"You shall not bow down to them [false idols] or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,
punishing the children for the sin of the parents
to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments..."
As always, I'm engaged with conversations with conservatives who believe the best of the white privileged male protesters on days of infamy like the January 6th uprising or nearly every Pride Parade, and one
thing that I believe these people are missing is the context of
oppressor and oppressed.
If these conversations and protests were just between two privileged white guys who were very opinionated about their sports ball teams or favorite pizza and THAT conversation got heated and went back and forth, both from an equal footing position, no big deal. Team one, team two, you're wrong, you're right, okay, whatever.
If these conversations and protests were just between two privileged white guys who were very opinionated about their sports ball teams or favorite pizza and THAT conversation got heated and went back and forth, both from an equal footing position, no big deal. Team one, team two, you're wrong, you're right, okay, whatever.
This is not that.
In one recent conversation, the conservative posted a video where there was a white guy protesting against abortion rights and health rights
for women. In that example, the white anti-abortionist (in THAT example) remained fairly calm and low-key. In another example, I had offered the story of the interaction (cited in a previous recent post here) of the six white nationalist men protesting at this year's Louisville Gay Pride Day. In one, we're talking about rights for women, in the other, we're talking about equal rights and
opportunities for LGBTQ folks and their allies. In still other instances we
might be talking about the rights of folks with disabilities or the
rights of people of color or immigrants.
In
each of those cases it is vital to remember that we are talking about
groups who have been historically abused,
oppressed,
maligned,
demonized,
harmed, and
killed
on the one hand and the oppressors on the other. In such cases, even if an abortion opponent manages to be calm in delivering his message calmly in a public protest, and even if the oppressed and their allies were to get loud and yell, we must remember there is a historic memory of abuses towards women and denying the rights to women. That makes it a charged situation for those on the side of the oppressed. Trauma is a real thing caused by the real world history of abusive oppressors.
groups who have been historically abused,
oppressed,
maligned,
demonized,
harmed, and
killed
on the one hand and the oppressors on the other. In such cases, even if an abortion opponent manages to be calm in delivering his message calmly in a public protest, and even if the oppressed and their allies were to get loud and yell, we must remember there is a historic memory of abuses towards women and denying the rights to women. That makes it a charged situation for those on the side of the oppressed. Trauma is a real thing caused by the real world history of abusive oppressors.
And
in each of these cases, the oppression is not ancient history. It's
still a fresh, recent thing, in our lifetimes only - and truly into our
children's lifetimes - has it started to get a little bit better. If
LGBTQ folks and their allies or women or others get their ire up and
respond a bit frantically in the face of oppression rising back up,
that's understandable. We're talking about human rights and people are
rightly, strongly and righteously emotionally defending human rights and
warning against returning to days of oppression.
In other words, even if the supporters of historic oppression remain relatively calm (and often, they don't), that's not to their credit. It doesn't win them any points.
In other words, even if the supporters of historic oppression remain relatively calm (and often, they don't), that's not to their credit. It doesn't win them any points.
Picture
Jesus pulling together a whip to drive out the money changers from the
temple. Righteous burning active anger against oppression. God and
reasonable people are rightfully outraged at oppression.
And
so the trauma lives on, the curse from our repressive fathers into the
third and fourth and fifth generations. It's not like you can flip a switch and turn slavery off on one day, for instance, and say, "Okay you're free. All is forgiven.
Everybody's cool now." Oppression, harm and genocide don't just "go away" that way. There was and continues to be active harm,
ongoing harm caused by that oppression and it doesn't go away in a day.
Likewise
the trauma experienced by all these other groups: women, LGBTQ folks,
those with disabilities, immigrants. That trauma is a curse in their and
all of our lives, including the lives of the oppressors and their descendants. Those who would downplay the trauma from that
oppression need to understand what they're asking when they're asking
people to be calm in the face of oppression rising back up.
