There are wounds, historical and societal, racist in nature, that seem too big to talk about, to heal, something like banks being too big to fail. Only they’re not. Neither the banks, nor the yet-to-be-healed wounds of racism. At some point we have to talk about them, or else remain at the mercy of a cruel and endless loop of history repeating itself, again and again. The conversation needs to be national, and local. We need to call for it.
I know. We’d rather wash dishes, vacuum, take a nap, anything, really almost anything rather than, in the words of Jon Stewart, “… peer into the abyss of the depraved violence that we do to each other in the nexus of a just gaping racial wound that will not heal, yet we pretend doesn’t exist.”
Charleston was the eye of the “perfect storm”. The coming together of historically based racism, in its own under-challenged endless loop and the endless looping of gun proliferation, bought and paid for by the gun industry and the NRA. A handy excuse is to blame the lone, “mentally ill” shooter, as if this were a “one off”. As if the deranged person did not state his own clearly racist motivations for the murders, his intention to start a “race war”. As if he hadn’t been given a gun for his birthday. As if the Confederate flag isn’t flying on South Carolina’s state capitol grounds, symbolizing the South’s historically racist collective unconsciousness. As if Jim Crow laws (our own system of apartheid) didn’t exist from 1890-1965. As if Black men were not currently almost 50% of the U.S. prison system’s population. http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet As if we, with our own American eyes, weren’t seeing video after video of police on Black violence.
I’m still feeling some of the intense grief, disbelief, outrage at what happened in Charleston. It’s been not quite four full days since Wednesday night. I feel lifted up by a sense of awe and respect for the family members of the victims who, in the very midst of their most profound grief, expressed their commitment to non-violence, to responding to hate with love, to expressing their forgiveness. One can only imagine the greatness of such a church, such a pastor, such a congregation.
We, Americans, tend to feel things intensely, experience a profound sense of outrage at injustice, grieve with, or for, victims, then move on. Because there are so many new stories, new challenges, new distractions, we never quite “land” to fully look, as Stewart suggested. To see the lay of the land, to hold our leaders (and ourselves) truly accountable, to take responsibility for helping to make change.
Before this moment of shared American outrage and grief passes, into the ether of history, into the mists of on-going mis-understandings, into the endless looping of racism and gun violence, before that…. Perhaps we could take one more moment to think of something we can do today, or this week, or next , a conversation we can hold, a letter we can write, some way that we can support the ongoing struggle to someday bring racism and gun violence to an end.
As Rumi said, “You must ask for what you really want. Don’t go back to sleep.” Think of Malala Yusafzai, still asking/fighting for education for girls. Gabby Giffords, still fighting against gun violence. Dare to look into the abyss. There is the beauty of great leaders — Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Clementa Pinckney — as well as the sorrow.
In case you haven’t seen these articles below, I’m including links to them, and Jon Stewart’s video, all of which helped me “peer into the abyss”, understand a little better, and participate a little more. With so many loving and hopeful thoughts for this better world we all want.
xo,
Gayle
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/kb2h42/charleston-church-shooting
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a35793/charleston-shooting-discussion/
http://billmoyers.com/2014/06/13/say-no-to-the-new-normal-five-things-you-can-do-about-gun-violence/
http://mic.com/articles/121068/in-one-quote-hillary-clinton-just-took-a-bold-stance-on-race-in-america http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/remove-the-confederate-3
Gayle Markow: As I am... 
Thanks, Gayle, for your post. I agree with everything you wrote and share your sense of sorrow, outrage and horror at the deep strain of racism in our country. I often feel like I don’t know what I can do to make a difference, but in this case I knew there was at least one small step I could take. A friend of mine from high school lives in a small town an hour outside of Charleston. Charlie is African American and gay and works full-time as the choral director and organist for an all-white church. I emailed him after the shooting in Charleston to express my concern for him and my despair at the state of our nation. Charlie wrote back, thanking me for my words of solidarity and sharing his anger and frustration at the many small indignities he has to endure in his position. He can’t count how many times people have assumed he’s the church janitor and made other comments he finds demeaning. He lives in fear that President Obama will be assassinated and said he thinks racism today is worse than it was in the 1960s. It was heartbreaking (but not surprising) to read Charlie’s comments, but I’m glad I reached out to him. My next challenge is finding ways to make a difference on a larger level.
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Thank you so much Geoff for sharing this interesting and heart-breaking story. I’m so glad that Charlie has you for a friend, and that the two of you connected at this time. I’m so sorry to hear what he has had to go through. If we all shared all our stories, the pieces of the puzzle would come into sharp focus and after we all finally stopped crying, our vision would finally be clear. At least we would see and know the breadth and depth of what is happening, and maybe then, we could make change happen. A million hugs to you and to Charlie.
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