A Dose of Reality
I’ve been thinking about Ferguson1 and our listening projects.2 Yesterday morning I went out and made contact with people, and I was pleased but also wanted to do more.
Then a Co-Counselor sent me a text of himself in a shirt that said “Black Men Are Good.” He had made the shirts to raise money for a black men’s project. I decided to make a donation and bought a whole bunch of them. And this morning my best friend and I each wore a shirt over our winter coats and gave them out to people as we walked our children to school.
Oh, the looks on people’s faces. Older black men, in particular, picked up their step a bit. The second grade teacher I went out of my way to find looked like he would’ve burst into tears if his class hadn’t been standing there. I wish I could afford a million of these shirts and give them out every time I walk down the street. They created a nice opportunity to listen to people, but mostly they just offered a contradiction3 and a dose of a reality.
Tresa Elguera
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion
list for leaders of wide world change
1 Ferguson is a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Last August, a white Ferguson police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager. This led to many protests in Ferguson and around the country against that killing as well as the ongoing police brutality directed at black people. In November, a county grand jury failed to indict the officer, which led to further protests.
2 In an RC listening project, several Co-Counselors go to a public place and offer to listen to passersby about some important issue, such as racism or a current war. They may hold signs that invite people to share their thinking about that issue.
3 Contradiction to black men’s oppression