Being Woke isn't Enough Anymore

I just want to be honest, the time to simply be woke is over, that ship has sailed. There are too many of our black brothers and sisters that are sleeping now [biblical metaphor] for us to be just waking up or awake.
This is particularly to my white brothers and sisters, this is a follow up to my post about obedience in reference to justice...

A few things…

1. We need to commit to listening, not talking, not leading, not even just reading. We need to commit to being in and among people and communities who are most deeply impacted. We need to spend time hearing their stories. We can’t reduce what we learned to academic exercise. We need to see, hear and learn to feel the painful, and sadly all too frequent experiences of our black neighbors.

2. Secondly we need to learn to not speak up all the time. Let the voices of others ring out, and lead out. This has been a hard work for me and having a teaching gift. I have been humbled and convicted regularly recognizing that the voices of those most impacted and affected by the issues need to be centered and we need to learn to take a backseat. I need to ask regularly about whether I overshare, even if out of passion and mute and don't make room.
   With that though, we need to be willing to make uncomfortable statements and be willing, eager to be corrected. But we also need to be willing to be rejected. To stand up and call out, not let things go and leave it to someone else. We need to be willing to not be liked, accepted, understood by everyone.

3. We need to commit to regularly ask ourselves…

   • How are my decisions impacting those who are not in my conversations and experiences? Are they blessing or hindering, helping or hurting.

   • Am I seeking only to benefit myself or am I thinking about those who are not represented in my life, in my school, in my situation, in my conversations? Do I recognize that my blessings might come at the expense of someone else? Where are those places?

   • How, where do I need to use my positions of power, influence for the good of and not at the expense of others?

4. I need to learn to see, acknowledge and repent of my assumptions We often, without the work, assume I understand someone's experience, struggle, pain and often with a tinge of suspicion and superiority.
   

This work will mean that economic, education and even entertainment choices might have to change. How we spend our money, how we use our “free” time, where we send our kids to school, where we plant our churches, what we read, watch.
It might inform where we choose to live, where we go to church, even our friendship priorities. It means that discipleship, worship, Zoom meetings might need to change.
Again it’s not enough to be awake, to just pray, to just read. It’s Woke and Work, Pray and, read and
As Tupac, Lupe and others have said [and if you know the origin of this statement, please let me know]

Freedom ain't free.

And as Fannie Lou Hamer repeatedly reminded us in view of the American dream, exceptionalism, individualism culture

"I'm not free until everybody's free".

This work will cost, but the payoff is an active pursuit of liberation for all.
These are just some of the things I have learned, am still learning, repenting of, trying and failing but the point is that I can’t just sit back and learn, observe and study from a distance. It’s too late for that. As John Perkins states, again convicting me,

“Are we willing to sacrifice some of our individual ambitions in order to interceded on the behalf of those who are at risk?”

— Restoring At-Risk Communities, edited by John M Perkins

Again to my white brothers and sisters, this is meant to be a productive conversation starter, so please ask questions, but come curious not critical.