The Phenomenological Power of Protest

Photo from The Burning Platform

When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him                                                                            

 Bayard Ruskin

DR. CLANTON C.W DAWSON, JR.
In the wake of ‘no indictment’ by grand juries in Missouri and New York for the white officers who killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner, protest demonstrations have occurred in over 170 cities throughout the United States. On Friday December 6, a group of protesters gathered at the State Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo to protest the bogus judicial process orchestrated by Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch and the ineffective leadership of Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. Since then numerous protests have occurred in California, New York, Cleveland, and Miami and in cities throughout the United States. Even NBA figures like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant have joined the chorus of protest.

A local preacher asked me, “Why should we in Mid-Missouri be so concerned about what happened in Ferguson, MO--and by extension--New York City, Cleveland, OH, etc.?” “After all,” he stated, “we have our own problems in Columbia, Jefferson City, Boonville, Springfield, Fulton, Marshall, and Sedalia and throughout central Missouri. We should be more concerned about home than there!”

After pondering the question seriously, it is apparent to me that this brother has either forgotten or is unaware of the phenomenological power of protest. While thousands of people of every race and creed have united to physically stage protests as a call for justice, sadly this preacher is not alone in his sentiment. Too many preachers/pastors have chosen to remain silent about the obvious disparity in the manner in which police engage African Americans and the subsequent lack of judicial credulity afforded Black and Brown Americans. They refuse to raise their prophetic voice to challenge how African Americans are harassed, followed in stores and markets, mistreated, denied due process, and die suspiciously in the back seat of police cars (remember North Carolina?). The treatment of Anglo Americans receive from both the police and the courts is qualitatively different from the treatment people of color experience. We are called as clergy to stand. The passivity articulated by my brother preacher, and demonstrated by too many silent pulpits in America, positions clergy, Black and white, on the wrong side of history.

Protest is rooted in lament: it is the expression of objection to systems and states of affairs that rob human beings of their dignity and humanity. As such, protest arrests the consciousness of a society and makes us look squarely at the injustice brought before us. Its phenomenological quality has the unique ability to make us ‘sense’ the outrage and desperation of the victims of injustice. It is this ‘sensing’ that we are witnessing with protesters across the country—Black, Anglo, Latin, male, female, gay, straight--who directly or indirectly are victims of racial injustice. They have joined the fight because they understand the question (why did this happen?) and have been captured by the phenomenological power of protest. All of us, particularly young Americans, realize that what happened in Ferguson, Cleveland, and New York can happen anywhere in America.

Protests transforms a person from being a disinterested observer to active participant. The protests make us look at ourselves and the situation. No one can ‘remain’ removed from the situation. Socrates was right when he stated that ‘to know the good is to do it.’ The massive protests that have taken place in over 170 cities across America evidence the fact that when rational people see injustice, and realize it is wrong, they must do something about it. They protest.

The protests have changed the conversations of Americans in every coffeehouse, hair salon, corner store, basketball game in this country. People of different racial groups and ages have been awakened: no longer are people standing by quietly. There is a movement before us. It is larger than Michael Brown or Eric Garner. It is a movement that recognizes that injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.

Bayard Ruskin was correct. Protests bestows dignity upon those who have experienced the robbery of dignity. The phenomenon of protest changes the conversation from one of political practicality to moral insistence. Even the racists of Rosebud, MO who greeted NAACP protest marchers with fried chicken, 40 ounce bottles of beer, melons, and racial slurs realize that the moral universe is holding all of us responsible for our actions. The world they want no longer exists. The protest exposes who and what they are, and illuminates our moral character as well. An old saying from my era still rings true—“you are either part of the problem, or part of the solution”---there is no middle ground.

Protest reminds us that every life is important. Black lives do matter. The fact remains that too many young (and older!) African American males are being targeted as “the enemy” in this country. The xenophobia operative in too many police departments across this country must be challenged. There exists a marked difference between how the police and judicial processes treat people of color in this society and how Anglo Americans are treated. It is not Black paranoia, it is a lived reality. It is painfully clear that the way justice is exercised in this country pronounces that Black lives are irrelevant—they neither are worthy of moral consideration; nor, are people of color full citizens under the Constitution of the United States of America. Ferguson, and now New York, call our attention to the duplicitous nature of ‘equal justice under the law.’ Protest, however, declares that all citizens are due their day in court. Michael Brown and Eric Garner were robbed of due process. Every citizen ought to have access to ‘equal justice under the Law.” Protest spotlights that what we claim as a nation is not what is experienced by too many Americans. 

I believe in the phenomenological power of protest. The Biblical prophets, social and political philosophers and thinkers of every era, and my ancestors believed in its power. Protest renews my hope for change. Protest reminds me that if I work the work before me, “… trouble won’t last always…!” As a Christian, African American, and fellow human being who understands that I am my brother’s and sister’s keeper—I must protest injustice. For all who protest injustice stand on the Lord’s side. God stands on the side of justice. I am convinced that at the eschaton, and the Universe will cry out9o, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” I want to stand with men and women of every nation, from every historical epoch, and declare without reservation, “Here I am Lord, here I am!”

The purpose of the African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri

Purpose

Commitment means that it is possible for [a person] to yield the nerve center of his/her constant to a purpose or a cause, a movement or an ideal, which may be more important to [that person] than whether he/she lives or dies.

