Digging Up the Roots of Racism Podcast

SEASON TWO - EPISODE 15: DIGGING UP THE ROOTS OF RACISM

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about digging up racism. I had written this almost two weeks before George Floyd’s brutal murder.

I can’t stop thinking about this metaphor, even though, like all metaphors, it can only go so far. In light of everything happening now in our country, I felt the need to share a longer version of it on my podcast.

Now, I’m one of those over-achieving-planners. I had 10 other podcast episodes recorded and scheduled for the rest of the summer. But, I’m putting all of those on hold for a bit.

Instead, I want to spend some time on the podcast talking about whiteness, our racial biases and privilege, dismantling white supremacy and systemic injustice, as well as resource us while amplifying important voices and crucial work. 

So for the next few weeks, I am going to spend some time talking about this and interviewing a few friends and colleagues.

In this episode, I share a story, give you some resources, and end with a contemplative prayer that lasts 8:46 - the same amount of time that George Floyd spent gasping for breath as a police officer kneeled on his neck.

I think the upcoming episodes will be crucial for us white people who rarely think about our race, worry about police brutality, are unaware of our privilege, or refuse to face the evil and racist systems in our culture.

We need to learn our history, acknowledge the reality, speak up and out, repent, and apologize. We need to name it. We need to call it out. We need to repent. And then, we need to shut up for a while in order to listen and learn. As we do this, we need to find the roots of racism within our own hearts and lives.

Instead of just trying to become woke, we need to become the fixers and repairers.

Instead of unknowingly benefiting from racist systems, we need to become the dismantlers of racist systems. 

We need to uproot the entire system and fix it, because we created it.

We need to become anti-racist who are working to create anti-racist policies, systems, culture, and the world. 

As I mention in this episode, I have a bunch of resources for you.

If you love podcasts as I do, I recommend: Code Switch, Existential, Momentum, Pass the Mic, Profane Faith, Speaking of Racism, and White Homework.

There are so many incredible books out there. Some of the most impactful to me have been the following: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Just Mercy, How to be an Anti-Racist, Stamped from the Beginning, Antiracist Baby, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You.

I think you should read everything by Ta-Nehisi Coates: Between the World and Me, We Were Eight Years in Power, The Case for Reparations, The Beautiful Struggle, and The Water Dancer. The Cross and the Lynchburg Tree and God of the Oppressed by James Cone are essential.

The Warmth of Other Suns, Slavery by Another Name, The Color of Law, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Tears We Cannot Stop, and Trouble I’ve Seen are all incredible books worth your time.

And for those of us who are white, here are some specific books on whiteness that I recommend: White Fragility, White Like Me, Waking up White, White Awake, Raising White Kids, and Rediscipling the White Church. 

I’ve also created a Let’s Get to Work Resource List, which you can download as a PDF. (Oh, and if you subscribe to my newsletter, you’ll get other perks like this once and a while)

It’s time to stand up, declare Black lives matter, grab a shovel, and start digging up the roots of racism because we are 400 years behind on this important work.

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The Need to Be Replanted

I shared in a former post that I’ve been doing a lot of yard work and how uprooting weeds became an apt metaphor for the uprooting of racism that white people need to do. In this post, I want to share some thoughts on gardening and the evolution of our faith. Who would have thought amateur gardening and yard work can give you so much blog content.

Now, I have absolutely no experience gardening. I’m not the type who really likes to have dirt under his fingernails. So, that makes a small conflict of interest for me.

All I have done is put little seeds into a seed pod, which is basically a mesh of dehydrated dirt that expands as water is added. Once it’s fully expanded, you drop in a couple of seeds and wait until they grow.

We’ve had the best luck with green beans. Those things sprout within hours and after a couple of days, they are quite tall.

Yet one thing I noticed is that some seeds, barely growing above the surface, had roots extending out of the meshed dirt. A couple of inches long, these roots were searching for water and nutrients. The thing is, the roots weren’t in the soil anymore. They were in our little plastic tray, searching for sustenance, but unable to find anything but plastic.

As I was staring at these little seedlings, I realized our faith and church experience can be similar to this.

There will be times in our faith journey when our roots will push through the mesh. They are out searching for water and nutrients, but only found an empty plastic tray. There is little to sustain and supplement our faith and experience with the Divine. As if our soul is longing and desiring something greater of the faith tradition but unable to find it in our spot in the seed pod.

We get to the point where we have outgrown our soil.

