“What parts of our old way of doing things can we bury now and not bring with us into life after Covid 19?”

That was a question I asked in this blog at the end of April (“Back to Normal?”) The events of the last few weeks, the murder of George Floyd, the riots, the peaceful demonstrations, have brought one answer to the forefront. It is important that we use this in-between time to begin to bury our racist ways of doing things.

The novel corona virus (ncv) has divided time into two eras, bncv and ancv. And it is possible to imagine bncv as the era of racism and ancv as the era when we began to truly emerge from racism. The shutdown has provided the opportunity. The voices and marches of thousands of people have exposed and defined the substance of that opportunity.

What can we do to help?

That may not be the best question to ask.

Emmanuel Acho, in his much viewed “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man” reframes this question in order to give a more helpful answer: “What do white people need to know about black people in order to stand with us?” The place to begin, he says, is with knowledge. Knowledge leads to feeling black people’s pain, which leads to compassion, which makes it possible to stand together. He makes a good point. And I would like to take one more step back.

I have been working on a story in the Gospel of Mark (2:13-17). First Jesus calls a tax collector named Levi to follow him and then he joins Levi and his “sinner” friends for a meal. The religious leaders ask Jesus’ disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

What interested me in this story is that Jesus, as he was wont to do, didn’t answer that question he was asked but reframed it. The question he chose to answer was, “Why do Levi and his friends want to eat with me?” Grammatically Jesus simply switched the subject and the object in the question. The original question didn’t make sense to Jesus because he never sees people as objects belonging to categories such as “tax collectors” and “sinners.” He actively relates to each of these people as a subject with wants and needs, each with a name and a unique history.

I would like to see people and relate to people the way Jesus did in this instance, as subjects of their own lives. Treating people as subjects of their own lives allows them to claim a power that is inherently theirs. Subjects act instead of merely being acted upon. The change in grammar and in vision and in relationships is also a shift in power. Power flows from the old subject to the new.

Changing the subject in the question, “What can we do to help?” can help us to see things differently. So here are three expansions of that original questions followed by three coordinated questions in which the subject has been switched out:

• What can we as white people do to help you as black people with your efforts to stand against racism?
• What can we do to help you even out the scales of justice?
• How can we use our power and privilege as white people to help you get the needed reforms in our civic institutions?

Now lets switch the subjects in those questions:

• What can you as black people do to help us as white people with our efforts to step out of our inherited racism?
• What can you do to help us divest ourselves of white privilege which keeps the scales of justice out of balance?
• How can you as black people reclaim your rights and powers as citizens in order to reform our institutions?

If we want to stand with black people (and all people of color) and to stand against racism, we will need to step out of systems where racism is endemic. As long as we continue to imagine ourselves as subjects with the power to act in order to help black people gain justice we maintain the old imbalance of power and privilege. But when we enter into relationships of shared power, when we enter into two-way conversations, we can begin a change that matters.

Here are two uncomfortable questions to ask yourself instead of, “What can I do to help?”

• How can I recognize what harm I am currently doing or supporting?
• How can I become open to a conversation which will change what I have always believed about race?