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

Wed Jun 6 06:20:40 PDT 2012

Thank you, Joyce and Randy. Profound.

John

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net
[mailto:oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of R Williams
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 8:25 AM
To: Joyce Sloan
Cc: Order Ecumenical Community
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Being Black in the Order Ecumenical

Dear Joyce,

Thank you for this.  I dare say that in light of the ongoing conversation it
took a bit of courage, probably the same kind of courage it took for you and
the others to become a part of O:E back in the day.

It would be interesting and, at least for me, informative for you and me to
sit someday and compare notes, both having been born in Gladewater at about
the same time and raised in almost the same community.  (We moved to
Longview when I was 4.)  I remember well the movie theaters, buses, drinking
fountains, schools, etc. with black and white separation.  It's a wonder any
of us of whatever color ever survived the sterotypes of inferiority or
superiority that we were washed in.

Going to the University of Texas in Austin my freshman year in 1956 (which
was otherwise disastrous) began the process of awakening my social
consciousness and conscience.  The student body there was "integrated,"
meaning people of color were allowed to go to the same classes as whites,
but there was little or no common participation beyond that.  For example,
the Southwest Conference was still segregated.  As an aside, I was later at
SMU when Jerry Levias broke through that barrier when he accepted a
scholarship to play football.  The parents of the white kid with whom Levias
roomed on road trips received hate mail at their Garland home for letting
their son room with a black.

But what most got my attention and stuck in my mind was back at UT.  I was
17 years of age and could hardly be said to have broken out of the East
Texas mindset, and yet this event grabbed me.  In the fine arts department a
black woman was cast opposite a white male in the production of a romantic
opera.  The outcry from the white community was such that the young woman
was removed from the cast.  The episode came under national scrutiny and
Harry Belafonte got wind of it, came to Austin to meet with her, and offered
to pay her tuition to any school anywhere in the world to which she would
choose to go.  The part of the story that really got me, the young woman
opted to stay right where she was.

As to my awakenment, this all culminated with, as you call it, the "second
civil war," the American civil rights movement of the 60s.  The 2x4 across
my head was the death of MLK, Jr.  I went into the tomb, a period of abject
depression that lasted several days, unlike I had experienced before or have
since.  The phrase from the poetry, "ah but it is good to have died"
resonates clearly with me when I think back on that experience, but it
didn't feel that way at the time.  I returned a resurrected man, but what
that came to mean was not at all what I anticipated.  Reminiscent of
Tillich's grace happening, I woke up the same as before yet different,
facing in a new direction but with a very long journey ahead that was just
beginning, and for me it continues to this day.  I remember well the
conversations in the Order about "inverted" or "turned-in" racism and I can
think of many examples over the years of my exhibition of that within
myself, some quite recent, and I am always a little shocked.  I have great
hopes that I may finally, if even on my death bed, overcome prejudice, but
I'm not placing any bets.

I did not intend to get into all this when I started this email.  I only
wanted to thank you for your statement and for your collegiality over all
these years.  It's strange how this stuff just began to roll out once I got
started.  I'm not sure what the take away is here, but I am clear that this
journey toward wholeness is a long one.  It is a very solitary journey and
yet at the same time it occurs in the presence of a whole community of
saints of which you, my dear friend, and Shrop, and Dharma, and Ching Ping,
and a woman in Pisinemo on the Papago reservation with whom I had one very
significant conversation, whose name I cannot remember, and countless others
are a part.  And for this I am grateful.

Randy

"Listen to what is emerging from yourself to the course of being in the
world; not to be supported by it, but to bring it to reality as it desires."
-Martin Buber (adapted)

From: Joyce Sloan <jsloan45 at gmail.com>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> 
Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 1:21 AM
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Being Black in the Order Ecumenical

Right you are Marshall to note the absence of reflections from black Order
members in the conversation that has been going on. In recalling the
conversations Shrop, Carlos and I had about the struggle with being black in
America and in the Order, Randy requested that I share the gist of those
conversations with colleagues as a kind of tribute to black Order members
who had died.  Then my life went in a tailspin and I just got a breather
long enough to respond. Anyway, here goes.

We often conversed about how the experience of being black in America was
undeniably shaped by the enslavement of black people by white people and the
subsequent relationships and identities that were born of that situation. We
talked about how those relationships and identities gave rise to stereotypes
that played themselves out on the stage of American History as if they were
in fact reality. For us they were contained in the stark contrasts between
us such as slavery vs. freedom, restrictions vs. privilege, intuition
vs.logic, dark skin and eyes vs. light skin and eyes, kinked hair vs.
straight hair, full facial features vs. thin facial features, and on and on.
For me this was compounded by the struggles of being a black woman in
America breaking and breaking through the stereotypes of  the nurturing
mammy, the permissive Jezebel or the stiff necked unyielding matriarch.   It
is no wonder that it took hundreds of years and a another civil war (AKA the
civil rights movement) to reveal the illusions out of which both races were
living in terms of what was good, and human and beautiful.

I believe the strength of those stereotypes is evident even today in
mufti-faceted behaviors and attitudes that  many call the legacy of slavery.
I am convinced that legacy affects both black and white Americans regardless
of how either one may have personally evolved.  That really struck home when
Barack Obama described how his white grandmother, who he knew loved him
dearly, would clutch her purse a little closer when walking down the street
in the presence of young black men.  

As a young black female born and raised in segregated East Texas, black and
white race relations defined my existence. It was not until l went to North
Texas State University did it consciously register with me that there really
were other kinds of people in the world. It was not until Carlos and I
worked with the Philbrooks in Dallas that I began to believe that in spite
of our history, blacks and whites could work together in a trusting
collegiality. But there was (and is) no doubt that that would mean working
through the residual effect of the legacy of slavery.  And that is what I,
and I dare say other blacks brought with them to the O:E. That included
bringing such feelings as fear, insecurity, suspicion and anger. 

I don't know anything about the conversations that led to the decision, but
I think it was divinely prophetic that the West side of Chicago was chosen
to forge the 5th City Model. And likewise it was prophetic that the
residents of that community linked arms with the EI and the O:E to make 5th
City happen.  Many other ethnic neighborhoods could have been chosen.  But
in light of the history between blacks and whites in this country, known
across the world, I don't believe any other would signal the glorious
possibility of redemption for America and the world in a more powerful way.

Joyce Sloan

On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 9:49 AM, Charles Hahn <cfhahn30 at gmail.com> wrote:

Marshall, your words are profound and moving.  Thanks for the reflective
dimension you bring to our conversation.
Charles Hahn 

On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 7:00 AM, Ken Fisher <hkf232 at gmail.com> wrote:

Well said.

Thank you, Marshall.

Ken

On 2012-06-05, at 3:05 AM, W. J. wrote:

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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