The republican presidential candidates, naturally, have had their say about the killings in Emmanuel AME church. If I blurred or missed the remarks of the almost uncountable passengers in the clown car, it's just that the honks begin to sound the same, an automatic reaction whenever the doors of the clown car open. Rick Perry said the Charleston massacre was about drugs. Rick Santorum took the opportunity in discussing the importance of prayer to pay homage to Fox and say that the killing was an attack on religious freedom (code words for many other issues). The fact that a historic African American church was occupied by a white supremacist who wants to start a race war was not an attack on all religious freedom, just the particular provocation Roof wanted to initiate, might hit a little too close to home for Mr. Santorum and others. Jeb! prays in the name of Jesus, perhaps respecting Emmanuel AME, whose members probably don't care a lot right now what a white man prays, but insulting believers of many religions, maybe even Christians. Then he said he didn't know what caused the killing. Maybe Jeb is the stupid one. Or maybe the Shrubberies, protected in their garden of privilege, truly cannot understand the systemic racism that took the lives of the nine members of Emmanuel AME, with whom Roof sat for an HOUR in Bible study; the church's openness and welcome or his assumption of white privilege got him in the door. Amazingly, at Roof's arraignment, amidst the sorrow of the victims' families, some did forgive. In the face of such generosity, it's all the more difficult to endure the endless honking. It's not just white privilege that turns these voices into honks, and it is not just Republicans or their candidates who speak with the voice of white privilege. As many have been pointing out of late, we all, progressives or not, are complicit in the systemic racism and violent culture that is our dominant discourse. We want to pray, and we want to do something, and we can call out what we see, but only African Americans feel visceral fear for themselves and their loved ones, can feel anger, the prophetic voice beyond prayer, that these incidents occur with shamelessly or shamefully increasing regularity. Yet they do and can forgive. Whites, however sincere their--our--prayer or outrage, can take off our skin and blend in with the dominant discourse, because it is not we who must live with being Black in this culture. President Obama, having had to speak to the nation fourteen times about mass killings--not all racially motivated--speaks with increasing impatience: he's entitled. Why is this country so afflicted with these incidents? As a nation we must address this question, if our voices can be heard above the honking. However, one person can be heard and make change. As most probably know by now, Jon Stewart's show after the killings was extraordinary in that he lost the jokes. But then he had Malala on the show, and immediately everything brightened. A site (I'm sorry, I couldn't find it) that re-posted the show also created a meme; Comedy Central has since created its own with a quote from Malala on Part One of the video) that can inspire us to ask the deep questions we must, and to voice our truth as we are called to do. There can be single voices, anyone's voice that can rise above the honking from the clown car. Malala said
Sometimes we wait for others and think that a Martin Luther [King] should [rise] among us, a Nelson Mandela should [rise] among us and speak up for us. But we never realize that there are normal humans like us, and if we step forward, we can also bring change just like them. Step up, normal people, acknowledge your privilege, rage, fear, prayer, and let's get these questions and needed actions going. The clown car can stop honking now. And just. Shut. Up. Listen to Malala.↧