Every Sunday, our Pastor leads us in a variety of prayer petitions for a variety of different things: healing for the sick, comfort to the grieving, the Church’s faithfulness…and leaders of this country and those around the world. We usually respond “Hear our prayer.”
The current political campaigns or the Silly Season – whatever you want to call it – has me scared. Really. Not scared of a splintering political party at war with itself; but scared – truly scared of the mentality the campaigning has called forth.
In particular, campaigning has called out an ugly, racist, xenophobic, sexist mentality which up until this point in time had been operating on a low-grade level.
And I’ve experienced that low-grade ugliness.
I’ve been called a nigger; been stopped for Driving While Black; been told as a child ballerina that black bodies weren’t made for classical dance. When I married my husband – a white guy – we experienced ugliness and hostility as a couple. After we had our daughter we went through it as a family at a local community festival when someone smirked to a group that my husband had chosen the wrong side. Although other, more vulgar and hurtful words were used at the time.
For years, I shook it all off, accepted it and moved on. After all, this ugliness was low-grade and not physically threatening. Scary at times or an inconvenience at others, but not life and death. Just words. Just sticks and stones…
But for nearly a year now, the tenor, coded language and dog whistles by candidate Trump, along with the GOP’s extreme neglect in reining them in at their outset, have called forth the low-grade ugliness. Now it has evolved into action. Into violence.
And that’s what scares me. It makes me fear for my family’s safety. It makes me think twice when my daughter goes outside on her own.The full story of the white supremacists who assaulted this Black student at a Trump rally.https://t.co/WPywX72tVOhttps://t.co/vpJrCxH1bP— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) March 2, 2016
What if this ugliness -- this violence that’s been unearthed finds its way to me, my husband, my daughter or her friends?
It’s happened before – both to people I don’t know and to people who were related to me.
I guess the most I can do, outside of voting, is pray...like we do every Sunday.
Rochelle, your voice is a needed one. The voices we hear: the loudest and the ones with privilege who are blind from their privilege are not aware because they don't care to be aware. The voices who write of life as it is for the ones not filled with hate simply because of skin color (can you believe that, skin color) you have to keep talking, keep telling, keep trothing and you know the rest of it, "never tire of the work" Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. And thank you for the encouragement and for "amplifying" these words.
DeleteYou are beautiful. I am sad and sorry those things happened to you.
ReplyDelete