"This Letter Is Late!" A WMJM Confession on Racism
Beloved people of God:
This letter is late!
George Floyd was murdered sixteen days ago. Since that time, protests have spread across this nation. People from every walk of life have gathered in the streets to insist that Black Lives Matter and to demand that a militarized policing culture that treats Black Lives with impunity must end now!
This letter is late!
George Floyd is not the first to be murdered by police or vigilantes; he’s not even the most recent. We must also mention the names of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Tony McDade, all of whom have been similarly murdered during the last few months. But let us not stop there! We must remember the names of Amadou Diallo, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Philando Castille, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Ezell Ford, Tamir Rice, Kendra James, and so many more, whose names are both known and unknown. And what makes this situation even more unbearable is the fact that police officers and vigilantes are all too rarely held accountable for their crimes. Even when charges are reluctantly filed, they almost never result in a conviction. For the most part, police and vigilantes murder black and brown people with impunity.
This letter is late!
This nation was built on the labor of enslaved persons of African descent. How many suffered and died harvesting cotton for this nation’s fabric industry? How many suffered and died building this nation’s early infrastructure? How many suffered and died in the construction of the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court building, and other federal structures in the District of Columbia? How many suffered and died bearing arms in this nation’s wars? And how many more suffered and died while chained in the holds of ships making the perilous middle passage?
Rather than honoring and rewarding the sacrifice that persons of African descent made to build this nation’s wealth and power, white society has persistently responded with violence and scorn. And we continue to do so! The terrors of Jim Crow did not end with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. They continue today through policies of mass incarceration, red-lining, discriminatory drug laws, ghettoization, extra-judicial murder, and countless so-called “micro” aggressions. We know about the complaint that Amy Cooper, a white woman, made to police after Christian Cooper, an African American man, dared ask her to keep her dog leashed in accordance with city New York City laws. Amy Cooper knew that her call to police might end in Christian Copper’s death at the hands of a law enforcement officer, but she made the call anyway. How much of this goes on day after day without any of us hearing about it? And how much harm does it inflict on our fellow citizens of African descent who have to live with it as a relentless reality of their everyday lives?
This letter is late!
We should have written it ages ago! More to the point, we should always have been actively involved in the work of creating a different kind of nation… a nation where people of African descent could walk the streets without fear of being targeted by police or vigilantes… where incarceration was not used as a form of racial control… where “micro”-aggressions against black and brown persons were called-out and rebuked… where black and brown people were given the same access to education, medical care, prosperity, and political power as white people… where Black Lives really did matter. We cannot tolerate a world where racism continues to be treated as the norm and where racist behaviors continue to be countenanced as even marginally acceptable.
If this means going to the streets to stop business as usual, then we must go to the streets. If it means voting to replace racist and white supremacist politicians with people of moral decency and good will, then we must vote. If it means boycotting businesses that engage in racist practices, fund racist politicians, or advocate racist public polices, then we must boycott. If it means investing in black and brown communities by shopping at black and brown owned businesses, doing business with black and brown owned banks, or making alliances with black and brown civic organizations, then we must invest. Above all, those of us who are white—who have benefitted for too many years from white privilege—must learn how to listen and follow instructions from those who have suffered for decades and centuries under the burdens of racism.
As United Methodists, we have been called to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. And yet, we must also recognize there’s arrogance in that statement. It presumes that we, as United Methodist Christians, somehow have clarity about what it actually means to be disciples of Jesus Christ, and that we fully understand the true nature of the world that God is seeking to create. Still, our struggles around racism should teach us to approach the tasks of disciple-making and world-transformation with humility. Before we can do this work with any integrity at all, we must allow ourselves to be transformed into authentic disciples of Jesus Christ. We must confront our own racism and do the hard work of rooting it out of our souls. And we must do this even as we work side-by-side with those who have too long been victimized by racism to create a world that is authentically just, safe and peaceful for all.
It’s true that this letter is late. And we repent of the fact that we took so long to write it. We write it now because we know that we can wait no longer. Our waiting is an act of collaboration with the principalities and powers of this world who wield racism as weapon of mass destruction. To wait is an act of injustice. The days of caution are long past! The time for boldness is here!
We condemn the extra-judicial lynchings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and far too many others. We pledge to join our bodies, our souls, and our resources to the work of ensuring that policing policies in this nation are transformed, that politicians, public leaders and police are held accountable for their words and actions, that white supremacy is challenged even in places of power, and that black and brown communities are given what they need to survive and thrive. And we promise to do the hard but necessary work of confronting our own racism. It’s not enough to wring our hands in despair. We must engage the struggle, no matter the risk. God’s realm of justice and peace demands no less.
The Western Methodist Justice Movement