Love Your Neighbor

Dwight Moody, the host of this site, has posed this question.  As I have considered my position, I do not believe my answer is unique to white, faith-based communities. I definitely believe that people with privilege and people without privilege have different roles to play to deconstruct the racist systems which under-gird much of our nation. But my top two action items do not change with the audience. What is different will be how we orient to this information and these ideas. We all have a role to play.  For me, as a rabbi, I find Jewish concepts which are often also universal concepts, ground me in my understanding of how to proceed.  Jewish texts also inspire me, keep me moving.  We also have a canon of American texts, which arguably are or have been seen as white texts which also inspire.  We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all people are created equal.

          And, within Dwight’s question is everyone’s question. What do I do?  The enormity of this moment may be scuttled away if we lack direction and purpose.  So, to that end, I offer here two action items both wound up in the universal yet religiously based golden rule.  The first is an orientation towards being different.  The second an orientation towards doing different.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

          Religion teaches us to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is a line from the Torah in the book of Leviticus.  It is the central teaching of the Torah. Literally.  At the midpoint of the Torah, you will find these words. Love your neighbor as yourself.  In the last several months, many have quoted this sacred text as a proof that we should treat one another well. I want to emphasize here our relationships with ourselves.  Right now is a time of deep self-awareness, self-reflection, and perhaps uncomfortable honesty. These are required to love our neighbors-or anyone truly.  You must know yourself.  We are quick to jump to the problem-solving stage. “Let’s fix racism.”  Yes, let’s.  But racism is not a rusty bolt that needs replacing. It is a mindset.  It is a system which has benefited countless many at the expense of a discounted few. And to change it we need to start by changing ourselves.

          Racism is built on people with privilege seeing people without out as insignificant. How else would we allow so many in our nation to be treated so poorly?  We are trained to see people who are different as wrong, bad, failed, unworthy. Equity comes when we see our differences as gifts and riches to be enjoyed and not strange warped failed versions of ourselves to be hated, shunned, controlled and denied. The healthier we are inside, the healthier we can be out in the world. The more we can see how we have internalized these tropes, the more we can change the tape for new messages of love, trust, value and respect.

          In this internal inventory we ask, how has this system benefited or denied me? When did I participate in race-based tropes, biases, assumptions? What have I done or could I do to right these wrongs?

Love your neighbor as yourself.

          As a very smart friend said to me, “this is not rocket science.  Imagine yourself into the shoes of other people and ask yourself what you would want done for you.  Then go do that.” Racism is a system which has denied access to wealth and financial success to those without privilege for the sake of those with privilege. Step one above is the beginning of righting the interpersonal wrongs.  And hopefully, it moves people to a place of action.  How do I change the system?  Once we can more clearly see all people as valuable, then we can see and act from the place of knowing that all lives matter, then we can begin to repair the damage that those with privilege have enacted upon those without. In practical terms, I believe we build pathways to financial health.

          There are three places I find meaningful for focusing efforts to make systemic change: Education, policing and housing.  We fund schools based on property tax.  Better neighborhoods have better schools. In a world where we’ve denied access to wealth to Black and Brown Americans for centuries, where a disproportionate number of poor people are people who are Black, Brown and Indigenous, this policy is patently racist.  And foolish. Education is a key which opens many doors to access, success and privilege. Supporting underfunded schools, understanding how resources move through your county, standing up for the health and safety of all children makes a difference.

          Disproportionate number of arrests, harsh sentences by severity or longevity, and brutality has been enacted by law enforcement against people without privilege.  And people with privilege have disproportionately built gated communities, hired security and called police to protect themselves from those without.  It is just unfair.  The result of the former destroys families, households and lives. We have recreated a slave class of people indebted to the state through fines and fees which may never be paid, by taking away voting rights and by making employment nearly impossible. The ladder destroys communities, trust and well-being. No one can thrive under these conditions.  We have created a world where the people we do not know because they live in a different part of town are seen as scary, violent and dangerous. How can you love your neighbor in lives like these?

          Historically, racist housing policies have expressly worked to deny home ownership to people who are without privilege. Home ownership is a sure way to long term financial security and inter-generational wealth.  It is a path to building stable communities and thriving societies.  It builds ownership and investment among a collective of people.  What would it look like to find doorways to make up for this wrong that those with privilege, their parents, their grandparents perpetrated over and over again? How would simple avenues to home ownership for all completely change the playing field?

          Truly, the answer of what to do now is complicated and personal.  If you read this and do not like my suggestions and do not feel clear on your own, I suggest asking.  Ask at your community foundation.  Ask someone at the NAACP. Consider the Poor People’s Campaign or the Equal Justice Initiative or the ACLU.  Best of all would be to ask a friend who has been a victim of our racist systems and if you do not at this time have such a friend to ask then there is a place to start.

          There are many journeys which lay ahead.  And all of them must be traveled. There are no shortcuts.  And there are no easy answers.  But there is hope in the courage of people willing to ask hard questions and to take the first step to a better tomorrow.