“‘How long, O Lord?’ When injustice prevails, and the poor are ground into despair.
- George Floyd.
- Ahmaud Arbery.
- Breonna Taylor.
- Oscar Grant.
“‘How long, O Lord?’ Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
- Eric Garner.
- Trayvon Martin.
- Tamir Rice.
- Emmett Till.
Mario Powell, S.J., begins his article (“America: the Jesuit Review”, June 3, 2020) with that litany. He ends it with a challenge for us.
Psalm 13 is the cry of black Americans. We have been crying out this question for centuries. But we cannot cry it alone anymore. Until you grow close to our suffering, until it fills your eyes and ears, your minds and hearts, until you jump up on the cross with black Americans, there can be no Easter for America.
It is often easy for me to read Psalm 13 and think about my own sorrows, pains, hurt. There are times when I do cry to God and ask, “How long?” My prayer is that God will help me. But the cry that Powell calls us to is larger than this.
I am reading Caste by Isabel Wilkerson with other faculty at our seminary. In our Spiritual Practices curriculum we are reading together Be the Bridge by Latasha Morrison. There are two other places where I am confronted with my own racism and inaction. I am a member of the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Task Force at our seminary and a member of the Atla Board of Directors who are doing antiracism training together. I am confronted in 4 arenas with the cries of black America.
I am realizing that God is calling me to work on two areas. First is my own racism or, as Wilkerson would call it, my own caste consciousness. I need to make sure that I am not trying to cater to the upper caste to separate myself from the lower caste. I need to also attend to systemic structural racism. I wonder what I can do to begin to change the structures where I have influence. God may not be calling you to these actions. Listen to the “cry of black Americans” and see where God is calling you. Then we can all say, “my heart shall rejoice.”
Susan Ebertz
Associate Professor & Director for the Reu Memorial Library
Wartburg Theological Seminary
