The White version of Black suffering remains stuck in victim-thoughts. When we hear stories of people made to suffer, we identify with their pain and mentally turn them into victims. We miss the point.
Pain is the crucible that teaches us how to survive pain. There is no better example than the history of African Americans in our country. This week the MLK Celebration in Aurora, IL drove that home. The keynote speaker, Stacy Davis-Gates, is a history teacher who presides over two Teachers Unions. She gave us a history lesson as she outlined the courage of our Black and White forebears who made it possible to move the country out of 20th century lynchings and Jim Crow segregation.
I was reminded of Carlotta Walls LaNier. In 1957 she was one of nine Black children escorted to Little Rock High School by federal troups. They were invoking our country’s new anti-segregation law. She wore a new dress bought for the special day. Hearing her interviewed last week, I was struck by the way she described being screamed at by a mob of White people:
“My pretty new dress doesn’t even matter. The crowd seems blinded by anger. My heart beats faster and faster, but I keep my head down, and I think about what my parents might say: “They are just mean people trying to scare you. Don’t quit. Keep going.”
By now I’ve heard many African American history stories. Altogether they show how to use every means available to keep on living and loving in the face of cruelty. With ingenuity, intelligence, and persistence the protagonists prevailed and our country became step by step more humane. No one knows more about overcoming than the sons and daughters of dark-skinned Americans. It is a multi-generation, communal knowledge that all of us need. These are not victims.
I came away from the MLK Celebration hopeful. In today’s world, Jim Crow means masked men with guns. Let us honor the quiet courage of those who rally to the side of today’s immigrants. Let us take heart when we show up in peaceful demonstrations to say our country does not stand behind malicious acts.
Don’t quit. Keep going. They are just mean people trying to scare you.
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