Tweaking Our Narratives Towards Hope and Health
Self-Care: Philippians 4:4-9
Rev. Dr. Versey A Williams, Contributing Writer
The lifting of COVID restrictions, allowed my family to vacation and actually touch each other. To my knowledge, my children, grands, cousins and distant relatives have received their COVID vaccines. I received the Moderna Vaccine. It was my shout out to Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, the viral immunologist who was at the forefront of the development of the vaccine.
We learned physical distance is no barrier to our values, assumptions and hopes for a better future or a bleak outcome – as we thought. We were in same house, different rooms and on individual cellphones. There was a story breaking out of Boston MA about several black man who were part of the Rise of the Moors culture. When we heard they had guns and were still alive, we, three generations, assumed they were white. Learning they were armed black men and still alive, we cried relief. This experience reiterated that our narratives have great bearing on our present and generations behind us. In my head, I know many black people survive white authority but its overwhelming to see the huge racial disparity between white justice and black injustice. I get so angry I feel hatred. I also acknowledge that as a race of God’s precious people, we have much internalized the evil of systematic racism. I wish I could gather all of us and make it just, equitable and healthy. In my city, the public school system refused to give students the option of hybrid school attendance. Coupled with racism and acknowledging variables; little guidance, absent physical school, isolation from COVID, music that glorifies drugs and violence, many of our babies (and parents and caregivers) do not realize they are destroying our children rather than helping to develop healthy outcomes. We have seen an increase in black school age youth killing each other in alarming numbers.
Words and stories matter. some of us need to tweak our narratives to express our grief as well as the legacy of faith and hope we DO have even in racist America. Most of us know as people of African descent, many people in our communities are in a constant state of lament and untreated clinical depression. Many have little time to debrief and learn self-care. My family promised that our truth (Philippians 4:4-9) will not deny the pain of our present (truth) and celebrate God’s sovereignty (truth) is not threatened by racial injustice. Acknowledging racial injustice, our words still matter, and energies must be tweaked to lean towards maintaining our hope. To avoid burnout, we must embrace God’s peace. Peace comes through acknowledging we can be angry and hopeful, grieving and joyous and tired yet, energized to do more for our communities. It is tempting to get sidetracked with the evil of systemic racism and frightening to be attacked both from some whites and some within our community. Let us give balanced narratives. With so much evil; people need our faith and reminder that God can be silent but not absent regarding racial injustice.
