BLACK LIVES ARE WORTHY
Black Lives are Worthy
Like metanoia, pandemic is a Greek term. If we understand pan to mean ”all” and demos to mean “people,” then it is clear that a pandemic deeply wounding the Black community hit Charleston before 2020.
2015 was the year of our pandemic.
Recognizing that many wounds scarred our community prior to 2015, the death of Walter Scott on April 5, 2015 marked our first public loss. And the pandemic’s inevitable “peak” was recorded on June 17, 2015 when a white vigilante took nine innocent church-going lives at Mother Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston. Our systems were shocked in 2015 by these deaths in our community. With compassion, we came together in this sobering moment. Black Charleston forgave. White and non-black allies held hands. Together, we marched across the Cooper River Bridge.
Today, we remember the 10 lives that were lost just five years ago; and also, we recognize that neither the forgiveness nor the marching brought about the transformation that our community genuinely pursues.
As we all grapple with a global health pandemic (COVID-19) on the frontlines or in our homes, we sit in stillness yet are stirring, moving, and present to our emotions. George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020 reawakened us to our call to address America’s greatest moral challenges of our time – of justice, of equity, of humanity, of racism.
Returning to our organizing tools, Metanoia continued to listen. We heard our Black executive leadership and staff. We made phone call after phone call to listen to our Black community – its residents and families. We honored our own voices by holding space for Black leadership, staff and board members to collectively reflect on the past weeks, shaped by national events.
We listened. We showed up. We paid attention to the thoughts, the aspirations and the continued disappointment.
The Board of Directors and staff at Metanoia hosted an internal listening session on Saturday, June 6, 2020 during which we shared voice messages and statements from the community. In the voices of our community, our Black Board members, leadership and staff, we heard a range of emotions. From grief, sadness and anger to feelings of being mad, negated and overlooked, we realized the persistence of emotional exhaustion. We left the session with a heightened awareness of each other, the challenges confronting our community and renewed clarity of our work as a catalyst for systemic change.
Here we reflect on and share how recent acts of police brutality upon Black men and women affected our community, and therefore, us.
As we listened to one another and began to process the stories of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, a sense of emotional exhaustion loomed. What became evident is that our generation’s deepest wounds—of Walter Scott and of the Emanuel 9—have yet to heal. The unmoved dialogue is starting yet again.
Even as we try to give voice to such long-stemming pain exacerbated by present-day murders of Black people, we have to gulp yet again when Rayshard Brooks was murdered at the hands of police just this weekend in Atlanta, GA.
Black parents of the community, Board and staff are once again guiding their children on how best to speak and carry themselves as an act of survival.
The unanswered questions from our children persist: “Will I live past 18? Will I make it to college? Will I die because I’m Black?” The fears of our children lifted up in these sentiments tore through our souls. Some of us could say that we, too, recall asking the same questions growing up Black in Charleston and in America. We, too, recalled our parents or our younger selves being involved in the movement for Civil Rights and equality in some shape or form. We are disappointed that we are still pacifying systemic racism with #hashtags, social media posts, and statements without substantive action. We fear that commercialization of the catastrophe will prevail, as opposed to the transformation of systems.
Taking the time to listen to our stories, hear the pain, collectively grieve and acknowledge truth. Not until we accept these painful realities will we be able to begin the process of inner change within ourselves, outer change within our systems and collective change within our communities. This transformation is called a metanoia and defines who we are as an organization and defines why we do what we do. We realized that the tragic and unjust atrocities against Black people demands that we collectively continue to drive change and be the change.
We have always believed that in order to achieve justice in our community and nation, we must recognize: people are essential. In fact, “people are essential” is at the center of Metanoia’s vision statement and philosophy. Walter Scott, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and the Emmanuel 9 are lifted up in this statement because they are more than essential. They are worthy of their breath, their right to life, and living to their fullest potential.
We remain faithful and committed to our original remit – utilizing tools of community organizing and community development for justice, equity and transformation.
Black lives in our community matter and are WORTHY. Black lives are worthy of judicial equity and expediency. Black lives are worthy of housing equity. Black lives are worthy of educational equity. Black lives are worthy of employment equity. Black families are worthy of opportunity.
We understand that until all Black lives are understood as entirely worthy, none of us is able to experience true liberation and freedom.
On this day of remembrance, we invite you to see your essential role in achieving justice, establishing equity and dismantling racism every day. You are essential to the movement for social justice and human rights in our nation – starting in your community, in your religious and social spaces, and in your home.
We challenge you to join others in the journey and join others in the fight.
Jamilla Harper, Chief Operating Officer at Metanoia, and Shawn Saulsberry, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors at Metanoia, worked to devise a statement to collectively speak to acts of injustice and its impact on the area served by Metanoia.