Monday, January 19, 2015

All are precious in His sight ... or not

We're in Washington D.C. and Jim Wallis is speaking ... Jim founded "Sojourners" both a magazine and a Christian Community ... and he's telling the story of working with Desmond Tutu killing "Aparteid."

I can tell Lavanda Brown's pissed at the things Jim's sharing.

She and I work together overseeing Union Mission, at the time the country's most successful response to ending homelessness.

"Why is it," she explains later, "he's taking credit for Bishop Tutu's accomplishments?"

"What?" I ask completely baffled as Jim's story was that he helped, they became friends and relationships can transcend race.

"It was a Black people's movement," she spits. "It wasn't a white people's movement."

"You mean like de Klerk ... the South African President who started the whole movement and let Mandela out of prison to show he was serious?"

Anger fills her brown eyes but she reels herself back in to ask, "Who's de Klerk? What do you mean?"

"Do you know who Will Campbell is?" I ask.

"No," she replies sipping her cocktail.

"Maybe part of the problem," I counter, "is you know who all the Major players are ... Mandela, Tutu, Martin Luther King ... but you have little idea of who was with them ... either at the beginning, setting the stage or behind-the-scenes."

"This is the glory of black achievement being watered down by white revisionists," she replies rubbing her finger around the rim of her glass.

"So you're saying everything ... and by that I mean everybody too ... is either white or black?"

"Yes," she defiantly announces.

"Hmmm," I contemplate and sip my wine. "So what do you do with Mulattoes? ... or black people with red hair and light skin? ... with those who can pass?"

"That's not the point," she snaps.

"Really" I ask, "then what is the point?"

"Dr. King is ours," she says, meaning black people, "not yours ... Mandela too ... and Bishop Tutu's not a friend of Jim Wallis."

"Really?" I say ... not knowing what else to say.

And for too many people ... red and yellow, black and white ... Martin Luther King Day really is about Either/Or ... Black and White ... Us verses Them.

For some ... it a day to celebrate overcoming ... for others it's fuel to the fires of hate, ignorance and bigotry ... red and yellow, black or white.

That's pretty damn sad.

But people are going to enjoy Holidays however they wish.