Can't let it pass

Sorry, but I can't let it pass. Larry James' blog from yesterday is a must read.

Check out his page entitled "Everywhere."

It'll make you think and maybe shed a tear or two: http://larryjamesurbandaily.blogspot.com/

Color blind?

It was an interesting class. We were putting the finishing touches on "structural family therapy" when it occurred to me that stepping back a bit and considering "structure" as a notion against the larger landscape of institutions and power would be an interesting thing to do.

With marker in hand, I drew a family of five, complete with structural symbols and all. Then, alongside the family was "the farm" and the family's attachment to it. Towering over them was the USDA/FSA in DC, the state, and the county, all institutions of power and influence. We explored possibilities of power given the current context of things around Black farmers.

Then, I loosely quoted J. L. Chestnut, attorney for the plaintiffs in the Pigford Class Action case, "The rules and the law may be colorblind, but people are not." Then, one of our students suggested something to the effect that we need to see the world as "colorful" rather than through "colorblind" eyes. I think he's right on target. To be blind to color would be to deny something that is formative in our sense of self. God is a God of diversity. After all, look at His children, "every color dark or light," words we sing in church. That is the godly, respectful thing to do.

However, in our courts and in our policy-making, it's not always that way.

I've never talked to Mr. Chestnut, but it seems to me that his point is simple, "The rules and the law should be fair and equitable to all people," pure and simple, although you and I know that that's not the way it is many times. His point, "but people are not," goes a long way to say that too often, people in positions of power and influence make decisions because of color of skin, and people of color are left on the fringes. Cassandra Jones Havard's article as linked above speaks volumes to this issue. I'd encourage all of us to read it.

So, Mathis, you and Mr. Chestnut are both correct. Let's see people "colorfully" and God as a God of diversity. Let's also recognize that the law and policies while intended to be fair and equitable are in the hands of people who too often are thinking otherwise.

Offices, bureaucracies, and injustice

A civil rights office was opened in the Department of Agriculture in 1971 and for years it was organized and re-organized. Obviously not at the top of the priority list, it was closed eventually during the Reagan administration in 1983. Later still, during the Clinton administration, the office was re-opened.

In the meantime, farmers were putting their reports of discrimination on paper, but what was happening to the farmers' complaints? Were they being read? Filed away? Shredded? Trashed? Ignored? Read over lunch?

What were the implicit and explicit rules within the bureaucracy of the USDA that encouraged such misbehavior? Now, why is it that we still have a hard time believing that such things happened?

I met one farmer who alleged that discriminatory actions toward him began the first year he was in farming, during the late '60s when the county supervisory blatantly told him he was not going to get funded because he was black. There wasn't an office then to hear his complaints. Other farmers have told story upon story of discriminative acts occurring between '71 and '83. They even wrote letters, but who in DC read them?

What were the allegations? They were many related to policies and offices on the local level: the use of stalling tactics to delay the application process for operating loans, the demand that applications be written in pencil so the supervisor could change the figures to fit his wishes, too little money too late into the planting season, oftentimes less than half of what was anticipated would eventually arrive up in the Spring, lack of disaster relief funds offered to White farmers, and the list could go on and on. One source reported that the average white farmer's application was processed in 60 days while the average black farmer's was processed in 220 days.

Progress has been slow to non-existent under all of the administrations since '83.

So, it looks like no one gets a pass on creating change, not the Republicans and not the Democrats.

The courts had their opportunity to make things right, but the Pigford Case was a "bitter- sweet" settlement according to one farmer advocacy group president. It could be called worse.

Soon to come: a history of court cases and the Pigford case in particular.

"Lynchings of various sorts"

"Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940" by Elizabeth Hale is a must read for those who want to grasp the background and meaning of color of skin, race, racism, Jim Crow, and all that is involved in these matters. One particular chapter that speaks to the debased character of humanity is the chapter "Deadly Amusements" in which she vividly in words and in photographs describes the horrors of lynchings as theater complete with souvenirs.

