Leslye's Labyrinth

When you say,  "I'm not racist," you deny the complexity of a system built on the racist ideas born of white supremacy. When you say,  "I don't see color," you do not understand that making judgements based on color is the problem, not seeing color.  When you say,  "I was taught to treat everyone the same," you deny the limitations of your being kind when the system denies my dignity. When you say,  "But, I'm a Christian," you deny the whitening of Jesus' body and the distortion of his Gospel for economic gain through the genocide of indigenous people, the enslavement of Africans, and other atrocities against people of color. When you say,  "My child is Black," you conflate your love for one person with a love for all. When you say,  "My family never enslaved people" you deny how the injustices of slavery were transformed to perpetuate your illusion of white supremacy. Wh...

T hese times are  so painfully difficult. In my almost 62 years, I had never seen a person use  a part of his body  to kill another person. Knees are for prayer not murder. How do we get out of this deep hole initially dug 400 years ago? It was deepened as its walls were reinforced  by each subsequent privileged generation taking great pride in asking, "How low can we go?" It appears to be a bottomless pit with a stench from four centuries of dehumanization - a stench worst than the bowels of the ships used in the Middle Passage - a deathly stench offering only an olfactory assault denied by  the pretenders . When do they choose to work with us to build a ladder strong and secure to bring each of us to a new level ground with an abundance of sunlight and fresh air?

Before seeing a white man murder a handcuffed black man by kneeling on his neck in public, in broad daylight, how many times did you not believe perceived outrageous claims of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color because they were unfathomable to you?

Lord, have mercy. George Floyd of Minnesota. Your nation failed you. Rest in God's peace. Kyrie eleison. Christ, have mercy. Breonna Taylor of Kentucky. Your nation failed you. Rest in God's peace. Christe eleison. Lord, have mercy. Ahmaud Arbery of Georgia. Your nation failed you. Rest in God's peace. Kyrie eleison. Christ, have mercy. Tony McDade of Florida. Your nation failed you. Rest in God's peace. Christe eleison. Four people whom I never new have been murdered. It is merely the tip of an iceberg. The details of each heinous act are so horrifically unjust that there is no sense to be made of them. Each of the four was victimized. Each of them was Black, but their race was not the cause of death. Each was murdered because of the systemic structures that endow white people with an unimaginable authority and privilege based on the perpetuation of lies. The onus is not on the victims but on the perpetuators and their oppressive and unjust sys...

For more than a decade, I have used social media to share experiences and feelings of myself and others on a number of issues including white supremacy and racial justice. Some of you who benefit from white body privilege have taken offense.  The history of Alabama, the USA, and Western Civilization taught in our schools is from the perspective of "the winners." The people who inhabited this land when Europeans arrived were already living in right relationship with the Divine and creation, and were not savages. My ancestors were not happy to be kidnapped, thrown into the bottom of ships as human cargo, sold into slavery, and denied their God-given dignity. The continuing murders of innocent African-Americans, and the health disparities reflected in the impact of Covid-19 speak volumes. At this moment the Navajo Nation has the highest number of cases per capita than anywhere else. During this pandemic, what is happening to the children who are detained at the southern bord...