Tom Adams

Facing Backlash in the Fight for Social Justice? Next Actions?

As the Thanksgiving festivities wind down, I find myself increasingly disturbed by the seeming reversal in attitudes and actions relative to racial justice and equity in the United States. Just a year ago, over half of American voters wanted a return to healing our race wounds and learning to live and love one another.

Diversity Plus Love Equals Unity

Contemplation. As a faithful Christian in a world where the politicized face of Christianity doesn’t always reflect my viewpoint, I seek to publicly share the values I hold dear as a follower of Christ. In this post, I want to share some reflections on what I consider the fundamental basis for my Christian faith: love.

Connecting faith, love and justice: some reflections

As I reflected on our new topic – the connection between faith and loving others and working for social justice – I realized my thoughts on this topic mirror what my niece Meredith Heneghan posted here about faith more generally: “To have faith is to have faith, and that’s really it.”

Exploring How Faith Connects Us: Many Views

Over the past few months, I have explored the different ways guest contributors and I experience faith. In one post, I talked about the ability to “wait for it.” A friend recently shared how her efforts to grow in patience have led her to see patience as the practice of empathy. Since patience is not a strength of mine, her comment got my attention. I was reminded of how my impatience often comes from a belief I know better or best in most situations and an accompanying unwillingness to wait for or respect someone else’s approach. I now see that a corrective act of faith is to believe everyone is entitled to a personal point of view. In this more open response to alternative approaches, I know I don’t have to accept unacceptable situations. Rather I believe that I can make a choice in a way that is empathic and respectful without attacking what is different.

Faith explored – more views

Last week I shared a post by guest contributor Eileen Doud where she shared her faith in Jesus. Oddly to some, this was the first time my exploration of faith directly mentioned Jesus. I say “oddly” because I was raised as a Catholic, studied for a while to be a Catholic priest and continue to be a practicing Catholic. I do believe in Jesus and, at the same time, believe there are many names and ways of conceiving of a power greater than me, the divine, the Big Spirit or God.

Faith as a personal decision

Second day of fall, the rain has pelted my hometown. I had an appointment with the auto repair shop and, since it was raining furiously, I wore a waterproof Helly Hansen jacket; and brought along a waterproof backpack, courtesy of Eddie Bauer. Neither helped. Drenched to the bone, I reluctantly left my car at the shop and walked to the aquatic center to swim! Clearly, this was a morning of “iffy” decisions!

Facing Backlash in the Fight for Social Justice? Next Actions?

Hope you had a joy-filled Thanksgiving and holiday. I wanted to alert you that I was notified that some readers got a message that the website was insecure. The hosting company has shared that they had a security breach, which has now been corrected. Thanks for being a part of the community of people who care about creating a more just and loving world. Reach out at tom@thadams.com if you want any further insight into this glitch. Peace, Tom.

Now, it appears the tide of support for police reform, for acknowledging our history of oppressing and killing indigenous and non-white people, for expanding and protecting voters’ rights, and for electing candidates committed to working for justice are all in decline.

The Sunday Washington Post of 11/14 was full of facts and speculation about the shifting sands. For me as a privileged white man, this shift is shocking and troubling. For many people of color, they expected no more. This has been the story throughout our history years – a short period of attention to equity and fairness followed by white backlash and the emergence of new and creative ways to keep systemic racism in place.

Among the troubling articles in the Post was a second-page story, “Shift in racial attitudes widens gulf between parties,” and an opinion essay, “Have Democrats reached the limits of White appeasement politics?” The first was a summary of a recent Pew Research report that is part of a three-decade study “drawing a political typology of the nation.” Not surprising to those paying attention, the study concludes, “perhaps no issue is more divisive than racial justice in the United States.” The study found that no more than a quarter of Republicans thought more needed to be done to ensure equal rights for all Americans regardless of race or ethnic origin; conversely, no fewer than 75% of Democrats indicated a lot more needs to be done to advance racial equity.

The second article lays out how the Republican strategy of white grievance is used to turn out white voters; and, while the Democrats are the party for civil rights, how they consistently have turned to tactics that play to white appeasement to win enough white voters to win elections. The essay questions whether or not the recent Democratic defeat in Virginia signals the limits of white appeasement and the need for new and bolder approaches to racial justice.

These stores remind us that a basic fear exists in way too many hearts – that we will lose what we have or not get what we want. Fear drives the attacks on school board members for allowing Critical Race Theory to be taught in their communities. Fear drives the hesitation to speak up against or legislate to end obvious racial inequities.

It’s easy for me, and I suspect for many people of privilege, to conclude this is way too complex and too big an issue for me to do anything about it. So the oppressed in our minority communities are left to battle social injustices without us as we enjoy our privileges. Rather than laying a guilt trip on all of us, I seek to invite each one of us to question “what is mine to do?”

Our guest writers Grizel Ubarry and Shirin McArthur laid out different kinds of calls to action in the last two posts. Ubarry suggested leaning into faith and doing the good that is in front of you, including working with and for those treated unjustly. McArthur offers concrete suggestions about how we treat each person we meet, opportunities to advance human respect and a commitment to equitable treatment.

Individual goodwill and behavior changes won’t overcome centuries of structural racism. I believe our next job is to continue to learn about these cycles of activism and retrenchment. The more of us who come out of denial about these patterns, the more of us will be supporting, the tearing down of the systems of racism and inequity in America.

What are you learning these days about the cycles of movement towards and away from racial justice in America? What is your next right action to stand with those committed to more equity and justice for all?