In January, 2006, my path crossed with Dr. Clenora Hudson-Weems, the premiere expert on the Emmett Till case and its contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. She had organized the First Annual Conference on the Black Farmer and Land Loss. Through a unique set of circumstances, I was both conference speaker and listener/learner. It was attended by farmers, advocates, celebrities, and advocacy group leaders, and by Christians and Muslims alike. During one of her presentations, Dr. Hudson-Weems coined the phrase "lynchings of various sorts." Her comments took the audience back to the days of literal lynchings, as described in Dr. Hale's book, and likely etched in the hearts of minds of the members of the audience by oral tradition in their families. She then segued to the "lynching" of Black farmers as they have lost or are losing their land in various nefarious ways. She spoke of her own feelings of being "lynched" as someone had appropriated her materials on Emmett Till as his own.

Theft is a serious offense, regardless of whether it's property, intellectual or otherwise. Lynching is a very serious matter as it involves not just the taking of that which belongs to someone else, but especially when that which is stolen leads the person to feel lynched, robbed of identity, meaning, purpose, and self.

"I was meant to farm," "farming is in my blood," "farming is in our DNA," and "my blood is on this land," are various words and sentences used by African American farmers to describe their intense attachment to the land. When that to which they are attached, that which gives them meaning and purpose as well as livelihood, is torn away from them, they describe that feeling as being lynched.

I wonder if we in White America get it.

Black farmer, Black Indian forum

The forum came off well, or so it seems to me. The participants were well prepared. Dr. Mills, Chair of the Department of Agriculture here at ACU, painted a graphic picture about the complexities of farming, the economics of the industry, the contribution of farming to our
American way of life, the system of USDA/FSA from DC to the county level, and his own stories of his family's engaging of people of color even before the Civil Rights Movement. Thanks, Foy, for your competence and for your heart.

Dr. Wes Crawford, faculty member at Lubbock Christian University, Lubbock, Texas, with expertise in race relations among Churches of Christ, spoke meaningful words and challenging words over us from the prophets and how God's clarion call to us via them is summed up in "no other gods but God," and "treat your neighbor well." Perhaps my words, and not Wes' words, but pretty close. Thanks, Wes, and I look forward to more conversation around these and other areas of social justice.

Dr. Edward Robinson, faculty member here at Abilene Christian University, spoke meaningful words over us and to us from the mouth of Jesus of Nazareth and how he did not come to destroy the Roman government but to bring peace and release from oppression to the people. He was also able to give us an interesting perspective as to why African American members of Churches of Christ were reluctant to march with Dr. King in the '60s. Thanks, Edward, for your insights, and for your commitment to the cause of the Black farmer.

Sara Blakeslee, MFT graduate from ACU, and doctoral student at Texas Tech University, spoke personally and provocatively about the plight of the Black Indians in Oklahoma, Cherokees in particular, as they are disenfranchised by their tribal group despite the treaty of 1866 and the Dawes Commission Roll which gave them membership. A complicated set of issues, but presented competently by Sara. Thanks, Sara, for your competence and the quality of your life.

My charge was to outline the larger Christian Social Justice Tradition, to look at its theological underpinnings, and then to raise the question, "So where did churches of Christ lose our emphasis on making a difference in the world?" We looked briefly, and had good responses from Drs. Crawford and Robinson, with regard to the theological split in the restoration movement between Barton W. Stone's apocalyptic vision of God's kingdom in the world versus Alexander Campbell's view of things and how when those two visions collided, especially in the applied theology of David Lipscomb, that Stone's receded and Campbell's prevailed. Thus, we dismissed various efforts as "social gospel," as a bad thing in the '60s, and Dr. King marched without us, Black or White.

Then MFT students at ACU, past and present, Tim, Josh, and David Todd, graduates of the class of 2007, and members of the class of 2008, Michelle, Sarah, Kimberly, Brian, Scott, and Rebecca, contributed significantly to the intersection of farmers and Indians in view of the gospel and its message of hope for the oppressed. With regrets that Heather's health issues kept her from coming because she would have contributed seriously to the burden of land loss among African Americans. Thanks to each of you. I especially was moved by your comment, Michelle, "By working with Dr. Hinson on his research project, his passion has become our passion." All of you give me encouragement for a brighter future in dealing with things that matter.

