I just wrote a whole post on Ferguson, white privilege, and racism. It was all about overt and institutionalized racism and the difficulty of seeing your own privilege. It recognized my own privilege as a white man and asked people of color to have patience with those of us who have a melanin deficiency as we try to figure out how to handle these successive rounds of evidence of systemic racism in society. Then I threw it out.
It was way too “Great White Father.” I was speaking to the white community, not the African-American community, but it still smacked of power and privilege. I can afford to sit down and think about these things because they don’t affect me. That’s privilege.
Police officers using tear gas during the first wave of the Ferguson unrest. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
I was twenty-one when I took a Greyhound across the country into Maine. It was a long and brutal trip, and I was travelling from BC; so I was on the bus for five full days. Needless to say, on Day Five, when I went through Niagara Falls and Buffalo, NY, I was exhausted and hoping to get some sleep, so I pretended that I was sleeping and guarded the seat beside me jealously.
But the bus was really crowded; packed like sardines. And so eventually, because I present like a tough cookie but am actually a marshmallow, I invited a young man to sit beside me.
Today's Fiery Tuesday posts are sure to stir a bit of controversy -- hopefully of a useful kind! Pagan Activism Conference, lowering police shootings; secularization of holidays; the (humanistic Pagan) case against spellwork; scary monsters in "pagan" festival.
First up, a report on last week's online Pagan Activism Conference. Which brings up the question: when and how should Paganism and political/environmental activism come together?
With all that has happened in the last week regarding the Ferguson indictment decision, a lot of back burner issues have come to the forefront and is now boiling over. Everyone has an opinion. Some folks are clearly staying out of it for numerous reasons, some are tap-dancing around the root causes and others are bluntly stating their positions. I'm sure you have your own thoughts on the matter at large, the repercussions, the back story and so on. Even those I know who do not involve themselves with "other people's drama" and never watch the news or read articles, unless something directly pertains to them, will eventually have an opinion.
It is why I find it interesting a Pagan news source has stated they will no longer cover divisive topics. It seems to me when you use the word "News" in your name, you are expected to provide all the news and not just cherry-pick which topics will keep things civil. Not only that, but really, if you have more than a handful of people commenting on any topic, you are going to get a discussion, and discussions come from personal viewpoints - many of which can be divisive due to being based on opinion. Here is my example:
Helicopters roaring overhead. Spotlights sweeping over me. Sirens. Bullhorns. Angry chanting. Drums. Fireworks. A trash can on fire. Lines of cops in riot gear. Suddenly the crowd turns and I am in the front with hundreds of people behind me. To the freeway, they shout. A guy next to me sprays the word POWER on the freeway bridge. More cops in riot gear. Helicopters flying low. People running toward the freeway ramp. Cop cars speeding through the crowd; protesters jumping out of the way.
Actual unedited footage from Ferguson, MO. The clip should start at 8:20, if not, fast forward to it, if you want to see how American citizens are being treated. Why do our police look like an invading force?
Our Pagan News Beagle today is all about faith & religion -- both Pagan and otherwise. Today we have 17th century British (accused) witches; a rare documentary on British Witches of the Sixties; a naturalist Pagan describes the purpose of ritual; religions that are highly concentrated in only a few places; and a suggestion of how black churches can function, post-Ferguson.
This previously-rare documentary sheds light on public Wicca as practiced in the 1960's.
Pagan blogger John Halstead shares his conception of how ritual helps him come into communion with Divine Nature.
Pew Research publishes a report that describes the way in which various religions are regionally-based and heavily concentrated only in a few countries. (Surprise! Islam is *not* the most concentrated faith. Can you guess what is?)
This editorial in Religion & Politics examines the place of black churches in addressing the issues of race, justice, and power in Ferguson, MO.
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...
Erin Lale
Here's another link to a pagan response to the Atlantic article. I would have included this one in my story too if I had seen it before I published it...
I'm with you, and all I suggest is that we talk with rather than over each other.
The thing is while I can't completely empathize with the current climate's situation - I CAN empathize with the fear for their chi
Love your pentacle of activism!
