I read a statement given by a white pastor after the murder of George Floyd. He said, “We understand the curse that was slavery but we miss the blessing of slavery, that it actually built up the framework for the world that white people live in and lived in.”(Italics mine)

            That phrase, “We miss the blessing of slavery” made my face grow hot. How dare anyone say that at any time, but especially after the brutal murder of George Floyd. How could anyone be so insensitive?

But after I calmed down, I realized that, regardless of how that statement hit, it was the truth. The enslavement of Black people made this country, and the misery and deficiency of Black people simultaneously was a blessing for white people, creating for them a sense of entitlement and sufficiency.

The truth hurts. We are living in a painful and scary time. People are losing their jobs and health care; people in power are running roughshod over and through this country like bulls in a china shop, and too many people are cowering in fear, saying nothing. Some people are refusing to see what they are seeing, and too many people are still saying that “it’s not so bad.”

            But it is, and it promises to get worse. The truth is this “democracy” is under attack. The coup that the current president began in 2016 and pushed during his presidency and the presidency of President Biden, is in full swing. We are seeing happen what Nikita Khrushchev said years ago: “We will overtake America without firing a single shot.” The goal of what is going on is to replace one “deep state” with another, the new one unconcerned about the lives of the masses. We are speeding downhill and there is nobody to help us or save us. Journalists who speak up are being fired, and people are being put in place who will teach the perspective of the oppressors. It has only been two months, and already, much of what constituted the infrastructure of this country has been either destroyed or badly damaged.

            That is the truth, whether or not people want to believe it. People who thought they would be “safe” under this president are finding out that they have been hoodwinked and they are scared and mad – just like those who had the sense to believe that the goal to destroy this country was real.

            The truth is hard to see, hard to swallow, and accept. We prefer to stay under the warm blankets of deceit. When we are in that place, we can and do pull the blankets over our eyes when something is going on that is too difficult to see and scary to accept. But times come when the blankets of protection are taken from us, and what we are left with is the raw truth staring us in the face.

            What we do with the truth matters. The truth is that we live in a system that wants the masses to cower to the wealthy. If we see it and pretend it doesn’t really exist, we commit our souls to a slow disintegration. We lose. Denying the truth gives it power. It laughs at us as it continues to stomp on all that we have believed. When we cannot or will not see the truth, it takes control, until one day, it wins. We think and act like the oppressors want us to. 

            But when we see the truth and confront it, we begin to dilute its power. The deception inherent in what passes off as truth is weak. Deception does not like to be confronted and challenged but when it is, it begins to disintegrate. Many people in this country have refused to see racism and white supremacy for what they are and what they do and have done. Some people have believed that if they did all they could to “act white,” or “look white,” they would, in fact, be accepted as white, but they learn that life in a racist world does not work like that. 

            But throughout history, when those who are being manipulated to think the way the oppressors want them to think decide that they will not do that, the landscape changes. That we dare confront raw power is in itself unnerving. Confronting and challenging the truth takes away fear and intimidation. We are able to make bold statements publicly and stand on them, like the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who said to leaders in South Africa as he confronted apartheid,  “God is not a Christian!” Confronting the truth gives us the will and the way to seek release from its grip. It is not much different than acknowledging that we don’t feel well and, after a while, deciding to see what’s wrong. We risk hurting to become well. Illness hides and rests in our capacity to deny its presence, but when we decide to get up and be aggressive about finding out what is wrong, illness, no matter how severe, stands much less likely to take us out or cause extreme pain and suffering while we are alive.

            As we see people being punished for facing evil in the face, may we pray for the courage to first, see what is happening and then have enough faith in God and belief in the need for justice for all people, to stand up, face it, and push it to lose its potency. We are not powerless, but our courage will manifest when we stop denying that what is happening is happening and in response, do as stated in Galatians, “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

A candid observation …