As a mostly able-body heterosexual, middle-class white cisgender male, my life oozes with privilege. I am acquainted with the sanctimonious anger of Brett Kavanaugh, the smug sexism of Mark Driscoll, the pompous arrogance of Donald Trump, the assumption-rightness of John Piper, and the murderous racism of Derek Chauvin. Yet, Jesus indicates that with God’s help, […]
Mississippi. M-i-crooked letter crooked letter-i-crooked letter crooked letter-i-humpback humpback i. We all know it spells Mississippi. Mississippi is a state in the Deep South, flanked by other southern states, but different than Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana. I think uglier in their hate, savagery, viciousness, murderousness. I know this Mississippi, and I am terrified. The […]
“Moonias! Moonias!” (“White Man! White Man”) the children screeched as I stood outside their home on the Maskwacis First Nations Reservation. As a Community Social Worker, I had been summoned to investigate a child abuse allegation. I was twenty-two years old and it had never occurred to me that the color of my skin was […]
We live in a culture constructed on the scaffolding of systemic racist ideas, the racialization of ethnicity or safely siloed in our own ethnic communities. The murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery; as well as the Make America Great Again anthems, have illuminated where we are in regard to equity and justice. […]
When I returned from a week away around the Memorial Day holiday and learned of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police officers, I sat in stunned silence and then I wept. There seems to be no end, no respite from the violence and oppression, no collective awareness, repentance, or change. I was preparing […]
On January 22nd of this year, I attended Jamar Tisby’s lecture at Seattle Pacific University based on his book, The Color of Compromise. He began with the story of a speech by White civil rights lawyer Charles Morgan Jr at the Birmingham Young Men’s Business Club in Birmingham, Alabama the day after the murder of […]
In spring 2018, the Practicum (now Listening Lab) team hosted a meeting for students who identify as underrepresented on campus (Persons of Color, LGBTQIA+, Sage, Conservative Theology, etc.) to invite conversation around the question: “What has practicum been like for you?” What followed was a series of often painful accounts of struggles that went beyond […]