Then, the flow of questions, comments, observations, and stories between and among all of us, audience included, made for an amazing time of dialogue. As I commented to one of the participants, something to the effect that "we've only got 2 1/2 hours, and this could easily take up 8, if not more." Thanks for coming and participating in the midst of your busy schedules and especially when the lectureship was packed with amazing opportunities.

At the end of the day, what was accomplished? More commitment to the cause of justice in the world? More information about these things that matter? More appreciation for the complexity of things that we'd consider simple? More simplicity about things that we consider complex? More deeply moved at stories of how institutions take on a mind of their own and marginalize people based on color of skin? Maybe those and more.

Either way it's shaped by our internal and external dialogue, it was an amazing group of people, faculty and students, younger and older, experienced and inexperienced, Black and White and American Indian, and all......yes, all.....deeply committed to things of God. We are called to be faithful with the gifts we've been given, and we respond to the call of God to make the world a better place in each and every conversation, advocacy effort, speech, presentation, therapy session, written report, and power point presentation because Jesus is Lord and because our calling is in our prayer, "Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

And, then, to wrap up the day, the Wednesday evening lectureship speaker spoke words of hope from the book of Micah. One of the things that caught my attention was his prayer and hope that some day people from all extremes could sit in the same pew and worship God. Among them was "those from the 'hood and those who once wore hoods." Now, that would be an amazing thing to see and experience. I want to be there when that happens. Maybe it already has and I wasn't paying attention.

Finally, these provocative words from Dr. Martin Luther King, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Today's the day

Today's the day. At 2:00 pm today a rather curious group of people will meet. It's called a forum. I think that's where people get together and talk about common and disparate things and themes. Dr. Crawford is from Lubbock, LCU, and the Broadway Church of Christ, and he comes armed with the voice of God from the prophets. Dr. Mills will come, and he's the Chair of the Department of Agriculture, and he knows about farming in general, small farms in particular, and the 2007 farm bill. Dr. Robinson will speak. He's from Abilene, born and raised in the South, and a prolific writer and competent teacher, and he'll give us a word from the words of Jesus. He knows race and racism and all of their complications. I'll show up, and I'm a university professor, a teller of stories of Black farmers, one whose life has never been the same since seeing those faces and hearing those stories beginning in 1994. I'll speak of the larger social justice tradition among evangelicals and wonder out loud as to what went wrong and what just may be beginning to get right about us in the Stone-Campbell movement.

Sara from Team I; David Todd, Josh, and Tim from Team II; and all of Team III, Sarah, Rebecca, Michelle, Heather, Kimberly, Brian, and Scott, will be here. Sara knows a lot about the plight of the Freedmen in Oklahoma, those who've been disenfranchised by both the dominant white culture and by their tribal group. David Todd, Josh, and Tim have met the farmers face to face, written reports, and have stories of their own to tell. Team III people are immersing themselves in the complication of issues surrounding the Black farmer: land loss, history of Black farmers, USDA/FSA, institutional racism, the Pigford and other law suits, advocacy, and the gospel story. They have their talking points. They're as ready as ready can be. Nervous? Sure. Who wouldn't be in this context.

Most important of all, I'm hoping that the farmers and spouses who've been invited, who live nearby, will be able to attend. They are living their lives, have jobs and responsibilities, and care about these concerns, for themselves, obviously, but also for others. They live the story, they have their stories, and they are burdened by the oppression they see from others.

There will likely be a crowd. It may be a modest crowd since today is the last day of ACU Lectureship, and the crowds always dwindle as people head home and back to their normal lives. My students will come, and hopefully others will come as well. Greg says he'll be there with camera in hand. We've talked a bit about chronicling the Black farmer via the lense of his camera. I'm excited about those possibilities. John Ficara will be there, at least on the screen. His story of their stories will be heard.

The voices of farmers and Black Indians will be heard. They must be heard. We must tell them, and we must create arenas in which their stories can be told, told and heard, to be told again in other arenas.

"Stay with us"

The post was a typical post between us. It was one of catching up on activities both sides of the Mississippi, a lively exchange of the comings and goings, involvements of various sorts. I'm the academician working in a university setting and he's living on the land, leading a people and an organization committed to justice and stopping land loss among African American farmers.

