In order for any old ways and systems to change, there must be people with the capacity for vision who can imagine that change.
Bridging the Rivers of Difference, A Proclamation of Unity In Resistance is my new book that will be available in mid-June as a catalyst for starting a new conversation on racial healing with a new vision.
For more than 50 years, I have been engaged in working for racial healing in the United States, and as I think of this present moment, it is clear to me we have to find a new way to approach this work and begin new conversations about racism and the possible remedies for it.
Catherine Meeks
We have spent millions of dollars on consultants, materials, retreats and pilgrimages designed to help us find the path for dismantling systemic racism with very little success. Of course, there has been change in some significant ways, but the current attack on Latinos makes it clear the spirit of dehumanization and the willingness to unleash violence upon those who are deemed inferior continues to thrive.
The change of the past is not enough to support the future we need to forge.
It is clear there is an underlying agenda held by Stephen Miller and supported by the framers of Project 2025 to make the United States white. The irony is that Indigenous people were here when the European explorers arrived, so this land never has been populated by whites only. The deep desire for that to be the case appears to be fueling this tragic attack on Latinos. It never will happen, because there are many people of color living here with no plans to vacate the country.
“The change of the past is not enough to support the future we need to forge.”
As we embrace the reality of the presence of the four major marginalized minority groups — Indigenous, African American, Asian American and Latino — representing almost 50% of the population with non-Hispanic whites representing less than 60%, we see there is a grave fear among white men about a future void of their dominance. However, this fear does not lead to the desire to work on learning how to bridge differences, because their long-term method of using money, violence and power to dominate has prevailed thus far.
But the marginalized minority groups have power that has not been realized yet. That realization by the white male ruling class adds additional fuel to their fears.
Unfortunately, the fears that marginalized minority groups who find ways to gain power would choose to replicate the current systems of domination and oppression are misplaced. It is more likely the freedom these groups might gain as a result of the dismantling of racism would lead them to invest in living their lives more fully instead of seeking revenge.
Of course, there is no way to know until liberating shifts occur.
The new conversation on race will need to explore how we can develop a new understanding about how to live together on this planet without creating hierarchies of human value that disenfranchise certain groups while others continue to behave as superiors. The old paradigms have not been successful in this regard, and the search for new ones will require marginalized minority groups to reimagine their way forward. It will require them to vacate the oppressive narratives that have fueled the negative energy that created distrust, competition and an inability to develop coalitions with one another.
It is my desire to see the development of new conversations on racial healing across the United States in the months to come as we continue to affirm we are capable of learning how to live together on this planet even as we explore other planets. Hopefully, our amazing imagination that makes space exploration possible will serve us well as we work to bridge the vast rivers of difference that we have forged in the past since we can see how they have not served us as a nation.
May we be a half shade braver every day!
Catherine Meeks was given the President Joseph R. Biden Lifetime Achievement and Service Award in August 2022; was listed by Georgia Trend Magazine as one of the 500 women to watch in Georgia in 2022; retired as the Clara Carter Acree Distinguished Professor of Socio-Cultural Studies at Mercer University; is a community and wellness activist and midwife to the soul; and the author of The Night Is Long, But Light Comes In The Morning, Meditations on Racial Healing, She previously served as founding executive director of Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing and currently serves as founder and executive director of the Turquoise and Lavender Institute for Transformation and Healing. She lives in Atlanta.