Here in Cincinnati, we have become the latest national spotlight as University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing shot and killed an unarmed black man, Sam DuBose. The county prosecutor Joe Deters charged the police officer with murder after viewing a body cam video that showed no violence from the victim. Deters went so far as to call the officer’s response senseless and asinine. Having the prosecutor respond with such speed (10 days after the incident) and the evidence being so clear has helped our community respond with overall unity. However I am still startled at the responses of some who blame the victim for having a police record and consider his behavior blameworthy of his murder.
Michael Emerson and Christian Smith noted in their landmark work Divided by Faith that white and black Christians respond differently to social issues. White Christians tend to spiritualize everything, and black Christians respond with social justice. During this current event, I have watched this play out. After 30 years as a pastor of a mixed-race church, still an anomaly in our country, I have a few suggestions, especially for white pastors who are wondering how to respond wisely and well in such a moment.
Take your cues from pastors of color
Not sure how and when to respond to a racially charged crisis? Learn from the other pastors in your area. How are the black pastors responding to the latest crisis? In our city two white pastors really master this, Troy Jackson and Chris Beard. These two stand in unity with the black pastors during any needed protest or response. For example, during the recent DuBose case, the county prosecutor refused to release the body cam video before the grand jury met to decide on the case. The statement of the police officer, however, had been made public. The black pastors and Jackson and Beard demanded the video be released immediately, just like the statement from the officer. Because Jackson and Beard have close relationships with the black pastors, they are informed of the planned response and stand ready to act.
Support without supplanting
Jackson and Beard understand the influence they have as white males and use it to support the black pastors. However they also understand the need to submit to the primacy of the voices of the black pastors in these situations. This photo of a news conference during these events illustrates this well. Damon Lynch III, leader of Coalition for a Just Hamilton County, sits in the middle, flanked by Troy Jackson on the left and Chris Beard on the right. Lynch created the coalition in response to the 2001 riots and continues to play a key role in the area with these issues.
Too often when white people do get involved, our enthusiasm and the fact that we are accustomed to being the power brokers means we take over instead of following.
My daughter Nora Howell directs Jubilee Arts Baltimore, located in Sandtown, where the incidents surrounding Freddie Gray’s death unfolded in the spring of 2015. She works in this neighborhood because she grew up in Cincinnati and remembers the 2001 race riots over similar issues. Growing up in Cincinnati offered the opportunity to participate in ArtWorks, a project that hires teens to do art in the summer. So this year her life experiences and current opportunities coalesced into a summer project called Art at Work, hiring 80 teens from Sandtown to create eight murals throughout the neighborhood. Teens got paid, received training in job skills, visited a university, and interviewed their neighbors and created art that expressed people’s thoughts and feelings. The crisis of this spring led to this concrete and positive response, creating new possibilities for not only the 80 youth and the artists who led them, but also the neighborhood of Sandtown. This demonstrates a helpful response to crisis and racial tensions. Concrete, immediate, positive.
In the same way my daughter’s project in Baltimore intentionally hired only black teaching artists from Baltimore for each mural. Although my white daughter oversaw the program as the administrator, the hands on mentoring came from black professionals, including the job training skills.
Too often when white people do get involved, our enthusiasm and the fact that we are accustomed to being the power brokers means we take over instead of following. One of the hallmarks of Michael Emerson’s personal journey has been to attend black churches wherever he lives and submit to black pastoral leadership. Although he has much to offer the church, he does so under the black pastor’s authority.
Better late than never, but …
Many of the recent incidents between black victims and police have caused much racial divide concerning the validity of the violence and death. Around the country people are still arguing if the deaths of victims like Michael Brown and Eric Garner came from justified police response or racial profiling.
It would help in situations like these to acknowledge the benefits we enjoy, as well as the fears and stresses we avoid by being white.
As we awaited the response of the prosecutor to the DuBose case here in Cincinnati, black pastors and those like Jackson and Beard had already made clear their concerns. Once the video released, and the prosecutor stated in such clear terms the poor policing involved, even the white community could easily back the victim’s family and condemn the officer’s actions. Some still blamed the victim, but the majority could see the senseless response ending a man’s life after being pulled over for a missing front license plate.
On the night of the prosecutor’s announcement, many churches and groups offered events for people to attend. Some of these churches had not previously engaged in these issues the way others had been doing for so long. It’s great to join the party even late, but it would help to acknowledge that reality. If your church has not been on the front lines with racial reconciliation, admit it publicly. Be up front about your own lack of engagement up until now. Ask for help from those who lead the way.
A common complaint of whites is that “we didn’t own slaves; we didn’t commit injustice” and that they are being asked to apologize for wrongs of decades past. Yet whites do continue to benefit from the privilege inherent in our racial advantages. The reality of that is beyond the scope of this article, however it would help in situations like these to acknowledge the benefits we enjoy, as well as the fears and stresses we avoid by being white.
