{"id":285,"date":"2020-05-29T14:13:23","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T20:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/elcaracialjustice\/?p=285"},"modified":"2020-05-29T15:22:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T21:22:00","slug":"the-broken-ones-by-shari-seifert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/elcaracialjustice\/the-broken-ones-by-shari-seifert\/","title":{"rendered":"The Broken Ones by Shari Seifert"},"content":{"rendered":"

White folks – we need to get past the idea that we need to fix white supremacy for other people – that we can be white saviors coming in to save the brown and black folks in our church.\u00a0\u00a0The truth is that we are the ones that are broken.\u00a0\u00a0Now don\u2019t get me wrong – White supremacy DEFINITELY needs to be dismantled in order to improve the lives of our brown and black siblings.\u00a0\u00a0I just don\u2019t want you to get it twisted.\u00a0\u00a0I want you to realize that we too are harmed by white supremacy.\u00a0\u00a0That what we need is collective liberation.\u00a0\u00a0That we are not the savior.\u00a0\u00a0A brown skinned Palestinian Jewish man named Jesus is.<\/p>\n

About our brokenness.\u00a0\u00a0We are seriously lacking in empathy.\u00a0\u00a0When we hear about another black body being shot on the news, we wait \u201cto hear the whole story\u201d before we can lament about the situation.\u00a0\u00a0We find some way to justify what was done.\u00a0\u00a0We find some way to assign blame to the victim.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWell if he wasn\u2019t walking in the street.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIf he didn\u2019t speak that way to the police.\u201d \u201cWell he shouldn\u2019t have been selling loose cigarettes.\u201d \u201cWell he did have a realistic toy gun in his hand.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Somehow we have become okay with state sanctioned executions in the street.\u00a0\u00a0Where oh where is our empathy?\u00a0\u00a0White supremacy tells us that objectivity is possible – that emotions shouldn\u2019t play a role in decision making.\u00a0\u00a0All too often we get stuck in our heads and we forget about our hearts.\u00a0\u00a0We rationalize away some pretty awful things.\u00a0\u00a0White supremacy has us do these things.<\/p>\n

White supremacy also tells us that we have a right to comfort.\u00a0\u00a0In church.\u00a0\u00a0White supremacy tells us that we have a right to comfort in church. What?!\u00a0\u00a0Jesus was about flipping power structures, lifting up the lowly\u00a0\u00a0– he was executed by the state for standing up for his friends.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus was intensely political.\u00a0\u00a0But we want the church to \u201cnot be political\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0We want the church to be comfortable.\u00a0\u00a0We think talking about race is racist.\u00a0\u00a0We wonder if we could just use some words other than \u201cwhite supremacy\u201d, which after all isn\u2019t really that big of a problem.\u00a0\u00a0So without thinking about it, we have created the equation that white comfort is more important than black lives.\u00a0\u00a0OUCH.\u00a0\u00a0I know\u00a0\u00a0– its a shocking realization.<\/p>\n

I know – some of you are probably super mad right now.\u00a0\u00a0You\u2019re mad because you think I am accusing you of being a white supremacist.\u00a0\u00a0You\u2019re mad because you can\u2019t possibly be a white supremacist – you\u2019re a good person – white supremacy tells you that you have to be perfect.\u00a0\u00a0You can\u2019t have some flaw like white supremacy or racism.\u00a0\u00a0The thing is, white supremacy is not so much about you as an individual as it is about this insidious evil system that we are ALL caught up in and that we ALL suffer from – though in different and unequal ways.\u00a0\u00a0The evil genius of white supremacy is that it operates without you noticing or doing anything to keep it in place.\u00a0\u00a0It is so deep and entrenched that we don\u2019t even notice it or realize that we have anything to do with it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to take a lot to root white supremacy out of church folks and its going to be hard, but we HAVE to do the work.\u00a0\u00a0Much harm has been done because we have failed to do the work.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0(I often wonder what Dylann Roof learned in his church about racism.\u00a0\u00a0I wonder if he had pictures of white Jesus hanging\u00a0\u00a0in his\u00a0ELCA congregation.\u00a0\u00a0I wonder what role did our denomination play or not play in his formation.) We are going to have to offer each other an ABUNDANCE of grace.\u00a0\u00a0We are going to have to be okay with not knowing what we are doing and forging ahead on faith.\u00a0\u00a0We are going to have to ask other white folks to give up their comfortable positions because the truth is that white comfort is NOT more important that black lives.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Shari Seifert with her friend David Starks together at Calvary Lutheran Church \u2013 Minneapolis following the murder of Philando Castile.<\/p><\/div>\n

The truth is that we are all the body of Christ together and when part of the body hurts, the whole body should feel it.\u00a0\u00a0We shouldn\u2019t wait \u201cto hear the whole story\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0We should feel it with our whole heart.\u00a0\u00a0As Bishop Eaton said tonight – until white folks care about the death of black lives as if they were their own, nothing is going to change.\u00a0\u00a0Can you join me in hoping and praying for the holy spirt to enter our hearts and move us to compassion and to action?\u00a0\u00a0Can you join me in calling for the dismantling of white supremacy?<\/p>\n

Bio: Shari Seifert\u00a0 lives in Minneapolis with her wife, two sons and the cutest Golden Doodle you have ever seen.\u00a0 She works as a Realtor and\u00a0 is committed to working towards dismantling white supremacy in the ELCA.\u00a0 Shari is currently vice-president of the European Descent Lutheran Association for Racial Justice (EDLARJ),\u00a0 a member of the Minneapolis Synod racial justice table, her congregation\u2019s Race Equity Committee and Multi-faith Anti-Racism and Healing (MARCH)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She is also on the core planning\u00a0 team the Multicultural Youth Leadership Experience (MYLE).<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

White folks – we need to get past the idea that we need to fix white supremacy for other people – that we can be white saviors coming in to save the brown and black folks in our church.\u00a0\u00a0The truth is that we are the ones that are broken.\u00a0\u00a0Now don\u2019t get me wrong – White […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Broken Ones by Shari Seifert - ELCA Racial Justice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/elcaracialjustice\/the-broken-ones-by-shari-seifert\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Broken Ones by Shari Seifert - 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