{"id":713,"date":"2018-04-23T02:27:10","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T02:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/?p=713"},"modified":"2018-04-23T02:27:10","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T02:27:10","slug":"whats-it-look-likeclark-king-death-life-easter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/?p=713","title":{"rendered":"WHAT\u2019S IT LOOK LIKE?\tClark \u2026 King \u2026 Death \u2026 Life \u2026 Easter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Four weeks ago, as of last Thursday, I was headed off on a reluctant return errand to a store I generally visit only once a month because it is a fair drive from home.\u00a0 I misremembered whether it was north or south that I wouldn\u2019t be able to go directly from the eastbound freeway. \u00a0As a result, I ended up taking a much longer and (worse!) time consuming way than that drive already takes.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m trying not to fret and stress over such moments by turning my attention to the questions: Why am I in this place right now?\u00a0 What am I supposed to be seeing?\u00a0 Is there something to be learned here?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something happening here<\/em><\/p>\n

What it is ain\u2019t exactly clear\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

That day, as it turned out, the question wasn\u2019t so much about what I needed to see as it was what I needed to hear.\u00a0 Had I gone the fastest route, I might have arrived at my destination not long after The Takeaway<\/em> radio program<\/a> comes on the air here.\u00a0 And it was the first story of that show that (apparently) I needed to hear.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>That March 22nd<\/sup> episode<\/a> started out with a report on the killing of 22-year old Stephon Clark in the backyard of his grandparents\u2019 home in Sacramento, CA.\u00a0 When I first heard the name, I thought Todd Zwillich had said \u201cJamar Clark,\u201d a young man killed by police in Minneapolis several years ago.\u00a0 But I quickly realized that, while the story shared some similarities with the Clark shooting here, this was yet another case of a young, unarmed black man who was killed by police.\u00a0 This was the first I heard of Stephon Clark; it wouldn\u2019t be the last.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a man with a gun over there<\/em><\/p>\n

Telling me I got to beware\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The story included the recently released bodycam recording of the incident.\u00a0 It was staggering \u2013 especially the gunshots.\u00a0 Had I not been on the longer route, I might have missed it \u2026 and that\u2019s what I\u2019m sure I needed to hear that day.\u00a0 A few days later, the recording of Alton Sterling\u2019s fatal encounter with the Baton Rouge, LA police was released \u2026 and at first, the two conflated in my mind.\u00a0 The killing of Sterling happened a couple of years ago, around the same time Philando Castile was killed in Saint Paul, MN \u2026 along a stretch of road that I used to drive on a daily basis.\u00a0 In the glare of this local story, the similar story from Baton Rouge was hardly noticed.<\/p>\n

These stories \u2013 and too many more just like them \u2013 form a common pattern in which an unarmed black man is perceived as a threat in some way by a police officer (or several officers) \u2026 so the quick-thinking officer of the law makes the decision that deadly force must be used to mitigate the threat.\u00a0 I\u2019ll delve much more into in another couple weeks.\u00a0 [It\u2019s a post that\u2019s been waiting in the wings for a local county prosecutor to decide whether or not to being charges in another similar, and yet different, local situation.\u00a0 That happened shortly before the Stephon Clark story came to national attention.]<\/em>\u00a0 I want to stay with the unfolding of this Clark story for now\u2026<\/p>\n

The funeral for Stephon Clark took place one week later, on Maundy Thursday \u2026 and the results from a private autopsy the family had commissioned were made public.\u00a0 Eight of the twenty rounds fired by the officers hit Clark, almost all of them entering his body from the back side.\u00a0 But none of the shots were instantly fatal.\u00a0 While the officers continued to assess Clark\u2019s level of threat from a distance, he died.\u00a0 Instead of rendering aid, they continued to act with suspicion and fear.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Maundy Thursday, in the Christian liturgical calendar, marks the first of the triduum, the sacred three days of commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus.\u00a0 Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum<\/em>, meaning commandment<\/em> \u2013 pointing to Jesus\u2019 command to his disciples at their last meal together, a call to \u201clove one another as I have loved you.\u201d\u00a0 The service might include foot washing, a remembrance of how Jesus himself washed his disciples\u2019 feet in an act of loving service that they were to emulate.\u00a0 Services most definitely include communion, the sacramental and ritual meal instituted at that last supper together, which the disciples were also instructed to do \u201cin remembrance of me.\u201d\u00a0 The events of Jesus\u2019 life recounted on Maundy Thursday include his prayers in Gethsemane \u2026 and that his followers would be one \u2026 and then the betrayal by one of his followers, his arrest, and the start of the series of trials that would lead to his execution by the authorities the following day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>These were the stories being told inside churches as marches and demonstrations protesting the killing of Stephon Clark were taking place in the streets outside them.\u00a0 Such demonstrations continued throughout the weekend \u2026 on Friday, as Christians commemorated the death of Jesus and Jews began the Passover celebration of deliverance from slavery \u2026 and on Saturday, as a few churches here and there keep vigil, waiting for the promise of resurrection \u2026 on Sunday, Easter, when even non-churchgoers might stop by to keep Easter with Mom or Grandma and maybe hear some hopeful news that death might not be the end of everything after all.<\/p>\n

