Monday, April 10, 2006

Race Love and Justice: A Talk to NYYM Spring Sessions by Jeff Hitchcock

I've just learned, through the New York Yearly Meeting website, of a talk by Jeff Hitchcock recently given to the Spring Sessions of New York Yearly Meeting. One particularly sharp observation in the talk (paraphrased from another writer) was "time immemorial the oppressor has spoken of love and the oppressed have spoken of justice". (Actually, of course, some of the oppressed have spoken of both, but the point is well taken. Those of us with privelege are understandably often more drawn to the "love" talk of Martin Luther King than to his demand for justice.) Friend Hitchcock's speech can be viewed in its entirety here and I strongly recommend reading all of it and considering it deeply. It ends with the following queries (which gain depth and power when read in the context of the whole talk):
Query 1. How can European American Friends take Quaker tools for justice and, as a privileged group in a fading but present system of white supremacy, join with Friends of color in applying those tools, so that justice is shared within our community?

Query 2. How might we Friends better love one another in this work?

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