A story can be told from many perspectives. I will begin this one in Covid but in reality it began at the beginning. Threads is the theme of my blog and there are many threads that are pulled together as there are many that are torn apart. Lock down was a very strange time. In many ways, for us as a family, it was a welcome time of us being a family. A time of rest but also stress. Doug went into Covid without a job and all the leads and hopes shriveled up because of, well, Covid. For, me, Lockdown afforded some time to read and think.
I need to rewind a little here. On the 25th May, George Floyd was killed by a police officer in the state of Minnesota. This murder had a ripple effect on the world and South Africa, for obvious reasons was included in the reach. In the city of Cape Town we had our very own #yousilenceweamplify evolve as a direct result of the murder of George Floyd. Race and racism was back in focus and people were talking, sharing, arguing as well as asking questions. It felt like a window of opportunity had opened. Many people stepped through it and good came from that.
Public spaces including schools and workspaces were discussing racism in their contexts. In some of the traditionally white run churches the topic of racism in churches was also put on the agenda. Public talks were shared, stories told and books were read. This seemed all good. And, some of it really was. But, what this moment in time very viscerally revealed , was the real and powerful desire and ability for those in powerful positions to shut down these discussions , at any point. To claim, " We have had the conversation and therefore to maintain the status quo. This is exactly what happened in my church space.
The why and the what and who really do not matter. The truth is, that the church desperately needed and continues to need to have this very difficult and honest conversation with itself. Tragically , this is not a priority for many churches. It just is not.
Both Doug and I have shared too many conversations and seen too many ways that the result of the lack of tackling this head on, has played out. I am not going to write about these here as they are the stories that belong to others, but they are just too many and continue to this day.
Racism is evil. It has real life implications on and for people and it is destructive by nature. Christians who are big on the concept of sin, here this. Racism is a sin. More than that, the church, for all its good, continues to be racist. Because it fails to show up and dig into what this looks like in 2025 South Africa, Christians continue to be racist too. Does this sound offensive? Well, let me be as bold as to say, this is part of the problem.
South Africa's roots are slavery, colonization and Apartheid. Deeply racist and white supremacist. This is sadly our collective heritage and the truth is that 1994 democracy could not , like the flick of a switch, dig up these roots. It just could not and did not. Christians understand that , the mind is the place of renewal and therefore change. If the mind of racist thinking has not been dug up and " renewed" then change has not happened.
Therefore, those white people , with eyes to see, have seen this play out again and again. To our shame.
Did we speak out? The answer to this is yes. There is not much more to say here. We tried in a multiple ways and times. I feel myself growing really weary and deeply sad, as I write this down. My bones feel weighed down. My heart is broken. Not for me. But for my fellow human. The person who day after day has to live in the water that just does not see or understand the hurt we, white people perpetuate.
I will leave it here for now.
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