Beyond the Christian calendar, the demonstrations in Sacramento continued (almost two weeks from when I first heard) to April 4, 2018 \u2026 the 50th<\/sup> Anniversary of the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, TN \u2026 another black man who was perceived as a threat by some number of people at the time \u2026 a fact which may have been lost with the hagiography of the decades since.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Most famously, King was the key leader in the Civil Rights struggle of the early 1960s that (eventually) led to the end of Jim Crow laws, assurance of voting rights, and other protections in the 1964 Civil Rights Act.\u00a0 That, however, was not the end of King\u2019s public life and leadership.\u00a0 He had become a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War.\u00a0 A number of those who had agreed that the Civil Rights Act was a good thing then turned away from him when he opposed the war; they considered him un-American \u2026 and quite possibly a communist.\u00a0 King was also preparing for a \u201cpoor peoples\u2019 campaign,\u201d to call attention to the needs of the impoverished of all races and all areas of America.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what took him to Memphis \u2026 a request to support striking sanitation workers.\u00a0 The strike began when two black workers were accidentally killed as they took refuge from a storm in the back of a garbage truck.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>Black workers went on strike to protest low wages and unsafe working conditions.\u00a0 They carried signs stating: \u201cI Am<\/u><\/strong> A Man.\u201d\u00a0 And they were men \u2013 but they weren\u2019t seen or treated as such.<\/p>\n

And here it is now, more than four weeks since I first heard the horrifying sound of those twenty rounds being fired at Stephon Clark.\u00a0 At just 22 years of age, he was still young \u2026 but he was over 18 \u2013 and that makes him a man.\u00a0 But to the police officers, he wasn\u2019t a man; he was something else.\u00a0 What that something was, only they can say for certain.\u00a0 However, it is certain they did not regard him as a man, someone just like any one of them.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s time we stop, children, what\u2019s that sound<\/em><\/p>\n

Everybody look what\u2019s going down<\/em><\/p>\n

This keeps happening and nothing changes.\u00a0 Since I heard about the killing of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, half the country away, in Detroit, MI a 14-year old (14-year old!<\/em><\/strong>) was shot when he knocked on a door to ask directions.\u00a0 And then there were the incidents over a weeks ago at Starbucks \u2013 the big news story of two black men at a shop in Philadelphia who were arrested when staff called the police because they had not yet bought anything.\u00a0 (It turned out they were there to meet with a business associate.)\u00a0 In a lesser story from the west coast, reports surfaced of a Starbucks employee in Torrance, CA not only refusing to allow a black man to use the bathroom, but also calling the police.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>Same themes \u2026 different variations \u2026 they all start to blend together after a while.\u00a0 And if it\u2019s this bothersome to keep hearing these things over and over, what\u2019s it like to live them out?<\/p>\n

We talk about King and his legacy as if getting the Civil Rights Act passed was all that was needed to make everything right and fair and equal.\u00a0 But it isn\u2019t.\u00a0 Systemic racism always seems to find a way.\u00a0 Housing discrimination still happens.<\/a>\u00a0 Get the Voting Rights Act passed and discrimination in employment banned \u2026 but then the strategic changes in policies during the Nixon Administration accomplished the goal of targeting the Black community without seeming to specifically target anyone.\u00a0 (Michelle Alexander describes this in The New Jim Crow<\/em>.<\/a>)\u00a0 In much the same way, the push for Voter ID registration in many states purports to be aimed at preventing alleged voter fraud by impersonation, which is something that rarely happens; however, these laws do create barriers for people with low incomes (who, oftentimes, are also persons of color or culture) from voting.<\/p>\n

The litany of examples of the lack of real progress goes on. In the weeks since the shooting of Stephon Clark, a 50-year follow-up to the Kerner Report<\/a> was released.\u00a0 The original report came from a commission initiated by President Lyndon Johnson, but then he tried to quash the report because it didn\u2019t praise his actions enough.\u00a0 Fifty years later, the follow-up report shows little has changed.<\/a>\u00a0 The economic disparities aren\u2019t much different now than they were 50 years ago.\u00a0 Most glaring, Black men born into middle class families are quite likely to do less well economically than their parents.\u00a0 If that doesn\u2019t make sense, then consider the parallel resume studies in which the exact same resume is submitted, one with a name like James and another with a name like Jamal.\u00a0 James gets a call for an interview; Jamal\u2019s resume goes to the trash.<\/p>\n

