Streams of Mercy

I participated in my first webinar a month or two ago. The topic for shared learning and discussion was ”Healing Wounds of Privilege.” Today I realize that while I’ve never intentionally been a part of “white privilege,” I have participated in it as a system active in our culture. From the vantage point of 70 years, I see this truth.

In my growing up years, there was a “colored” section of town, there were “colored” schools, and “colored” churches. There were separate water fountains and restrooms. I could go into the movie theatre by one door, but “coloreds” went in by another door and had to sit in the balcony. On the buses in our town, there was one seat for “coloreds” in the back and the rest had to stand; “coloreds” could buy things in the drug store, but couldn’t sit down and eat. It never seemed fair to me, but it’s just the way things were.

I watched the movie “The Green Book” a few nights ago, and learned many things. “The Green Book” was a book to help black people travel safely through the south – giving them listings of safe places to stay the night, stop for meals, etc. It’s the story of a black, educated musician from the north, who hired a white man to drive him through the south on tour. As they travel together they help each other to grow in understanding.

Did you know that some southern towns had a sundown rule, and “coloreds” could not be out and about after sundown without being arrested, beaten, or worse? I never forget the scene where the “coloreds” working in the fields watched as the white man changed the black man’s tire on the roadside on a steamy day down south. That was in the 50’s and 60’s – my growing up years, yet I was for the most part unaware of it all. I remember hearing about “civil rights” for the first time when I was in college; I didn’t learn the story of Emmett Till until I heard of it in a sermon at Montreat in the summer of 2008.

From the perspective of 70 years, I’m coming to understand what is means by “white privilege,” and continue to grow in my understanding of being a part of it. Privilege harms everyone – those excluded by it, and those enjoying. Special rights, advantage, and immunity are granted or available only to a particular person or group – some folks have an “unearned social advantage.”

Whatever can I, at 70 years of age do with what I’m learning? The webinar suggested three important things: acknowledge harm, reach out to help, participate in healing. The call is to a national reckoning that will lead to a spiritual renewal. In Ephesians 3 we read that the Gentiles (the outsiders) become fellow members, sharers in the promise, members of the same family. In II Corinthians 5, we are called to the ministry of reconciliation. Christians must offer a response rooted and established in the love of God. It’s a national, local, church and personal problem, calling for “a three-fold response with our head, our heart and our hands.”

Amy Julie Becker has written an extraordinary book- White Pickett Fences, showing how a life behind a white picket fence can restrict even as it protects, and how it can prevent us from loving our neighbors well. “Privilege so often involves a conspiracy to forget, and this book gently, unflinchingly insists that we remember. But it also helps us believe that in a world so often torn by violence and indifference, love can still have the last and best word….and lead to the discovery of our common humanity, beneath our differences.”

While listening to NPR today, I heard this: “America has a legal system, but not always a justice system.” That gives me lots to think about in the days to come! I give thanks for daring new thoughts, ideas and possibilities and for folks who share them, and for those streams of mercy, never ceasing.

Elizabeth