It’s Above Me Now: Self-Care in the Ongoing Fight For Justice
By Rev. Arionne Yvette Williams, Contributing Writer
Psalm 131 says, “O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore.” About a year ago, a frustrating but hilarious video of an interaction between a Black man named Craig Brooks working at a Holiday Inn and a white woman, an unidentified customer who was hoping to make a reservation, went viral.
During a previous conversation on the phone, the white woman called Mr. Brooks a n**ger. He subsequently spoke to his manager, who supported him in refusing service to her. As he suspected, the white woman later showed up at the hotel and expected him to still give her a room and he refused. Though she was pleading with him relentlessly, he famously and repeatedly told her, “It’s above me now,” referring to the fact that he’d referred the matter to management.
Overnight, the video went viral with social media users creating and sharing numerous memes highlighting his now-famous response. People seemed most impressed by his calm but sure and firm disposition. He was not going to tolerate her racist treatment of him, no matter how much she pleaded.
It is no secret that our country is in the middle of painful, challenging times as we engage in what feels like a contemporary civil rights movement that we call Black Lives Matter (BLM). Not only are we fighting police brutality after the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, we are also living through a global pandemic and all its adverse and disproportionate effects on our communities.
It seems one thing Black folks must be sure to do to survive this moment is to practice real self-care. When I watch that video, I find that Mr. Brooks’s calm resolve but absolute demand for his dignity is a great example of that. He took action to elevate the matter to the appropriate level and not worry himself with the matter any further.
To be sure, I am making no appeal to respectability politics here nor am I offering his response as a model for dealing with racism on an interpersonal level. The expression of Black rage in response to systemic oppression and racial prejudice is warranted. Mr. Brooks’s calm response is significant only in that it points to his inner resolve regarding the truth of his dignity as a Black person and that resolve was not tied in any way to the customer’s view of him.
Standing up against injustice is absolutely exhausting and can often be totally frustrating when it feels like people just do not get it. Why do we have to convince anyone that our Black lives matter? It’s infuriating.
However, what if we decide to pivot? What if instead of trying to convince others that our lives matter, we shift our perspective? It was clear that for Mr. Brooks, his dignity was absolute and not up for debate. It did not matter how the woman responded. We work for justice not to convince others that our lives matter but because it is the world God has called us to co-create.
Whether or not white folks, racists folks, or others get on board is not our concern. That is a matter they must settle with themselves in relationship with God. We have no control over how others view us nor are we called to fix it. We keep our fight for justice going, cover it in prayer, and leave the transformation work to God. It’s above us now.
The fight for justice as expressed through the BLM movement is ultimately an act of extending grace for those who need it; but in so doing, we do not look for anyone’s affirmation. God has already given us that. Do not let what others do affect your feelings about yourself or your mental health. That grants them too much power over you. Rather, we must do the justice work God called us to because God said so while entrusting the outcomes back to God. In the meantime, embrace Black joy, love your Black self and all the people around you, and live as authentically and beautifully as you can.
The Rev. Arionne Yvette Williams is an ordained elder in the AME Zion Church and the author of The Women of the Bible and You: A Weekly Devotional and Love Like I’ve Never Been Hurt: How To Heal From Heartbreak. She currently serves as an associate chaplain at the University of Indianapolis. You can connect with her at ArionneYvette.com.