It was one small line that caught my attention, visually and emotionally, the one right before he typed in his name. The words may have meant something, or they may have been his latest use of sign off comments. Some of us write "peace," "best," "on behalf of the Black farmer and family," or nothing, simply typing our names, or not typing our names, since we all know who sent the post by looking up in the address line.

He wrote on this particular post something I'd never seen before. You are certainly free to make various comments about my relentless search for meaning in the world and in this righteous cause, but nevertheless, they were his words and they captured my attention.

All he wrote was a brief, but to me profound statement, "Stay with us." And typed his name.

"Stay with us?" Why would I want to leave the cause and the efforts of the cause. "Stay with us" means that he thinks I'm or we're with him? "Stay with us?" and the cause is one worth staying with and for? A resounding, "Absolutely! Yes! I'm staying with you! Yes! We're staying with you!" out here on the edge of the desert in Abilene, Texas. "With us?" Yes, staying with you, farmers, families, and advocates, people of the earth, people who are known only within their circles of farming, people who are celebrities who've loaned their names to the cause, political advocates, advocates who work in mediation, farmers who have turned to advocacy, and students who've come to care deeply about these matters.

Even this week in the ACU lectureship speaker series, people like Jerry Taylor, Fred Asare, and Landon Saunders, and tomorrow, Edward Robinson, Foy Mills, Wes Crawford, and Social Justice Team members will speak boldly from the Biblical text of Amos and Micah and from Jesus of Nazareth about the Black farmer, land loss, institutional power, racism, and how God's heart is broken when His children mistreat his children, when God's children mistreat their brothers and sisters.

So, I am convicted once more when I hear the words of the prophet quoted from that big stage which stands just up from the floor in Moody Coliseum. I am convicted when my own sense of power, place, and privilege is confronted via the word of God.

So, yes, friend from North Carolina, I will indeed stay with you and the larger You in the world, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Willie, Harry, and Rosa, because it's not just your call, nor my call, but it is God's call to justice.

Sunday's coming

Yes, Sunday's coming, and it'll be an extraordinary day. People from across the country and around the world will converge upon Abilene for Abilene Christian University's 90th Annual Lectureship. The theme, topics, and speakers this year are extraordinary. The words of the prophet Micah, "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" form the backdrop for the four day event. Speakers like Jerry Taylor, Fred Asare, Landon Saunders, and Edward Robinson will challenge our thinking and our doing as people of faith. Sprinkled throughout the lectureship will be presentations by the art, theater, and music departments. National concerns, international issues, and local church problems and opportunities will be spotlighted.

Calls to faithfulness and action will be abundant. Surely energy, ideas, and the power of God will converge in ways that will in lasting ways impact us all. I'm looking forward to the Tuesday night's program, "Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters: the Prophetic Voice in Popular Music," which will be presented by the ACU Music Department over in Erinshire Gardens.

In particular, Social Justice Team III and I met yesterday morning. While munching on doughnuts and deer sausage, and drinking coffee and orange juice, we discussed our talking points and roles in the Wednesday afternoon forum, "The Prophets, to Jesus, to the 21st Century: Injustice and the Church's Engagement." Wes Crawford, Edward Robinson, Foy Mills, Sara Blakeslee, and I will present information about farming, Black farmers, Black Indians, and churches of Christ and our efforts for justice in the world. Team members from Teams I, II, and III are prepared as respondents to the message we'll present. Tim, Josh, David Todd, Sarah, Kimberly, Brian, Rebecca, Michelle, Scott, and Heather are ready. They have their talking points prepared. They are young students filled with passion and information.

While our focus will spring from the heart of God via the prophets, Jesus, and the Church, the application will be serious applications. Implications are broad and deep for our we treat our people in this country and in our local communities when we consider the struggle of the Freedmen in Oklahoma and the Black farmer and family. It's not just about tribal membership. It's not just about farming. It's about race, racism, institutions of power and privilege, and how people of faith can mobilize and cooperate with existing advocacy efforts to promote change in our laws, policies, and hearts.

And may His Kingdom come.

