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

Tue Jun 5 16:10:57 PDT 2012

Thanks, Marshall.

One of the grand sweeps of metaphorical poetry we ever packaged was the Ur Images course from cultural anthropology.  It forced me to think broadly in geographical scope, and deeply to 'roots'.  I even did a morning collegium at the Student House while at the Academy on Ur Images, forcing the pedagogical question on how one might package punch in small jabs and short rounds.  Successful or not is not my point; attempting the task was.

Got to the Lagos HDTS.  I was exhausted after a rather "racist" bout with Heathrow Immigration where, on a half-day layover, it took Mary Lou and I four hours to get out of the airport because I was traveling on a Philippine passport and needed a visa.  I might have treated the Ur Images course in Ijede just as a matter of course.  I was not let off the front board without the scathing critique of one of the participants from Ghana.  Having gotten comfortable with the "color" coding by then, I did not see the other implication of limits and stereotypical definitions the six 'skin colors' implied. The participant, coming from the outside, did.

Presenting a typology of six (the Zodiac has 12) was obviously narrow, and properly chastened, I tiptoe gingerly in the use of the color coding ever since.  Gene Marshall in his magnum opus work-in-progress on consciousness uses the more prosaic term 'primordial metaphors' for the six categories.  An improvement on description, though perhaps, losing part of the poetry.

I was more thorough in my explanation of the color coding when I used the UR images in a 12-session imaginal education colloquy to members of the Shenyang Aerospace University faculty last term.  The international student population has grown in the last five years, and the faculty members are short on classroom management tools since the 'foreigners' do not readily acquiesce to the teacher's Confucian and/or Maoist authoritarian mode.

The basic symbols I used (the mask for the stick dance on the Black, e=mc2 for White, the taiji for Yellow, Om script for Brown, four hands clasping wrists in a square for Red, and an open book for Tan) were mind-blowing and liberating to the crowd.  The imagination was challenged and creativity flowed, though my "yellow" audience did not care much for the color codes.

Evelyn Philbrook expanding the listserv's conversation on growing up Black in the Order Ecumenical to be more inclusive harkens back to the wisdom of the course that obviously focuses beyond the color of the skin.  This is not to diminish the significance of the individual lives' impact, e.g. Shropshire, on members of the spirit movement, nor the earthiness of Dawn Lingo's ghetto lingo on Philippine bourgeoisie Methodist pastors, and certainly, not water down the reality of the civil rights struggle in the United States of the 60s.  It is to suggest that we treat the color code (e.g., black, white, tan, brown, yellow, red people) the same way the Brits treat their royals: the King is dead, long live the King!  (Curious, but do they say the same on the Queen?)

j'aime la vie
in China

-----Original Message-----
From: W. J. <synergi at yahoo.com>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Tue, Jun 5, 2012 3:05 pm
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Being Black in the Order Ecumenical

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

_______________________________________________
OE mailing list
OE at lists.wedgeblade.net
http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe-wedgeblade.net/attachments/20120605/469cbb60/attachment.html>