Why not simply cite some statistics? You do not help your case by dancing around it.

You cannot reason with hatred.

 

[Zaac]

You cannot reason with hatred.

Spoken like one of those true liberal gay folks the political right is always complaining about because they complain about "hate".

Pretty consistent of folks who don't listen.

 

[Bro. Curtis]

I'll be honest, I read right up to the two lines that said an unarmed teenager shot, and a man choked to death. The very wording was biased, and sensationalist. Was going to read the whole thing, but when I saw those words, I knew I didn't have to.

Yup. Typical hate-whitey crap from the ill-informed, hyper racial bait "it's your fault" crowd.

Total crap. Some folks can lie with such a straight face it is horrifying.

 

[Scarlett O.]

I read the whole thing. Twice.

I listened.

I felt it was biased.

Why do I need to stop talking because I'm white? Why must I stop saying that I am not a racist because I am white?

Because I am talking does not mean that I don't listen.

Because I listen doesn't forbid me from talking.

Yes, everyone has a story. Everyone should be heard.

But those who speak must speak the truth - painful, hard to hear, or not - and it must be without sensation, bias, or with an intent to incite.

 

[Sapper Woody]

And thus the deterioration of race relations. Blacks attempt to tell you what their experience is, and we say "I don't want to hear it" or something else that amounts to I'm not going to listen to anything you have to say unless it's what I want to hear you say, or you're not due the respect of me really listening to you.

But then we wonder why a lot of Blacks insist that there is systemic racial prejudice. I think you just demonstrated perfectly why Blacks speak of white privilege and systemic racial prejudice and flat out racism.

If it's anything but the narrative that the majority wants to hear, it's discounted and pushed to the side as though their reality just doesn't matter or at least doesn't deserve the time of day.

Zaac, you couldn't be more wrong. It's not "This isn't what I want to hear", it's "This guy is so biased that he won't listen to reason."



Whoever wrote that piece used wordings that were intentionally inflammatory, and painted a false picture. In fact, he outright ignored fact and lied.



How are you supposed to reason with someone who isn't interested in a two-way discussion?

 

[Bro. Curtis]

How are you supposed to reason with someone who isn't interested in a two-way discussion?

Amen, SW. Amen. :thumbsup:

The O/P is a load.