Southern farmers, black and white

Melissa Walker's latest work, "Southern Farmers and Their Stories: Memory and Meaning in Oral History," is a must read for oral historians, those interested in the history of farming in the South, and those who value a narrative theoretical orientation in making sense out of our lives.

Her concepts of memory, community of memory, and the meaning of change are provocative ideas and are spelled out in well-written chapters. In one particular section, she writes of "leaving the land: landless and landowning prewar whites" and then addresses the Black farmer under the section "racial oppression, the federal government, and leaving the land." That section is worth a careful read to those who care about the Black farmer.

Her work is based upon 475 interviews with 531 people all retrieved from various archival sources, an amazing volume of material. Her intention as an oral historian is not to sort out truth or falsehoods, "but rather to consider the shape of the memory stories and to explore what the shape of those stories tells us about the storyteller and his or her world (p. 3)."

Admitting that African American farmers are under-represented in her archival search, she does tell the stories of several African American farmers including Eugene Webster, Annie West, William Rucker, Welchel Long, James Hall and his wife, Mary Shipp, Taft Bailey, and James Lewis.

After the litany of ways in which Blacks were marginalized by comparison to the Whites, Dr. Walker writes the following: "African Americans told their stories about deciding to leave the land differently than their white neighbors, and their stories indicted the racist systems that disadvantaged black farmers. Some were thrilled to quit farming, and they were happy with the financial security they found through off-farm jobs and the improved social and material life in town. Others expressed bitterness at the forces that made it impossible for many blacks to remain on the land even as white neighbors farmed successfully. Regardless of whether they found satisfaction or disappointment in leaving the land, African Americans nonetheless talked about racism-including institutionalized racism practiced by federal agencies-as a contributing factor to their decisions to stop farming (pp. 163-164)."

Small efforts, huge cause

People ask fairly often, "What are you doing for the Black farmer?" or "What is going on these days with the Team?" or "Is the work doing any good?" or "What is the current state of things with legislation for the Black farmer?" or "Will the congress add anything meaninful to the 2007 Farm Bill that will address economic and social inequities?" Those are complicated questions because the cause is huge and the efforts seem so minimal.

The Social Justice Movement is like a mighty raging river, the movement to address the plight of the Black farmer is itself larger than we can imagine, and all of our collective efforts seem so small. The analogy I offered recently was that we simply get into our small canoes, and begin to paddle with the current. Small efforts, huge cause.

Efforts of various sorts have been going on for years. Zippert and Watson (2001) chronicle the cause of the Black farmer and efforts to keep the land. I'd recommend giving that chapter in a book entitled "Advocacy for Social Justice: A Global Action and Reflection Guide" a serious read. One of the members of Team III will be writing a more in depth piece about that later. The Southern Federation of Cooperatives, BFAA, NBFA, BFAA-Inc., and a host of others, including the Rural Coalition, National Family Farm Coalition, NAACP, labor unions, and farmers and friends, just to name a few, have been active in the advocacy effort.

Zippert and Watson evaluate things this way: "So, in a democratic system, advocacy for legislative, administrative, and regulatory change is an incremental, not a revolutionary, process. The changes the Federation has achieved for Black farmers and rural communities are modest and require a continuing vigilance and fight to retain. The opposition is at work to reverse and contain these changes at every chance it can get (p. 157)."

Change is slow. The process is grindingly slow. People are ground down by the slow grind of it all.

It's Me Again, Lord

Afternoon, Lord:

It's me again. Thanks for the times we talked before about these things that matter to them, to us, to me, and ultimately to you. I'm sure you never weary of hearing the cries of your children, but sometimes your children wonder when and how and where and in what ways the cries will be answered.

Just yesterday, Lord, I talked to one of your children. He's a farmer, the one who has lost land. He's also now lost his health in various ways, but he's actually hoping and praying and believing that by your power he's going to get back to farming full time again.

He's a discouraged man. His family is disheartened. He worries for his children. He's a man of deep faith but, still, Lord, he walks on the worried side of the street more often than even he would prefer.

