Disbelief and White America

Several years ago when I first entered the arena of the Black farmer, I wrote an unpublished document that I used on several occasions. The words were met with two sets of responses depending upon the audience. With a White audience, many responded much like me, disbelief and shock. With a Black audience, the response was something like "of course; we knew that all along."

In those early days I was shocked by what I saw with my eyes, heard with my ears, and experienced emotionally. And, that is the thing that troubles me. That disbelief is still amongst us folk who've not been exposed to such injustices as we chronicled on these pages, and which we will continue to chronicle here. The prophets of old did the same. They listed the abuses of the powerful upon the powerless, of the poor at the hands of the rich, of the landholders upon the land poor.

There is likely something innate in the lived experiences of the privileged to disbelief, even in the face of credible evidence and credible witnesses. Perhaps there's some protective element within us that compels us to distance ourselves. Perhaps some day soon on these pages, I'll write about internal family systems and how we work internally, according to Richard Schwartz, one of my favorite theorists and therapists.

So, today will likely be one more of those times. Those of us who are White will come face to face with stories of those who are Black, those who are Black farmers, those who are family members of farmers.

I'm disturbed that several years ago I was shocked. Today I'm just disturbed by what I see and hear.