Recent studies are also showing maternal deaths among Black women are dramatically higher than they are for white women.\u00a0 (Here\u2019s one such example.<\/a>)\u00a0 The exact reasons for this aren\u2019t clear, but the outcomes are stark enough.\u00a0 Preliminary findings show that there are presumptions made by medical professionals about Black women that lead to a dismissal of their physical concerns. (Here\u2019s a talk about that.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

And all of this is coming forward in the midst of the Easter season, the celebration of the resurrection.\u00a0 What does resurrection look like for the family of Stephon Clark?\u00a0 What does resurrection mean for the other families who have suffered similar losses?\u00a0 What does resurrection mean for the marginalized, maligned, and neglected?\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>What does new life out of dead ends look like in these situations? And what does it mean for those of us who profess to walk in the light of the Risen Christ?<\/p>\n

Resurrection means new life is possible, even from dead ends.\u00a0 Resurrection is about a new way of life, right here \u2013 right now.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just a promise of eternal life in peace and joy in the presence of God after our bodies have died.\u00a0 Resurrection is not about some heavenly existence far removed in time and space from life in this world right now.\u00a0 Resurrection is about life right here, right now.\u00a0 Resurrection is about God and what God is doing.\u00a0 Resurrection is proof that death and destruction and sin and evil do not have the last, final word.\u00a0 God has that last, ultimate word and that word is life \u2013 life of the Reign and Realm of God, what God has always intended for the world.\u00a0 That resurrection life starts right here, right now as people touched by the resurrection stop living by the old ways, which lead to destruction and death, and start living new ways, the ways of the Reign and Realm of God.<\/p>\n

People marked by the Resurrection of Christ live differently.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>That means me, and if that means you as well, then we are going to have to learn how to do things differently.\u00a0 The privileged people are going to have to do the heavy lift of tearing down the very systems and structures which grant them their privileges \u2026 because those being marginalized, overlooked, excluded, oppressed by these systems will never be able to dismantle them.<\/p>\n

Where to start?\u00a0 First, acknowledge privilege exists.\u00a0 The idea that we all start out essentially equal and what becomes of us, where we end up is determined solely by our own efforts is a story that isn\u2019t true for everybody else.\u00a0 Only the privileged can say that; everybody else knows that they\u2019re behind from the start.\u00a0 (They can see the backs of those in front of them.) \u00a0Stop finding fault with the victims of this system of privilege; drop the \u201cthey need to \u2026<\/em>\u201d and the \u201cyeah, but they should \u2026<\/em>\u201d and the \u201cif only they would realize \u2026<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Just stop it.\u00a0 Stop trying to talk it away; the silence creates space for listening.<\/p>\n

And listen.\u00a0 Listen to the stories, the experiences, the accounts of others who have had a different path.\u00a0 You do not know them.\u00a0 You do not know what their lives are like.\u00a0 You cannot narrate their experiences for them.\u00a0 Be open to what others have to say.\u00a0 Don\u2019t close your ears and eyes and heart, saying \u201cI\u2019m tired of hearing about this.\u201d\u00a0 As Jon Stewart once said, if you\u2019re tired of hearing about it, imagine what it\u2019s like to have to live with it.<\/p>\n

As it happened, this past Thursday, I went out to the same destination as at the start of this post.\u00a0 I took a different, better route this time \u2026 but still, I was later than I\u2019d intended to be.\u00a0 Because of the timing, I was able to hear a regular mid-day broadcast feature on MPR called \u201cCounter Stories\u201d<\/a>.\u00a0 If you need some other experiences to listen to, you can start with these.<\/p>\n

To really listen and understand what you\u2019re hearing, you\u2019re going to have to check you biases.\u00a0 (Here\u2019s a couple places to do just that: Understanding Prejudice<\/a> and Project Implicit<\/a>.)\u00a0 We all have them; it\u2019s part of being human.\u00a0 But part of being human is also that we have higher level abilities, such as self-awareness.\u00a0 Learning to recognize your own internal biases helps you be aware that they are present and working on you \u2026 so you can think past them, rather than just letting the biases automatically guide your responses and behaviors.\u00a0 Once you see them, you can choose differently.<\/p>\n

And living differently is what resurrection life is all about.\u00a0 It\u2019s about living here and now in ways that align with the Reign and Realm of God \u2026 so others can see and be drawn to this new way of life \u2026 and others \u2026 and more \u2026 and then, in time, with more people involved, life in this world starts to look a bit more like the Reign and Realm of God.<\/p>\n

We better stop, hey, what\u2019s that sound?<\/em><\/p>\n

Everybody look what\u2019s going down\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Lyrics are from “For What It’s Worth<\/a>” by Stephen Sills \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 (c) Warner\/Chappell Music, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four weeks ago, as of last Thursday, I was headed off on a reluctant return errand to a store I generally visit only once a month because it is a fair drive from home.\u00a0 I misremembered whether it was north or south that I wouldn\u2019t be able to go directly …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-life","category-events-topics","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":720,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions\/720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}