Cold Water
This week I enjoyed the graceful blessing of meeting with the leadership and staff at the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama. These are smart people expending their careers in the service of poor people and in reforming America’s catastrophic system of mass incarceration.
I was discussing this organization with a beloved Alabama native, and I explained that EJI invites law students from schools like Stanford, NYU and Harvard for externships and fellowships after graduation. The Alabamian grimaced and made the classic Wallacian response, “I hate it when they come down here thinking they’re going to save us. They’re just as segregated as we ever were. I’d like to see them clean up their own back doors before they try to save ours.”
To which I, also a native Alabamian, rashly replied, “If it weren’t for liberal Yankees, we’d still be under Jim Crow.”
We went no further down than path to hellfire, but I tried to redeem the exchange by explaining that I was primarily excited about my law students being in commerce with those from top flight schools.
The historical debate aside and with sympathy for my cohort’s impulse, the exchange raises an intense issue that stumbles on pride.
In our religious tradition, we often have been loath to participate with those from other denominations or with those from the world because of fear that our money or time might be used for “unscriptural” purposes or that our participation might be some implicit approval of their alleged false doctrine or worldly ways.
In the South, middle-class white people often resent activists from elsewhere taking up the cudgels for our poor (or black) people, because we sense some hypocrisy or because their presence illuminates our own awful failures.
Jesus spoke to it. His disciples once confronted him with accusations that other folks were healing and preaching in his name, who, in their gall, had no previous association with their merry band. Jesus said, “Do not stop him. No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad against me, for whoever is not against us is for us. I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.” Mark 9:39-41.
He also said, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance in the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. . . . I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matt. 25:34-36, 40.
Yes, even liberal Yankees.
I was discussing this organization with a beloved Alabama native, and I explained that EJI invites law students from schools like Stanford, NYU and Harvard for externships and fellowships after graduation. The Alabamian grimaced and made the classic Wallacian response, “I hate it when they come down here thinking they’re going to save us. They’re just as segregated as we ever were. I’d like to see them clean up their own back doors before they try to save ours.”
To which I, also a native Alabamian, rashly replied, “If it weren’t for liberal Yankees, we’d still be under Jim Crow.”
We went no further down than path to hellfire, but I tried to redeem the exchange by explaining that I was primarily excited about my law students being in commerce with those from top flight schools.
The historical debate aside and with sympathy for my cohort’s impulse, the exchange raises an intense issue that stumbles on pride.
In our religious tradition, we often have been loath to participate with those from other denominations or with those from the world because of fear that our money or time might be used for “unscriptural” purposes or that our participation might be some implicit approval of their alleged false doctrine or worldly ways.
In the South, middle-class white people often resent activists from elsewhere taking up the cudgels for our poor (or black) people, because we sense some hypocrisy or because their presence illuminates our own awful failures.
Jesus spoke to it. His disciples once confronted him with accusations that other folks were healing and preaching in his name, who, in their gall, had no previous association with their merry band. Jesus said, “Do not stop him. No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad against me, for whoever is not against us is for us. I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.” Mark 9:39-41.
He also said, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance in the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. . . . I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matt. 25:34-36, 40.
Yes, even liberal Yankees.
posted by JRB at 1:08 PM
3 Comments:
I love it. Jeff Baker espousing the virtues of Liberal Yankees. I believe I just saw a swine fly by my window and the temperature in hell just registered 31 degrees Farenheit.
I want to know how you feel about Reconstruction now.
It's a funny world, ain't it? Then again, I've know some respectable Yankee liberals but just had to learn to see beyond the disfiguration.
As for Reconstruction, I do believe that Radical Republicans set back the cause of minorities and poverty justice in the South back by 100 years after the Civil War. They handled it poorly and to devastating effect.
Then again, although the 14th Amendment likely was not constitutionally ratified, it has its upside.
I have much to write and little energy to write it tonight in response to Grammy K.
First, your impulse and response are natural, sympathetic and understandable but indefensible and distracting from the good yielded in a worthy cause. Acknowledging your reaction and explaining it are interesting and healthy, but actually calling on the foreigners to leave because of that perceived offense is a barrier to a better state of being for poor people in this state.
Second, I have some serious historical observations to make about why Alabama, above all other states, is a good place for this project. Those observations are immaterial to the cause, however. Never are we permitted to excuse our own sins and shortcomings merely because our neighbor is doing it, too. That's like elementary school. Instead, why not confess Alabama's issues and get to work, or at least let those who are willing get to work.
Last, but perhaps most important, your case was strong until you dropped "hypocritical" and "self-righteous" proclamations on our subjects. You don't know them personally. You don't know if they are not southern. You don't know if they are white or black or if their mothers were falsely imprisoned on a trumped up drug charge. You don't know if they are Christians, and you don't know if they are not all coming home to do good after receiving world-class educations.
I guess I had the energy after all. Good night. Much love.
Post a Comment
<< Home