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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=078561913-06062012><FONT color=#0000ff>Thank
you, Joyce and Randy. Profound.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=078561913-06062012><FONT
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=078561913-06062012><FONT
color=#0000ff>John</FONT></SPAN></DIV><BR>
<DIV dir=ltr lang=en-us class=OutlookMessageHeader align=left>
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<FONT size=2 face=Tahoma><B>From:</B> oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net
[mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] <B>On Behalf Of </B>R
Williams<BR><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, June 06, 2012 8:25 AM<BR><B>To:</B> Joyce
Sloan<BR><B>Cc:</B> Order Ecumenical Community<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Oe List
...] Being Black in the Order Ecumenical<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
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<DIV id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_133897691664043><SPAN
id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_133897691664081>Dear Joyce,</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN>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.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_133897691664090></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_133897691664097><SPAN
id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_133897691664093>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.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640103></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640114><SPAN
id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640108>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.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640166><SPAN
id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640117></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640125><SPAN
id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640120>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.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640127></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640137><SPAN
id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640130>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<VAR id=yui-ie-cursor></VAR> on my death bed, overcome
prejudice, but I'm not placing any bets.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640140></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640147><SPAN
id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640143>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.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640192></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_1338976916640159>Randy</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_133897691664045></DIV>
<DIV id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_133897691664047> </DIV>
<DIV>"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."<BR
id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_133897691664051>-Martin Buber (adapted)<BR
id=yiv2146155030yui_3_2_0_20_133897691664055></DIV>
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<DIV
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class="yiv2146155030hr yiv2146155030yui-non yiv2146155030yui-skip"></DIV><B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Joyce Sloan
<jsloan45@gmail.com><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B>
Order Ecumenical Community <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> <BR><B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Wednesday, June 6, 2012 1:21
AM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> Re: [Oe List ...]
Being Black in the Order Ecumenical<BR></FONT></DIV><BR>
<DIV id=yiv2146155030>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>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.
<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>Joyce
Sloan<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>
<DIV class=yiv2146155030gmail_quote>On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 9:49 AM, Charles Hahn
<SPAN dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:cfhahn30@gmail.com" rel=nofollow target=_blank
ymailto="mailto:cfhahn30@gmail.com">cfhahn30@gmail.com</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex"
class=yiv2146155030gmail_quote>Marshall, your words are profound and
moving. Thanks for the reflective dimension you bring to our
conversation.<SPAN><FONT color=#888888><BR>Charles Hahn</FONT></SPAN>
<DIV>
<DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV class=yiv2146155030gmail_quote>On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 7:00 AM, Ken Fisher
<SPAN dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:hkf232@gmail.com" rel=nofollow target=_blank
ymailto="mailto:hkf232@gmail.com">hkf232@gmail.com</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex"
class=yiv2146155030gmail_quote>
<DIV style="WORD-WRAP: break-word">
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Well said.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Thank you, Marshall.</DIV><SPAN><FONT color=#888888>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Ken</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BR></FONT></SPAN>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>On 2012-06-05, at 3:05 AM, W. J. wrote:</DIV><BR></DIV></DIV><SPAN
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<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">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.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">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. </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">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.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">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. </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">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.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Marshall Jones</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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