[Oe List ...] Being Black in the Order Ecumenical

[W. J.]

I was surprised that the question about what it was like to be black in the O:E 
really was not addressed by black colleagues. Instead it became a conversation 
in which white people TALKED about black people, remembering their names and 
unique contributions.
We didn't really articulate how critical black order members were/are to bailing 
us all out of our unconscious cultural reductionisms. I write, of course, as one 
of the "pinkies" who showed up in 5th City after the 1968 riots. It was 
absolutely essential that black colleagues in the community and in the Order 
gave their permission for us crazy white people to stay in 5th City. They 
claimed us as colleagues, they put up with us, they protected us, and they 
confronted us with our unconscious embodiment of white male privilege and 
racism. They grounded us in the experience of suffering in the community and 
joined with us in working to transcend the internalized racist stereotypes we 
were all struggling with. I suspect people of color in the Order had an often 
unacknowledged burden to bear in dealing with white male dominance. 
It wasn't just that people of color were just as totally on top of everything as 
the white male leadership was (in other words, comfortable operating with the 
rational gifts of the white Ur). More importantly, coming from another profound 
experience of humanness, these colleagues often surprised us in their freedom 
from being stuck in "white man's consciousness", so to speak.
I'm trying to get beyond being yet another white person talking about black 
people. Several years ago I had the privilege of working with Lela Mosley, Ruth 
Carter, and Verdell Trice in getting the 5th City film released on DVD. Lela was 
at the end of her days, in and out of the hospital, and on oxygen, but she could 
sometimes talk with me on the phone. We were going over a list of deceased 5th 
Citizens whose contributions would be honored on the DVD. I would say, "What 
about So-and-so? Is she dead yet?" And Lela would say, "No, she's still 
kicking!" We would laugh. And it was kind of funny, you know, just to be 
standing in the Awe of all those people who had decided to give their lives in 
that geography. Not that they were black or white, economically advantaged or 
not. OR: In the Order. Or not. You get that? No difference (despite the 
difference). I tell you we will be highly privileged to join that company of 5th 
City Pioneers some day. 
Joe Mathews said that what he was most proud of was being a 5th Citizen. Not of 
being the Dean of this crummy outfit called the Order. But (I would say) of 
standing his ground and being his "be" with the profound humanness we discovered 
and celebrated in 5th City. And if I can have just a tiny taste of that in my 
privileged white man's life, and if I was able to add just the smallest bit to 
the 'miracles' that we all participated in creating together, I think that would 
be enough for me.
Marshall Jones
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