Just like these plants, we need to be replanted, in a new pot, with more soil, so our roots can deepen, expand, and grow so that we will have the strength to grow towards the light.

I think this is true for many of us. Perhaps you’ve found yourself in a religious meshed pod and your roots are expanding. Perhaps you find this pod to be incredibly constrictive rather than giving you the space to ask questions, doubt, expand, or grow.

Maybe you have been breaking through the mesh in search of a deeper and richer experience of God. Maybe you’ve been searching for a place where your roots can thrive. It might feel as if no one is tending to your roots, or the nutrients your faith craves are nowhere to be found, or that you are being outcasted or deemed heretical for your expanding faith, or maybe you are being viewed as a weed or a plant that doesn’t belong in the garden in the first place.

Be encouraged. You simply need to be replanted in deeper soil within a bigger and diverse garden.

It means you may need to try a new church, experience new spiritual rhythms, question particular theological interpretations, listen to new voices and teachers, and trust that through it all the Divine is as close to you as your very breath.

In my own faith journey, I have discovered the depth and richness of the Christian Tradition, not simply my one tradition (or pod). It’s one of the reasons I’ve begun to identify as a Contemplative Ecumenical instead of an Evangelical. It’s why I spent over two years part of a cohort program exploring ancient and contemplative spiritual practices. And, it’s why my faith is fuller and richer than it ever has been.

I have found that it can be a garden that allows all people to flourish, growing, and evolving at our own pace, as we all continue to grow closer to the Light.

Uprooting Racism While Gardening

I’ve been spending a significant amount of time digging up roots and weeds in my yard.

It’s been occupying my evenings and weekends. Surprisingly, it is a nice change of pace from working from home. For as much uprooting I’ve done, I’m not very good at it nor do I think it’s very enjoyable. But, I do it and am usually sore the next day.

One thing I’ve been amazed at is the strength and depth of roots. Some dandelion roots have been over a foot long. Vine roots are incredibly long and are just under the surface of the dirt. Some bushes I had to dig up had roots a few feet deep.

In our backyard is a tree that was once covered in vines. Around the base of the tree are huge vine roots that had been cut down but never uprooted. My wife and I decided to dig them so we could lay mulch around the tree. The more we started digging, yanking, and pulling the more we realized it was going to be a more difficult job than anticipated.

We started with a hand shovel thinking we could easily yank them up. Quickly, we realized we needed a shovel to dig deeper and wider. We discovered what seemed like full vine stumps underground. As we ripped up the roots, dirt flew everywhere; on our clothes, on our faces, in our mouths. A few times, I yank a root so hard that when it snapped off I fell to the ground with it.

Our son kept yelling at us, “Are you ripping up the tree roots? Are you going to dig up the whole tree? Don’t kill the tree.” We kept reassuring him that we were taking up the vines that were inhibiting the tree from growing. “We’re trying to save the tree” we kept saying.

It was hard, difficult, messy, and even painful work.

I think this is an apt metaphor for the work white people need to do concerning racism and white privilege.

Racism has deep and strong roots in our history and culture. There is an entire system that is full of injustice, deep and long just under the green grass, that is inhibiting growth. Yet, for most of us, we don’t see it. Or should I say, we refuse to see it.

There are racist roots in our culture, permeating many of our systems, and deep within our own hearts. And if we continue to let it, such roots will overtake and wreak havoc on every aspect of the garden.

We need to dig them up. We need to uproot them. This is our problem, my fellow white people. It’s our problem to name, uproot, and fix.

It’s going to be hard, messy, and painful work. The more we dig up, the more ugliness will we find. We will get covered in dirt. We will fall down as we rip things up. We will probably be sore the next day. And when we start naming and uprooting the weeds, people will yell at us, “Are you ripping up the tree roots? Don’t kill the tree. Why are you making this a race issue? I’m not racist. I didn’t own slaves.”

We need to learn our history, acknowledge the reality, speak up and out, repent, and apologize. We need to name it. We need to call it out. We need to repent. We need to find the roots of racism within our own hearts and lives.

But more than that, we need to uproot the entire system and fix it. Get your gloves and shovels. We’ve got work to do.

And while you’re at it, a few great books for you:
White Privilege: Let’s Talk UCC Curriculum
The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo
So You Want To Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy, Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Case for Reparations, Ta-Nehisi Coates
Stamped From The Beginning, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
How To Be An Antiracst, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Austin Channing Brown
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, Richard Rothstein