In the midst of a joyous gathering with music, laughter, and powerful words honoring an American hero, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in January 2016, for his life-long dedicated work to advance racial harmony and to improve the conditions of African Americans, on that same day in Red Bank, a group describing itself as the KKK left hateful, racist leaflets on the lawns of families throughout the borough. As a group, we joined together by our commitment to a diverse and open society, and we ask all members of the Red Bank community to join with us in thinking about how we can live together in mutual respect.
We invite you to exercise empathy with people of color. For those who are white, especially those who dropped those despicable flyers on people’s lawns, we would ask you for a moment to step into the skin of an African American and to consider what would happen. In an instant, your life will change. Your perspective about yourself will be abruptly shaken. You will find yourself in a different world, an unkind and forbidding world. You will be in a world that makes you act as if everything is fine, but you know that it’s not. You know that many eyes are looking at you differently, as if you came from another planet. Despite the fact that your people were here in America much longer than most of the white population, it’s how they arrived — in chains, then — sold into slavery — that makes the whole difference to many white people. It’s a world of a difference for Black Americans.
Yes, you experience a country where there is a fixation on the color of a person’s skin.
Now, step back into your white skin. As hard as we try, we cannot conceive of what people of color are forced to live with, and what they must endure. Consider this reality for African Americans whether one finds his or her family member is in a gang and is called a thug, or has worked his or her way up to the position of CEO of a national corporation – both will be more than likely branded negatively for life, just because of the color of their skin.
Such a reality is hard to accept. Such a reality is not what America was meant to be, especially, when we are called to respect all people and to judge people “by the content of their character, and not by the color of their skin,” as Dr. King so passionately preached. Such is the reality only because some people have an irrational fear of the unknown. Please join us to examine this American phenomenon as we work to change the reality of racism that hurts all of us.
“Citizens for a Diverse and Open Society” of Red Bank – citizensforadiversesociety@gmail.com
The Racial Justice Task Force of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County
virginia@uucmc.org
===============================================================–
Sid Bernstein & Gilda Rogers — Co-Founders (CDOS)
Rev. Virginia Jarocha-Ernst — Spiritual Leader UUCMC
Monmouth Center for World Religions and Ethical Thought (MCWRET)
Rev. Elizabeth B. Congdon & Rev. Stevi Lishcin — Co-Coordinators