Learn to lament
In November 2014, a Missouri grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson for the death of Michael Brown. On December 3, 2014, another grand jury took less than a day to decide not to indict Daniel Pantaleo for the death of Eric Garner in New York. As I walked around my neighborhood that day and saw black people showing up for work with whites, I wondered how they were feeling, and I wrote this lament:
Prophets have been weeping for thousands of years
Watching people suffering, covering them with tears
Wondering where our God is while we shake with our fears,
And holding out hope for tomorrow.
When will we see a change, when will justice rain?
Why do the same people have to feel most of the pain?
When will righteousness roll down, when will we see a change?
We're holding out hope for tomorrow.
Meanwhile we can’t be still, we must speak, and march and try,
Standing together, holding those who cry,
Doing what we can do so no more need to die,
And holding out hope for tomorrow.
And holding out hope for tomorrow.
That Sunday I shared this with my church as a song, and although laments don’t fix problems, they allow space for the grief of ongoing loss, fear, and stress that racism inflicts.
Even in those cases that seem less clear, as white people and pastors, we need to give space to those who are experiencing pain and anger, despite our personal opinions of the legal process. We may not feel sad or angry, but we need to allow space for those who do, even we do not personally understand.
Create a safe conversation
The evening of the prosecutor’s press conference, churches around the university area (where the incident occurred) opened their doors for students and others to process, leading to excellent conversations and opportunities to understand each other across racial lines. These churches stepped up in a marvelous manner, allowing people to really deal with their feelings and responses.
Other churches offered services, but not conversation, which did not really allow people to process their feelings. Simply having a preaching service or corporate prayer deals only with the spiritual level of these issues, which is the typical white-church response. One of the best tools to move beyond that can be creating safe place to dialogue.
In desiring to create a safe place for people to discuss racial issues, “safe” does not mean comfortable. Discomfort indicates progress as previous categories are challenged. However the church should offer a place where no one feels physically at risk during confrontation. Robin DiAngelo states: “The history of extensive and brutal violence perpetrated by whites; slavery, genocide, lynching, whipping, forced sterilization, and medical experimentation, to name a few, is trivialized when we claim we don’t feel safe or are under attack when in the rare situation of merely talking about race with people of color.” Majority culture churches need encouragement to enter the uncomfortable racial conversation and people of color need reassurance they will be heard and not vilified. As whites we will not be comfortable talking about race, but we will be safe, and we must risk discomfort for the greater good.
Troy Jackson leads a group in Cincinnati called Amos Project, which both creates practical solutions for issues like poverty, and hosts frequent meetings for conversation between churches. These meetings present the latest issues in the community, but they also allow interaction between the attendees, which helps people to process what they are experiencing. In most cities a coalition has been formed to address racial concerns. If not, find some pastors of color and start one, remembering proper respect of each person’s role.
A black pastor asked me, “Do you think it is harder for white people to help underprivileged black people, or to confront their white peers about racial issues?” I immediately answered it is easier to help underprivileged black people. Yet beyond a safe place to learn from other races, we need to be willing to have hard conversations with our own race about the misperceptions and stereotypes we hold.
Concrete, immediate, positive
In the beginning I mentioned my daughter’s program as concrete, immediate, and positive. Too often white pastors and churches wait months or years to plan something in response to an event. When the Charleston Massacre happened, that first Sunday every church in our country needed to at least pray for the victim’s families. We cannot wait to decide what is politically expedient when such crises arise. Again we can look to others for help, an online group provided a liturgy for that Sunday that many churches used.
Creating positive and concrete solutions to racial issues certainly takes planning and effort. In Nora’s case, she had already been working on her plan, expecting most of the work to be done in 2016. But the circumstances of 2015 demanded an immediate response, so with the help of others they stepped up for such a time as this. If we are already working on helpful solutions, we will be ready to step into crises with those plans.
Being immediate also means being willing to settle for less than excellence to meet a critical need. Nora’s program will run more smoothly next year with a year’s groundwork, but nothing can replace the impact of this year’s project and the immediacy of the need. In our usual quest to do our best for God, we may overlook something we could do right now if we were willing to trade less than perfection for meeting a pressing need.
This again requires engagement with the black community, whether through churches or agencies, to determine what is helpful. It also requires resisting the White Savior temptation (see Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert’s When Helping Hurts). We should be ready to assist the black community to move forward in ways they find needed, not just imposing our own ideas.
When Emerson and Smith wrote Divided by Faith in 2000, only 7-8 percent of churches could be considered multiracial. Although that increased slightly in the last decade to 13.7 percent, we still have a long way to go to negate the old truism popularized by Martin Luther King, Jr. lamenting Sunday morning as the most segregated hour of the week. Yet diverse churches provide the most fertile ground for combatting racism. If your church remains of the majority, begin a conversation about what it might look like to change. Meanwhile utilize the companionship of churches of other races in your community to address local issues.
In the long run, I firmly believe one of the best antidotes to racism comes in a church where black and white people worship together weekly, where we can discuss the tragedies and hear each other’s pain, where we can learn what is helpful and what is not. Beyond the crises, we need to demonstrate here on earth what we will someday enjoy in heaven, “There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language” (Rev. 7:9). Yes, Lord, make it so.
Katherine Callahan-Howell is pastor of Winton Community Free Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.
