It’s February! It is the month that we celebrate Black History. In 2022 it is also the month that began its celebration of Black History with bomb threats against many Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
This is sin, plain and simple. Violence and the threat of violence is once again being visited upon black and brown people and the institutions that have historically been places of education and empowerment for them. This is evidence of a continuing moral and spiritual crisis in this world.
As a white person and a person who has been privileged just because of the color of my skin, I can’t even come close to understanding what it is like for God’s people of black and brown hues to worry day in and day out about their children, siblings, parents, who, simply because of the color of their skin, live in fear that one of their loved ones could die a senseless death. I have and will continue to listen to the pain. I seek understanding. I seek to learn the acts of mercy and acts of justice in which I should engage and invite other to engage in with me. I grieve the trauma and fear, as well as the emotional, psychological, and physical impacts of racism and the violence, the harm that it brings.
As a white person, I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to have and live in the fear, harm, and stress that societal racism brings to our black and brown families every day. The attacks this week on our Historically Black Colleges and Universities, works in this world to perpetuate racism. These threats essentially say to people of color: you are not important, you are not valued, you are less than.
What should be our response as people of faith to this trauma, to this tragedy, to these threats of violence which take life in the very moment in which the threats are uttered?
We must name these threats as sin. These are racist acts, and they are sinful. We must recognize that every time we do not name racism as sin and call it out, we perpetuate ongoing racism and are complicit in the harm that is done. We must continually and intentionally work to eradicate the sin of racism. We must examine ourselves, our own attitudes and actions, to become more aware of where and how our hearts, minds, and spirits need to be transformed in order to be better able to yield to the righteousness and love of God.
We cannot ignore these threats of violence against our Historically Black institutions. These acts are symptomatic of one of the diseases that is tearing apart our country and destroying lives and has been for centuries. We must recommit ourselves to work together to eradicate the disease of racism. We must work together to create a more just world, a world that truly understands Christ’s command to love one another, a world where in humility we allow Christ to reign in and direct our thoughts, minds, and deeds.
Please join me in praying for the transformation of the hearts, lives, and spirits of those who have threatened our Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Please join me in the ongoing discernment and acts of mercy that will lead us to intentionally anti-racist work, leadership, and life.
Sandra Steiner Ball
Bishop, West Virginia Conference of The United Methodist Church