Howard Thurman

At the organizational meeting of the AACCMM, bidding Christian Education scholar, the Rev. Carolus Taylor recalled the history of previous mid-Missouri/Columbia clergy associations—four such attempts to be exact—that started and are now defunct. He closed his remarks with a poignant question, “What will make this organization different from past attempts??” In response to the question several remarks came forward from those gathered. Some suggested that the difference is that this attempt is comprised of new people with a new desire for action and fellowship. Others stated that this group is different because of the social, political, and spiritual urgency before us evidenced by Ferguson, MO. While I think these comments are helpful and on point, I offer the following as a response—a commitment to the purpose will make a difference. A commitment to its purpose will make this attempt to organize qualitatively different from previous attempts. Purpose will sustain its efforts to be an effective and transformative coalition. Knowing the purpose moves an organization towards being an organism of action as opposed to being a mere organization. Purpose guards against focusing on personalities and personal agendas and motivates the living organism to grasp as much as it can out of the infinite.

The African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri is dedicated to being intentionally purposeful in the following manner.

1)      Our purpose shall be to position ourselves in such a manner that we may speak ‘truth to power’ for the wounded and weary who are inside and outside our church walls that cannot speak for themselves. We must renew relationships with God’s people and in doing so, we begin to know, instead of knowing of, the people for which we speak. No longer may we assume that we have permission and authority because of our titles. This is the crux of the Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr. critique of the article by Dr. Eddie Glaude entitled, “The Black Church is Dead.” Dr. Smith was pointing to the fact that the life and vitality of the Black Church is found not in the observational position of the academic, but the ontic—lived--position of the front-line, Marine Corp-type, Christian cleric who stands like a soldier in battle against the enemies of the people: racism, sexism, homophobia, economic disenfranchisement, and systemic alienation/dehumanization. On the front lines it is clear that the Black Church is alive and as African American clergy we realize that our prophetic work is of vital importance.

2)      Our purpose shall be to further equip the clergy to better equip the people of God. Contemporary circumstances demand that to be a faithful proclaimer of the good news requires more than a sense of “calling.” Christianity in the 21^st Century desperately needs trained clergy to meet the needs of God’s people. Our purpose will be to better equip the clergy for the task at hand. We will help clergy by insisting that academic institutions in Mid-Missouri start to take seriously the educational needs of African American clergy by providing opportunities to acquire theological training at a reasonable cost. We will assist clergy in acquiring 501c3s for their churches, expose them to mental health resources, avenues to obtain financial expertise to better their people and the wider community, just to mention a few tasks. Our people need us to not only know how to ‘whoop’ and dance, but also how to make substantial and qualitative differences in their lives.

3)      Our purpose shall be to tear down the walls that divide us. The fact is that the oppressor has fooled us into thinking that there is more to divide us than to unite us. The Black Church is one house with different rooms: Baptist, Methodist, Non-denominational, Interdenominational, etc., etc. We all share a faith born in struggle, bruised by racism, and battered by the dark forces of economic prejudice, social exclusion, and political xenophobia. Yet we are still here. Jesus warned us that a house divided against itself cannot stand. We must come together and be one house with one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. The Evil One knows that if we come together we are an unconquerable force. Let our battle cry be—“we are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.”  

The Rev. Clanton C.W. Dawson, Jr., PhD

President, the African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri

A messeage from Dr. Clanton C.W. Dawson, Jr, President of the African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle suggests that all rational human activity is aimed toward some goal. In agreement with that idea, on September 20, 2014, some brave, faithful, and rational servants of the Kingdom gathered together at historic Fifth Street Christian Church in Columbia, MO to organize the African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri. It is an activity aimed toward a goal of excellence.

Why organize an African American Clergy Coalition? In spite of the current state of affairs in Missouri and America as a whole, many people think we live in a post-racial society where race and racism really do not exist. They claim that to mention racial terms-African American, Black, etc.--is race-baiting and further fuels the fire of racism, causing well-meaning people to believe in the reality of a phenomenon that does not exist. Some have stated that we must move beyond racial designations and think more about integration, inclusion; not activities that create separatism? And still others assert that being African American has nothing to do with Christianity. The goal of all Christians—black or white-- should be trying to get to heaven. Anything that moves our focus toward something else-- like racism, sexism, and social justice-- is wrong and perhaps even demonic.

For instance, Eddie Glaude, Jr, Professor of Religion at Princeton University, has already informed us that the Black Church is dead. Why organize with a name that so unabashedly asserts the existence of an African American Christianity, Church, theology, and the like given the nonexistence of the Black Church?  Syracuse University Professor of Philosophy, Linda Alcoff, asserts in Visible Identities that we will never engage in meaningful dialogue about race until we move beyond the Black/White binary that shackles racial conversations in this country. And of course, too many of our clergy and churches are only concerned about prosperity gospel, entertaining worship, and filling the money coffers rather than the needs of the people of God who attend their worships and hear their preaching.

We disagree with those who insist that forming the African American Clergy Coalition is an exercise in folly, or promotes racism, and/or is non-Christian. The fact is that the Black Church, that Church born of struggle, does exist. It started with Phillip and Mark before the Jerusalem Council, was active before we came here in 1619, and continues in the present. Has it gone through transitions? Yes, but it still exists. Across denominational lines it continues to be a cultural vehicle, an institution of moral education, and a reservoir of survival history and soul force. We have organized because the fundamental issues that affect the Black community can still be best addressed by the male and female clergy of the Black Church. We, the clergy, are the ones that hear our peoples’ prayers, christen/baptize their young, visit the hospitals and jails, and bury our community’s dead. We affirm our Christian heritage that has denied and/or dismissed by too many white, Western European, Anglo-American theologians and preachers; and, by too many black materialistic pulpiteers who keep our people in bondage by blinding them with visions of ‘glory, glory after while.’ We are not the curse of Ham, we are the blessing of Abraham.  We insist that the call of Christ on the Church is to be instrumental in making human relationships of all kind ‘on earth as it is in heaven.

Every goal has a purpose. Next time we will discuss the mission and intentional purpose of the African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri.

The Rev. Clanton C.W. Dawson, Jr., PhD

President, the African American Clergy Coalition of Mid-Missouri