Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 38

From Savior to Service, Listening to Black Activists

When something is broken, our natural tendency is to fix it. If my tire goes flat on the side of the road, I can change the tire or call someone to do it for me. For some things, in other words, there is an easy fix. When faced with a larger problem, though, quick fixes become more complicated. Faced with a problem so large as racism then, our natural tendency to “fix” it turns, necessarily, into a focus on longer-term solutions. Overwhelmed with the daunting task of working toward racial justice, we might find ourselves trapped in what is often referred to as “savior complex” without even knowing it. 

The savior complex is the self-serving assumption that our solution to a problem is the best or only answer. It stems from the good intention of “wanting to make a difference.” While the intent is good, it may be misguided at best, and harmful at worst. To truly be of service, Pope Francis writes, “we can’t serve others unless we let their reality speak to us.”

Rather than approach the work of justice, particularly racial justice, with the mindset of a savior with a problem to solve, we should come to this work as a pilgrim, set out to do our part, on a journey with others. Pope Francis writes that he prefers “the contrasting image of the pilgrim, who is one who decenters and so can transcend. She goes out from herself, opens herself to a new horizon, and when she comes home she is no longer the same, so her home won’t be the same.” 

In order to avoid the savior complex and truly be of service, we need to listen to and learn from those whose lived realities are pushing forward the struggle for racial justice. Black activists have been working for racial justice since the inception of racism. In their book Four Hundred Souls, the authors Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha B. Blain compiled a people’s history of Africans in America. The book showcases over 80 contributors from a wide range of fields, from historians to theologians, to poets and activists. Spanning the course of 400 years, each author highlights an often overlooked or mis-historicized event in the course of 4 - 5 pages. It is an ambitious project, but as Kendi writes in the introduction, “each piece has been written distinctively while being relatively equal in length to others, making for a cohesive and connected narrative with strikingly different --yet unified-- voices. A choir”. 

Four Hundred Souls takes readers all the way to the present moment with a short chapter about the start of Black Lives Matter written by one of its founders, Alicia Garza. What started as a hashtag that Garza posted on Facebook in a response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the trial about the murder of Trayvon Martin has grown into an organization and a movement. Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, black women who were all community organizers, joined together to start #BlackLivesMatter. As they write on their website, Black Lives Matter “is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.”

To speak of Black Lives Matter and to involve ourselves in the work for racial justice means learning the history of the movements we are trying to be a part of and listening to the community organizers on the ground who know the issues so intimately because they live it. They are the ones who know best what they need and will be the ones to tell us how best to serve and support them. 

In her book, Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, Olga M. Segura explores the intersection between Black Lives Matter, her personal narrative, and the Catholic Church. Segura offers a challenge to the Catholic Church, particularly the bishops, to be transparent about and atone for its sins of slavery. As we read a few weeks ago, Georgetown University has launched its efforts toward reparations for the descendants of the slaves they owned. Groundbreaking in their efforts, there is still much more work to be done on as the whole institution of the church. 
 
Segura makes this direct call:
 
While the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops continues to remain unwilling to reckon with its White supremacist roots, Cullors, Garza, and Tometi are teaching Catholics, and all Americans, what it truly means to fight for the most marginalized groups in our society, what it means to truly care about human life, and what it means to truly imagine a better and more Christ-like world. 

Resource: Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church

The church must make amends to Black people with reparations.

Questions for Reflection: