Telling students the reason Americans have a holiday January 21 was incredibly difficult.
Learning about the struggle for civil rights all through school inured me to the facts. In my music repertory lately have been A Change Gonna Come by Sam Cooke and peppy songs from Hairspray...yet somehow I neglected to think about their context.
Stupefied is the best word for today. As I started explaining the background of segregation to wide-eyed French kids, I realized how awful it sounded. The ugly, ugly story finally sunk in this thick skull. Writing 1960s on the board knocked the final blow into my consciousness. That date looked so recent. So terribly barely yesterday.
It all made no sense. How could the people with peau blanc be so cruel to the people with peau noir? was the question on every student's face. In their world, races fight... in the context of religion and recent immigration. Neither reason applies. The teacher then mentioned that some racial hate groups still exist today. And it just seemed like the most impossible truth. I had no answer to the wonderings why, except that people can be terrible...everywhere.
Reflecting on this answer while riding the tram home, I thought about the pit of humanity. Reflecting on this tonight, I am struck by grace. And how great is the One who closes up that gap and saves us from the pit. It boggles my mind. And that's a great thing to be boggled over. I had been troubled because of evil. But Christ says "the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and release from darkness for the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Isaiah 61:1-2, Luke 4:18) And His message has no limit. And to me, it's the beautiful truth, the response to ugly questions, the answer to ashes.
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