Last night, a 21 year old man joined a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. He then proceeded to shoot and kill nine people, intentionally not killing everyone so that they could tell the story.
This is our world.
This is terrorism. And that’s not an extreme word. It is terrorism rooted in injustice towards the black community that has existed in our country since the beginning. Our country was founded on this injustice — “liberty and justice for all” meant for white, male, property holders. Some of that “property” was people.
As a white person, I participate in this every day. It is ingrained in my culture, in the way I was raised. That is a painful truth to come to terms with — it is not one that should lead to guilt, but one that should lead to action. Action, though, that doesn’t put me into a place of power, but action that steps behind my black sisters and brothers. This is something that I am still waking up to, which is a luxury in and of itself. Our sisters and brothers have had to live with it every single day of their lives.
Black lives matter.
Here is a collection of tweets from Austin Channing, a woman who does work around racial justice and reconciliation. These are important.
There is no place more welcoming than the black church. No place more kind. No place more generous. No place more grace-filled.
— Austin Channing (@austinchanning) June 18, 2015
What gets me. What really gets me. Is that if black folks hadn’t welcomed him in, hadnt let him sit, hadnt been kind- Might still be alive. — Austin Channing (@austinchanning) June 18, 2015
Every time I wrote a post abt Black Death, someone says to me… ‘well, what about what *they* we’re doing?’ Well. I have news for you.
— Austin Channing (@austinchanning) June 18, 2015
white supremacy doesn't care. That's the point. What we are doing has never mattered. It's always been abt who we are. Always.
— Austin Channing (@austinchanning) June 18, 2015
And now you know. Now you know that history isn't done because white supremacy has yet to die. History is sitting in the pew every Sunday.
— Austin Channing (@austinchanning) June 18, 2015
We have a responsibility here. To wake up. To learn. To recognize. To fight. This is not an agenda or something that people are making up. We have seen it again, and again, and again, and again, and again just in this past year.
Something is wrong.
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