We talked about all of those who are dying. You were there in the early days of the march on Washington, that time when the farmers walked down Pennsylvania Avenue, when they carried signs and placards, when they spoke loudly via the PA system, when they walked through the halls Congress, all in an effort to have their plight heard. Yes, you were there, Lord, and they know that you were there, and by and large, they still are grateful for your Presence.

The thing that is grieving them is that many who walked and protested in those days - just ten short, no, long years ago - many of them are no longer with us. They've died. They've met you face to face. You know them by name. You recognize their faces. You know their stories. Their faces, names, and stories matter to you. This we believe. At the end of the day, we hang our hats on the fact that you care.

These farmers know that you are utterly faithful. However, they no longer have faith in the US government and its various institutions to be fair and just with them. They are devoted citizens of our country and our communities, yet they remain waiting and wondering and agonizing as to when justice will come for them.

The young are growing older, Lord, and the older are dying before our eyes. Their hair is turning grayer day by day, their wrinkles are becoming clearer and clearer, their brows reflect the burdens they feel. They are standing more often these days beside the caskets of their loved ones who are dying before justice is realized.

These farmers know more than I know, but, frankly, Lord, the death of that man and his wife over in Georgia, and that couple in Louisiana, and that man in Texas, and that couple in North Carolina, and that farmer in Alabama, those strike close to home, too close to home. And, that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

So, in the face of all of these things, I pray for you, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to bring justice upon our land and in our institutions of power, that you will move your way into the hearts of people who will make decisions that give farmers a hope to keep on hoping, and for justice that will help them repair their lives, and for those who wish, to return to farming and to doing those things that they find meaningful and purposeful.

I pray for the 2007 Farm Bill to make a difference, for legislation that will be proposed at least to put a dent in the inequity of things, that the Pigford Case will get re-opened to give some a fair shot, and for whatever other efforts are unfolding out there to make a difference in these matters.

Surely this is a righteous cause.

Thanks for listening, Lord.

A university and social change

I spent much of the Labor Day Weekend reading an interesting book about the university from which I graduated, the University of Mississippi, or "Ole Miss," class of 1982. Cohodas in "The Band Played Dixie: Race and the Liberal Conscience at Ole Miss" chronicles the university's history from1848 to 1997.

Those were turbulent times for the school, for the south, and for our nation. Those days and events which included Grant's near decision to destroy the buildings to the furor behind James Meredith's admission to the flag to "Dixie" and other issues run parallel to the history of the Black farmer in the south. From the plantation era to the Civil War to reconstruction to Jim Crow to the Civil Rights legislation of 1964 to now, the course of time marched by with the US, the south, Mississippi, and Ole Miss in the middle of it all.

Many of those early students at the university came from farming families. They knew well the difficulties of negotiating the Jim Crow era. For some of them, attending Ole Miss was a privilege, and for some it was an obligation. For some it was about making changes in the world, one campus, one protest, one lunch in the cafeteria, one class, one injustice experienced, one graduation at a time.

ACC and LCC got shout-outs in it as did Gerald Turner and Rob Evans, both of whom were agents for change at the university.

I learned a lot about the school, some things I'm not proud of, and many things in recent years that I am very proud of.

Some things to think about

Prejudice is an opinion formed before gathering information.

“Everyone is prejudiced, but not everyone is racist. To be prejudiced means to have opinions without knowing the facts . . . . to be racially prejudiced means to have distorted opinions about people of other races. Racism goes beyond prejudice. It is backed by power. Racism is the power to enforce one’s prejudices . . . . “ (Barndt, Dismantling racism: The challenge to White America, p. 28, as cited in Oglesby, 1998, p. 16)

Racism is about “actions, practices, and/or behaviors by members of socially dominant groups that have a differential and negative impact on members of socially subordinate groups” (Broman, 1997, p. 37)

Racism is a “doctrine of the congenital inferiority and worthlessness of a people” (Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968, p. 48 as cited in D’Souza, 1995, p. 27)

“Racism is demeaning to individuals and the nadir of social irresponsibility. Racism condones oppression and tramples on fundamental rights” (Marshall, 1973, pp. xi-xii).

Pierce contends that racism is lethal and a disease consisting of “an attitude, ideation, and behavior based on the assumption of the superiority of a white skin color” (as cited in Carter, 1994, p. 543)