“Leadership in the Midst of 'Me Too' and 'Black Lives Matter'”

During this past year many of us in leadership have been reading, viewing, discussing, and reflecting on books and other resources on race, class and caste. At first glance to those like myself who are white males, such encounters appear to be something we need to do to be genuine and open and accepting of our role in being in power. Much of what we need to do is to admit our participation in a society that is layered and favors those in power. Each and every one of my experiences with the current resources changes me to some extent. As a pastoral leader, for example I have read Lenny Duncan’s Dear Church: A Love Letter From A Black Preacher To The Whitest Denomination In The U.S., watched Just Mercy and other popular movies on issues facing black people in America, and am now reading and discussing Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. In and amidst the immersion in these resources I have come to understand myself as gaining from the systems in America which favors whites and males. As a leader who is late in my public career, it leads me to want to share power with all people and have an egalitarian experience in leadership. I wish I could turn the clock back and have a “do over” in terms of how I approach systems in congregations, community, and society at large. Even though I cannot, I can resolve to do what I can now to make a difference.

I have found my attempt at writing a “racial autobiography” being as powerful of an experience as any of my immersions in these other resources. I recommend it to any leader of an organization as a way of getting in touch with who you are in relationship to race, and how you came to be the leader you are. In my rural central Illinois background, most direct relationships to race, class and caste had to do with Latino migrant workers who lived across the section from us each year for at least half the time, and whose children road our bus. I remember feeling that they were different, and being poor, they lacked resources that made my experience of them different from others. I now identify this experience as being one of caste. My encounter of black and brown people had more to do with what I saw on television, read in books like biographies of Henry Aaron and Willie Mays, and experienced in movies like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinnerand Lilies of the Field. Although we talked specifically about race as an issue in America, I did not internalize it. When it came to the Civil Rights movement and the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I internalized much of what my parents thought and expressed about those events.

It wasn’t until college when I heard more personally in convocations from Russell Means and Dennis Banks of the American Indian Movement, Gloria Steinem and black feminist leaders, and Dick Gregory that I encountered systemic issues more directly. As I did, I felt for those who were oppressed and responded with wanting to change the structures which created those problems. As always, I wanted to help those who were downtrodden and oppressed.

I recommend to all leaders to take the time to reflect on what experiences have affected your views of society in America. Get involved in staff and team reflections on many of these resources. Even though we can often only change our part of the world, that is doing something and is worthwhile. Eventually the ways in which as individuals we modify our views and behavior may literally change our environment. Eventually, our little ripples can effect change in the world.