I met with a black friend for lunch about two years ago and discussed my concerns about the status of racial harmony in our community. I had my conscience aroused over the death of young Trayvon Martin and the reaction I received from my white friends in the days following the verdict acquitting George Zimmerman. I related to my black friend that the verdict was greeted by my white friends by offers of high fives and celebration. I was stunned and saddened and did not understand the glee.
These, of my friends, are good people, people of faith, who live out their lives without hatred toward their fellow man and with charity to all. Why had they found this verdict one to be celebrated? A child was dead and a family was grieving for the greatest loss and pain imaginable.
In the days following the verdict, the Rev. Jim Wallis of the Sojourners Society wrote a poignant letter, widely printed, titled “Lament from a White Father.” In it he acknowledged something that my white friends were not willing to acknowledge. Wallis said, “If my own 15-year-old son had left the same house that evening, gone to the same store, dressed in the same clothing, bought the same products, he would have returned home unharmed to his momma and me.”
Was Jim Wallis right? If so, then what caused the death of that child other than the color of his skin? And, if this is true, how can one express surprise, or doubt, even in this post-modern world, that racism still exists?
I believe that had there been black people involved in the discussion with my white friends and me after the Zimmerman acquittal, the reaction would likely have been far different. Maybe my white friends would have choked on their words and left them unspoken until they were in different company. That said, why was there such a dichotomy between races as to the outcome of this trial?
Had the dead child been white would the Internet posters have found reason to vilify him in the same manner as they did Trayvon — alleging him to have been a pothead, a troublemaker, constantly in school suspension, and even posting a picture, purportedly of him, showing him to be 250 pounds, over 6 feet tall, and three shades darker than he was in reality.
I read a recent column that appeared to express doubt that racism still exists in our society. Someone suggested to me that this article should somehow relieve me of my concerns and from any personal guilt I might feel toward black people. This friend believes the color of one’s skin makes no difference in our society, and that all of us, regardless of race, have equal opportunity to reach one’s hopes and dreams in today’s Rome. She is one whose entire life is devoted to serving others selflessly and who loves and respects me deeply.
I was affected by my friend’s admonition and I re-read the article, trying intensely to glean the author’s intent. Maybe he was not being critical of those who believe as Jim Wallis and I believe. Maybe he did not intend to say that those who work to improve race relations, and to implement greater integration into our society, are wasting precious time that could be better spent on working to eradicate cancer and other such scourges of life.
All of these things, including attempting to assure that the vestiges of 250 years of slavery and another century of Jim Crow are completely erased from our society, seem to me worthy of the efforts of all people, of whatever race or creed. Human rights and justice are actually what we are talking about here — inherent, God-given rights, according to our founding documents.
Has the Christian Church, especially in the South, met its obligations since Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his speech more than 60 years ago? Has its decision to remain comfortably within its walls, intentionally detached from whatever was happening with the civil rights movement just outside, contributed to the violence, the destruction, and the pain we have watched on the nightly news these past three years in Ferguson, Baltimore and beyond?
What if MLK’s lament that “it is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning” were no longer true? What if things had changed over these past six decades to the point that, in today’s America, blacks, whites, Hispanics and people of all races freely worshipped together? Would this have changed the rhetoric in the days following the Zimmerman verdict?
It is without question that we have integrated the workplace over the last 60 years and this has healed many things. We have come a long way, especially in opening employment opportunities to people of color, but evidence abounds that we still have far to go. Jim Crow was the law just 60 years ago and it divided us by a chasm deeper and wider than we can now recall or imagine.
It is now a part of history. It is in the past. If we are honest with ourselves though, we are aware that we have much farther to travel. And the fact that there are no longer different water fountains and restrooms, that “they” are now welcome in “our” restaurants and can sit anywhere on the bus, doesn’t allow us to honestly say that race no longer separates us and the playing field is level.
Before we will arrive at that day, we must become intentional people who consciously make decisions to be inclusive in our personal lives, at our work, in our homes, and in our places of worship.
The mere passage of time alone will not do it. As MLK said, “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through the continuous struggle of man.”
Kenneth Fuller, a retired Rome attorney and former state senator, writes for the website MOVE GEORGIA FORWARD. Readers may contact him at MoveGeorgiaForward@gmail.com.